THE LEGACY OF TERABITHIA

THE LEGACY OF TERABITHIA

by

Wordsmith

Chapter 3: Jamie Byrne

The air conditioning was like a cold blast of heaven. Jamie closed the door behind them, then kicked off his shoes. Leslie kicked hers off, too. She knew that some people liked to leave their shoes at the door so they wouldn't track in dirt. They liked their guests to do the same, and Leslie didn't want to offend Jamie or his family.

"I'm home!" Jamie announced. Then to Leslie, he said, "Follow me."

She followed him up the stairs and into the kitchen. It was bigger than her grandparents' kitchen, with a bright, sparkling white linoleum floor. There was a counter with a marble top and two tall stools next to it. The cabinets looked like they had been polished. The fine grain wood gleamed. The Byrnes had a dishwasher and their refrigerator was not only bigger than her grandparents', it also had water and crushed ice dispensers. Instead of a wall oven, they had a fancy electric range with a flat stovetop. There was a microwave oven above the stove and a big electric oven below it.

It was almost as nice as the kitchen in Leslie's house in Washington.

Jamie opened the refrigerator and took out a glass pitcher. It was filled with iced tea. Several lemon slices floated on the top. He set the pitcher on the counter, then got out two tall glasses from a cabinet. He filled them both and handed one to Leslie.

She took a good swig. "Ahhh! Oh, that's good!"

Jamie smiled and took a swig of his own. Then he rubbed the glass across his sweaty forehead.

"Jamie, did you – oh, hello there," a voice said.

Leslie turned to face the speaker. It was a woman. She looked surprised – and delighted.

"Hi, Mom," said Jamie.

"And who's this lovely young lady?" his mother asked.

"This is Leslie. Leslie, this is my mom."

"Hi."

"Hello, I'm Mrs. Byrne," she said. Then to Jamie: "Oh, Jamie, look at you – you're all sweaty and scruffy. That's no way to impress a girl, honey."

Leslie snickered. Jamie blushed three shades of red. "Mom, she's not my girlfriend – I just met her!"

"And I'm sweaty and scruffy too," Leslie added. She winked at Jamie.

"I was gonna show her my room," Jamie explained.

"Oh, all right then. Have fun!"

The front door burst open. A man and an older boy in a baseball uniform came in. They were smiling and talking loudly.

"You see?" said the man as they bounded up the stairs. "Just put a little more pressure on top of the ball with the tip of your middle finger, and you can crack a bat in half with that cutter!"

"How did my slider look?"

"Beautiful! The batter thinks you're throwing a strike, but by the time he swings, the ball's shining his shoes!"

The man kicked off his shoes. The boy took off his cleats and hoisted them over his shoulder by the laces. Then they both went up the stairs.

"That's my dad and my brother, Zack," Jamie said to Leslie. He pronounced his brother's name with an accent of disgust. Zack looked like Jamie, but he was several years older. He had the same blue eyes and the same mouth, but his jaw was square and chiseled. When he took his cap off, Leslie saw that Zack had a really gross crew cut. The top of his head looked like a chestnut brown tennis ball.

"Hey, Liberace," Zack said to Jamie. "Shouldn't you be tickling the ivories?"

"Shouldn't you be at baseball camp?"

"I came home for lunch." He went to the refrigerator.

"What a great way to spend my day off! You should have seen him," Jamie's dad said to his mom. "He's gonna pitch another no-hitter, I can feel it. And, there's some talk about college recruiters coming to a couple of the home games in the fall. Wait till they see Zack! Then after college, the majors!"

Mr. Byrne looked at Leslie and said, "Who's this?"

"This is Leslie," Mrs. Byrne said. "Jamie's friend."

"Well, how about that? I was wondering when you'd get around to bringing home a girl!"

"Don't get excited Dad," Zack said, chugging an iced tea. "They're just gonna play with her Barbies and do each other's hair."

Jamie's anger rocketed to the surface. "Shut up, Zackass!"

"Jamie!" his mother barked. "How many times have I told you not to call your brother that?"

"Yeah, yeah. C'mon, Leslie. I'll show you my room."

They put their empty glasses in the sink. Leslie followed Jamie him out of the kitchen and down the hall, where he pointed out the rooms. "That's my parents' room, that's the master bathroom, that's Zack's room, and this one's mine."

Jamie's room was bigger than Leslie's room at her grandparents' house, but somewhat smaller than her room back in Washington. The second thing Leslie noticed is that the room was kept scrupulously neat, which was good, because Jamie had a lot of stuff. In addition to his bed, there was a nightstand, a dresser with four drawers and a stereo on top, and a computer desk with a desktop PC and wide screen monitor. What really caught her eye was the full-sized, professional-looking electronic keyboard in a corner of the room. It was kept on a stand with wheels on its feet. There was a chair by the keyboard, and sheet music was propped up on the instrument's built-in music stand.

"Oh, cool! Do you play?" Leslie asked. She took off her Nationals cap and tossed it onto Jamie's bed. Then she pulled off her hair scrunchy and stuffed it into her pocket. She shook her hair out and smoothed it down.

"Yeah, I've been playing since…" Jamie said, and his words trailed off. He gave her a funny look.

"What?"

"You're cute." He smiled impishly and Leslie felt herself blush. He quickly changed the subject. "I've been playing since I was five," he continued. "But then, I had just a small keyboard, only twenty keys. It was basically a toy, and it came with an instruction book that taught you how to play songs by matching the color codes in the book with the ones on the keys. When I was six, I asked if I could take piano lessons, and my parents said yes, so I went to the music store in Millsburg and got to play on a real piano. A year later, I got this beauty for Christmas. It's full-sized keyboard – it's got all 88 keys. It's also got all kinds of effects and programmable drumbeats and stuff."

"That is so awesome."

"Yeah, I can even digitally record myself playing or connect the keyboard to my computer with a USB cable. The keyboard came with MIDI software, but it's very basic. The real professional MIDI software is much more complicated – and really expensive. What I've got is fine, really. I'm not exactly a professional musician. At least, not yet."

"So you can read music?"

"Yup. I can play by ear, too."

"What does that mean?"

"If I listen to a song often enough, I can pick out the chords and the melody on my keyboard. I can learn to play the song without having the sheet music in front of me."

"Cool!"

"You want me to play you a song?"

"Yeah! If it's not too much trouble…"

Jamie took the chair from his computer desk and set it up next to the keyboard for Leslie. Then he sat down and turned it on.

"Okay… um… I know! I'll play you this song called Bike by Pink Floyd. You'll like it. It's kind of a funny song."

"Pink Floyd? Does he wear pink when he sings?"

"No. Pink Floyd is the name of a band. Their first album came out 40 years ago and they were around for like 30 years after that. The original members were Roger Waters, Syd Barrett, David Gilmour, Nick Wilson, and Richard Wright. Syd Barrett left the band early on. They say he went crazy. He was a like a demented genius or something. He wrote Bike, the song I'm going to play. Pink Floyd is one of my Uncle Steve's favorite bands. He burned me a CD with all their albums in MP3. I learned how to play this song by ear. You ready?"

"Sure!"

Jamie pressed a button and the programmable electronic drums set the beat. After a few beats, Jamie started playing. He played the chords with his left hand and the melody with his right. It was a cheerful, upbeat melody. He began to sing:

"I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like
it's got a basket, a bell that rings,
and things to make it look good
I'd give it to you if I could,
but I borrowed it

You're the kind of girl
that fits in with my world
I'll give you anything
everything, if you want things

I've got a cloak, it's a bit of a joke
there's a tear up the front
it's red and black, I've had it for months
If you think it could look good
then I guess it should

You're the kind of girl
that fits in with my world
I'll give you anything
everything, if you want things

I know a mouse
and he hasn't got a house
I don't know why, I call him Gerald
He's getting rather old,
but he's a good mouse

You're the kind of girl
that fits in with my world
I'll give you anything
everything, if you want things

I've got a clan of gingerbread men
Here a man, there a man,
lots of gingerbread men
Take a couple if you wish -
they're on the dish

You're the kind of girl
that fits in with my world
I'll give you anything
everything, if you want things

I know a room of musical tunes
some rhyme, some ching
most of them are clockwork
Let's go into the other room
and make them work."

Leslie clapped her hands. "That was great!"

"Thank you, you're a beautiful audience."

"Can I try?"

"Sure."

Leslie ran her fingers over the keys. Then she tapped out the melody of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

"Not bad," Jamie said. "Not bad at all!"

"I had a toy keyboard, too, but I never took lessons or anything."

"I bet your dad would let you. I bet he wouldn't think… ah, forget it."

Jamie looked dejected. He turned off the keyboard, went over to his bed, and plopped down on it. He moved over so Leslie could lie down next to him. Then he sighed and stared up at the ceiling.

"What's wrong?" Leslie asked.

"I miss my piano lessons."

"You don't take them anymore? Why not?"

"Last year, Dad called a family meeting and said that money was getting tight and he couldn't afford both my piano lessons and Zack's baseball camp anymore. He said the money he had to spend would be better spent on baseball camp, so I had to give up my lessons."

"That's not fair!" Leslie couldn't believe what she was hearing! How could Jamie's own father do that to him? It was just as unfair as… what my parents are doing to me, she thought. She looked at Jamie. He smiled, but there was sadness in his eyes.

"No, it's not fair," he continued. "I was so mad…"

"What about your mom? Didn't she have anything to say about it?"

"Mom's only interested in keeping the peace. She said maybe in a few years, after Zack goes to college on a baseball scholarship, I can have piano lessons again."

"It's still not fair."

"I know. Sometimes, life isn't fair. Look what happened to Leslie Burke. That had to be the most unfair thing in the world. When you think about it, I'm pretty lucky. I've still got my keyboard, and Uncle Steve's been giving me some lessons, mostly in reading music and understanding how it works. Time signatures, scales, keys - that kind of stuff. Too bad he's a guitarist, not a keyboard player. But he's a great guitarist! You know, he got really mad when he found out I had to quit my lessons. He tried to talk to Dad about it, but…"

Jamie's mother barged into the room, startling Leslie so that she almost fell off the bed.

"I thought it had gotten too quiet in here! Jamie, it's time to eat. Leslie, would you like to stay for lunch?"

"Thanks, but I should go. My grandma's probably got lunch on the table by now. See, I'm staying with my grandparents for a while."

"She's from Washington," Jamie added.

"Oh, I bet that's an exciting city! Say, who are your grandparents? Maybe we know them. Lark Creek is a small town."

Leslie and Jamie exchanged a look. She had painted herself into a corner and he couldn't save her. "Their name is Aarons," Leslie said. "That's my name, too. Leslie Aarons."

Mrs. Byrne's jaw dropped. "Aarons? My lord, are you Jess Aarons' daughter?"

Leslie nodded yes.

Mrs. Byrne turned and ran down the hall. "John! John!" Jamie followed her. Leslie grabbed her Nationals cap, put it on, and followed them both.

Mr. Byrne and Zack were sitting at the dining room table.

"What? What is it?"

"We have a celebrity in our home! Leslie is Jess Aarons' daughter!"

"The writer?"

"No way!" Zack interjected.

Leslie exchanged stares with the Byrnes and their teenage son.

"C'mon Leslie, I'll walk you home," Jamie said.

"You're a Nationals fan?" Zack asked. "I should give you my autograph. I'll be playing for them after college. I'll be going to college on a baseball scholarship."

Jamie snickered. "Unless you hurt that arm. Then the only college you'll be going to is Hamburger University."

"Don't say that, it's bad luck!" Mr. Byrne yelled. "What the hell's the matter with you?"

"Jamie, that was uncalled for!" his mother scolded. "What do you say to your brother?"

Jamie ignored her and took off down the stairs. Leslie followed him. They put their shoes on. When he opened the door, his mother yelled, "Get back here! I'm not finished with you, young man!" He slammed the door on her.

"But I'm finished with you," he muttered. "Sorry about that, Leslie."

"It's okay. Thanks for walking me home. I was kind of afraid I might get lost. It's a long walk."

"I'd never let you get lost," Jamie said. His warm smile returned.

They were well into the woods when Leslie asked him, "Jamie, do you really hate your brother?"

"Nah. I just don't like him much."

"But he's your brother."

"I know."

"Is it because you had to quit your piano lessons?"

"No. It's a long story. See, most brothers are close. They're buddies. Not Zack and me. We were never close. We were never buddies."

"Why not?"

"Well, Zack is six years older than me. That's a big difference. When I was little, Mom made Zack take me with him almost everywhere he went. He didn't want his baby brother tagging along, and I didn't want to tag along because I thought Zack and his friends were a bunch of jerks. I guess that's when we started disliking each other. When Zack played little league baseball, he was almost as good a pitcher as he is now. When I got old enough, Dad made me play little league baseball, and I hated it. I stunk at it, too. Dad thought he could make me into another Zack, but I'm no athlete. He finally gave up on the idea. I could tell he was disappointed in me."

"So he gives Zack all the attention."

"And all the breaks. I get straight A's in school, and all Dad says is 'Good for you, son.' Zack gets C's and Dad says nothing. If I ever got a C, he'd be all over me. He'd say, 'You got a C? What the hell is wrong with you? You can do better than that!'"

"I thought athletes had to get good grades, or else they couldn't play."

"Athletes have to maintain at least a straight B average to play. That's what it says in Zack's high school student handbook, and that's what the school would like people to believe. But when you're a star player and the team is winning a lot of games because of you, they're willing to bend the rules and let you play, even if you're a C student like Zack."

"Really? No wonder you don't like your brother."

"Dad and Uncle Steve are brothers, and I don't think they like each other much. When I told Uncle Steve how Dad fawns over Zack, he told me that Dad always wanted to be a baseball player, but he wasn't much good at it. He was almost as bad as me. Uncle Steve said the only position Dad could play on his little league team was benchwarmer. So he's living out his childhood dream through Zack."

"But what about his other son?"

"Oh, fear not, milady, for he has a stout heart. Now, let us move on to a lighter discourse. Look! Before us is the tree stump where first we met!"

"Oh yeah!" Leslie beamed. She looked at the stump, then up at the tree branch where Jamie had been sitting when they met.

"You have still not told me what gave thee cause to weep."

"Maybe I will, but not now. I have to get home."

They kept walking. When they reached the path that led to Terabithia, Jamie looked at it, but said nothing. Leslie was glad. She thought he might try to talk her into going there, but he didn't.

Jamie walked Leslie right to the door of her grandparents' house.

"On my honor, I have escorted thee home, fair maiden!"

"Thank you, good knight… um… do you think we could do something tomorrow?"

"Sure! Call me – my number is 555-6381."

"555-6381. Thanks."

"Until next we meet, milady!" Jamie said. Then he took off running.

"Until next we meet, my knight," said Leslie. She smiled to herself.