Chapter 54
All was calm and quiet in the main hall of the Kingsberg community baptist church. After seeing her friends off in the morning, Rodeeia had changed into her work clothes, hopped into her SUV, and made her way down to the church to continue restoration work. Unsurprisingly, the hardworking Rodeeia was the only individual present in the building; being a gym teacher, she was fortunately relieved of school during the summer months, providing her with ample time to conduct her volunteer work.
The determined woman was currently hard at work cleaning the wooden planks of the church stage. Due to being hard at work, and as usual completely focused on her task at hand, Rodeeia failed to register the sound of the main doors of the church opening, followed by the soft click of high heeled shoes approaching from behind.
Twenty seconds was all it took for her surprise guest to come within speaking distance, at which point the highly distinct voice of Edyta filled the air.
"Guess who decided to stop by!?" asked Edyta in a long drawn out feminine manner, smiling as she performed a slight neck roll.
Rodeeia placed her cleaning supplies down on the stage, swiftly rising to her feet and turning around in a quick manner.
"Eva?" asked Rodeeia as she gazed upon the petite woman with surprise, "Is that really you?"
"In flesh!" said Edyta, "Surprised to see me?"
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't," said Rodeeia as she held her arms outward, "But before we say anything else, bring it in girl I missed ya!"
"I missed you too," said Edyta as she wrapped her arms around Rodeeia, "More than you can imagine."
Rodeeia pulled away from Edyta, gazing upon her figure with a witty expression.
"Mmhm Mmhm Mhmm," said Rodeeia, "This hot momma still got it. Fourteen years and a little one, and you still look like you did when you were eighteen. I gained a bit right after college and the rest after I had my boys, and I didn't change a thing with my lifestyle. What kind of secrets you hiding'?
"No secret," said Edyta, "Just luck and good eating I suppose."
"Baby, if that's what it is then good for you," said Rodeeia, "It's a shame you wasn't here a day earlier, you could have...seen our church choir perform, I know how much you..."
Edyta placed her finger on Rodeeia's lips silencing her.
"Mama Dae, there is no need to play up," said Edyta, "I know Tabitha was here with Katie yesterday. They bring girls see you, no?"
Rodeeia remained silent, staring at Edyta with a neutral expression as the foreign woman removed her finger from Rodeeia's lips.
"There is no doubt that you were able put two and two together," said Edyta, "She was forced to tell entire story of how things wound up the way they did, and you are afraid you may upset me by speaking about it, no?"
Rodeeia continued to remain silent, staring into Edyta's eyes in a fearful manner.
"Rest fears," said Edyta, "I admit all stories were true, but I come to you now as the woman you once knew. I have some rough patches, but I thank God to leave behind the worst of my problems. I make progress everyday, and soon I will be fit enough to see personal goal to completion...and finally be at peace."
The two women remained locked in each other gaze, each briefly displaying a neutral expression. A few moments passed, at which point Rodeeia adopted a smile, simultaneously delivering a slight nod in Edyta's direction.
Soon after, Edyta's attention was suddenly drawn to the area behind Rodeeia, her emerald green eyes honing in on the beautiful walnut case of the stage-seated Hammond B3 organ.
"My oh my," said Edyta, "Is this what I think it is?"
"I definitely know you know what that is!" said Rodeeia.
"Oh yes," said Edyta as she proceeded to make her way towards the three stairs leading up to the stage. She proceeded to climb up onto the stage, her eyes intently scanning the upper walls of the church as she made her way towards the organ.
As the petite woman approached the instrument, she turned her attention towards it's manuals, adopting a sly grin as she did so.
"Lack of pipe banks on wall, electrical switches, and big Leslie speaker cabinet tell whole story," said Edyta, "This is definitely electronic Hammond organ. Not quite as grandiose as pipe organ, but nevertheless a suitable substitute, with beautiful sound of it's own."
Edyta reached downward, gently touching the instruments wooden surface as she continued.
"Draw bars act as substitute for stops on traditional instrument," said Edyta, "Leslie speaker speed can be adjusted to imitate echo of large church hall, whilst volume pedal is used to limit current to the tone wheel, instead of adjusting flaps over pipes to silence."
As Edyta spoke, Rodeeia made her way up onto the stage. She took her place adjacent to the small woman, leaning her elbow on the organs case as Edyta continued her conversation.
"Where do you get such magnificent masterpiece?" asked Edyta.
"The church pianist found it at an auction," said Rodeeia, "It was pretty beat up and barely working. Thankfully, one of the members of the congregation is an electronics whiz, and had it whipped back into playing shape in a matter of hours."
Rodeeia paused for a moment prior to continuing.
"With Marie's help of course," said Rodeeia, "She tuned it with nothing more than her own ears, incredible."
"Is that so?" asked Edyta, adopting an expression of curiosity combined with sadness as she stared at the keyboard. After a few moments of silence, Edyta turned back towards her acquaintance.
"I try to do?" asked Edyta.
"Go for it girl!," replied Rodeeia.
At that moment, Edyta gently took a seat on the organs bench, placing her let foot on the ground and her right on it's pivoting volume pedal. Using her left hand, she pulled a few of the mechanical draw bars gracing the top of the organ to the fully forward position, at which point she brought her hand towards the lower manual.
Using her thumb, the petite woman activated the middle C key, ushering in the haunting sound of the Hammond organs imitation of a "principal organ pipe". As her thumb maintained a solid drone on middle C, she used her other fingers to dash up and down the c minor scale, turning her ear into the organ and staring forward as if she were intently listening for issues with the harmony. She continued playing for around thirty seconds, descending her thumb down to b, b flat, a, and aflat in increments, effortlessly harmonizing with the notes being played by her other fingers, finally ending with a solid c major chord.
After completing the slightly unnerving scale, Edyta proceeded to touch her right hand to the upper manual, while simultaneously bringing her left hand to the lower manual. Rodeeia's eyes lit up as the sweet sounds of a traditional church hymn in e flat filled the air, the beautiful sounds of the organs chords resonating throughout the large building. As she played, Edyta closed her eyes, seemingly becoming lost in the music as she stared towards the ceiling with a peaceful smile. Despite the complexity of the slow, yet moving piece, Edyta did not seem to miss a beat, quickly switching the draw bars to achieve different timbres throughout the course of the composition.
After around five minutes of playing, Edyta resolved the final e flat chord, slowly taking her hands of the keyboard as she reopened her eyes.
"Loud and clear," said Edyta as she stared down towards the keyboard, "Perfect."
"She did a fine job, huh?" asked Rodeeia.
"Oh yes, very fine job indeed despite never having formal teacher," said Edyta, "B and E are slightly flat, but that is easily fixed with practice and experience. I find from personal experience and speaking to others in orchestra that those with perfect pitch seem to struggle with B and E, or C# and F#. Notes have same sort of sound color that can make them hard to distinguish and to get right when tuning. Personally, I have always struggled with C#, the "creamy note"."
Edyta giggled.
"Well I gotta say, I have no idea what's going on in that head of yours when it comes to music," said Rodeeia, "But that was definitely some fine organ playing. The child prodigy herself still has it going on!"
"Thanks," said Edyta, "Hammond organ is much different than organ installed at St. Bernard's. Keys of pipe organ are diving board style, and console has five manuals and over 40 stops!"
Edyta paused, closing her eyes as she continued to speak.
"Organ was once considered bane of existence," said Edyta, "It is understandable after being forced to play all day everyday to pay bills for piece of shit guardian up until five years old. I always enjoy violin so much more, but had to play in secret for fear of being punished, that is until I was rescued..."
Edyta paused, gazing upward as she continued.
"Despite disdain for instrument, I continue to play at church for good reason," said Edyta, "My Mother was very religious woman, and enjoyed sound of organ very much, so I continue playing at new church to make her happy. Eventually, I learn to love organ as much as violin and become fan of Bach, Handel and the rest of classical repertoire. Dream was to have Hammond organ installed in house to practice when not at church, but dream quickly fell short, just like everything else in life..."
There was another slight pause, after which Edyta turned back towards Rodeeia.
"How was her playing?" asked Edyta.
"I thought she sounded great, but she doubted herself," said Rodeeia, "Our pianist said the same thing, something about not being able to get the right sound out of it or something."
Edyta giggled, turning her attention back towards the keyboard.
"There is answer to question," said Edyta, "They were trained on piano, which is much different technique than that required to play organ. Piano has damper pedal, which is used to sustain notes for effect. Pipe organ has no such thing, and we organists must rely on special techniques to achieve same harmonizing effects."
Edyta lifted her hand towards the upper manual.
"Trick to learning to play organ is to learn to hold one finger down and use others to play other notes," said Edyta, "I always call technique, 'spider fingers', but I have heard others call it 'crawling'. This is different from piano where you push note and note sustains on own with damper pedal, on this one you have to hold."
Edyta proceeded to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique with another quick ten second major scale run in the key of F, smiling as she released the final F major chord.
"Music to my ears," said Rodeeia.
At that point, Edyta rose from her seated position, approaching Rodeeia with a calm expression.
"I trust you know why I am here," said Edyta, "I have important business to attend, details of which I am sure you know."
"I have an idea," said Rodeeia, "But let me ask you this...you are going to figure out how to prevent her from getting tied up, right?"
"Absolutely," said Edyta maintaining a sly smile as she did so, "I am forever in her debt, and I am glad she made decision she did. I know what it is like to live in those conditions, and she did what she have to do to help us...both of us...the three of us."
At that moment Edyta paused, a slight tear forming in her eye as she once again stared towards the floor. Rodeeia, taking notice of Edyta's demeanor decided to interject.
"You alright Eva?" asked Rodeeia.
Edyta refused to respond, continuing to stare towards the floor as if she were in a trance. In response, Rodeeia took a few steps forward, leaning downward in an effort to make contact with the smaller woman.
"Eva!" yelled Rodeeia in a stern manner.
"Yes?" asked Edyta, seemingly being brought out of her trance.
"Are you alright?" asked Rodeeia.
"I am fine," said Eva, "Just thinking that's all."
There was another slight pause, after which Edyta decided to continue.
"Come," said Edyta as she she proceeded to walk towards the edge of the stage, "Put cleaning products away and follow me."
"Follow you?" asked Rodeeia.
"Yes, out to car," said Edyta, "I am here with old friend who has helped me so much through difficult times. I would like you to meet, and then we go to pizza store to eat lunch and catch up on old times."
As she came to the edge of the stairs, Edyta ceased moving, slowly turning towards Rodeeia with a sarcastic smile.
"You will not get away from this one," said Edyta, "I travel too far to simply leave without treating my girl to a simple meal. After all I am, how do you say...the something sista of a sista from other mister?"
At the conclusion of her statement Edyta turned back towards the stage stairs, emitting a somewhat sarcastic laugh as she proceeded to descend them. Rodeeia herself remained still , watching the tiny woman travel down the church aisle, cackling heavily as she made her way towards the entry doors.
End of Act 2
Well folks, just as with the first part we have arrived at the end of the second act. While the transition does not seem as pronounced as the last, rest assured this one actually as much more significance.
As stated before, this story is broken up into three acts. The first two were outlined months in advance, and because of this were able to be written relatively quickly. Act 3 however, is still quite underdeveloped and will require some brainstorming and planning prior to being ready for a final draft.
In the interest of continuing to provide an enjoyable story, I will require some additional time to work on this. Please do not be surprised if you do not see an update until after the holidays, it does not mean I have quit, it simply means that I am working on something good to bring this story out with a bang!
Last but not least, I want to thank you all for reading this story...I am having a blast writing it, and I hope you all enjoy reading it.
I'll see you soon, Happy Holidays, I hope all of you have a blessed season.
KiltedEngineer
