Melodies of the Heart

Chapter Four

Kassidy

Their destination wasn't a hotel or even some scummy motel. Pinewood Grove didn't have either of those. The town simply wasn't big enough to need one. There had been several proposals and someone had once bought some land to build one on, but the only tourists who came through town were doing it for the wilderness and camping, neither of which could be done from inside a motel room.

What the town did have to offer was Mary Alice Patterson and her boarding house over on Poplar Boulevard. It wasn't anything like a hotel, and Kassidy couldn't promise that the elderly woman wouldn't put Levi to work like she did all the men who passed through those doors, but it was a place to stay that came with three squares a day and a bed to sleep on.

She was nervous about taking him there. Not that Mary Alice wasn't a wonderful person – the woman was in her seventies, but she volunteered at Shady Pines and despite a hip replacement a few years back, she still ran the women's lawn bowling league during the warmer months.

No, she was nervous about it because it wasn't a five star hotel. Five minutes earlier she had no problem with taking him to Mary Alice's, but knowing that Levi was some kind of rock star had changed everything.

"So, um, this isn't really a hotel," she mumbled as they finally turned onto Poplar Boulevard. Mary Alice's big old Victorian home was visible from a block and a half away. The place still looked new with its dark blue siding and sharp white trim, but it still wasn't a hotel. She was going to have to tell him what he was in for sooner than later. "And I'm sorry it's probably not exactly what you're used to. Mary Alice probably isn't either."

"That's fine," Levi assured her as they walked in the shade of the trees that lined the road. "To be honest, I'm in the mood for something a little different than what I'm used to. And, honestly, I should be apologising to you."

"For what?" she asked, her pace slowing a bit. She was dreading what was coming. Somehow she was convinced it was bad news before he even got the words out of his mouth.

"For not being up front with you," he said as he stopped. "I should have warned you what might happen if people saw me in town. I guess... I guess I just liked not being recognised. It doesn't happen often, so when you didn't recognise me, I thought I would just enjoy it while it lasted."

"Oh," she mumbled at that. She already felt bad enough for not knowing who he was, and now he was making her think about it all over again.

"It's not a bad thing," he insisted. "It was actually really nice, not having to worry about that kind of thing for a change. I hope more of this town is like you than your friends were while I'm here. It's nice to turn fame off once in a while. Not have to worry about the band and everything that comes with it. It can be exhausting having to be 'on' all the time, and at least for a little while there, I could just be a regular guy."

Kassidy had wanted to ask him about his band, about the kind of music they played, but his last thought stopped her. If he wanted to turn that part of him off for a while, she wasn't going to force him to bring it back up before he was ready.

"That's okay," was all she said before she started back toward the old Victorian with the blue siding. "Come on, it's just up here."

Mary Alice was in her front flower garden – the one that lined the entirety of her porch – when Kassidy arrived with Levi in tow.

"Hi Mary Alice," she greeted the older woman. It was a perfect spring day for planting flowers. A little late in the season, but as she got older, Mary Alice complained more and more about the cold and damp bothering her joints.