Personal Sound Track
PERSONAL SOUND TRACK – May 7, 2025 – Lawrence, Kansas, USA
With only a few clicks remaining, Gabriel was close to completing the install of a new app. This one was more complicated than any other he had purchased and required him to synch up his iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods. Gabriel heard about the app from a friend before reading its many five-star reviews. The app’s tagline promised a “personal sound track for your life”. It chose songs from your music library based on your mood. Your mood was calculated using biofeedback from your Apple Watch, GPS location, and conversations picked up by your iPhone’s microphone.
Setting up the app proved so complicated, Gabriel lost track of time. He sat on a cushioned bench in the University of Kansas’s Anschultz Library. His backpack and water bottle sat near his feet. He held his phone in one hand while tapping on his MacBook with the other.
As Gabriel logged into his Apple Music account, someone sat next to him. He rotated his head for a quick glance and then did a double take. The girl on the next bench looked almost identical to Emma Watson when she played Hermione in the Harry Potter movies. Gabriel grew up watching those movies and had a major crush on Hermione. He snuck another peek. Yes, she had the same dark wavy hair and soft brown eyes. She wore a light-yellow top that was a perfect complement to her skin tone. She typed on a MacBook just like Gabriel’s and appeared to make edits to a long writing assignment.
Gabriel practically forgot what he was doing with the app. He tried not to make it obvious, but he stole short looks at the Hermione girl hoping they would make eye contact. If they did, he was ready with something to say. He would start by pointing out they had the same computer. He had also noticed a pin on her backpack from the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. He would tell her he almost bought the exact same pin when he was there.
But no matter how much he fidgeted or adjusted how he was sitting, Gabriel could not catch the girl’s attention. He half-heartedly worked on his app install to avoid staring at her. He reached the point where a menu asked about the music library from which the app could draw. Did he want to limit himself to one music style or time period or open himself up to any sound ever recorded? The app recommended a wide-open catalog, so Gabriel chose “All Songs”. With one last click, the app began collecting data. Gabriel’s AirPods hummed in his ears, waiting for their first song.
Tired of waiting for the Hermione girl to notice him, Gabriel was on the verge of saying hello and asking about the museum pin. Before he could get any words out, she closed her laptop and leaned forward. In the next three seconds, she stood, grabbed her backpack, and walked away. As much as Gabriel wanted to say something, he was too flustered to get any words out. It was too late to shout hello or call out something about the pin. He missed his window. He would probably never see her again.
As he slumped in disappointment, suddenly the chorus to the song, “There She Goes” by Six Pence None the Richer played in his ears. The app had made its first selection. As he sadly listened to the lyrics, he looked at the spot where the girl had been sitting. A laptop charger was plugged into the wall behind the cushioned bench.
“She forgot her charger!” Gabriel practically shouted to himself. He now had an excuse to chase after her. He would heroically return the charger. He could already see the grateful look on her face.
Not pausing for another thought, Gabriel tucked his own laptop into his backpack, which he slipped around his shoulder. Then he pulled the charger from the wall. Holding his phone in one hand and the charger in the other, he peered down the long corridor in the direction Hermione walked. He spotted her pushing a door open to head outside.
As Gabriel jogged toward her, his pulse quickened. The music in his AirPods suddenly switched to a song with a fast beat – “APT” by ROSE. He moved a little faster and was not bothered by the questioning looks from students he passed who were supposed to be quietly studying. He reached the library’s exit door in time to see Hermione walking toward nearby Wescoe Hall. She reached an entrance and went inside as Gabriel followed.
Gabriel was familiar with the layout of Wescoe Hall because he had taken a philosophy class in one of its lecture rooms. He burst into a main lobby filled with a dozen loitering students and frantically scanned for Hermione. She was not there. Rather than randomly pick one of the directions she might have gone, he decided to ask for help from two students who were chatting while leaning against a nearby staircase.
“Did you see a girl who just came in here?”
The students broke off their conversation to stare blankly at Gabriel.
“She’s got brown hair and she’s wearing a yellow shirt,” Gabriel continued. “I’ve got her charger and need to give it back to her.”
At that moment, the “personal soundtrack” app changed songs to “The One That Got Away” by Katie Perry. As the music played in Gabriel’s ears, the students in front of him shook their heads helplessly like they had no idea what he was talking about. Gabriel caught some movement out the corner of his eye and looked up to see Hermione getting off an elevator on the second floor. He was too self-conscious to call out to her but hurried up a flight of stairs in pursuit.
By the time Gabriel reached the elevator, Hermione had disappeared. The only logical direction she could have gone was down a hallway labeled “English Department”. Gabriel entered the hallway to find at least ten closed doors on both sides. Labels beside the door held the names of the professors who might be found inside.
“She must be talking to one of them,” Gabriel said to himself.
Each door contained a small glass window allowing a passerby to see inside. Some windows were covered by sheets of paper taped to the inside of the door. Gabriel began checking each one, hoping to spot Hermione. As he moved back and forth down the hall, the song “Creep” by Radiohead played in his AirPods. He ignored the lyrics and acted as nonchalant as possible until he got to the last of the doors. No Hermione.
Quickly falling into another funk, Gabriel sat mournfully on a hard plastic chair left near one of the professor’s doors. Maybe she had not stopped here in the first place. Maybe meeting her was not meant to be. A new song played in his ears – “Everybody Hurts” by REM. He felt sorry for himself for several minutes and thought about the unappetizing mac-and-cheese leftovers waiting for him when he returned to his apartment.
While staring at his shoelaces, Gabriel caught a flash of something moving at the other end of the hallway. Hermione emerged from one of the offices with a covered window and walked directly to an open elevator. Gabriel’s heart raced and the song in his ears changed to “I Saw Her Standing There” by the Beatles. He rushed down the hallway only to see the elevator doors close. He tapped on the elevator’s down button before deciding the stairs were faster. He reached the lobby below in time to see Hermione outside the building’s glass doors, boarding an electric scooter.
Running to catch up, Gabriel watched Hermione turn a corner and follow a sidewalk toward the middle of campus. He adjusted his backpack and ran after her at full speed. Pushing him forward was a heart pounding, breakneck paced anthem pounding in his ears – “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler. Hermione and the scooter fled obliviously as Gabriel fought to keep pace. She remained in sight, but Gabriel was not in the best of shape and could not maintain his speed. As his steps-per-minute dropped, the song in his ears changed to something with a slightly slower beat – “Golden” from the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack.
Completely focused on the elusive scooter, Gabriel did not care about the stares from pedestrians clogging his path. After a half mile run, the burst of adrenaline in his system wore off. His lungs screamed for more air. His legs ached. As he dug deep to find the energy to keep going, “Lose Yourself” by Eminem burst from his AirPods. His arms and legs churned haphazardly like he was in the final stretch of a marathon. The scooter was now barely in sight, but Hermione turned toward what had to be her final destination – a giant housing complex called Tower Apartments. She left the scooter parked outside next to a bike rack and then walked into the nearest multi-story building.
Gabriel continued his painful run with the encouragement of Eminem, but he was afraid he had truly lost her now. How would he ever find her in one of the towers? They held hundreds of rooms and he did not even know what floor she was on. He huffed and puffed until he reached the parked scooter and then doubled over in exhaustion. As he massaged the cramp in his side, he looked up to see Hermione standing just inside the glass doors of the tower building, talking to someone. His hopes instantly soared and he wiped the sweat from his forehead and strained to stand upright.
Hermione continued chatting as Gabriel composed himself and ambled toward her. She was only fifty feet away. In only a matter of seconds, he would be standing in front of her. His frantic heart nervously skipped a beat. Taylor Swift’s song “Delicate” began playing in his ears.
Gabriel opened the door to the building’s entryway. Off to the right was a waiting area consisting of couches and a TV. Strait ahead were two elevators that climbed to the upper floors. Hermione stood close to the doorway talking to a girl in a softball uniform. The conversation appeared to be something struck by casual friends after a coincidental meeting. Gabriel held back, not sure if he should interrupt. A few seconds later, the softball player shuffled away and Hermione looked directly at Gabriel. A flash of recognition crossed her face.
Gabriel was still short of breath, but he knew it was finally his turn to speak. He took a few awkward steps forward while the music suddenly changed in his ears. “If you like pina coladas,” from the song “Escape” by Rupert Holmes rang out. It was a strange and distracting selection.
“Uh, hi. You were sitting by me in the library. You forgot this.” Gabriel held up the charger in his hand. “I don’t want to sound weird or anything, but I followed you so I could give it back.”
The Hermione girl looked at the charger before saying in an almost apologetic tone, “I don’t think it’s mine. I left mine in my room.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
Gabriel took a more careful look at the charger and turned it over. He spotted his initials written on it with a Sharpie pen. It was his charger. Somehow in the confusion of setting up the app and becoming flustered by Hermione, he had forgotten he had plugged it into the wall at the library.
“I guess it must belong to somebody else,” Gabriel said haltingly. The song on his AirPods shifted to “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette.
“And you came all the way from the library with it? That’s very sweet,” Hermione said with a sincere smile.
“Well, I know how bad it can be when you don’t have your charger. And it wasn’t that big a deal.” Partially returning to his senses, Gabriel pretended to notice the pin on Hermione’s backpack for the first time. He pointed to it and asked, “So you like the Nelson-Atkins Museum?”
“It’s one of my favorite places in the world. I could spend days there.”
“Me too. You know, I almost brought that same pin.”
“Really? This pin?” Hermione sounded genuinely impressed. She gave Gabriel a head-to-toe scan before saying, “I was just going to grab some food. Are you doing anything? You could come with me.”
“Okay. Yeah, sure.” Gabriel’s heart picked up steam again but he reminded himself not to come across as too eager. He added, “I mean, I’ve got to eat too.” As he spoke, “All I Do Is Win” by DJ Khaled started in his ears. He reached up and pulled out the AirPods. “I’ll take these out so I don’t have some random song running through my head.”
“I get songs stuck in my head all the time. Sometimes I need a way to get them out.”
“I have an app you might like. I’m Gabriel, by the way.”
“Emma. Nice to meet you.”
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