Bobby, whoever he is. I don’t have a clue what’s going on there, and Dell won’t tell me.”
“She doesn’t want to bother you, Kate,” I heard myself say. What was I doing getting in the middle of Kate’s family business? “She’s afraid to be a bother to you. She sees that you’re busy and you’re stressed, and she’s afraid to pile on more.”
“I know that,” Kate bit out under her breath. “But I can’t change the way she thinks. I’ve talked, and I’ve tried. I’ve loved her all I can, but you know what? I can’t work miracles.”
My mind went silent, then I whispered, “There’s your miracle.” I pointed toward the little house, toward the sound of the piano drifting through the still air. Dell was playing again. “Right there. There’s your miracle. There’s her chance to be extraordinary, her special gift. The one thing about her that isn’t like anybody else. She hears music in her head.” Kate’s eyes met mine with an expression of sudden understanding, and I whispered, “If that isn’t a miraculous gift, what is?”
Kate seemed surprised to hear me, of all people, asking that question. “I don’t know,” she admitted quietly. “I just don’t want her to endup worse off than she already is. She has such a hard time in school and with the other kids. It’s all she can do to keep up now, and she’s getting to the age where she’s starting to change physically. I just don’t think she can handle any more pressure, any more activities.”
“Kate, I wouldn’t have made it through school if it hadn’t been for music.” I couldn’t believe I was admitting this to her after all these years. News flash: Karen isn’t brilliant. I’d never even admitted that to James. Perhaps because he, like Kate, was brilliant and gifted. “You don’t know what it’s like to struggle, to not have everything come easily, to have to hang around the classroom after school so you can get the teacher to explain calculus equations one more time.” Kate’s eyes widened, and she blinked like she was seeing me for the first time. I didn’t care. “All that time, the one thing I knew I was really good at was my music. I knew that made me special, even though I wasn’t the brilliant, gifted, and talented student that you were. My music was enough to keep me going, and it could be that way for Dell. It could be better than that for Dell. I was good at music, but she’s extraordinary. She’s remarkable. She started to see that today, and it lit her up. There has to be a way to keep that flame burning.”
Kate didn’t answer—just nodded, then finally choked out, “O.K.”
Jenilee and Caleb were coming up the path behind us, walking arm in arm and gazing at each other in a moonstruck way that made me miss the days of young infatuation. He leaned down to kiss her, and they stopped near the rose trellis, forgetting there was anyone else in the world. I smiled, seeing myself and James the weekend we first met. He was deadheading on a flight to Boston so that he could spend a couple of days at the summer music festival in Tanglewood. I was flying home after working on one of the first big network jobs for Lansing. I had some of the programming code in my head already, and when the plane landed, I planned to go straight to the office, input the code, and test it. Then James sat down beside me, said hi as he tucked a carry-on under the seat, and all of a sudden, I couldn’t have programmed my way out of a cardboard box.
We talked for an hour and a half on the flight, shared cheap airline food, and compared his childhood on a small farm in Virginia to minein Boston. I teased him about being a farm boy, but he didn’t really seem like one. He was sophisticated, intelligent, secure in himself, and just arrogant enough to be successful. He had beautiful hazel eyes, gorgeous light brown hair, and a countenance that made him seem mature, despite that he was only twenty-seven, just two years older
“She doesn’t want to bother you, Kate,” I heard myself say. What was I doing getting in the middle of Kate’s family business? “She’s afraid to be a bother to you. She sees that you’re busy and you’re stressed, and she’s afraid to pile on more.”
“I know that,” Kate bit out under her breath. “But I can’t change the way she thinks. I’ve talked, and I’ve tried. I’ve loved her all I can, but you know what? I can’t work miracles.”
My mind went silent, then I whispered, “There’s your miracle.” I pointed toward the little house, toward the sound of the piano drifting through the still air. Dell was playing again. “Right there. There’s your miracle. There’s her chance to be extraordinary, her special gift. The one thing about her that isn’t like anybody else. She hears music in her head.” Kate’s eyes met mine with an expression of sudden understanding, and I whispered, “If that isn’t a miraculous gift, what is?”
Kate seemed surprised to hear me, of all people, asking that question. “I don’t know,” she admitted quietly. “I just don’t want her to endup worse off than she already is. She has such a hard time in school and with the other kids. It’s all she can do to keep up now, and she’s getting to the age where she’s starting to change physically. I just don’t think she can handle any more pressure, any more activities.”
“Kate, I wouldn’t have made it through school if it hadn’t been for music.” I couldn’t believe I was admitting this to her after all these years. News flash: Karen isn’t brilliant. I’d never even admitted that to James. Perhaps because he, like Kate, was brilliant and gifted. “You don’t know what it’s like to struggle, to not have everything come easily, to have to hang around the classroom after school so you can get the teacher to explain calculus equations one more time.” Kate’s eyes widened, and she blinked like she was seeing me for the first time. I didn’t care. “All that time, the one thing I knew I was really good at was my music. I knew that made me special, even though I wasn’t the brilliant, gifted, and talented student that you were. My music was enough to keep me going, and it could be that way for Dell. It could be better than that for Dell. I was good at music, but she’s extraordinary. She’s remarkable. She started to see that today, and it lit her up. There has to be a way to keep that flame burning.”
Kate didn’t answer—just nodded, then finally choked out, “O.K.”
Jenilee and Caleb were coming up the path behind us, walking arm in arm and gazing at each other in a moonstruck way that made me miss the days of young infatuation. He leaned down to kiss her, and they stopped near the rose trellis, forgetting there was anyone else in the world. I smiled, seeing myself and James the weekend we first met. He was deadheading on a flight to Boston so that he could spend a couple of days at the summer music festival in Tanglewood. I was flying home after working on one of the first big network jobs for Lansing. I had some of the programming code in my head already, and when the plane landed, I planned to go straight to the office, input the code, and test it. Then James sat down beside me, said hi as he tucked a carry-on under the seat, and all of a sudden, I couldn’t have programmed my way out of a cardboard box.
We talked for an hour and a half on the flight, shared cheap airline food, and compared his childhood on a small farm in Virginia to minein Boston. I teased him about being a farm boy, but he didn’t really seem like one. He was sophisticated, intelligent, secure in himself, and just arrogant enough to be successful. He had beautiful hazel eyes, gorgeous light brown hair, and a countenance that made him seem mature, despite that he was only twenty-seven, just two years older
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