“To us,” Kate said as she ran into the house to get Sara. But she was coming in the back, her camera around her neck.
“You heard it?” Sara asked.
“Like a beacon from a lighthouse. Let’s go!”
They went around the side to enter the chapel. Sara nodded at the hinges, and Kate knew what she meant. The marks they’d made earlier were now concealed.
As they had discovered earlier, the acoustics in the building were extraordinary. The piano and Jack’s beautiful voice filled the pretty chapel. The sound hit the ceiling, spread out, then flowed down the walls. As Kate and Sara sat down, they were engulfed with the music.
Sitting at the piano was a short, chubby, man, plain faced. He was someone you could see one minute but forget in the next. But they knew this had to be Byon, and his talent made up for his lack of looks.
Jack had his back to them and he was singing a lively song about some girl he’d met. Kate had never heard it before. She’d always marveled at his ability to remember the words to songs.
When she’d told him that, he’d looked at her in disbelief. “The music tells you the words.”
“But what if there’s no music being played?”
“There’s always music,” he said. “It’s inside my head.”
Jack didn’t see them, but Byon did. Abruptly, he stopped playing. “How about this instead?” He played a few notes of a melody.
“You’d kill me on that one. Too many high notes. Too many—”
As Byon began to play, the music drowned out Jack’s protests. When he got to the part where Jack was to come in, he did.
It was a song about lost love, and even Kate could tell that it took great vocal ability. And emotion. According to the lyrics, the woman he loved had died and the song showed his grief.
Sara and Kate knew where the grief in Jack’s voice came from. He’d had a hard time in his life and he put it into his voice. Only minutes into the song, Kate had tears running down her face. Sara was silently taking photos of Jack and Byon.
On the second verse, Nadine slipped in beside Sara. Minutes later, Clive sat down beside Kate.
When Jack’s voice perfectly reached those high notes, the four of them in the audience were in awed silence. At the end, he still had his back to them. “I missed that one note and—” he began.
Behind him, the four rose to their feet and began applauding. The building multiplied the sound until it was a roar.
Startled, Jack turned around. His face was red but he was pleased.
When a fifth person added to the applause, they all turned to look. Mrs. Aiken was at the back of the chapel, a big basket at her feet.
Still clapping, Nadine said, “Byon wrote that when Nicky died. Mrs. Aiken—”
“I know,” Sara said. “She loved Nicky.”
“Worshipped him,” Clive said, then he whistled and yelled, “Author! Author!”
Byon got up, took a bow, then held his arm out to Jack.
Jack’s face reddened more but they could all see that he was happy. It was a lifelong dream to him.
Finally, they stopped clapping and Jack came down to them. “I wasn’t sure about some of the notes. I...” He shrugged.
Kate didn’t say anything, just stood on tiptoe and whispered, “It was perfect.”
Jack nodded in thanks.
“You were wonderful,” Sara said and kissed his cheeks.
When Nadine also kissed him, the others looked on in surprise. Jack and Nadine obviously knew each other.