Page 79 of Eternally Yours


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Robyn closed her eyes, heard the papers rustle when her grandmother flipped the page. As the tempo picked up and the notes ascended, the hair stood up on the back of Robyn’s neck. Goose bumps rose on the skin of her arms. Then the notes slowed though Robyn desperately wanted them to continue. The music came to a halting stop. Aside from the trill of the last note, there was silence as Robyn’s grandmother finished the song.

Robyn opened her eyes to see her grandmother’s terrified face staring down at her. Henrietta leapt from the bench and snatched the sheet music from its perch. She crushed it in her hand and tossed it into the fire, where it was consumed by the dancing orange flames.

“Have you lost your mind?” Lester shouted. He dove toward the fireplace but Robyn’s grandmother stepped into his path.

Henrietta was not a woman who inspired fear in Robyn. She had treated her youngest grandchild with all the care and concern of a delicate flower. Robyn didn’t know the woman was capable of wrath, but she would learn in that moment the very meaning of the word.

“Why would you do that? Why would you bring it here?” Henrietta asked, her tone dark as the night sky. “Why would you let me play it?”

Lester stared into the fire. “No other choice.” He lifted his gaze to Miss Lenore. “You didn’t give me a choice. I would have made you a fine husband, Lenore. But I guess you’re just too good for me, huh?”

Miss Lenore’s expression was blank. Robyn slid to the center of the bench and placed her hands on the keys. She started to play the song from the beginning, the same way her grandmother had.

Henrietta’s fingers were wrapped around Robyn’s forearms before Robyn had finished the first bar. Prying her hands from the keys and sweeping her up, Henrietta ordered Lester to leave, and Mama and Daddy showed him out. Henrietta took Robyn to her room and guided her to the bed, where Robyn took a seat. Robyn rubbed her arms.

“Did I hurt you?” Henrietta asked.

“A little bit,” Robyn said.

“I’m sorry, baby. Grandma never wants to hurt you. Not ever.” She sighed and Robyn rested her head against her grandmother’s chest.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” Henrietta said. “But tell me, baby. Do you remember that song I just played?”

Of course she did. Robyn couldn’t help it. She’d already memorized every note.

Henrietta shook her head. “I need you to promise me something.”

Robyn met her grandmother’s gaze and there were tears in her eyes.

“This isn’t just a regular promise,” Henrietta said. “Do you understand what that means?”

Robyn didn’t understand and she shook her head.

“This is a special kind of promise.” Henrietta filled her chest with air and let it rush out from between her pursed lips. “You can’t break this promise, Robyn. Ever.”

“Why?” This was not a question Robyn would have normally asked her grandmother but she needed to know. Robyn lowered her gaze, but Henrietta slipped her hand under Robyn’s chin and tilted it up.

“Because if you break this promise, someone could get hurt. Bad.”

Robyn’s heart beat furiously in her chest. “What is it, Grandma? What’s the promise?”

“Promise me that you will never, ever play the song you just heard me play downstairs. Not a single note of it. I know you can’t erase it from your mind—God, I wish you could...” Henrietta’s eyes became glassy in the low light. “Promise me, Robyn.”

Robyn promised her grandmother that she would never play the haunting melody she’d so quickly memorized.

The next morning, Robyn awoke to the sound of mournful wailing. It cut through Robyn’s mind like a siren as she stumbled down the steps and into the front room. The front door was wide open and people were crowding around.Something lay at the bottom of the front stoop, just out of Robyn’s view. Henrietta caught Robyn by the elbow and turned her away but it was too late. Robyn had already seen what all the fuss was about. Miss Lenore lay on the ground on her back, her eyes and mouth gaping as if she were caught in a scream but no sound came out. Her skin was ashen and her hands were curled into fists. She was stiff and unmoving and Robyn thought she knew what that meant. Miss Lenore was dead.

There was a funeral for Miss Lenore and a trial for Mr.Lester, where twelve people told him he was guilty of killing Miss Lenore. He did not deny it.

Robyn kept her promise to her grandmother for seven long years. But as time wore on and with Henrietta gone on to the upper room, Robyn wondered if promises were really meant to be kept. After all, Henrietta had promised that she would always be there for her and now she was gone. Robyn’s mother had promised that embracing her talent would lead to a love of performing but all it had done was make her resent her instructors, who tried to steer her toward reading music and a more classical repertoire. Those promises had been broken. Now, as Robyn sat alone at the piano in the empty concert hall, she wondered if she, too, should break the promise she had made.

The tech crew had wrapped up for the evening. The other students and staff had gone home hours ago. Robynwas allowed after-hours access to the hall under special permissions from Principal Harker.

Robyn plucked at the keys. She’d chosen a piece by Bartók—Concerto no. 2—for the recital. The notoriously difficult piece had tripped her up only once. Her audience was going to love it. They would be delighted by how effortless her playing would seem. Robyn wished she felt as delighted by the prospect of it. But she wasn’t. She didn’t care for impressing people or showing off. What she wanted was tofeelsomething. Lots of arrangements moved her but there was one in particular that had captured her as no other had—and she had promised her grandmother that she would never play it again.

She barely remembered anything about that night so many years ago. What lingered was the humming in her bones as the notes unfolded. The sound had swept her up and she had wanted nothing more than to hear those notes again. She’d looked for a recording and couldn’t find anything. And the sheet music had been burned. Mr.Lester died in jail so there was no chance of finding out where he got it in the first place. The music now lived only in Robyn’s head.