The Music Trilogy (80 page)

“Yes, Davina.”

“Congratulations, Colin, I know Chantal must be a very special young lady. I can hardly wait to meet her. I wish you both a lifetime of happiness.”

“Thank you, Davina. We’re very happy.”

“Good. Now, there’s something I have to tell you...”

When Colin hung up he looked around the room. He had a peculiar look on his face, one of amazement and incredulity. He thought this was possibly the best day of his life, no, he was sure it was the best day of his life. Max was sitting in an armchair talking to his fiancée. He liked the sound of that... His fiancée, he repeated to himself, and smiled.

“Chantal, I made her a promise,” Max was saying.

“You made who a promise?”

“I promised Sam.”

Chantal’s heart skipped a beat. She so missed her friend. It would have been wonderful if Sam had been with them today. She had no doubt that Max and Sam would have married too. Would the pain ever go away? “Oh, Max, I wish she could be here with us, just like before.”

“Yes, I wish that too, and you know I would have asked her to marry me.”

“Yeah, I figured that out, but what’s the promise, Max?”

“I told her that I would visit.”

“Visit what?”

“The ‘Singing Pub’. Besides, I want to see it for myself. Maybe her energy is still lingering in that place.” Colin joined his fiancée on the couch. “Haf, I was just telling Chantal that I want to stop in Boston before going back to Washington, to see where Sam used to work. I’d like you to come with me. Both of you, please come with me, guys... Actually I need you. I don’t think I can do this alone.

“I guess we could stop over in Boston before heading back to Washington,” Colin said. “I think it’s a great idea. Chantal, are you in?”

“I can’t just leave, I have to work.”

“Actually, I wanted to tell you the second part of my proposal.”

“There’s a second part? I mean first you scare me half to death, then you give me a ring, and now there’s more? Do I really want to know?”

“Uh, huh.”

“Spit it out, Haf.” Max remembered that Davina had good news for Colin.

“My future wife will have everything she’s ever wanted. She won’t even have to work if she doesn’t want to.”

“Did you hit the lottery or something?” Tyrone asked.

“Better. Davina just told me that there is a recording contract waiting for me, with a lot of zeroes.”

“Congratulations, man!” Max exclaimed. “You deserve it!” He thought about the first times he heard Colin sing, way back in the church at Parris Island and on the Kuwaiti border.

Chantal started screaming again, jumping up and down and kissing Colin.

Aunt Clo walked out of the kitchen. “Hey, what’s all the fuss about? Did Chantal faint again?”

“Aunt Clo,” Colin said, “we’re buying you your own restaurant!”

“What?”

“I’ll just make a phone call to the hospital. We’re going to Boston,” Chantal said.

“What?” Aunt Clo asked again.

“You guys are the best,” Max said.”

♫

BOSTON

EPILOGUE

At 30,000 feet Chantal was enjoying the flight. She sipped her champagne and turned to Max. “You tell your Mama she has exquisite taste, especially in little planes.”

“I certainly will. Well, if you two will excuse me I’m going to lie down a bit. The leg is a little sore,” Max said getting up from his chair.”

“Okay, Music Man, we’ll wake you up before landing.”

“Perfect, thanks. You two enjoy.”

“Thanks Max,” Chantal said.

As soon as Max left Colin grabbed Chantal.

“Oh, what did you have in mind, big boy?”

“Well, that’s sounds great, but there’s something I have to tell you.”

“Oh, oh, this sounds serious.”

“It is.”

“What’s up?”

“I need your help.”

“Of course, anything.”

“You know that call from Davina.”

“Uh huh, and I’m really looking forward to meeting her.”

“And she’s looking forward to meeting you… and Sam.”

“Sam? What does that mean?” Chantal asked, not understanding what Colin was talking about.

“Davina got a call. Sam wasn’t killed. She’s alive!”

Chantal gasped. “Sam’s alive! Really?”

“Really.”

“This
is
the best day of my life.”

“Mine too, and I’ve been thinking that all day.”

“But why didn’t she contact me?”

“She probably had the same problem I was having. It took forever to locate you, and that’s thanks to Davina who pulled some strings in high places.”

“What about Max? Does he know?”

“No. And this is where I need your help.”

“Let’s just tell him,” Chantal said.

“There’s another problem.”

“What problem?”

“Just like you Sam thinks both Max and I are dead.”

“Oh, man. And Max thinks Sam’s dead.”

“Uh huh.”

“Is Sam working at the Singing Pub?”

“Yes, Davina gave me her schedule.”

“That lady sure is resourceful.”

“That she is.”

“So when we walk in she’ll probably be on stage.”

“Right. And if she sees us, especially Max and me, she’ll probably faint.”

“I can relate to that.”

“That’s what I mean.”

“Here’s what I suggest. I go in and see Sam on my own, tell her what’s going on, then I join you at whatever table you’re sitting at. Sam goes up on stage and does her thing. And then Max will know.

“Have I told you how special and smart you are?”

“You can tell me as many times in this lifetime as you wish.”

“I intend to.”

Max, Colin and Chantal stood outside the bar.

“You alright with this?” Max asked Chantal.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. You two go on ahead and get a table. I’ll be with you in a few minutes.” Chantal knew the pub well from her days at the university. She quickly went to the back and made her way to find Sam. She knocked on the door.

Max and Colin made their way into the Singing Pub, Max on a crutch, Colin with the sling around his shoulder. They had that air about them that said ‘yes, we are warriors, we are tough and even though we’re really nice guys don’t fuck with us’.

The only sounds were of people talking, laughing and ordering drinks or food.

“Hey, Music Man, over here,” Colin said, guiding them to a table.

“Right behind you.”

They sat down, looked at the menu and waited for the waitress to come over to take their orders.

“This is really some place. Look at all the pictures on the walls. Everybody’s singing in them.”

“Yeah, Sam told me how special…” Max couldn’t continue, his throat had a lump the size of an orange. He knew how difficult it would be to control his emotions.

“Hey, man, I’m sorry.”

“I’m okay.”

You certainly will be, Colin thought to himself and remembered his conversation with Davina.

A waitress came to their table. “Gentlemen, good evening, haven’t seen you in here before.”

“Yeah, first time,” Colin said.

“Well, welcome.”

“Say, isn’t there any music playing or someone singing?” Max asked.

“Oh, always. The guitar player’s just taking a quick break.”

“I see, thanks, looking forward to it.”

“How did you hear about the place?” She asked.

“A good friend of mine told us about it and I promised I would come and see it. I brought my buddy along.”

“Well that’s great. We never disappoint,” she said looking at Col.

After the waitress took their orders and left, Max turned to his buddy. “I think she likes you,” he said chuckling.

“Well, she seems very nice, but my heart belongs to Chantal.”

“Good choice, my friend, she’s a great girl,” Max answered, trying very hard not to think about Sam. “You two are probably one of the best looking couples I have ever seen.”

“You and Sam aren’t so bad yourselves.” Colin caught himself just in time. “Aw, shit, I’m sorry, man.”

“That’s okay, don’t sweat it.”

Chantal joined them. “Hi boys.”

“Hi beautiful,” Colin said and kissed her cheek.

Chantal sat in a chair next to Colin but positioned it in such a way that Max’s view of the stage was somewhat obscured.

The people in the pub started to clap as Sam picked up her guitar from the stand, shook it a couple of times, something she now always did since the scorpion, and started to strum the instrument. She played a Persian song she and Max had discovered back in Iraq and came to call their own.

Max’s heart stopped.
Could it be? No, it was impossible. Sam was killed. But it was
their
song! And only Sam could sing it the way he was hearing it now.
He whirled around, looked at her, and turned back again. He thought he was day dreaming again, but the music played on. He looked at the couple, his eyes questioning. Chantal nodded.

“It’s really her, right?” Max asked.

“Yeah, Music Man, it is.”

“How long have you known?”

“We found out today in New Orleans. Your mom’s phone call along with all the other news,” Colin said.

Max immediately remembered the daydream he had in the desert at the CSH, when Sam was playing the guitar and singing to the wounded, where he saw his mother, her hand on the shoulder of the love of his life, singing together.

“My mother is the most amazing woman in the world! She even brings the woman I love back from the dead.”

“That lady sure has some connections,” Chantal said.

Max slowly turned around and looked at the face of the woman he adored. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Sam kept singing, using all the self-control she possessed, but her tears were running down her cheeks. Max picked up his crutch and starting walking towards the stage. He climbed the stairs one at a time, and very slowly. Sam kept singing. Everyone in the pub was watching, and holding their breath. They knew something was going on, but they didn’t know what. What they did know was that something special was about to happen.

Sam looked at her audience and spied Colin and Chantal. She smiled when she saw the big man and Colin nodded back and blew her a kiss. He laced his fingers around Chantal’s hand and she squeezed back.

Max climbed the last step and headed toward Sam. She was still strumming the guitar, but she wasn’t singing. When Max stopped directly in front of her she put the guitar on the stand and stood up. And then they embraced, so tight they thought they would break each other’s ribs, and they didn’t care. Max smelled her hair and kept his face next to it. “I composed a song for you,” he whispered, “but I couldn’t figure out the ending.”

“What’s it called?” She whispered back.

“Music of my Heart.”

“I like that. You’ll have to play it for me.”

“I think we could play it together,
à quatre mains
.”

“That is probably the most sensual thing I have ever heard.” Sam said. They kissed passionately, to the delight of the mesmerized crowd. “Amazing how music always finds a way to bring people together.”

“And back together as well,” Max said, his eyes a lustrous, deep violet.

♫♫♫

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My very first memory of life was the sound of my mother's glorious voice singing to me, most likely a Brahms lullaby, and I'm convinced that is why music always has a delicious way of creeping into my writing and becomes one of the most important elements.

I spent twenty years in Europe because of my father, who was with the U.S. Diplomatic Corps, and my mother who was an opera singer. I worked mainly as a simultaneous interpreter and translator as I am a linguist and speak several languages, five of which are fluent. Because of my exposure to people of different nations my writing includes many foreign settings and cultures.

I am a proud mother of a gallant Marine who served in Iraq, and among the members of our household you will find Louie the cat, so named because of his clawing love of Louis XV and XVI furniture, and surely thinks he must have been a fearless Marine in one of his former lives.

Denise loves hearing from her fans and answers all her emails personally! Find out more about Denise, new releases and latest news.

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