It was getting dark, I finished the piece then got up to turn the lights on. "I've got to get home" I told Mrs Beaufort as I kissed her on the check. She looked at me and smiled. "I am blessed to have you in my life. Your music warms my old soul" she said in an airy voice. "Do you need anything?" I asked her. She mumbled something that I couldn't make out but she seemed settled enough so I left.
"What's that smell?" I asked as I walk into the kitchen. "Roast" Debbie said as she chopped up some beans. "Steve bought it for us" Fi said as she put some carrots in the oven. "Wow, go Steve" Lip said as he came down the stairs. "Where is your sling?" Fi asked him. "It's been over a week, it's fine" Lip said and moved his shoulder to demonstrate his point. "Anyway, Lisa got the main part even though she is a terrible singer" Debbie said to Fiona. "That sucks, but you will still make a great tree" Fiona replied. "Carl, Lucy. What parts did you get?" Fi asked us. Carl looked up from his drawing. "Elf" Carl said. "Elf? That's better then tree" Debbie whined. "You going to wear ears and funny boots?" I said and smirked at Carl. "I'm not doing it" Carl mumbled. "Yes you are. It's what normal families do" Fiona said. "Then why are they doing it?" Lip asked as he grabbed Carls drawing. "Lip" Fi warned. Lip held up Carls drawing, it was a picture of elves and Santa getting stabbed by the reindeer's antler, Fi sighed "Carl" she warned. "Lucy whats your part?" Fi asked me, I just glared at her. "It was the main part wasn't it?" Lip said. I flipped him off. "Was it?" Fi asked sounded excited. "Maybe. But I ain't going, it's stupid" I said. "I got the main part in 2ndgrade too, I loved getting to sing in front of everyone" Fi said. "Haha, sucker" Carl said. Lip laughter too. "Come on, a bit more Christmas spirit would be nice. It's Liam's first Christmas" Fi said. I went and sat at the table. "Should do evil Santa pictures" I told Carl. He got to work and started drawing again. "Is Liam still asleep? Can someone wake him up, I don't feel like staying up all night again" Fi said. "On it" Lip said and headed upstairs. "Of course you got the main part" Debbie grumbled as she sat down at the table.
Fiona had decided to set up the tables in the dining room so we had enough room for all the food. "Wow, look at this!" Kev said as he and V came in. "You've been busy" V said to Fi and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I helped" Debbie chimed in. "Of course you did" V said.
"How are all your friends Lucy?" Steve asked me. I looked at him puzzled, why would he care? "Umm, fine" I said. "That's good, really good" he said awkwardly. "And Ian, how is ROTC going? Must get hard marching in this weather" Steve said. "Umm, yeah I suppose" Ian said, he sounds just as puzzled as I was. "Lip, how's … school?" Steve continued. "Good Steve, how's work?" Lip sarcastically said. "This is weird" Debbie said. "It's called small talk. It's what family usually do over dinner" Steve said. We sat in silence for a bit. "I noticed flasher Willy has a new trench coat on" Kev said. "That old one was becoming an issue, the huge whole was in the wrong place" Fi said. "Well that depends, for a flasher it was probably very well placed" Lip said. "Nah, willy was showing to everyone and that wasn't the type of flasher Willy was. He didn't do it to kids, he had more respect then that" V said. "He was embarrassed when it slipped out while he was walking past me and Lolly" I said. "Who knew flashers could have morals" Steve said. "Well I'm glad Willy got a new coat" Fi said. "Do you think his parents named him Willy knowing he would become a flasher?" Debbie asked. "Well it is every parents dream" Lip said. "I don't think his names actually Willy, I saw the cops take him once and they called him something else" I said. "William? Because Willy's short for William" Debbie said. "I know that, it was something completely different" I replied. "How does he keep his dick from freezing in winter?" Carl asked. "Now that's asking the important questions" Lip said. "Maybe he has a sock for it?" Kev said. "Nah I seen that things heaps of time, no sock is staying on the tiny thing" V said. "Didn't he and Mrs Tosca have a fling, she knits. Maybe she knitted him something" Fi said. "Do you think she will knit me something for my dick?" Carl asked. "You flashing people now?" Ian asked. "like there anything to flash" lip said with a smirk. Carl slapped him on the arm. "You should go ask her Carl" Debbie said. "No, please don't. We don't need to give the neighbourhood ladies something else to talk about" Fi said. "Did you make dessert too?" I asked Fi. "Butterscotch dumplings" Fi said. "Wow, you really did go all out!" V said then leaned in close to Fi. "Trying to impress Steve?" She whispered. Fiona shushed her. "It was an amazing roast Fi, didn't know you could cook so well" Kev said. "Thank you" Fi said. "Yes, well done Fiona" Lip added. "A toast, to Fiona!" Steve said and raised his glass. I grabbed my cup of soda and joined in, I made sure I clinked drinks with everyone else at the table.
V and Kev quickly left when Debbie brought out the lyrics to the songs her class was singing at the Christmas concert. Fiona, Steve and Lip ducked outside for a bit and came back in smelling like pot. "Ok Debbie you can practice you're singing" Fiona said. "Carl and Lucy can join in to" she added with a smile. "I need to do it alone" Debbie insisted. Carl crawled over to me "we need to figure out a way to tell each other how shit the concert is" he said. "How about we just say 'this is shit'?" I suggested. He slapped my knee "no, when we are on stage" he said. "We could give the finger?" "That won't work, tried it. You'll just get kicked off and in trouble" lip said from behind me. "Could still be worth it" I said. "I had to publicly apologise at the end of the concert" he said. "Ok not worth it". "What ever you do it can't be obvious" lip said and leaned back into the couch and sipped his beer. Carl and I sat there thinking and going through various signs with our hands. "How about …" Carl said and stuck a finger in his mouth "like, this sucks" he added. "Probably to obvious" I said. I looked at my hands for a bit. "What about this?" I said and mad a fist then pointed to the end of it "it looks like an arsehole". Carl copied. "It kind of does" he said with a grin. "No one will realise, let's test it out. Stand up next to Debbie and do it" I told him. He got up and did it. Debbie elbowed him. "Carl, what are you doing?" Fiona asked him. "Nothing" he said and waved his fist around a bit. Fi stared at him. "Sit down Debbie, carls turn to sing" Fiona said and laughed, Lip and Steve joined in.
—
"Morning Mrs. Beaufort!" I said just like I had a hundred times before but as soon as I stepped inside I felt that something was different. There was a weird smell in the air and not a noise, Mrs Beauforts normal rough voice didn't reply to my hello. I could see her arm hanging down the side of her armchair. I walked over to her side, she didn't move. As I moved to the front of the chair I realised why, she was dead. Her face was missing, blood, bone and other red and goopy stuff replaced it. She was dead. I ran.
I ran through my backyard and inside, there were people at the dining table but I didn't care about them. I needed Fiona, I ran into her back and wrapped my arms around her. I hadn't realised I was crying. "Lucy?" Fear and concern etched into Fiona's voice. She pulled me away from her and knelt down. "What's wrong? What happened?" she asked as she cradled my head in her hands. "She's dead" I sobbed. "Lucy, who? Who's dead?" she asked. "My piano teacher" "What? You take piano" Ian asked. Lip pushed Ian and bent down next to me. "Lucy where is she?" he asked. I gave him Mrs Beaufort's address and grabbed Fi again. She picked me up and sat me on the couch then wrapped her arms around me.
Ian eventually came running back inside. "She's dead. It's … umm… not pretty. Lips called the police" "The police? what's going on?" Fi asked. Ian shook his head, she got up and they talked in the kitchen.
The police come by later in the morning and asked a bunch of questions. I ended up falling asleep in Fi's bed afterwards. I went downstairs, "feeling better?" Fiona asked as I sat next to her on the couch. I nodded, I didn't really feel better though. "So, you play the piano?" Lip asked from the chair. "Yeah" I replied "you goin to play for us?" Fi asked. "We don't have a piano" I said. "There she is" said Ian with a smirk. "We will find you one" said Fi.
That night Debbie and Carl burst into the lounge room with big grins on their faces. "We found one" Carl said. "The Alibi has a piano" Debbie added "Really? How did I not know that?" Fi said. Next thing I knew I was sitting on a chair in front on a dinted old piano in a room full of drunks. I ran my hands over the keys to make sure each worked. "Is that it?" Debbie quipped. I rolled my eyes at her. "You going to play? Everyone is waiting" Fiona said. I wasn't nervous, I knew how to play it was just sad, the only person I had ever played in front of was Mrs. Beaufort. Once the music started I was lost and it didn't matter what was going on around me. It quietened everyone. Once I finished everyone just kept on staring. Fiona had tears in her eyes while Lips mouth hang open, the rest were just as shocked. "Omg Lucy! That was fucking amazing. Super posh but so amazing!" Kev broke the silence and a round of applause followed. "You really can play" said Lip. "Play us something else?" Fi asked.
Another round of applause and another request for more. "Any songs we might actually know?" V asked. I smile and nodded. I had been working on ear training and turning other music into piano music, Mrs Beaufort had loved it when I did it for her. People started to sing along and someone touched my shoulder. After that I was done. People come over to say how wonderful I was. "I had a good teacher" I whispered. 'To Mrs Beaufort!" Kev toasted. Everyone joined him.
"I hate these kinds of talks" I said as I sat on the coffee table. Everyone else was sitting around me. "Why didn't you tell us you were taking music lessons?" Fi asked "Mrs Beaufort hates … hated … Frank and said I couldn't let him know" I replied. "So? You could have told us" Ian said, "no, Debbie would have told Frank" "I wouldn't have" Debbie said. "yes, you would have" "you would have" Carl added. "Why didn't you tell me?" Fi asked "I don't know, it didn't seem like a big deal. I was just hanging out with an old lady playing music" I mumbled. "How did you meet her?" Fi asked. "Headstart teacher that used to babysit me, she said I was good at playing with the musical instruments and took me to see her aunt" "mrs Beaufort?' Fi asked, I nodded. "How old were you?" Lip asked. "4 maybe but I didn't go by myself until school started" "and Mrs Beaufort just taught you out of the goodness of her own heart?" Debbie said. "I kept her company and got her a few things" "like what?" Ian asked "food, cigarettes, booze, the important stuff." "And she just taught you music? Nothing else?" Fi asked "yeah, she was nice" "Lucy you are really, really good. Did she say anything about that?" Lip asked "I don't know, she said she like listening to me play. But I just play, I don't really try that hard or anything" I shrugged. "yeah, that's kinda what makes it special. Kind of like how I am with school. I just learn things really easily" Lip said "I'm not good at school" "you're good at the piano though, did Mrs Beaufort ever say why?" Lip asked "I don't know, ummm, I have perfect pitch." "do you know what that means?" I nodded "I know when notes are in tune and can name them just by listening to them. And I can make my voice match the notes too" "you can sing really good" Carl said. "Did she say anything else?" Lip asked "that I keep good rhythm and count and that I have a good ear. And a good memory. I don't know, it just makes sense to me. I hear something and I can see how to play it. Or I see the notes written down and I can hear how it will sound. It just happens" "Lucy, do you want to take more lessons?" Fi asked "yes but they aren't normally free" "we can ask, you're pretty special Lucy maybe someone will teach you for free" Lip said "or there might be a scholarship program or something" he added. "Piano lessons? We don't have a piano though." "we might be able to find one" Ian said. "I've been learning violin with the school music teacher too" "what? Really, why didn't you tell us about that one?" Fi said. "That's for nerds" Carl said. "I only do it after school or instead of detention, and we will never have a violin so it doesn't even matter" "you get to do music instead of detention? That's so not fair!" Debbie said. "Anything else you want to tell us?" Ian asked. "No, I didn't realise it was special. I just like playing music. I didn't think anyone would want to know" "oh Lucy, why wouldn't we want to know? How many hours a week do you spend playing music?" Fi asked "like 10 or 15 maybe" "you love it?" I nodded. "Then I want to know about it. We share the things we love and our life with each other. That's what families do." "Even with completely dorky stuff like playing the piano" Debbie said. "Better then obsessing over Harry Potter" I said "or any other stupid book" Carl added "at least I can read" Debbie said "I can read" Carl said "are you sure?" I asked him. "I'm not the one into stupid music" Carl said "wait until I play well enough to busk, I'll rake it in" "with the piano?" Debbie asked "no violin or maybe guitar, I bet I could learn how to play anything" "maybe you should come a singer, you're pretty. You'll make millions" Carl said "I don't like singing that much" "it's the only way to make money in music" Debbie said "as if you know" I told her.