Chapter 77: Melodious Tones

Christmas was a madhouse, right after the wedding madhouse.

Amber and Tracy had flown back to St. Louis right after the wedding to be with their regular families, and the other students also mostly disappeared. They called several times over the holiday to FaceTime with the rest of us at home. Warren, Wendy, and Sky lived relatively nearby and came by to join us later on Christmas day after they could break away from their ‘biological’ families.

Stone, Robyn, and Toni did their own celebration that morning at their house, then came over to join us. We also had Martin and Penny, Robbie and Mel, Jake and Chris, and Ken and Paula with us. They’d each brought over a few presents for their spouse/partners to put under our tree.

I had limited my shopping to Lynn and Karen, and, of course, two-and-a-half-year-old Logan. My guess was that half the presents under the tree were for my son. We were having trouble holding him off from tearing into all the presents without even reading the labels – a skill he had yet to master. He was one itchy child as he raced around burning off energy and considering what Santa Claus had left him.

Mel was elected to sit by the tree with Logan right beside her. He’d retrieve a package, she’d read the label, and he’d distribute the presents, sometimes two at a time, so we could focus on each other and the pleasure people got from their gifts and from the giving.

Logan soon had a pile of toys and games around him. He was as excited with the ribbons and wrapping paper, as with some of the gifts. A large Tonka truck that had working headlights, a siren, and that electrically ran around the room in straight lines captured his interest for quite a while. He chased the truck around the downstairs and we got some laughs at his antics.

I had recalled Nancy’s words about presents for women – jewelry and diamonds. I coupled that with my love for Lynn and Karen and so my presents were exceptionally special.

When most of the gifts had been distributed, I pulled two small boxes from my pocket. They were wrapped in red paper with tiny bows atop. I passed one to Lynn and one to Karen. The room paused to watch the two of them.

In seconds, each of them opened the boxes onto large matching diamond rings in platinum settings. Each stone was two carats with a few baguettes to offset on either side of the stones.

Lynn and Karen shrieked and gave me questioning looks. I explained, “We’ve lived together for a long time. I consider myself married to each of you, but we’ve never done a proper ceremony or anything. I love you and want to be married to you – at least to have that mantle of importance applied to our relationships. These are my engagement rings to each of you, and I admit they are long overdue. I hereby formally propose marriage to each of you.”

The next I knew I was on my back on the floor being smothered with kisses by the two women that I loved most in the world. Seconds later, a two-year-old joined the love-fest pig pile. Everybody else in the room applauded and were making cheering sounds.

Somewhere in midst of the melee and kisses, both women told me the unequivocal answer from them was ‘Yes’. Logan like the word ‘yes’, too, and went around saying the word to everyone.

A few minutes after our pile of lovers, Lynn and Karen went around the room showing off their new matching rings. The air was infectiously joyous. There were lots of congratulations. Martin was taking photos of all of us, too.

Eventually, my new fiancées and I sat properly and shifted our attention back to the whole room and the Family that was present. Logan happily sat in my lap. I thought all the presents had been opened, but Robyn stood and said, “There’s one more present from the three of us to our Extended Family. It’ll be fun for everyone.”

Robyn turned and Stone rushed out of the living room to the front porch. He reappeared seconds later with a large heavy box wrapped in Christmas paper. He set the box down in front of Lynn, Karen, and me. Logan’s eyes were large – it was the largest box of the holiday.

I was pondering who should open the box, when Stone re-appeared from the front door with two more boxes under each arm. They were obviously also big and heavy. He set them beside the one yet to be opened. All were wrapped. I nudged Logan and he leapt at the opportunity to open yet another box – all three boxes almost as big as he was. As the wrapping paper came off the first box, I could see two words that made me laugh – ‘KARAOKE PLAYER’.

After we unwrapped everything, the present from Stone, Robyn, and Toni consisted of a machine host for playing back MP3+G disks or whatever, a stand-up touch screen monitor on a fancy stand, a mixer, two wireless microphones, a power amplifier, and two speakers. Also, wrapped up into one of the smaller boxes, were several packages of DVDs with the right kind of karaoke recordings on them.

Stone and Robbie came forward and in ten minutes had everything connected the way it should be in one corner of the living room. I stood and watched the assembly and hook-up process. Stone called us all around for a quick training session. Explaining the set up went by me a little fast, but I knew where he lived.

Stone showed how to load a disk, and then pick a song to sing. He chose a country western favorite of mine – Whiskey Lullaby. He got Robyn to sing with him, and it was obvious that they’d rehearsed the song before because they were pretty good. We applauded.

Stone explained, “So, one or two of us can sing. If it’s just one, turn off the second microphone with this switch.” He showed everyone how to limit the device.

Karen liked the whole idea. “We can use this at Friday’s party. It’ll be fun, but you have to be there to help us make it work, Stone.” He promised he’d help out.

I went and took a closer look at the machine along with a couple of the others, including Sky. Stone ran through finding the right music, getting to the right track on one of the CDs or DVDs, and then showing how to use the touch screen to start a song to sing with the music.

I looked at the various music media that came with the gift, and there must have been 5,000 songs of all genres and from every year of music going back to the 1920s or even earlier between all the disks. Being older, I recognized many of the songs the others wouldn’t know. One song caught my eye: ‘Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me’.

Over the next hour each of the others in the room came and examined the equipment in more detail. A few paid more attention to the technology, and the others more attention to the selection of songs that would work on the device.

Sky came by as I was looking at another DVD+G of songs. She asked, “Do you sing?”

“Not a bit. I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket,” I told her. I asked, “How about you? Your speaking voice is so pretty and smooth, I bet you could really sing well.”

She shrugged, “I sang in the junior high chorus, but that was it. I was just one of about twenty-five sopranos, and I certainly didn’t stand out in any way.”

“Now, you’ll get your chance.” I gestured at the new equipment and chuckled.

Stone suggested that after dinner that night that we try out the device. He wanted to make sure it was working up to par before then. We left him to it. I again noted that Sky hung around to see the details on the karaoke set up.

Over our community dinner, we had some light background music from the new karaoke machine. I noted that the speakers on the machine were better than what I had plugged into my stereo.

As dinner was coming to an end, Stone announced we’d have an hour or so of karaoke. “Attached to each seating place is a piece of tape with a number on it. Will number one please come up.”

There was a squeal, and Penny stood. Stone gestured for the older woman to come up. He told the group as she moved, “When I put the tape on your seats, I had no idea who would sit there.”

Stone suggested a song, and pretty soon the music started and Penny started to sing a Diana Ross song, ‘Do You Know the Way to San Jose?’. She did a credible job and got a round of polite applause. I was kind of glad she wasn’t going to do another, and she was, too.

Mel was next, but she pulled Robbie up with her. The two sang the Itsy-Bitsy Spider song by Carly Simon. They were good and the faces they made at each other’s goofs were worth the show. They got a rousing round of applause and many cheers.

Warren and Sven then sang solo songs each. I thought that Sven with his deep baritone was a little easier to listen to. We gave them lots of applause.

The next up, number five, was Sky. She accepted singing the Lee Ann Rimes song, ‘How Do I Live Without You?’ The intro music started and Sky’s voice penetrated across the room with the first line of the song – ‘How do I ... get through one night without you... ‘

Her voice was crystal clear and even better than the original by a professional artist. All the other conversation and noise at the tables stopped. Every person turned to watch the small woman sing. She wore one of my short-sleeve collared shirts, unbuttoned without a bra, of course. She had on a monokini.

What she wore was incidental to the music coming from inside her. It was perfect – it was better than perfect. It was like listening to a religious experience. She made love to the microphone without thinking about it. She flowed with the accompaniment seamlessly, and had the exact cadence and clarity of the song. Her voice had a vibrato at just the notes, and her dynamic singing range far exceeded anything I’d heard. She drew every one of us into the song. There was no hesitation or toying around.

There was no doubt in anyone’s mind, Sky was a professional singer, and we were graced with her first solo performance in public.

As she faded out with the music at the end of the song, there was total silence across the house. Everyone had been touched deeply by her performance. Then slowly, one person started to clap, and then another, and then about twenty of us were given the small singer a standing ovation.

Sky had initially looked confused and then worried that she hadn’t done a good job. I could tell that she’d tried to excel with the song. Somehow, the word ‘excel’ seemed inadequate to describe what she’d done. How can you describe artistic excellence like we’d just heard? Sky had stage presence, only it was in a corner of our living room.

Sky made a polite bow as the others had and went to sit down. Stone intercepted her, and turned her back to the microphone and karaoke stand. She looked confused, but through the din of the applause I assumed that he was telling her that she had to do another song for us.

Others of us cheered her for an encore. Many told her how good she was and to please sing more songs for us. I kind of yelled multiple times, “You were great!”

Stone queued up a song and the music started as the applause died out. This was a much faster paced song – ‘Heads Carolina, Tails California’. It took Sky about ten seconds to latch onto the pace of the song, and then she cruised through the song as we all started to cheer her. She was blushing, but was with the whole scene and sang like a songbird.

At the end everyone applauded enthusiastically again in a standing ovation. I was nearby. I held my arms open to Sky and she ran the twenty feet into my arms and I hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

“Baby, you were fantastic. Where’d you learn to sing like that?”

Sky looked up at me. “I never sang in public before except for school chorus, or just kind of in the shower or in the car to music that I like.”

I told her, “You may not believe me, but you have a new career ahead of you. I hope you’re ready because you are going places very fast as of tonight.”

All the people near us were reaching out to touch Sky – to touch the next star. As I looked around, I knew there wasn’t a person there that didn’t think that Sky was like a rocket just starting to lift off from the launch pad. The applause continued and shouts to sing more. She had been that good.