Page 25 of The Heart That Breaks
“He opted out.”
“His loss.”
I look at Nathan, wondering a little at the sincerity in his voice. “This must all seem like another planet to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just that I imagine your life is very different.”
“It’s pretty normal.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It’s just what I know. But I guess it’s human nature to take for granted what we have.”
“Do you? Take it for granted?”
“Probably. I don’t know.”
“I aspire to normal.”
“I’m sorry, Ann-Elizabeth.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“What can I do?”
“Nothing,” I say, shaking my head. “As soon as I finish high school, Henry and I will be out of here.”
“You planning to go to college?”
“I’ll be getting a job.”
“Where?”
“Whatever I can get hired to do in Nashville. Within reason,” I hastily amend. “I want to be around the music industry. Learn whatever I can. Maybe try to get in a band.”
As soon as I say the words, I can’t believe I’ve said them out loud.
“Yeah?” he says.
“It probably won’t happen, but it’s nice to have a dream.”
“If you want it, it can. My dad started out with nothing but a dream.”
“He sure made it big.”
“I don’t think it was too easy.”
“How did he make it?”
“He’s told me different things through the years, what it was like in the beginning. But I think his philosophy was you just never give up. He had plenty of roadblocks. Right after he got his first publishing gig with one of the bigger houses in Nashville, somebody stole his notebook full of lyrics. Everything he’d written for the past couple of years was just gone. He had to start all over again.”
“That’s horrible!” I say, unable to imagine losing that much work. “He never got it back?”
Nathan shakes his head. “A few years ago, a song got released by Chuck Lane that was a dead ringer for one of my dad’s lyrics. The writer ended up being the one who stole the notebook. He actually confessed when my dad confronted him.”
“Did he get it back?”
