Eurovision queen

chapter 1

Maggie was a singer, she was a small, pretty blonde girl with a big talent who had tried to make it in the charts, but failed. The reason, she had been told was her weight.
She did not consider herself to be fat. Her weight had not changed for the last five years. Her wardrobe might not be fancy, but it was designed to show off her curvaceousness. She liked wearing big belts to nip her waist in, skirts below her knees and big boots. She liked to wear big, bold, chunky jewellery. She had learned that things needed to be big and bold on stage to stand out. She had sung on stage since she was a child, so she had learned to make her hair big with rollers and hairspray. Her makeup featured strong eyes and a strong lip and she was never without her false eyelashes.
The record companies liked her sound, but not her look. It might be all right for the cabaret circuit, but not for the charts.
After being dejected by the record companies so many times, she sung on a cruise ship, for a while, then started to study so that she could teach and become a vocal coach. In the meantime, she had to earn a living somehow

Simon was the son of a music shop owner, who travelled around the community, servicing electric organs and sound systems. Most of them were in public places, such as theatres, clubs, pubs and concert halls, but he also visited private homes.
At home, he preferred to play the guitar. He had a Fender Stratocaster and had customised it himself, replacing all the silver fixings with gold. He had a go at writing songs too. Most of them were not very good. However, he had sent several off, written on sheet music to the record companies. A few had been recorded by their artists and he’d been paid for them. Two had even entered the charts. One of them had even got to number ten in the hit parade!

Simon visited Maggie’s house to service her five year old keyboard. It still sounded and played all right, but it needed the electrical contacts cleaning at the back and some routine maintenance.
He found Maggie’s beauty captivating, but he was too shy to ask her out, coming out with all kinds of excuses in his own head.
However, when he got home that day, he could not stop thinking about her. He picked up his guitar and wrote a new song simply called “inspiration”.
By the end of the week, he had it down on paper. He was going to send it off to see if the record companies first, but thought he might send it off to the woman who had inspired him first. He did not expect a reaction. It just seemed like it was the right thing to do.

Maggie was flattered that someone had written a song about her. She recorded it, as it had been written and sent it back to the young technician. She did not expect anything to come of it... well maybe a date... It came as no surprise, when she heard nothing.

Simon was surprised that his customer had bothered to even look at his sheet music and even more surprised to make a recording. Most owners of the keyboards he serviced in the home were full of good intentions to learn how to play music, but were too busy or too lazy to do it. The same homes were probably full of unused gym equipment too.
He was surprised at how good Maggie had made his song sound. She was not just a good singer, she was an excellent one. Why wasn’t she professional?
He made a few copies of the recording and sent it to some of the record companies he had dealt with before.
He did not hear from most of them, but one of them liked his song and they liked his choice of singer. They wanted them both to come to the studio to discuss making a professional recording there, with some session musicians.
Simon was excited! He had not been in a proper recording studio before. The recordings he had made were at home in his bedroom using his computer. He would have preferred to record in the sound booth in his dad’s shop, but that was always booked up weeks in advance for lessons and demonstrations.
He was most nervous of contacting Maggie. He could not hide behind a letter and more. He had to ring her and speak to her, voice to voice. He was embarrassed. He had never intended the song he had written about her to go so public. It was more about showing the studios what he was capable of.
He put the telephone call off for a few days, he needed the time to rehearse what he was going to say. How would he tell her? What would she think of him?
Did he ask her out on a date and tell her, or did he just tell her straight?
By the time he picked up the phone, he had over-thought the conversation so much that he was extremely nervous. He hesitated and stammered and invited himself over to her house.
He thought he had got away with it without her thinking he was an idiot. Now he had to think about what he was going to wear.

Maggie was surprised to hear back from the young man. She was not sure what it was he was wanting to tell her. He sounded so tongue tied, excited and nervous about something. Normally, she would not allow a man to visit her alone at home, but this man had already serviced her organ. He also looked to be seven years her junior. She did not think she had anything to worry about. The song he’d written was a beautiful love song. She was flattered he’d written it about her, but it portrayed a romantic, uncomplicated view of the world. In real life, other things got in the way. She recalled when she’d been his age, she’d had numerous rejections, disappointments, and failed relationships, while other people simply fell in love and got married. Maybe she had become too skeptical. Maybe she needed to be more open minded.