their own version of applause and it rolled like thunder in the room around us.
My gaze flicked to Kim. Her face was lit up with a huge grin and her eyes glistened. She wore her heart on her sleeve. Emotions shone out of her like sunshine even when she tried to diminish herself. She wasn’t looking at me; instead, she examined the group that hovered behind me. Did she remember mentioning her friend Suzie and her fiancé who ran this organization? It was an offhand comment made in one of the many conversations we’d shared these past weeks. Would she notice how closely I hung on to every word she said? Would it give away too much, too soon?
Turning back to the students, I said, “Feel free to walk around and ask any questions you like. Maybe some of you will be lucky enough to try an instrument.”
Before I finished, several had already made their way to the musicians. The drums were the most crowded, ever the crowd-pleaser, but almost all the musicians were soon matched to a student.
I paced the room like a surveyor. Small talk had never come naturally, but I fielded a few questions. I didn’t love to do it, but it had its place. It felt like a few of the performers looked at me with something more than fear or resentment. Something like begrudging respect at worst, and maybe just a few of them saw me in a new light at best. Kim had been right.
A gaggle of young girls surrounded me, each of them twisting a foot or twirling their hair while they batted their eyelashes. I was familiar with this, at least.
“Why do you wear a mask?” one asked bluntly. Her head was shaved all the way around the bottom and the top was a bright purple color.
“Insider secrets,” I answered, and they all giggled.
When I glanced up, Kim was talking to a young girl with long, thin braids, who hesitantly plucked at Kim’s strings. Even Carla seemed to be enjoying showing off to a kid with several facial piercings. The gaggle moved on to try their luck with a stand-up bassist.
“Devlin?” the voice came from my side.
“Clifford?” I asked.
“You can call me Ford.” The man I had only spoken to on the phone extended his hand.
“How are you?” I asked as we shook.
“I’m great. That was fantastic. I had chills. Thank you again for having us.”
“I’d love to say my motives were purely altruistic, but the SOOK needed this more than I would have thought.”
We both took in the scene around us.
“That’s the great thing about doing good. Everybody wins. Happiness only gets stronger the more it’s given out.”
“Truer words,” I said.
I studied the man at my side. He looked a bit like a stuffed shirt. I wouldn’t have expected him to be with a woman like Suzie Samuels. Their pairing was like a sleek black panther hooking up with Garfield the cat. But you never knew with love. There was no logic.
“How do you know Suzie?” he asked.
“I don’t actually. Not well. Her friend Kim from the SWS mentioned you.”
I wasn’t sure if Kim was hiding who she was, or who knew her only as Christine. When we looked to her, she waved with a happy smile at Ford. He smiled and waved back. So maybe she wasn’t concerned about it. Then again, she’d probably smile like that at just about anybody she deemed worthy.
She smiled at me like that sometimes.
Ford said, “I’ve only met Kim a few times, but I’m glad you thought of us. These kids seem excited. I wouldn’t have thought playing music would be so physical, but after that, I can see I was wrong.”
“Music is a powerful thing. Maybe for the kids who seem interested, we could arrange some private lessons or instrument rentals. It can be an expensive hobby, but maybe the SOOK can work something out.”
Ford’s eyes lit up. “That would be fantastic. Suzie mentioned that Kim does private lessons for free. I wasn’t sure how common that was.”
I kept my face impassive to hide this startling new information. “Most charge an hourly rate. But there might be a way around that,” I said.
“These kids are judged harshly sometimes.” Ford spoke with quiet intensity. “But they have just as much to offer as anybody else given the opportunity.”
“We all need someone to believe in us,” I said. My eyes flicked to Kim and back again. “The SOOK is striving to be a bigger part