I’ll Wait For You

“What wish would that be?” Elinor said, though the revelation made her grin. The white heather hadn’t been a blip of judgment, after all. He meant it as a sublime, positive emotion, something on the side to help her recover after the nightmare, the pain and the emptiness.

During a round of cards, just after she had finished the meal with her parents, her phone buzzed. She resisted a burp, and idly checked her phone to spot a message from Kostya Vasilev.

Check the television. Channel 9.

“I’ve been asked to check channel nine. Excuse me. From Kostya.” Elinor searched for the remote, turned on the channel, and her parents clustered in curiosity around the screen, which at that moment panned the camera to show a band performing.

No, not any band. Stolen Heart.

The song they had chosen was Faith Within.

Oh, it’s all the same to me

All the battles we fight every day

The ones outside and the ones within

The stones and curses thrown this way

Sometimes I’m haunted by these thoughts of Angels

The need to let them go and breathe

I’m sinking down lower

I’m unable to see

It’s hurting like fire

The demon in me

All the trials we face

Our fate has a place

It all shapes the faith within

There’s only so long you’re falling

Before you stand and break the walls in

I might have forgotten what a smile feels like

But I haven’t lost yet

I’m still running tonight

I’ll find a new dream

I was in the mud and spitting blood

I’ll find a new dream

I’ll stand above the rushing flood

The faith is all that’s left in me

The faith is all that’s left in me

It was one of the darker, heart-rending songs Arina could sing, and she made it echo through the studio like a crooning dirge, her voice soaring. It made the hairs on Elinor’s back rise up, and she shivered.

“That’s your band, isn’t it?” Andrew said, suddenly excited. “Good Lord, it is, isn’t it? Singing something you wrote!”

Elinor smiled, as Arina began the close chorus of the song, and Freya switched from her piano to her violin, letting the notes wrench at her, falling like snow.

“Goodness. What an amazing voice. And those words! My little girl did this?” Andrew enveloped his daughter in a hug, tears brimming in his eyes. Catrina joined in on this, and wailed her happiness, making Elinor feel awkward, elated, and triumphant all at the same time.

When the song ended, Elinor relaxed in the sofa with her family, to watch the next.

It had been just the lift she needed.