The classroom I teach in now is the same class in which I learned my own scales. The field of green in front of the school I dance in, it’s the same I skinned my knees on so many years ago. How could I be away for so much of my life? And yet never feel like I ever left.
I was so lucky that my old school accepted my offer to teach a basic music program until the summer, just to see if it would be something the students and parents welcomed. No fee, of course. I just wanted to contribute something to the community.
It didn’t take long for the other teachers and students to fully support the program. It’s a small school with only just over 200 elementary aged students, but the region isn’t rich and it had been years since they had offered music as a subject. It pained me to see how much the children lacked music education. What a waste all those years, starved of the pleasure of music.
But as busy as I was with preparing a lesson plan and getting to know the school and its limited resources, not a day goes by I don’t miss him. I don’t want to run to the nearest train station and buy a one-way ticket to Marius. Each day I’m here, I grow. I breathe out the bad, and heal. I was too hard on him. He can’t have really understood how hard it was living under Jez’s shadow and control. That every time he made a decision for me, I heard it in the Maestro’s voice.
It just wasn’t our time. It was too soon. I wasn’t ready.
But I am now.
And soon, soon, I will buy that ticket, and face him. And tell him, I’m living my dream now, too. Most of it. There’s just one part missing.
I reach the corner and then, just as it has played out in my mind, I turn the corner.
But there isn’t an empty field of grass.
Instead, there are two big black trucks, parked in the school parking lot.
“What is going on?” I wonder as I run towards the school, gripping my bag.
“Ms. Pestrescu, Ms. Pestruscu! Look!” One of my students comes running up to me, taking my hand and dragging me through the school doors.
“What is going on?”
“Come look, Ms. Pestrescu!” There’s a crowd of students all gathered around me as we run to the music room.
“Excuse me,” I say, pushing through the layers of teachers and students crowding around the door.
“Look!” the students scream.
I do. And I can’t believe what I see.
A classroom filled with instruments and music stands and amplifiers and music and everything a school could ever need to raise the next generation of musicians.
“Wha?” I say, stunned, taking it all in.
“Ms. Petrescu,” the principal says, pulling away from the crowd and walking towards me, “it seems we are the recipient of a donation from the Vanilie Music Foundation.”
“The what?”
“Vanilie. Romanian for Vanilla,” says a voice behind me.
I don’t need to turn to know it’s him.
But I do.
“Marius.”
“Hi, Anca.”
“What is all this?”
“Well, we were talking,” he steps aside and Jez comes forward from behind him, “Jez and I were talking, and we realized, we weren’t really giving back enough. And well, who else could we get to join us?”
“Me?”
“Yes, you, silly girl,” Jez says, shaking his head and smiling.
“How… how did you pay for it all?”
Well, some of it was from the pay we owed you from touring with us. Which you didn’t collect before you ran away,” Marius continues, giving me a wink.
“And the rest, well, we called in some favors, and of course, from now on, we’ll find ways to fund different projects the foundation decides to run. I mean, we can’t hog all the fame and fortune, can we? We need someone to take over when we’re old.”
“I can’t… I can’t believe this. This is… wow.”
“Ms. Petrescu, is this… is this all for us?” one of the children shouts, jumping out from behind her teacher and running up to touch the instruments.
“No! Be careful!” The teacher yells and Jez throws his head back and laughs.
“No! Don’t be careful! Have fun with it! That’s a cello you’re touching… I see you have good taste.” The girl blushes but doesn’t stop touching the cello like it’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen. “Come, let me show you how to play it,” Jez tells her, holding out the bow to her.
Marius takes my hand and pulls me to the side. I can’t stop looking at him, his hair is longer, his skin darker. But his eyes, his eyes are the same genuine, chocolate brown they always were. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed him until now that he’s here right in front of me.
“I can’t believe you did all this. For me.”
“I’m doing it with you. The both of us. If you’re okay with that.”
“Of course. I… it’s what I’m supposed to do, Marius.”
“I see that. You look, you look happy.”
“I am happy.” His eyes drop, and the smile on his face fades a little. I lift my finger to touch his cheek. “I’m happy, but I’m not whole.”
“No?”
“Are you?” I ask, almost afraid to hear the answer after all the things that have happened, all the time that has passed. “Whole?”
He takes my hand in his, pressing a kiss on my palm and smiles. “I am now, Anca. I am now.”
I smile so much, I think my eyes light up like starlights. “Me too.”
There’s a sudden chanting around us, and I can just make it out, “Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!” Everyone is shouting. Led by the loudest voice of all, Jez’s.
I shake my head at my brother, before reaching up on my tiptoes and pulling Marius’s mouth down onto mine.
And for one last time, I let someone make my choice for me.
We kiss. And kiss. And kiss. And kiss.
The End.