It’s Cadence. She’s dressed as she was at rehearsal today. A long, sleek, sleeveless V-neck black dress and black ankle boots. She comes to the front of the lens. The camera shakes a bit and she laughs and reaches out, stabilizing it. Then without a word, she goes and sits down at the baby grand piano, where I first heard her play.
The cameraman walks over to her and zooms in on her face. She closes her eyes and places her hands on the keys. Taking a deep breath, she opens her eyes, and starts to play.
It’s a beautiful melody that I think is from the soundtrack of The Truman Show. I don’t know if there’s any meaning behind her choosing this song, but it’s a simple, gorgeous piece that sounds angelic coming from her talented fingers. Everyone is just as mesmerized as I am. It’s hard to focus too much on each other during our rehearsals because to some extent we’re all trying to work on our own parts, but here, unencumbered by our own need for perfection, we can really sit back and enjoy her performance.
Then, as the piece comes to a soft, gentle end, the camera zooms out and the rest of the room comes into view. Her entire orchestra is sitting there, instruments in hand and without missing a beat, as soon as she plays her last note, the orchestra lifts into song.
Cadence runs from the piano to the middle of the room and climbs onto her conductor’s box, arms lifting, fingers alive, already directing her band to create their best sound.
Marius whoops when he realizes they’re playing “The Fight Song” by Rachel Platten and holds up his fists and punches in time to the music.
They are good. Really good. Cohesive as an ensemble as well as individually talented. I watch them watching her, their passion matching hers look for look, note for note. There’s a look of pride on her face that is infectious, and I wonder how it is I already feel a sense of belonging to this band, as if their future successes will be mine as well.
Just as the chorus breaks, on screen, a teenager drops his bow and stands up in his spot, holding up a sign with the lyrics.
We can’t help but sing along at the top of our voices, grinning at each other during the impromptu karaoke session.
The song soon comes to an epic, overwhelming close. The entire orchestra all get to their feet and yell out, “THANK YOU, SEBASTIAN.”
Cadence turns and gives the camera a small nod and smile and it fades to black.
I wonder how I can be physically rooted to this very spot and yet be moved solar systems emotionally.
“Dude, that was cool. What was it?” Jez asks me, gesturing to the blank laptop screen.
“It was, um, it was Cadence’s school orchestra. She just, um, she wanted to show me something they were working on.”
“Why’d they say ‘thank you, Sebastian’?”
I don’t want to tell them. I want it to be just between her and me. Well, and Marius and the kids. But not the rest of the guys.
Marius, in one of his rare insightful moments, sees me hesitating, interrupts and quickly changes the subject. “Oi, Brad, you know a lot about jockstrap itch. Does mine smell a little funky to you? Come have a sniff!” And as if he’s a magician, pulls a pair of boxers out of his pocket.
Everyone, including me, groans, and just like that, it’s forgotten.
I catch Marius’ eye and give him a thankful look. He just winks and then turns back to chasing Brad around the room waving his underwear over his head. Ejecting the DVD from the laptop, I hold it against my chest for a moment before slipping it into my bag and trying to ignore the worried look that Dennis is giving me.
CADENCE
Another week has passed and I feel like the time is rushing past faster and faster by the day. There are about four more weeks of rehearsals scheduled before the band goes into the studio to record the pieces we’ve been working on. There are four pieces with piano which shouldn’t take more than two or three recording sessions. The guys are worse perfectionists than I am though, so who knows how many takes it could take? But I don’t care. The whole process is so much fun. I’m already starting to wonder if I should be pursuing some more recording work after my time with the Rock Chamber Boys.
After giving Sebastian the DVD last week, things have returned somewhat to normal between us. He must’ve shown the guys though, because they’ve all come up individually to me to congratulate me on doing a good job with the school orchestra. Truth is, I was so worried giving it to Sebastian. He leads this groundbreaking, award-winning string group, it was hard imagining how my amateur school orchestra would look to him. But I wanted him to know… that it wasn’t just me, the kids appreciated it so much as well, and that it really wasn’t for me, it was all for them.
Sometimes, in those quiet moments during our breaks, I sit and watch him, and I wonder, was I really wrong to end things with him before anything could start? Was I really afraid he was going to turn out like the men in my past? Had he ever done anything to indicate that? Other than the misunderstanding with Dennis’ daughter, he hadn’t done anything to show he was the rockstar player that I was so afraid he was going to be.
But then he’ll shoot me a smile and my heart will float and sink in equal measure. And if a smile can affect me like that, how would I handle it when I was all in, and he was ready to be all out at any time? And he would. That’s just been my luck. With my heart smashed to smithereens and me on my hands and knees trying to gather up the pieces. And some would inevitable be washed away in the torrent of tears.
So, yes. I was right.