The player whirred. A quiet hiss of silence. Then, the first piano chords of “The Power of Love” filled the car.
It sat on the passenger seat of Lena’s beat-up Honda Civic, a beacon of 1999 plastic and nostalgia. The cover was a close-up of Celine Dion herself, her expression a mix of serene power and quiet vulnerability. The title, All the Way... A Decade of Song , was scrawled in elegant gold letters. To anyone else, it was a greatest-hits album. To Lena, it was a time bomb. celine dion all the way cd
Because her mom was right. You have to feel it all the way. The player whirred
The song ended. A moment of silence. Then the tick of the laser moving to the next track. It sat on the passenger seat of Lena’s
Lena’s thumb traced the tracklist. All the Way. It’s All Coming Back to Me Now. Each title was a door to a room she wasn’t ready to enter.
The date on the Post-it was from five years ago. Her mother had lost her battle three months after that note was written.
She remembered the day they bought it. Tower Records. Her mom had held it up like a trophy. “Look, Lena! ‘My Heart Will Go On,’ ‘Because You Loved Me,’ ‘The Power of Love’—it’s all the best ones. One CD to rule them all.” Her mom had a habit of calling everything “the one CD to rule them all,” even a collection of Gregorian chants.