Chapter 22

Willow spent a little while looking at her course notes and the subjects that would round out the year in Music Studies. The first half was called Remix, and the second half was Gamelan, with a group performance listed. She looked up the instruments in a Gamelan band, finding that most of them were percussion, and generally hit with a hammer. That, she thought, may be a hilarious way to end second year.

Chapter 20

The other bands were drifting off, and all came to say their thanks. Willow had Sally shadowing her as she was hugged. Sally, being quite a striking looking girl, had her share of hugs as well. When Rick, Racheal, and Jacob were leaving, Willow got a hug and a kiss. She told Rick that she would get in touch as soon as she was given the finished discs.

There was a repeat when Geoff, Zara and her mother left. Sally snorted.

“That girl is going to have a problem with her mother. It looks as if she wants her daughter to be a star.”

Chapter 18

As they were getting things set up, Gina and Maisie arrived, followed, a few minutes later, by the G-Force, who had been driven there by Jim’s father. They had their guitars, and the drummer had brought his own cymbals. G-Force set up and Jim reset one of the Yamahas to suit his style. Willow was interested in hearing how much the band had moved on.

Chapter 16

On Saturday morning, Willow was up and over at the church early. She got the service details from the Reverend and went up to the organ to work through the hymns. After that, she went to the club, where Malcolm was polishing glasses.

“Big night, tonight, Willow. Fully booked with a waiting list. Quite a few that have booked full tables.”

Chapter 14

When Willow got home on Friday evening, she had a home-cooked dinner and went off to bed. Wendy had taken all her soiled nighties to the laundry, and her laptop and Tiger were already upstairs when she arrived in her bedroom. Her bed was luxurious after the hospital bed, and she was soon asleep with her hunger for her mother’s cooking satisfied.

On Saturday morning, she showered and dressed in a jersey knit that went below the knee and a sweater. She was getting herself some breakfast when her phone chirped.

“Hello, friend.”

Chapter 12

That was where Wendy found her sitting, some ten minutes later.

“Getting some quiet time in, love?”

“That and some thinking, Mum. Are you ready to go yet?”

“Just about. Your Dad will be here a while until Malcolm takes over.”

She looked around the room.

Chapter 10

Willow rested on Friday evening and Saturday morning. Ashley had gone out to look at garages and sheds. Wendy expected that he would end up with a shed to replace the ‘crate castle’ as the house already had a large garage, big enough for both cars. The crates had been delivered with the truck going alongside the house and craning the crate sides over the fence.

Chapter 8

The following morning, Willow told her father about Brent going to buy the drums and that the account will be emailed.

“You can pay for them out of my account, Dad, and transfer a thousand to the debit card account I use. When Maisie takes Gina and me into Coventry, I’d like to take them to a decent lunch. The way that Maisie has pitched in with everything is amazing.”

“That’s all right. I’ll do that tonight. Just make sure that you’re not Miss Moneybags. You may need that nest egg later on.”

Chapter 6

That Saturday afternoon, Willow put the Yamaha in its box, added the support frame and her old seat, and Ashley carried the keyboard to the club, where they stored it in the stage storage area, telling Malcolm that it was on loan.

Chapter 4

At the end of the evening, Malcolm went around the band members with envelopes of cash. The girls left the keyboards there to be collected the next day, while the other band members took their equipment with them, Brent being the only one to need help taking his drums out to his father’s works van. Several of the parents had expressed their appreciation of the event being both suitable for the teens as well as good entertainment for adults.

………………………………………..

Chapter 2

Monday, on the way home, Willow asked Gina if she could ask her mother if she minded going out of the way on the late evenings to take Jacob home.

“Why are we taking Jacob home, may I ask?”

“Because, friend, he will be joining the Junior Orchestra as a classical guitar player. Hopefully, he will round out Summer Rose playing folk songs. He is a fine guitarist, but not one who wants to be a rock star. He’s been shy about letting everyone hear him.”

“How do you know all that?”

Chapter 23

They hugged, and Willow went over to her parents. The Baron gave her a hug.

Chapter 21

The other choir came in and were followed by the choirmaster. Mister Jamieson went to help them get connected up and test the devices, while Willow took Gina up to the organ with her to get ready for the Evensong practise. She started with a short piece of Bach, then played the intro to the first hymn on the list, one that most churchgoers know by heart. There was some singing from below, which heartened her. Every hymn was from memory, while Gina looked on, in awe.

Chapter 19

When they got to Gina’s home, Willow got out and they hugged.

“I’ll be at the church in the morning to see about the hymns.”

“I’ll come and we can talk. You’re so brave. I would have just dissolved into jelly if I had been spoken to like that.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow.”

When they got home, Wendy took the CD and put it into a safe place. Then they went to change and met in the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Chapter 17

On Saturday morning, after breakfast, Willow went for a walk. She went down to the bridge over the river and then along the bank to the church. Instead of cutting back along Church Lane, she continued through the orchard to Coventry Road and back towards home along Vicarage Road.

She was passing the Club as a truck was delivering beer. The Club Manager saw her and called her over.

Chapter 15

Willow took her time getting ready, then strolled to the church. Reverend Russell was sweeping the porch when she arrived.

“Willow, welcome. How did your weekend go?”

“It was good, Reverend. We really made friends there. I met Cassandra, who is planning an Easter Wedding. I did suggest that she has it here. They did talk about having it at the Abbey. We went to St. Edwards for Sunday morning.”

“I know. I had a phone call telling me how pleased they were that I loaned them my organist.”

Chapter 13

When Willow went in, Wendy had some sandwiches for her after she had changed.

“How did this mysterious meeting go? Are you ruling the world yet?”

“Not that serious, Mum. All I did was to get together with a few people and play them some songs which I thought might make a good concert.”

“Oh, yes. Now give, before I get you some ice cream.”

Chapter 11

They spent two hours working with the music. They didn’t have the numbers that the piece was written for but made do with a pruned down orchestra. There was enough percussion players to fill out that section, but the strings were thinned out a bit. There was a full complement of brass players, and Willow wondered if there was an evening brass band.

Chapter 9

On the way home she told her mother about her day, telling her that she had played enough hymns to fill a church. She gave herself a break from her room after dinner, going outside and walking from the house to the end of the road and back until the light was fading. It felt good to move after being sat at the keyboard all day.

Chapter 7

Ashley looked at the picture and then had to put his hand on the nearest support.

“That’s the picture. Why have you got it?”

“Before you start hyperventilating, let’s sit in down and I’ll tell you who he is.”

They went and sat in a pew and Rupert laid out the family history, as he knew it.

Chapter 5

“Are you all right, Mum?”

“More than all right, by precious daughter. When you were playing, it reminded me of my wedding day. Where did you learn to play one of those organs?”

“Right here, right now, Mum. Basically, it’s just a more complicated version of what I played last night, but the music is a lot simpler, which allowed me to learn what it does. There’s a lot of buttons and knobs that make changes to the sound, but I didn’t want to touch anything.”