A Note of Madness by Tabitha Suzuma Read Free Book Online Page B

doors again and stopped. ‘Sorry.’
    ‘Doesn’t matter. Got to get up anyway – rehearsal at ten.’ She brushed the hair ineffectively out of her eyes. ‘Have you recovered from your midnight run?’
    He bit his lip to hold back a grin. ‘I’ve almost finished the overture.’
    Her face registered mild shock. ‘What?’
    ‘You know, the opera!’
    She frowned in disbelief. ‘Have you been writing all night?’
    He nodded triumphantly.
    ‘And you’re going to lectures today?’
    ‘No! Well I’ll have to see Professor Kaiser after lunch but I’ll keep going until then.’
    Jennah sat down on a stool, drawing her knees up under her jumper. ‘Flynn, why?’
    ‘Because it’s great! Because I’ve got all these ideas and they keep coming! Because I love composing!’
    Jennah regarded him silently for a moment. She looked pale in the morning light. ‘Why not save it till the next Musicianship assignment?’ she asked quietly. ‘Why are you wearing yourself out like this?’
    ‘I’m not wearing myself out!’ he exclaimed. ‘I couldn’t sleep if I tried. I don’t need to sleep.’
    ‘Flynn, everybody needs to sleep.’
    ‘Yes, but not all the time.’
    Another long silence. Jennah looked keenly at her toes. The kettle clicked and Flynn jumped off the counter.
    ‘I know it’s really none of my business,’ Jennah began softly, ‘but you’re one of my closest friends and I don’t – I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.’
    ‘Nothing’s going to happen to me!’
    ‘I’m just scared that if you carry on having no sleep and working so hard, you’ll go all funny again like before.’
    ‘What d’you mean?’ He looked at her, stung.
    She glanced away awkwardly. ‘Come on, you know – last week, for example. You nearly bit my head off when I suggested you came to the pub and then you went underground for about three days. Harry said you wouldn’t even get out of bed.’
    ‘I was feeling ill.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘I said I was sorry.’
    ‘It’s not that, Flynn. I’m just afraid that you’re going to – I don’t know – burn yourself out again.’
    ‘No I won’t! This is great – I feel brilliant!’ He finished pouring the coffee and handed her a cup.
    Jennah didn’t smile. ‘You were acting so weird last night.’
    ‘I was just feeling energetic!’
    ‘We thought you were drunk.’
    ‘I wasn’t – I just felt like going for a run!’
    ‘OK. But, Flynn, you know this whole Royal College thing? It’s really high pressure for all of us this year and especially for you, with that mad professor. Just – just try and take things easy, OK?’
    He smiled and shrugged. ‘I will. I am.’
    ‘OK.’ Jennah looked down, her eyes troubled. She drank her coffee in silence.

CHAPTER THREE
    ‘ NO, NO, NO , no, no.’ Flynn rolled over, head hanging off the side of his bed, and scrunched up his eyes. There was no pain this time, no headache, and yet he knew – as sure as he knew from the late-morning sunlight streaming through the curtains that it was a fine day – that it was back, and back with a vengeance.
    Getting out of bed was unimaginable, going back to sleep impossible. There was a familiar weight on his chest – a crushing weight of interminable sadness from which there was no escape. After ten minutes or more of lying absolutely still, wishing the day away with all his might, he sat up and blearily surveyed the room around him. Manuscript sheets scattered the floor amidst empty beer cans, dirty plates and scraps of paper covered with his own familiar scrawl – lines from a poem, verses. God, what was this? Memories of the last few days began to jar together like pieces of a poorly edited film. An opera? He had been writing an opera? Jesus Christ! The sight of such a ridiculous flight of fancy sent a shrill stab of agony through his head. He fell back against the pillows, closing his eyes. Who had he told? What had he said?Oh no, Jennah! She must think he was a