Different Circles

The intro that Jake had talked Matt into adding to the piece started with Corban playing a slow, fingerpicked melody similar to what would be in the choruses. Jake’s professional ear could hear the overdubbed string strikes that he himself had laid down atop of this. It played out for two measures and then Matt’s guitar played a slow solo over the top of it, matching the slow tempo. The drums played out a soft, military march style accompaniment in the background. All of this was new ground for a Matt Tisdale tune and was hopefully catching the attention, not just of his fans, but of other hard rock aficionados who maybe had not really appreciated Matt’s previous work as much.

After twenty-three seconds of intro, the piece launched abruptly into the first verse—the point where the tune had begun when Jake had first heard it played for him all those months ago. The tempo nearly doubled. The clean guitar switched to a distorted drop-D grind and mixed with Matt’s powerful five-chord riff that was the primary melody. The drums and bass began to pound out the rhythm. And Matt’s powerful, though limited range voice began to hammer out the lyrics in an angry, spiteful tone. Jake smiled as he heard it, bobbing his head to the beat. He was rather proud of how they had shaped Faithless.

The first chorus measure came and the tempo shifted back down. Corban’s guitar switched back to the clean, finger-picked melody with Jake’s string strikes atop it. Matt’s voice became less angry and more mournful as he described the essential hopeless nature of the human race and how nobody who was a part of it could be trusted.

“Such a dark theme,” said Meghan, who was hearing the tune for the first time.

“Yeah, that’s Matt for you,” Jake said. “Hard rock fans are going to love it though.”

“The jazz fans will pass on it, I’m pretty sure,” Laura said. She had heard the CD a few times and it had not captured her interest in the least.

Caydee, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the song. She was giving it the attention she did most music and even kicking her feet a little to the rhythm. Keeping cadence, as it were.

The tune went through two cycles of up-tempo verses alternated by slow-tempo chorus and then entered a medium tempo bridge section in which Matt laid down some long, drawn-out solo notes while Corban kept a simple version of the riff going behind him. And then everything stopped for a moment and Matt launched into the primary guitar solo, playing it out at the up-tempo rate used for the verses. Corban played a full version of the primary riff behind him while multiple drum fills were hammered out behind that. From there, it shifted to an extended reprise of the chorus that served as the outro. Matt repeated versions of the main chorus hook “Faithless I will stand and Faithless I will die” while playing slow, melodic solos. Gradually the tune began to fade out, the volume getting lower until Johnson keyed up the next song on his list—Sober, by Tool—and it disappeared completely.

“All right,” Jake said, happy. “Good tune. I think they’re going to like it.”

“If you say so,” Laura said sourly.

“I say so,” he assured her.

They finished breakfast and Elsa appeared as if by magic, using her sixth sense to know the precise moment everyone was done. She shooed them out of the kitchen nook so she could start cleaning up and doing the dishes. Jake went to his office to organize and collect his notebook. Laura grabbed Caydee to take her to her bedroom and get her cleaned up and changed so that Meghan could assume her duties. Meghan followed Laura to Caydee’s room.

“I got her for now,” Laura told her. “I’ll get her changed and wiped down before we leave.”

“Uh ... yeah, sure,” Meghan said a little hesitantly, “but there was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Sure,” Laura said, putting Caydee down on her changing table and unceremoniously stripping her jammies off. “What’s up?”

“Uh ... well, I know you told me that it’s okay for my sister or my parents to visit,” she said, “but I just wanted to let you know anyway. Danielle is going to swing by here for a few minutes on her way home from work. I just wanted to make sure it’s okay.”

“Yeah, no problem,” she said with a shrug. “I’m sure she’d like to see the baby she helped deliver and how big she is now.”

“She does,” Laura said. “She won’t be staying long. She’s just coming to drop something off for me. I’ll show her the house and Caydee real quick and then she’ll head home so she can sleep.”

“It’s fine with me,” Laura said. “Will she get here before we leave?”

“Probably not,” Meghan said. “She’s just now leaving work.”

“Well, tell her that Jake and I say hi,” Laura said.

“I will. Thanks, Laura.”

“No problem.”

Meghan gave a little sigh of relief as she left the room. She was grateful that Laura had not asked any questions about the nature of the visit or what Danielle was bringing for her. It was embarrassing.