Free The Way You Make Me Feel by Francine Craft

Are you always so kind?”
    â€œYou know me. D’you think I’m kind?”
    â€œI just think you’re the best. Damien, no way could I ever tell you how grateful I am to you.”
    â€œYou’re welcome. If it’s necessary, I’ll keep saying how much I owe you. I don’t think you quite realize what you did. Stevie, I’m taking you to work with me this morning. Think you’re up to it?”
    She drew a sharp breath and didn’t answer for a moment. Then she said, “Well, I handled being in that posh restaurant yesterday very well. Keith Muncy and Jake aren’t men I want to contact in my worst dreams. I’ll go in with you. The only thing is…”
    â€œThe only thing is?”
    â€œThat song’s still swimming around in my head and I’m always a little crazy when that happens. Could you just shut me up in a room near you and let me work?”
    â€œSure. I can get you anything your little heart desires.”
    â€œThen we’re on.” She didn’t talk for a little before she said, “You haven’t really asked me again about last night.”
    â€œI’ve been waiting for you to tell me.” He had lain beside her after her nightmare, half asleep as she moaned from time to time. At dawn she had come awake first and he had found her looking at him when he woke up. She had looked haunted and he had decided to wait until she wanted to talk more.
    Now he said, “I want you to be free of this dream, this fantasy that has this terrible grip on you.”
    â€œAnd I want to be free of it. I’m going to keep trying, but it’s so damned hard. I keep telling you it’s in the center of my mind and I see it clearly, then just as I wake up it begins to dwindle…” She hesitated.
    â€œInto a red-orange ball.”
    â€œYes.” Her voice was urgent then. “I’m going to keep at it. It’s got to come.” Then she stopped abruptly and her voice held the edge of hysteria. “Only I’m scared, Damien.”
    He reached over and patted her shoulder. “I’m no psychiatrist, but ask yourself what it is you’re scared of. I’m sure Dr. Winslow has asked you that.”
    â€œA number of times. The question only makes me more afraid. It seems I know I’ll die if I see what’s in that dream.” Then she said fiercely, “I’m going to face my fears.”
    â€œThat’s my girl.”
    They had slowed as they talked and her heart drummed now. She took a deep breath. “I’m going to sing next Thursday night at Club Insomnia.”
    â€œThat soon?”
    â€œYes. I want to go back. Singing has always been what’s saved me. The only time I’ve stopped was just after my divorce. I felt like such a failure.”
    â€œYou could never be a failure, Stevie.”
    â€œJake always said I was a loser as a wife. I wanted too much, demanded too much. He constantly criticized me for being passionate, said it wasn’t natural in a woman…”
    â€œJake’s a damned fool and it’s too bad you didn’t know that sooner. We’re in a heated business where passion is everything. It makes the music flow. Without it we’re nothing. Passion is a gift and I want you to be proud of that gift.”
    They stopped and he put his index finger under her chin, lifted it. “Are you listening to me?”
    â€œYou bet I’m listening. You remind me of my father. My mother could be quite cold. When I was nine, I had a crush on a sixteen-year-old brother who wrote me a note asking me to meet him. My mother intercepted the note and raised hell, but my father took up for me. ‘You like this boy?’ he asked me and when I said I did, he talked with me about passion.
    â€œHe talked with me about sexual passion and said it was too heavy a burden for children to bear, but I needed to thank God I had that capacity. He said I needed