"Ummm I like Hasta Manana but love Thank-you for the Music" Issy bit her lip and contemplated the sound of each, wondering if they were too high or too bright for her soul to handle; she felt music was a connection and songs lit a direct route to the heart and soul.

"We could be rebels and do both" Julian teased as Sally stood in the control room eyes cast down, looking at her future in law no doubt.

"Let's just get the one out first, shall we" Issy groaned, having given in "Hasta Manana, I think Julian"

"Ok I need to just move over here a bit and grab the guitar, watch your head" Issy ducked as he swung the strap over his shoulder and she smiled proudly as she watched Julian quickly retune the instrument "Sally just hit record after we do the first test run, then run- your mum might explode ..... From her nerves!"

"Hey!! NO hot chocolate next time you visit!"

"I'm sorry! It was pretty funny though, don't you think" Julian grinned up at her as she pretended to glare grumpily at him. The naughty school boy smile making another welcome appearance. Sally did a thumbs up and stood staring at the floor, troubling her lip at times and looked to be murmuring something too but Issy discarded everything and concentrated on the words on the paper, the shaking in her hands... She sighed loudly and grasped the page tighter.

Issy then relented the strangle hold. The shaking page was doing nothing but highlight her sheer terror of singing in a studio. She placed the innocent page on the piano.

Come on Iss...What harm is there in having a bit of a lark around...

Julian ran through the first verse, went to start over and Issy flubbed it, nerves and over thinking crashing the song before it had even begun.

"Mum" Sally pressed the intercom button and smiled at the noise that startled her mum into jumping a foot "You're not Donna Summers... or ABBA" Issy frowned, where was her daughter heading with this! "You're you, mum- just be you. This is for you- not Julian, nor me, or the radio. Just you, mum. I know you can do it."

Issy nod slightly and looked up. Her daughter had confidence in her and she had done this; granted it was when she was in high school but she had been quite ok, even leading choir on a few numbers.

But this isn't Kansas nor choir, this was a real, big time recording studio where legends came and laid down soulful tracks. Where Julian worked his own magic; no this was as far removed from choir and Kansas as Issy ever could be.

Iss plomped down beside Julian, deciding his nearness was warranted.

Julian counted her in and they were off. Issy loved this song, she enjoyed its soul and sadness and the loss of love, it seemed made for her and her own heart.

"Hasta Manana" ABBA- Writer(s): Buddy Mccluskey, Benny Goran Bror Andersson, Bjoern K. Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson, Mary Mccluskey

Where is the spring and the summer

That once was yours and mine?

Where did it go?

I just don't know

But still my love for you will live forever

Hasta Manana 'til we meet again

Don't know where, don't know when

Darling, our love was much too strong to die

We'll find a way to face a new tomorrow

Hasta Manana, say we'll meet again

I can't do without you

Time to forget, send me a letter

Say you forgive, the sooner the better

Hasta Manana, baby, Hasta Manana, until the--

"Are you producing now Julian?" The voice boomed through the intercom and Issy lost her way. She had risen to her feet and was homeward bound but now she sat back down on the seat with a thud, ducking her head to hide, from him.

The snideness in the seemingly innocent question shone through...pure leering Lennon.  That famous leer and sarcasm that would show up in interviews. Hackles up, smart retorts and definitely, most definitely, suffering no fools.

John was kneeling, he had to have been, you could only just see a little of his head above the panel. Sally was arguing with him so it seemed and trying to stop John hitting the intercom button again. He lifted her hand away as he rose a little higher to view the interior of the studio. Holding Sal's hand in his own, he pushed the intercom button with his other hand "Bit old for a dreamer of superstardom that one, don't you think Jude" He sneered.

"Stop it John!" Sally squawked from behind him "Please, just don't. Not tonight. That's my mum John, please don't be nasty"

John stared through the soundproof glass and if it was any stronger of a look Issy was sure the glass would melt back to the sand from which it came. She'd sat up straight when she realised Sally was so close, so near, to a drunk Lennon. A drunk that Issy had never seen in action. "That's your mother?" He pointed, poking his finger nastily toward Issy "Does she think she can sing?!?! Have a bloody career?!? Whatever kind of family have you got yourself mixed up with Julian!?"

"Dad...."

Warning in his voice, Julian stood now, his hand gripping Issy's own hand, tight in support. Whether it was for herself, Julian or both of them, Issy wasn't exactly sure.

"I. Umm.. I" Issy's tongue tied on her. She wanted to berate him, make him back off and drop her daughters hand from his grasp.

"Spit it out woman!" John growled "God I hate fucking sparrows!" Was spat out for all the world to hear. He went to stand but only managed to flop heavily into the chair, the wheels sending it rolling back across the room, he trundled it forward toward the intercom to have yet another go at her, at Julian. Then he wilted, the alcohol listing and twisting in his body, he conceded "..Finish the song, she's quite good, I suppose... for an old girl"

"You heard the man Issy" Julian grinned but Issy was pissed at the condescending tone he levelled her with. Julian tapped her hand making her flinch then regather "Come on lets sort this, then off home mum"

"She's not your mum Julian. Cyn is" John grumbled. "...I had a mum once" His head dropped low but not before studying Julian as he fussed about with song sheets for Issy. John dropped his eyes to the dirty brown carpet under foot, shaking his head slowly from side to side and wallowed in his own thoughts and memories.

Drowning in yesterdays where his mum was absent. Then she was there, in his life, him relishing her as only a rowdy teen could, stumbling in and out when he felt the need of her sunshiney ways. Then she was gone. So suddenly taken away. Absent again, permanently though this time round.

The car crash, ensuing police coverup for the drunk copper that took her life, all in his head like it wasn't decades ago but like it was today. Real. Horrible and real. Fresh, hurting, red staining the bitumen not a hundred yards from the only home he had. Mimi.

Sleep pulled at him and John dropped his face down onto the control panel and he was then still, unmoving. The puff was gone, the alcohol wormed its way further through his bloodstream.

Issy shook the sight away. John was fall over drunk and now he was very obviously flung back in the sadness of his past, a teenager losing his mother, she just wanted to hug him now.

I am an idiot, its official .... she rolled her eyes, shook her head to clear the sight of a sad man that had, just moments before, yelled like the devil.

She nodded to Julian, pushed the image away, never looking up, never checking he was still there. They relaxed together and finished the song perfectly.

"Another mum? We're on a roll. Then I'll shut me trap and fix the roof!"

"Alright I suppose, then you can play the bloody thing in your car on repeat, each and every trip up to the lake, and burn your ears off in the process!" Issy laughed, a good drop of naughtiness gracing her words. Julian contemplated the long drive north and the recording, his face slowly contorting in a feigned painful grimace "Come on Julian, I've a long trip home, my boy"

Issy didn't mess it up.

Nor, did a now, semi conscious John, look up....

Thank-you for the Music was her favourite, well one of many, many favourites and she was feeling good, even thinking that she was actually thanking the Mister John Lennon for all his music. Her lips curled up as she lifted to the end, letting the song breathe and live just once on her lips.

John slow clapped all of two heartbeats then stood gingerly. Weaving to and fro as he got himself upright.

Issy didnt know if the meagre claps were in thanks she was finished or if he was actually happy with the sound that came through the speakers....

Swaying unsteadily, John silently walked away toward the bathrooms.

Banging into each, and every, wall as he navigated the familar route.