Page 18 of Her Dragons

Jake gave me a little swat with his tail.“You’ll learn,” he said.“A little music appreciation won’t hurt.”

Considering how much we both appreciated Lily’s other talents, Jake was right, I decided.I got up and morphed back to human, and Jake did likewise.“Fine, then,” I said.“Cool.Play for us.Whatever you like.You’ve got yourself an audience.”

So, back inside the three of us went.Jake and I, still in nothing but thongs, settled down on the living room couch.Lily went and put on a silk robe, which somehow was as sexy on her as the swimsuit, and a pair of slippers, and sat down at the piano.

Jake was right.She was good — good like a professional.And even though I’d never paid attention to jazz, Lily was so good that I soaked up every note she brought out of Uncle Robert’s piano.Jake was no more of an expert about jazz than I was, but he recognized Dave Brubeck and Chick Corea, and coming from Lily they both sounded fantastic.We loved the way she made the notes chase each other, moving up and down the keyboard.We knew we were listening to not just a player, but an artist.

I was never into music without anyone singing — some people would say that I didn’t have any culture because of that — but Lily’s playing knocked me out.It wasn’t just because it was her; she killed on that piano.One number was something I recognized from old Charlie Brown cartoons.When she was done, Jake and I stood up and clapped and cheered like we were the audience in a club or a concert hall.Lily wore the biggest smile I’d ever seen on a woman and stood up from the bench and bowed like she was on a stage — which, frankly, was where she belonged.

Lily had done the right thing, getting herself away from Mark.No woman should ever have to live the way she did withhim.No woman should have to go through any of that — but especially someone like her.She was too good for that.And after she asked if it was okay with us if she went and took a nap — by herself — and we told her she’d more than earned it, she gave both of us a kiss of thanks.Then she went alone into the bedroom where the three of us spent so much time doing everything but sleep, giving Jake and me a chance to have ourselves a little talk.That was when I brought up what was now on my mind.

We sat back down on the couch and I repeated aloud what I’d been thinking.“She’s way too good for a scumbag like Mark Reinhardt.”

“Oh, hell, man,” said Jake, nodding in agreement, “she’s absolutely too good for him.”

“And you know something else?” I said, rubbing my chin, pondering seriously.“She’s too good to be here with us.”

Jake sounded more confident about this thing we were having than I did.“Lily is happy with us,” he said.“We make her happy.She makes us happy.And not just, you know…”

“Yeah, I know, not just in bed,” I agreed.“She makes us happy in every way.But you know I’m right.A woman like her is too good to be hiding out in somebody’s apartment from some guy who treated her like a damn piñata, with two guys who don’t even know what the hell they’re gonna do with their own lives.Lily should be in theatres, playing out in all the most famous places, being a star.Instead, she’s here, scared to go outside, playing her music for two Drakes who are screwing her brains out.The only reason she’s with us is because she had to get away from Mark.He caught her at a bad time in her life and took advantage of it, used it to own her.Lily ought to be ‘owning’ an audience in one of those places your Uncle Robert goes in New York…”

“Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall…,” he remembered the names.

I said, “Yeah, places like that.She ought to be touring England, Europe, all over.Instead she’s holed up with us.”

“Well, look,” said Jake, “we’re going to get her out of the house, right?We’re taking her to the Drake Festival, where she can be with people outside, have some fun.And we’re not taking our eyes off her the whole time.She can start taking her life back, a little at a time.And maybe we can even help her set herself up someplace.”

“It’s gonna have to be far away from Mark,” I said.“Damn that bastard anyway; she shouldn’t have to plan her life around him.”

“I know,” said Jake.“Look, whatever she wants to do, whatever she decides she needs, we’ll be there for her.We’ll help her with anything, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding with a determined look.“We will.”

I went silent then.I just stared out into space, not saying anything else.Jake could always sense when something more was on my mind.

“What?” Jake asked.

Looking over at him, I said, “What, ‘what’?”

“You don’t go into ‘deep thought’ that often.Tell me what else.”

“You know what else.Tell me you’re not thinking the same thing I am.”

Jake glanced in the direction of the bedroom.“She’s not just some girl we picked up in the park.”

With a tsk, I said, “She’s not even like the kind of girls we pick up at the Drake Festival.Listen to how we’re talking about her.When was the last time we talked like this about a woman?”

Meaningfully, Jake replied, “When did we ever talk this way about any woman?I mean, ever?”

“There.That’s what I’m saying.What if we got Lily out of town, out on the road where she ought to be, away from Mark?What if she somehow got herself into the kind of life she ought to have?Jake, what kind of place would we have in her life then?And where would that leave us?”

Jake wore a dreaming kind of look.“Wondering about her.Wondering how she was doing.”More seriously, he said, “Wondering if Mark was somewhere out there, circling around her, following her, waiting to make some move on her.”

The idea of it made me frown.The scales started to break out on my shoulders, arms, and back, and my horns started to bud.“If that son of a bitch ever came after Lily and we weren’t there for her…man, I couldn’t live with that.I could not live with that.It’d kill me, Jake.Just kill me.”

“And me,” said Jake, with a frown to match mine.

I took a calming breath and melted my scales and horns back into my human skin.“This is something we’ve never done, Jake.Banging women — we’ve done plenty of that.But thinking about the future with one…”

---