Aurora Read Online Free PDF Page B

exhaled smoke from his cigarette in a sigh of relief. He stubbed out its red glow in a saucer. “Cripes, we really thought we’d lost you too there for a minute,” he said.
    She gazed around her. She lay on a spotlessly clean white bed. Beyond the circle of pale, anxious faces—and Lefty’s dark anxious face, though even that looked pale—was only a further white circle that she recognized after a moment or two as a hospital screen. Lefty, Ginge, Herbie, Doug, Acker. Plus a nurse and a tall man in a white coat.
    â€œWhere’s Synth?” she asked, struggling to sit up. “What do you mean, lost me too ?”
    â€œNothing. Nothing.” Lefty made a move to light another cigarette, but the nurse caught his eye and frowned.
    â€œIf you don’t mind, Mr. Clemson, I think now that you know she’s all right.... In fact”—she looked questioningly at the doctor, who nodded—“it would be best if you all left now and let Miss—erm—Aurora rest.”
    â€œNo!” cried Aurora sharply, “Where is Synth? I want to know—right now—or I won’t rest. Something’s happened to him, hasn’t it?”
    â€œNo, he’s fine,” said Lefty. “But he’s left the band—walked out while you were still playing last night, tell you the truth. He’s stripped his flat. The manager at the Grotto says Synth told him...well, that you made him look like an idiot. But that wasn’t your fault—he is an idiot.”
    Aurora hid her face in her hands. “Yes, it was my fault,” she sobbed. “I warned you, didn’t I? I told you I’m always trouble and you wouldn’t want me around....”
    Ginge stepped forward before anyone else could speak. “You couldn’t be more wrong there, gal. Something good happened while you were around us. Real good. We all played better than we ever knew we could.” The circle of heads nodded vigorously. “And as for you, you were fuckin’ amazing on that synthesizer, pardon my French. Jeez, we need you in the band now. Don’t we, guys?” More nods. “You will join us, won’t you...?”
    But Aurora’s eyes were flickering shut again.
    â€œI never even got to tell her about the manager of Yes being in the audience, and wanting to book us as support band on their next tour,” complained Ginge.
    * * * *
    There was nothing wrong with Aurora, the doctor told Lefty when he collected her from the hospital two days later, apart from the life she had been leading. Nothing that rest, good food and vitamins couldn’t fix.
    She was installed in her own room in part of what had been Synth’s flat. Ginge and Lefty had moved into the rest of it, since it was so much better than their previous places.
    There they were all able to work out new numbers. It was almost always Aurora who took the lead in their compositions; but they quickly discovered that she found it almost impossible to play the same piece twice. This hardly seemed to matter, though, and instead they evolved a sort of code by which they knew what type of number they would play next, whether fast, slow, happy, plaintive, heavy rock, vocal or instrumental.
    They also found that, while they all enjoyed playing together and almost every piece proved an emotional experience of some kind, they never reached in practice the heights they had in the Grotto Club. Even so, they deliberately avoided any further public appearances. They wanted to save themselves for the tour with Yes.
    Two weeks before the first scheduled gig of the tour, in London, Herbie rushed into the flat, obviously highly excited.
    â€œI’ve fixed it! A whole day in the UROK Studios! The way we’ve been playing lately, we should be able to record a whole album, no problem, and pick the best two tracks for our single. We can have the single into the shops while the tour’s still on—and just watch