Page 38 of Echoes of a Silent Song
Perhaps the agreement wouldn’t last long, though, if the mostly good-natured muttering was any indication.
“One more song and we’re switching it to thegoodstation,” Thalia piped up from the stepladder above Blair.
“Yes.Thank you.”Jake ripped off a strip of painter’s tape on the other side of the room.
“Thisisthe good station,” Makayla argued.As if to illustrate her point, Taylor Swift’s latest single came over the airwaves, and Makayla aimed a pointed finger and a triumphant grin at her naysayers.“See?I told you.Turn.It.Up.”
Jake gave a dramatic moan and clutched his chest while Thalia gave a quiet groan.“You had to agree to five songs on this station, didn’t you, Jake?”she said.
“Hey, Makayla plays hardball.It was either five songs orallTaylor Swift.”
“You’re not wrong.”Makayla cranked the volume and sang along with T.Swift at the top of her lungs.
A breakup song, of course.A song about being used, then abandoned.Unbidden memories surfaced.Memories of Derek professing his undying love.Getting down on one knee and presenting her with a rock of a diamond on that sunny July day.
Six months later, the sunshine had turned to clouds.
Had they ever truly lifted?She was over him, that much she knew.She could no longer imagine a life with him.Painful as the discovery had been, at least God had revealed her fiancé’s true colors to her before she walked down the aisle and pledged herself to him for life.
But was she overit?The pain?The betrayal?The knowledge that although she’d once thought him the love of her life, to him she’d just been a stopgap?A way station on the road to something he perceived to be better?She’d been a happy, sunshiny person once upon a time.Naive, perhaps.But happy.
Was she happy now?Legitimately, deep down?Was that sunny girl still in there, but frozen?Or was she gone forever, having seen how the world really works?
Could she ever open her heart to anyone else again?Could she trust again?
And God help her, was she really thinking this deeply about a Taylor Swift song?
Finally, mercifully, the song ended, much to the delight of Jake, who dove for the radio and changed it to an alternative rock station.
“My goodness, you’re all working so hard in here.”
Blair turned, and an elderly woman entered, her arms laden with two boxes of doughnuts.“How about a snack break?”
“Yes, please.”Thalia had already climbed halfway down the ladder.
“Mrs.Weldon, that’s so sweet of you.”Jake moved to take the doughnuts from her arms, and Makayla took advantage of the distraction to turn the radio down.Brightened by the prospect of sugar, though, the other two didn’t seem to notice.
While the kids pounced on the doughnuts, Peggy Sue Weldon glanced around the room, a wide smile creasing her cheeks.“Those kids are doing an amazing job.”
“Thank you,” Blair replied.“They’re great kids.”
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.The place has just gone topot since Roland died, God rest his soul.”Peggy Sue crossed the room to the large picture window.“Oh, honey, at least let me give you some light.”She yanked on the cord to open the blinds, flooding the room with daylight and providing a view of the sunny backyard, where Callum’s group was focusing on the exterior.A group of girls raked leaves near the center, and four guys—two from choir, a tall and broad-shouldered one in a dark-blue T-shirt and ball cap who probably played basketball, and a football player—were repairing a broken fence.
“It’s our pleasure.”Blair picked up her paint roller and ascended Thalia’s stepladder to finish the spot the girl had been working on before the doughnuts arrived and ...wait.Wait a minute.That guy in the blue T-shirt.That was not a basketball player.Wasn’t even a student.No, that wasCallum.He was the one hammering the fence, the motion pulling the shirt tight across his back.
He wasn’t just supervising.He was pitching in.For a community he didn’t belong to.Yet he worked as hard as the kids, if not harder.
Her heart warmed and softened.
He wasn’t just paying lip service before.He really did care.And he cared about more than just the music.
He cared about the community.
“Did you say something?”Peggy Sue asked.
“No,” Blair replied quickly.At least she hoped she hadn’t.
“Stupid contraption.”Peggy Sue reached beneath silvery curls and fiddled with her hearing aid.“Still can’t quite get used to this.”
