"Valerie come here a minute. I want to teach you something."
"Yes Papa?" She asked and walked over to where I sat at my piano.
"I have recently noticed that you have been getting extremely good at singing, I have heard you."
She smiled. "I have been practicing."
"I can tell." I smiled back to her. "Would you like me to give you lessons? I began to start tutoring your mother when she was about your age."
"Oh yes Papa! I would love to be able to sing as well as Mama did."
"Then come here and sit down and I shall teach you what I know. Now do not be disappointed if you do not learn right away, it took your mother several years."
"All right Papa, I just want to learn!"
I watched her eager face looking up at mine. She was so much like Christine in her eagerness to learn. If I had had any doubt before that she would not make an excellent singer, it was now completely washed away.
I began to teach her the basics. "Now sing these notes." I told her and I played a scale on the piano.
She sang them back perfectly.
"Very good. Now let's try something more difficult." I had her some of the warm-ups I used to have Christine sing before I gave her her lesson. Valerie seemed to have no trouble with them at all.
I looked down at her, she almost looked, disappointed. I knew this look all too well. Christine would give it to me whenever I would give her a piece of music that was well below her skill level. I remember once…
"Oh really Erik. This is insulting! A five-year old could sing this!"
"My dear Christine I highly doubt that. Now will you just sing it anyway?"
"No. It's insulting to me."
"Fine. We will do something more difficult." I said arrogantly, searching to find the most difficult piece of music I could. Having no thought in my mind that she could actually perform it.
I handed her the music. She looked at it for a few minutes and then smiled. "That's more like it."
I began to play the intro. To my surprise, Christine hit every note correctly and was able to follow the complicated dynamics and tempo of the song. I stared at her. She merely laughed.
"Maybe next time you will think higher of me."
I smiled at the memory of this. Indeed, I had never given her a piece of music beyond her skill level ever again.
"Papa?" A voice asked.
I snapped back into reality. I looked down at Valerie. She looked at me worriedly. I then realized that I had been staring at nothing for the past minute or so, living in my daydream.
"I'm sorry Valerie. I will have to continue this lesson with you later." I said softly.
She nodded and hopped off the piano bench, going out into the main room and getting back to work on a drawing she was making.
I stood up and walked up the stairs into my room. I lied down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking of past memories of Christine. Then, I wept. I wept for Valerie, for myself, but mostly, for Christine.
"Christine…" I muttered to myself. "My angel…how I miss you."
Then, something happened. Whether it was real or not, I cannot say. But I could have sworn that in that moment in my grief I saw the figure of my Christine standing by the bedside. She smiled to me and said softly.
"Do not cry for me any longer. I am happy where I am. Wherever you are, if you keep me in your heart, I shall always be with you."
I reached out to touch her hand, but as soon as I did, she vanished and I was left alone in the room once again.