Good Hope Hotel - Far From Nashville
Part One - Chapter One
The lights of Nashville, the
music city, shone in the distance while Charles was sitting in an old rocking
chair under the porch of a motel. He watched the thousand lights swing on the
surface of the lake while the blue light of the moon broke down and recomposed
them with the help of a gentle breeze.
In the parking lot the
traffic of the weekend was intense. A group of guys gathered nearby talking
about the next day’s trip. The lake, although not a known tourist resort, was
very frequented. The inhabitants of that country, on the contrary, did not
consider it a lake, but rather the great river which, like a tired traveler
after a long journey, to rest, slowed his run and stretched out before returning
its travel to the sea.
Charles listened to every
sound coming from the water as if he wanted to feed on it. He opened and closed
his eyes in a strange sadness trying to forget the events of the evening,
pretending they never happened.
His thoughts were
interrupted by the telephone ringing. He knew who was on the other side. He had
the instinct to throw it into the lake, but then he decided to answer.
“Where are you?” asked
Steven—his agent. “The driver told me you left. Is it true?”
Charles answered confirming
his hypothesis.
“You cannot behave like
this. Do you know how many people are waiting for you and how many others have
worked for this event? You must be professional.”
“Yes, I know,” said Charles.
“apologize to everyone, but I won’t be able to perform tonight.”
There was a long silence,
then Steven, frantic, resumed talking. “All right. I’ll cancel the concert and
put it in line for the others. I’ll announce you felt sick and had to go to the
hospital. But tomorrow morning we must meet to plan the next events.”
“There will never be any
more events,” Charles replied softly. “I am done with concerts.”
“Are you kidding? You can’t
talk like that. We have a lot of work to do and then remember, next month you
have to go into the recording studio for perform your work. Everything is
already planned.”
A long silence followed.
Charles sighed. “I will not enter the recording studio and I will never perform
again. My career as a musician ends now.”
“What are you saying? Your
career has just begun. We have a lot of work to do. You can’t blow your talent
away. You can’t do that.”
“Yes, I can do that. After
this call I will throw away the phone and you will never find me again.”
“Please wait.” Steven urged
him up. “I understand you’re not feel fine now. It happens to a lot of musicians
before they start this career. They’re distraught and scared. But then it
eventually passing and they understand the many bright sides.” There was a
moment of silence. “Take a few days to relax, you will see that fear will pass.
I won’t bother you for a few days. I will wait for you to call me.”
“Perhaps I did not explain
myself correctly. I won’t call you again. Forget me, I’m sure you’ll find many
other musicians ready to take my place.”
Said this, Charles closed
the communication, took the phone and threw it away far into the waters of the
lake.
Poems
You Can Hear Me
Fairy Tales
Wood of Tales
Part One - Far From Nasville
Good Hope Hotel
Part One
Far from Nashville
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Other Works