Chapter 138

“If you want to find the real competition, just look in the mirror. After a while you’ll see your rivals scrambling for second place.”
—Criss Jami, Killosophy

23 FEBRUARY 2021

I believe the flute is the most sublime instrument in the orchestral family. When Cindy plays, the world goes away. It makes no difference if it is ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ or ‘The Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,’ Piazzolla or Mozart. There is something so primal about the sound, it reaches into my soul and whispers, ‘Don’t be afraid. I’ll whistle in the dark for you.’

I think there are a lot of people who agree with me. We had fifteen people in LeBlanc’s little music room and over eight hundred watching us stream live. On a Monday night! Those eight hundred subscribing to our Patreon page at five dollars a pop represent $4,000 for that performance.

We answered questions from the audience for fifteen minutes and Mr. LeBlanc gave us two questions from the streaming audience. When we finished, Cindy and I spent another half hour trying to extract ourselves from the well-wishers so we could go home and collapse. I walked her to her door and gave her a hug before she went in. I declined the invitation to ‘come in and sit for a while’ that her dad issued from just inside.

There are days when I need my own bed and the comfort of silence while the music continues to echo in my ears. Last night, I needed the solace of solitude and I received it with joy.

We’d become minor rock stars at school. I passed a couple in the hall with cute T-shirts. Hers said, ‘He’s my boyfriend.’ His said, ‘She has a pretty low bar for success.’ I wondered which of them had ordered the shirts. Oddly, not that many people recognized us. I figured most had just seen the meme and didn’t even know where it came from. On the other hand, most of the orchestra had subscribed to our Patreon page and applauded when we walked into the rehearsal room.

“Second chair strings,” LeBlanc said when we were all in the room. “Please come to the seats in front of the class.” The violin, viola, cello, and double bass players all brought their instruments and sat in the chairs facing the rest of the musicians. “I try to get pieces that feature talented musicians in our spring preview concert,” LeBlanc continued, “but unfortunately there is only so much time and we have eighty talented musicians in the room. I’m going to try something to give a few more people exposure. We’ve worked on the Mozart Concerto in C major for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra as a way of hearing a full orchestra with the guitar and flute soloists. I’d like to try showcasing our second chair strings with Jacob and Cynthia. If you two could join us, please, we’ll take the third movement, which has very nice string support for the soloists. Let’s see how this works and find out if the six of you would like to work together on this six-minute movement.” We got our music together and greeted the string players. Then we watched LeBlanc to set the rhythm and conduct us. It wasn’t bad.

When we’d played through the piece, Cindy and I shook hands with each of the other players.

“If you’ll put some time into rehearsing this on your own, I believe we have a good addition to our program and it will clear some time for other features during the concert,” LeBlanc said. We all quickly agreed. I didn’t feel the guitar was completely overwhelmed by the weight of the orchestra behind me.

“Pre-orders for the track have been pouring in, according to Joan,” Beca said when we sat down for lunch.

“When did you talk to Joan?” I asked.

“This morning before school. She watched the stream last night and monitored the site on and off all night,” Beca said. “She made an executive decision as well. New Patrons joining before the end of the month receive access to the raw recording from last night immediately. We aren’t releasing it on YouTube for two more weeks, so it gives people an incentive to join up right away. She says it’s working and new patronage has only slowed slightly. We should start seeing hits on our new T-shirt in the next day. The company has the designs and it’s just a case of getting the orders in so they can print them and ship.”

“Wow! She managed to get all that done before going to work? She’s amazing!” Cindy said.

“Well, she’s in a different time zone, so she still had time to get to work. But you’re absolutely right. She’s amazing!” Beca agreed. After Sunday night, I had to agree.

“What’s the arrangement for the tournament this weekend?” Desi asked. “We aren’t going to have our plans interrupted by silly popular demand again, are we?”

“Absolutely not!” I said. “I want to see this sweet basketball maven work her miracles. I can drive or not if we want to work out other arrangements.”

“I’ve got our tickets,” Rachel said. “This time we let the parents and pod two figure their own way to the game.”

“Donna said she’d drive and her Volvo will take five comfortably. Your truck is the only thing that will seat six, though,” Brittany said.

“Wait, we don’t need eleven spaces. Livy will be on the team bus. So, I can have five in my car. That’s all ten of us unless we really want to take three vehicles.”

“I’m all for having a cuddle in the back seat,” Desi said. “Let’s do it!”

“We need to decide if we’re spending the night. The game won’t be over until nine-thirty or ten.”

“I can’t leave the team bus. We’ll be driving back Saturday night,” Livy said.

“Then let’s plan to follow the bus back in the caravan,” Rachel said. “Drivers will just have to get a nap in during the afternoon.”

It was good to get excited about Livy’s game and take a break from the excitement of the music.

And music was really occupying a huge chunk of our time. We still had the open request to play at the church for Easter Sunrise service. I talked to Emily and she said part of the compensation for being called home during vacation was that members of the corps were given a travel voucher so she could come back home the week we were on spring break. Beca checked with Joan and she had her second week of vacation as well. It looked like we would all be in town for spring break. Nanette and Sophie put in for a week’s vacation at the same time. It would be important for us to all be together and just hold our pod in our arms.

It was the last vacation Em would get before she was discharged in July. By then Joan would have only a year left but Rachel and Livy would be ready to leave. These times when we could all be together were becoming even more rare.

The sand was crumbling in on me. I screamed. Em reached for my hand but it was too late to pull me out. The sand had already enclosed my legs and I couldn’t move them. Em screamed. I held my breath as the sand closed in over my head. I tried to let go of her hand but she kept her grip—my one last touch with life. I tried to call out again, wasting what little breath I had left. There was none to take in. I felt myself pee into the wet sand around my waist as my lungs filled with nothing.

I hadn’t had a nightmare in months. Not like this. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. Baa-dum baa-dum baa-dum baa-dum. It was still terrifying. I still panicked. But this time I recognized it for what it was—not a nightmare but a living memory surfacing because something in my life triggered the response. I knew how it turned out. That hand clasped in mine would lead the rescuers to me. I would revive from my sandy grave. I would live. I wouldn’t let go.

I struggled up out of the depths of sleep, willing away the visions of my first death experience. I felt ... sorry for V2 and offered up a prayer for his eternal rest while I occupied his body.

I was awake, but the pressure hadn’t let up. I turned my head and got a nose full of hair. Long. Black. Brittany. She lay sprawled on my left shoulder holding me down. On my right, Nanette occupied a similar position. Two girls using me as a pillow. I could breathe now. I looked down and saw Sophie’s head on my stomach where she pillowed it while lying between and partially on my immobile legs. Three girls. If only V2 had known what he could wake up to.

We’d gone easy on the Friday night date last night. Rachel was taking care of Livy and was in charge of getting our tall girlfriend to the team bus in time for the trip to Indianapolis. Then she’d rejoin the rest of us at Donna’s house to split between two cars and head south ourselves. The weather was cooperating for a change and now the only snow on the ground were the drifts where plows had piled it.

Now that I was conscious of what the pressure was on my body, it wasn’t so bad at all. Three beautiful naked girls draped over my naked body. I could feel my cock stirring where Sophie’s shoulder pressed against it. Nanette lifted her face to my ear and kissed me.