Page 156 - The Midnight Library

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Adjusting her hands into position for E-flat major, she was momentarily

distracted by a tattoo on her weirdly hairless forearm, written in beautifully
angled calligraphic letters. It was a quote from Henr y David oreau. All
good things are wild and free. She closed her eyes and vowed not to open
them until she had finished the song.

She understood why Chopin had liked playing in the dark so much. It was
so much easier that way.
Wild, she thought to herself. Free.
As she sang, she felt alive. Even more alive than she had felt swimming in

her Olympic-champion body.
She wondered why she had been so scared of this, of singing to a crowd. It
was a great feeling.
Ravi came over to her at the end of the song, while they were still on

stage. ‘ at was fucking special, man,’ he shouted in her ear.
‘Oh good,’ she said.
‘Now let’s kill this and do “Howl”.’
She shook her head, then spoke into the microphone, hurriedly, before

anyone else had a chance to. ‘ ank you for coming, ever ybody! I really
hope you all had a nice evening. Get home safely.’

‘Get home safely?’ Ravi said in the coach on the way back to the hotel. She
hadn’t remembered him being such an arse. He seemed unhappy.

‘What was wrong with that?’ she wondered out loud.
‘Hardly your normal style.’
‘Wasn’t it?’
‘Well, bit of a contrast to Chicago.’
‘Why? What did I do in Chicago?’

Ravi laughed. ‘Have you been lobotomised?’
She looked at her phone. In this life she had the latest model.
A message from Izzy.

It was the same message she’d had in her life with Dan, in the pub. Not a
message at all but a photo of a whale. Actually, it might have been a slightly
different photo of a whale. at was interesting. Why was she still friends
with Izzy in this life and not in her root life? Aer all, she was pretty sure she
wasn’t married to Dan in this life. She checked her hand and was relieved to

see a totally naked ring finger.