Okay firstly I want to say I own none of the characters that already appear on this show. Also, each song included will be the lyrics of a song by someone I like. I will state who at the start of each song that features in a chapter. This one is Ben howard, Old Pine.
Maura placed her hands on the microphone and took a deep breath before looking up at the crowd in front of her. Over 30,000 people stood before her screaming her name as if she were the only thing that mattered in the entire world. It made her heart melt every time she saw a sign that glittered under the light, repeating her lyrics back at her. Her smile widened every time a fan threw their arms around her and cried about how her music saved their lives.
Music was more powerful than some people could ever understand. When Maura had started in the music industry, she was informed that no one would buy into her acoustic sound, right now was the time for pop music and people weren't interested in soft vocals and guitar strings. But she took that as a challenge accepted and begun her career path proving each label that had turned her down wrong. She mainly wrote songs about love and real life experiences, and at first her lyrics were simple but elegant. As her career began to take path, she began to write with more of a personal flow, with a deeper meaning and beauty about the things she saw every day of her life. But when she started out, with just a guitar and some money handed to her by her parents, she never imagined that she would be able to really talk to people through her music, much less save their lives.
The best part, she found, about letting the world have this piece of her, was that every single person took a different type of comfort in her music. Whether it be crying over a break up, losing a friend or even dealing with death, Maura managed to guide these people with lyrics and melodies.
She picked up her guitar and started to strum, letting her mind take her to where she needed to be for her opening number.
"hot sand on toes, cold sand in sleeping bags, I come to know the memories were the best things we ever had."
This song took her back to being 16 and celebrating her birthday on a warm beach in california. Her parents had transferred there a year before and somehow she had managed to make some friends in the 13 months she'd been there. The sun was about gone and the sand had been tinted with the orange from its rays. They sang around the fire late into the night and made s'mores and eventually fell asleep under the stars. It was probably one of the best birthdays Maura had ever experienced.
"The summer shone, beat down on bony backs, so far from home where the ocean stood down dust and pine cone tracks."
Maura closed her eyes and smiled, listening to every person in the room as they sung the words along with her, each person thinking of their own memory that came with that one song. Three hundred thousand memories being sung back at her and filling the air with such an atmosphere that could knock anyone off their feet.
"we stood, steady as the stars in the wood, so happy hearted and the warmth rang true inside these bones. As the old pine fell we sang, just to bless the morning."