The finalists all crowded around Stacey when she arrived. Stacey sat in her high backed wheelchair and tried not to wince at the noise they were making.
It had been a long drive from the rehab hospital she had been staying in to the building the program was based in largely because of the bad traffic. There had been multiple accidents on various roads and intersections which had caused even the smaller roads to become jammed full of vehicles such that it took five minutes to cross a distance of ten metres.
"Stacey! You're back!"
"How are you?"
"We've missed you!"
"Can you help me with my song? I heard you can help me fix it."
"Can you help us with our background track?"
"I need your input on the rhythm of my scene."
Stacey rubbed her face and took a deep breath to gather her energy in order to face their onslaught of requests. They'd pretty much skipped the greetings and gone straight to their demands. Fair enough, since she was no longer a proper part of the program and had arrived earlier due to popular request.
"People, people," she held up her hands and the noise settled down somewhat. The trainees stopped jostling her so much. "Thank you. I'll try to spend some time with all of you, but I still have to do my own rehab on top of the massed practice and helping all of you. I'll do my best to give you all equal attention. Talk to Elsa, my assistant, and my manager, Last Prose, to try and sync up all our timetables. My brain gets worn out fast and I'm not as tireless as I was, so I hope you'll all be patient with me. If you all don't mind, I've been stuck in traffic all day. I'm tired. Can we perhaps talk again after I've had a nap and I'm more with it? Please?"
Disappointed and disgruntled faces could be seen, but after a moment, the trainees had recovered.
"Sorry. We've been waiting for you all day," Kelly stood out to say, waving at some of the others to calm them down. "We didn't think. Go have something to eat and drink and have a rest. We can get together after dinner and sort things out. Yeah?"
"Yeah," Stacey nodded her appreciation with immense relief. "Thank you… uh…" Stacey rummaged in her memory for the right name. She may have gotten her memory back but after a long period of not being in contact with the other trainees, she had forgotten many of their names.
"Kelly," Kelly supplied.
"Kelly. Yes. Sorry," Stacey apologised. "I haven't seen everyone for a while, so I'll need help remembering all your names again. Sorry."
"That's perfectly understandable," Kelly told her, patting her arm. "A stroke is a huge event. Who'd've thought that the officials would push you to that point? You already had two brain injuries."
Stacey held Kelly's hand down and shot her a warning look, eyes darting around to all the cameras. She didn't want Kelly getting into trouble for saying the wrong thing.
Kelly pressed her lips together and looked away, nodding her understanding.
The mentors came forward and the trainees stepped back to make space for them while Stacey greeted them and the program producers and main staff. Once all the polite greetings were out of the way, Stacey was finally wheeled up to her room - the one she had previously shared with Vera, Zanity and Chastity. Then she was helped into bed for a nap.
When she woke up, Stacey cleaned up in the disabled toilet in the corridor, and then was helped to the dining hall to eat with everyone. The noise and chatter quickly overwhelmed her, sending her into a dazed state where her brain was overloaded. Elsa and Anna had to step forward to help her deal with the social side when people stared at her quizzically after she took too long to respond.
"She's still recovering and her brain takes a while to process things. Especially when there is a lot of noise and a lot of people," Anna explained over and over again to various people who had come over to chat.
Somehow, she ended up in one of the large practice rooms where some of the trainees looked like they were taking a break from their practice.
Awake. She was awake. She blinked for the blurry colours to come into focus. Voices murmured nearby. There was an empty plastic tumbler on the table in front of her. Stacey played with it and fiddled with the empty cup, creating rhythms. With some practice, a familiar rhythm was clapped out by the placing of the cup on the table or tapping her hand on the cup.
Ah. This rhythm. This song. That's right.
Lyrics rose to her lips.
"Got my ticket for the long way 'round…"
All the voices fell silent and she could feel their eyes on her as she sang to the rhythm.
If her murky memory was correct, it was a song and rhythm her class had presented for their graduation concert in grade six. They had passed the cups around to each other in small groups sitting in circles around tables as they sang. Stacey had been at the piano also with a cup. A bright yellow cup, not unlike this one she was holding.
"When I'm gone," she sang. "You're gonna miss me when I'm gone…"
In between playing the rhythm on the cup, Stacey had also played the piano. It had taken her months and hours of practice to get the timing and accuracy of rhythm right. Then the class had fallen silent while she had sung the original folk song by the Carter family. The rest of the class had slowly begun the cup clapping rhythm again, group by group returning to the version by Lulu and the Lampshades.
Then the kids who had been good dancers had come out to dance in time to the rhythm. Half the dancers had continued to clap the rhythm using their own bodies and stomping on the stage, while the other half had performed some basic dance moves. Popping and locking, if Stacey remembered correctly.
Stacey had gradually added chords and played along while the rest of the class joined in by clapping their cups or joining the body percussionists in their dance. In the last line, she had stopped playing to join in with the rest of the class to sing, "You're gonna miss me when I'm gone."
Stacey stared at the yellow cup in her hand with a frown. It was coming back to her now. Her fingers itched. Where was the piano? She needed the piano.