by Vivian Wood
It was a sheet of staff paper. Gid had formed each note with a dull pencil. Hesitantly, I picked out the melody line and as I did, a smile stretched over my face.
It was simple. Beautiful. A lilting little minor key intro that made me instantly nostalgic for something I couldn't remember.
Was this what was hidden there in his tapes? This beauty?
My fingers were rusty and my sight reading was terrible, but I managed to stumble through the first verse of the song, blinking through my tears for Gid. I must have gotten the gist of it, because the kindergartners were humming along with my playing. That was promising. Maybe I'd be able to do Gid's music justice after all.
I played the final chord and then cleared my throat. "Okay great!" I called. "Now this time you join in with the words!"
I counted down and started to play and a gabble of voices joined in. Thirty-three kids sang at the top of their lungs, shouting in an off-key aural assault. I tried to struggle through the first verse, then gave up and held up my hand. "Okay cut!" I called peering at the music. I felt out of breath and ready to bolt from the room. "Ah, okay then," I said, trying to get myself back together again. "That was a little disorganized, right? Some of you weren't even singing the right melody."
"Um, it's called harmonizing?" a snotty fifth grader spoke up, with a pronounced eyeroll. That had to be Brayden.
"Mr. King had you singing harmonies?" I asked.
"I'm a soprano!" one of the third graders preened.
I narrowed my eyes. Was he insane? These were grade schoolers, not a professionals. Most of them couldn't even read music. Some of them couldn't even read.
I felt like I was clinging to the side of a cliff and losing my handhold fast. "Okay," I said, "we'll talk about that a little later." I leafed through the music trying to see if he'd written harmonies for all of the songs and -
Wait -
"What the fuck, Gid?" I breathed.
"Miss Riley swore!" a second grader shouted, clapping her hands over her mouth. There was an eruption of scandalized giggles, and I knew I needed to rein them in quickly or I'd never get the room back under control but I was too busy staring at the lyrics for the very last song.
I'd been so focused on being able to play the music last night that I hadn't paid any attention to the words Gid wanted these kids to sing.
Thirty three sweet voiced elementary school kids. Standing in front of their proud parents, singing about lonely love lost on the road out of hell? Gid had lost his mind.
"Okay we're done!" I shouted with my head buried in my hands. "Rehearsal's over! Time to go home!"
Chapter Eighteen
Jonah
Finn wandered through the kitchen, scratching his belly on his way to the coffee maker. "Mornin' sunshine," I said from the breakfast bar. "Haven't seen you in a while."
It was an exaggeration, but only a slight one. My youngest brother still technically lived here, but he was rarely around. He'd always needed more alone time than the rest of us. Too much time around people made him volatile.
"I've been here," Finn said as he poured coffee into a chipped, ancient mug. He leaned against the counter. "And you're here too."
"I'm here," I repeated.
Since Gabe's accident, things had slowly started feeling if not normal, then at least not terrible, with my brothers. Gabe must have said something to the twins, or maybe Beau had just figured it out with his scary mind-reading abilities, but I was feeling like they might actually be glad I was here.
It was weird. I was sort of glad to be here too.
"Is that Gabe out there?" Finn asked, glancing out the kitchen window towards the front of the house.
I chuckled. "Yeah, his new bike is getting dropped off today."
"And he's just...waiting for it?" Finn rolled his eyes. "That's pretty pathetic."
I shrugged. "Guess the cast is driving him nuts. He's bored out of his mind."
A wicked gleam shone in Finn's eyes. Out of the five King siblings, he was the only one who'd ended up with blue eyes. He was lean and wirey, with light brown hair that got easily bleached out in the summer time. Meanwhile his twin brother had dark hair, dark eyes, and a big bushy beard now to go with his big, burly frame. Now that we were out of the band and there was no one to make them dress alike anymore, they barely even looked like brothers, much less twins. "What are you thinking about?" I said, suddenly wary.
"Messing with him," Finn said, grabbing his coat from the hook by the door.
I shouldn't have even needed to ask.
The delivery wasn't supposed to arrive until eleven in the morning, but Gabe had been out in the driveway since 10:30am, pacing. His coat was slung over his shoulders to accommodate the cast the ran from his wrist to his elbow, but he shivered all the same. He was that excited about his new motorbike.
"Oh hey Gabe?" Finn called, all innocent helpfulness. "The delivery guy just called the house. Said there was a delay or something?"
Gabe turned so fast he might have given himself whiplash. "What?" he cried.
"Yeah." Finn took a slow sip of his coffee, torturing him. "Yeah, he said something about how the company doesn't want their bikes being ridden by giant doofuses? Messes with the branding."
Gabe's face turned red, and then crumpled in relief. "I'll never understand why Beau didn't just absorb you in the womb," he sighed as Finn cackled. "We'd all be so much better off."
There was a far off rumble. "There it is!" Gabe said excitedly, as the delivery truck appeared through the trees.
"And there it goes!" I laughed as the delivery truck missed our drive and continued down the road.
"See, I told you," Finn said, acting put-out. "They don't want giant doofuses screwing with their image."
"Oh, goddammit," Gabe sighed. He pulled out his cell phone and stalked away to yell at someone else besides his brother.
Finn was laughing even harder. "I couldn't have planned that if I tried,'" he wheezed. "It just drove right past him. That was beautiful."
"You're evil."
"I'm hilarious." He wiped his eyes and they drifted over to the turn-out at the end of the driveway where my rental car was still parked. "Hey, how much longer are you going to keep that?"
I looked where he was pointing and shrugged. I'd called the rental company the day I decided to stay in Crown Creek and they'd been only too happy to extend my rental agreement indefinitely. "Hadn't really thought about it," I said.
As soon as I said it, I winced internally. Though he'd never come right out and said it, I had a pretty good idea that Finn had spent all his King Brothers' money. He was very possibly broke now. Beau had let a few comments slip that made me wonder if the twins were planning on getting a place together. On Beau's dime.
The door from the kitchen into the garage slammed shut. "You should return it, save your money," my father piped up from the top of the drive.
"How does he do that?" I muttered to Finn. "Like he knew we were talking about cars."
"He could smell it," Finn muttered back.
"If you're staying here, why do you need a rental?" my dad went on, oblivious to our joking. "It's not a wise use of funds to just have it sitting here while you fart around with your guitar."
"Then what will I do to get around?" I asked. "Walk? It's twenty degrees out here."
"Pussy," Finn muttered. I lifted my middle finger.
My father looked excited. He took off his glasses and wiped them on his shirtfront with reddened hands. I wondered if the man even felt the cold any more or if his exterior was completely impermeable. Nothing could get to him just like nothing could get through to him. "Come on, wait til you see what I have." He turned to head down to one of his zillion sheds.
I glanced at Finn who only shrugged, then pointed and silently laughed at me behind my Dad's back. I mimed needing to be saved just like we had when we were kids, and he shook his head and crossed his arms.
"It's down here," Dad called. I followed him down the sloped,
pitted lawn. Tree roots were punching their way through the hard soil and here and there the brown grass was dusted with a fine powdery layer of snow that swirled in eddies as we walked through it. The frozen grass crunched and squeaked under my boots. "You got another shed?" I asked him, looking at the new, blue painted shed in the shape of a miniature barn.
"You can never have enough sheds," my father said, sounding way more enthusiastic about sheds than anyone had a right being.
He opened the door with a flourish. Inside was a tarp covered hulk. "What's that?" I asked.
"What I wanted to show you," my Dad said. He looked at me with the kind of smile on his face that I rarely saw. I'd seen his smile of pride. I'd seen his smile of pleasure. But this was one of...
Maybe it was hope?
Something tight and unwelcome was sitting heavy in my chest. I suddenly wished for Uncle Gid to be here, to gently tease his brother about trying too hard. In the way that Gabe always teased me.
That tight unwelcome feeling grew heavier. Looking at my dad right now was like looking in a mirror and short of not recognizing yourself, it was seeing yourself for the first time and not really liking it all that much. "Okay," was all I managed to say, because I didn't want to be wipe that smile of hope off his face while at the same time that was all I wanted to do.
He gripped the tarp like a magician ready to perform his most acclaimed trick. I held my breath, ready for disappointment. Ready to smile like it was something I wanted when I was certain there was nothing my father could give me that would ever be what I wanted.
He yanked it back and I blinked.
"Ethel?" I said, but my voice cracked and I couldn't get the whole word out. I tried again. "You found Ethel?"
My dad ran his hand down the hood of my very first car. The one I had crashed, that had caused all that scandal when I was sixteen with speculation that I had been underaged drinking. When the truth was I was just trying to change the radio station. But this couldn't be Ethel. "I smashed her up. I saw the tow truck, you said she was going to the scrap lot."
My dad shrugged. "I wanted to teach you a lesson, but then I thought to myself. Hey. He's a good kid and he made a mistake. He should be allowed to be young and make mistakes. No one else allows him that, but his dad should."
The tightness in my chest was now up in my throat, preventing me from speaking. I ran my hand up the hood again. "Did you..."
"Do the body work myself? Here and there, yeah. Bud Clemson pitched in, and so did Chuck although he mostly got in the way. It got to be a nice little project we had going on there."
I didn't even think to ask if Uncle Gid had helped. I couldn't imagine my uncle doing something like this. I blinked at my dad. "Wow."
He looked away and both of us stood there for a moment. Then he sprang into action. "Let me show you how she runs. Now she's been sitting in here a while since I didn't quite know when you'd be back again, or even if you'd ever want this car..."
"No, I want this car." Memories of the few moments of normal teenaged life I'd managed to snatch here and there flooded me, stolen moments of freedom cut short by the crash. Ethel had been all of my normal teenaged rebellion condensed into one summer between tours.
Dad had that hopeful grin on his face again. "Now I haven't checked the tires yet. You're probably gonna want to change those since they've settled, especially since it's been so damn cold."
I nodded. "Sure, okay."
"Luckily you didn't crack anything vital when you landed in that ditch. Just crunched up the hood. Insurance shouldn't have totaled it." My dad shook his head. "No, it was a lesson you didn't need to learn, son. You always knew it. More than knowing consequences, you always needed to learn that you can lean on your family." He took a deep breath and his heavy hand pressed my shoulder. "You don't have to do it all yourself, you know."
Chapter Nineteen
Ruby
Sunni Tran didn't live up to her name in any sense of the word, but her Thai restaurant was the only place in Crown Creek that actually used spices in their food. Every other place acted like black pepper was too exotic a flavoring.
Sunni was always in danger of going under too, so I considered it a sacred duty to visit as often as I could.
The rest of the girls always sighed heavily when it was my week to pick the restaurant, because they knew I'd always ask for Family Thai's. But I think I was starting to win them over. Last time, Sadie actually asked for a curry instead of the pineapple fried rice.
Sunni scowled from the hostess stand as we sat down for our Saturday lunch. Since we were the only people in the place, you would think she'd act a little happier to see us, but that was part of Sunni's charm. Willa called her "Stormy Tran." But never to her face.
"How's your dad doing?" I asked Claire once we had our menus. It was the first time we'd hung out since the funeral.
"He's dealing with his grief by throwing himself into cleaning out Uncle Gid's place," Claire said.
I swallowed back the urge to tell her I already knew this. From having lunch with her brother. I wasn't sure she could handle that information.
I wasn't really sure I could handle it myself.
"Foster's gotta have a job to do," Willa agreed. "I told you about the time I came over for a study group and he inflated my bike tires and greased my chain for me?"
Claire nodded. "It's how he shows love. I've told him a bunch of times that just saying 'I love you' is a lot less strain on the back." She laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear. It was funny, but up until recently I had never noticed how much she looked like her brothers. Specifically her oldest one. Her hair was lighter, but they shared the same hazel eyes that went green depending on what they were wearing and today she was wearing a fuchsia sweater that made them look very green. Just like Jonah.
He really was a good looking guy. Too bad he was a complete dick.
Luckily Claire had no idea I was thinking these thoughts about her brother. She flicked unseeing through her menu. "The shed is almost empty. It's going to be weird not having anyone live there."
"You think you might move in?" Sadie asked. Claire had been sighing about needing her own place, especially since her brothers kept showing up unexpectedly.
Claire closed the menu. "Maybe. I'm not sure. Finn and Beau were making noises about it."
"You should have first dibs," Willa seethed in solidarity. "For once."
"You'd think that, but..." Claire trailed off and we all fell silent for a moment.
When the Kings started singing at festivals, it was always with Claire in tow. She had a bright, clear voice, a kind of piercing siren's call like Neko Case or Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine.
But when the Kings were discovered, it was by a manager with eyes on the next big boy band. In spite of her dreams of singing with her family, Claire was passed over just for being a girl.
Sexism strikes again.
"I might move out entirely," Claire went on. "It's kind of silly now. My parents and I, we're just roommates, anyway."
"Roommates who do your laundry," I grinned.
"Yeah, see now that's definitely a perk I'll miss if I move out." She twisted her napkin and lowered her voice in that way she had of making us all lean in. "I can't really see moving into the shed though, you know? That's Uncle Gid's place. And before that..."
"It's where your brothers practiced," I finished. I kept thinking about her brothers. Brother.
She nodded. "It's like I'm not allowed in there, you know?"
"Bullshit," Willa almost shouted, just in time for Sunni to come over to take our orders. We all froze like my students caught talking out of turn.
Sunni glowered and just held up her pen and pad of paper. "Green curry," she said to me, and it sounded like an accusation, especially accompanied by the stabbing of her pen.
"Yes, um, no bell peppers either," I stammered.
"Yes yes, no peppers," she sneered. "I know. Next?"
"You're so weird," Sad
ie whispered at me. "How can you not like peppers?"
"If you don't cut it out, I'll make you eat a mushroom," I whispered back.
She tried to ignore me as she argued with Sunni that no she wasn't actually having the pineapple fried rice today, she wanted the Massuman curry, but the faint greenish tinge to her face let me know my jibe had landed home. Just the idea of mushrooms was enough to make Sadie dry heave.
Willa knew better than to argue with Sunni and just let her write down 'the usual' without any idea of what she might actually receive. But Claire seemed tuned out when it came to her turn.
"What would you like?" Sunni repeated, somehow making four polite words sound like a curse.
"Did you order already?" Claire asked, looking at me.
"No bell peppers," I repeated, with a hesitant smile. "Remember? We went through this."
"Oh. Right." Claire looked at her menu again like it held some kind of answer for her. Her lips were pursed into little lines of distress.
"You liked the stir fry last time," I prompted, nodded my head as I did so. It was the same kind of encouragement I'd give to a kindergartner struggling to figure out how to hold a pencil.
"Right," Claire sighed in clear relief. "Stir fry is good."
When Sunni had stomped off I reached across the table and closed her hand in mine. "You okay there, Claire-Bear?"
"I'm fine. Just..."
"Gid?" I asked.
She looked at me and her face fell a little. "Now I feel bad. I was just going to tell you guys about what happened to Jonah."
I clamped my lips shut again and tried to look like I had no idea what she was talking about.
"He's still here?" Willa asked, sounded derisive. "I would have thought he would have blown this two-horse town by now."
"Hey, we have at least seven horses," Sadie deadpanned, sipping her overly sweet Thai iced tea and then spooning even more sweetener into it. Sadie was a sugar hound. I often accused her of being a hummingbird.
"No he hasn't," Claire sighed. "Because his manager fired him."