Page 171 - The Midnight Library

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you wrote it on the ver y night you fired your last manager. Before Joanna.

Aer you found out he’d been ripping you off . . .’
‘Yeah. at wasn’t good,’ she improvised. ‘It was such a bet rayal.’
‘I was a big Labyrinths fan before “Howl”. But that was the one for me.
at and “Lighthouse Girl”. “Howl” was where I was like, Nora Seed is a

genius. e lyrics are pretty abstract, but the way you just let out that rage
was so so and soulful and powerful all at once. It’s like early Cure fused
with Frank Ocean via e Carpenters and Tame Impala.’
Nora tried, and failed, to imagine what that could possibly sound like.

He started to sing, to ever yone’s surprise: ‘“Silence the music to improve
the tune / Stop the fake smiles and howl at the moon”.’
Nora smiled and nodded, as if she knew these lyrics. ‘Yeah. Yeah. I was
just . . . howling.’

Marcelo’s face became serious. He seemed genuinely concerned for her.
‘You’ve had so much shit to deal with these last few years. Stalkers, bad
managers, the fake feuds, the court case, the copyright issues, the messy
break-up with Ryan Bailey, the reception of the last album, rehab, that

incident in Toronto . . . that time you collapsed from exhaustion in Paris,
personal tragedy, drama drama drama. And all that media intrusion. Why
do you think the press hate you so much?’
Nora began to feel a bit queasy. Was this what fame was like? Like a

permanent bittersweet cocktail of worship and assault? It was no wonder so
many famous people went off the rails when the rails veered in ever y
direction. It was like being slapped and kissed at the same time.
‘I . . . I don’t know . . . it’s pretty crackers . . .’

‘I mean, do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you
had decided to take a different path?’
Nora listened to this as she stared at the bubbles rising in her mineral
water.

‘I think it is easy to imagine there are easier paths,’ she said, realising
something for the first time. ‘But maybe there are no easy paths. ere are
just paths. In one life, I might be married. In another, I might be working in
a shop. I might have said yes to this cute guy who asked me out for a coffee.

In another I might be researching glaciers in the Arctic Circle. In another, I
might be an Olympic swimming champion. Who knows? Ever y second of
ever y day we are entering a new universe. And we spend so much time