All Shook Up Read Online Free PDF Page B

little color makes me feel more alive than I have in months.

Scene 10 ~ Sophie
    Mark hired a woman to erase me from the house business and write him in. When I answer the door, I find a tall woman wearing a pink warm-up suit and running shoes. Her straight, blonde hair is trapped in a smooth ponytail at the base of her neck. Very pretty. I can't believe she's really an accountant. She looks younger than me.
    She introduces herself. "Nicole Tate."
    "Sophie," I say.
    "Great! I need to see every scrap of paper in this house related to the finances or upkeep."
    "That's easy." I lead her into the back of the kitchen and point to a set of low cabinets. "It's all in here."
    "Your records are in the kitchen cabinet?"
    I release the child-proof lock holding the doors closed. They slam open, and an avalanche of paper pools around our feet. Nicole looks at me with wide eyes.
    "I check the mail once a week, and then I take one of the drawers out and toss the new stuff on top of the pile," I say, as if it's a perfectly rational explanation for the hoard.
    Leaning over, she picks up a few envelopes and turns each one over in her hands. "These were never opened."
    "Yeah," I say.
    Nicole takes a deep cleansing breath before pressing a smile back on her face. "Okay, then. I'm going to my car to get a few things. I'll be right back."
    Nicole comes back with a laptop, five flat bankers boxes, and a marker. She folds the cardboard into three-dimensional file boxes with lids. She uses the marker to write on the end of each one: Taxes, Maintenance, Sophie, Shred, Recycle. She lines the boxes up on the floor and hopped up on a stool, claiming the kitchen island counter as a huge desk.
    For a few minutes, I watch her comb through each piece of paper in my extensive collection. She uses a sharp letter opener to open each envelope. The envelopes automatically go in the Recycle box. After she reads each document, it goes into one of the other four boxes.
    I have trouble watching her pry into my life like that. I know the house isn't mine now, but it feels like she's harvesting my heart before I've stopped breathing. I try to shake off the feeling.
    "Why do you have my name on a box?"
    Nicole looks up. "With all this mail, there's bound to be something here that's personal to you. It doesn't sound like you looked at anything before adding it to the pile."
    "Makes sense."
    I leave Nicole to her digging. Hondo is at work, Mark disappeared earlier after asking me to let Nicole in, and the only private place I have to go is my recording room.
    This is the second room in the house that's off-limits to everyone. Only a few people have permission to come into this room. Like Lang's guitar room, this is the first time I've opened the door in the last six months. The day after Lang died, Hondo brought me my laptop computer, hoping to entice me to go in. It didn't work. Now, I've already broken the seal on Lang's room. I can't lock myself out forever, especially since the house is no longer mine.
    Here, I keep my most prized possession—a black Bechstein semi-concert grand piano. In the other half of the room, twelve keyboards are arranged in a semicircle, draped. A dark window conceals a small room with the sound board and computers. This control room connects Lang's studio and mine, so it can be used for either one, but I prefer quick and dirty recording by myself with my laptop. My songs are for my friends and me. I don't make albums.
    The doorbell chimes. I consider not answering it, but the person is persistent. I jog down the stairs, and without looking through the peephole, I fling the door open. I immediately regret that action when a mess of microphones and cameras greet me. Damn, damn, damn. Hondo must have left the gate open when he left for work this morning. It's been sticking a little lately.
    "Did you know that Mark Dillon left rehab? What can you tell us about that? Has he relapsed?"
    "Is the band breaking up? Lead singer Braun Fields said Mark