Silently Falling

Chapter Five (Edited 8/30/2020)

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Silently Falling: Chapter Five

The next couple of days things go as usual, and Friday morning rolls around. I wake up, use my air horn for Toby and the girl in his bed, she leaves with a few insults directed at him, and we head to school when Alyse arrives. I avoid telling her that Toby had a girl over last night, and she doesn't ask. It's better to start her day off on a good note instead of breaking her heart again.

Now Alyse and I are back in Music class with a sub, so the entire class is just doing whatever they want. Mr. C didn't leave much of a lesson plan for the substitute, and even if he had I doubt this sub would have had much authority over us. Chorus kids can get rather...rambunctious. Alyse and I are lounging on the carpeted floor, my songbook sitting in my lap.

My mother was big into music. Even though I was so young when she passed away, I can remember sitting next to her on the piano bench in the living room as she played, my feet swaying with the melody and hands gripping the edge of the tattered bench. As I grew up, I came to realize that aside from the standard children songs she would play to amuse me, she also played melodies I could never find elsewhere. That's when my dad showed me my mother's songbook. She wrote her own music.

My dad gave me my mother's songbook when I was in middle school and I tried to write some stuff to be more like her, but with little to no music lessons under my belt...what I wrote was really just random notes on a page with a cringe-fest of "lyrics" to tag along. It took until high school and Mr. C for me to start learning how to play the piano and how to write my own music. I started to write songs on random sheets of paper, not wanting to use the last of the empty pages in my moms book. But when my dad found out, when he had come home for a few weeks from work, he instantly went to the store and bought me my very own songbook. Writing music makes me feel closer to my mother, an even deeper feeling than having her necklace on every day.

"What type of song are you working on now?" Alyse asks, leaning over to read what I've written down.

"A ballad. Unconventional, though."

She cocks her head, "I missed the last part..."

I sigh, silently falling a little. Sign language is great, but I forget at times that Alyse isn't an expert or anything. There are times I go too fast and she can't read my hands. I know it's not her fault, but it sometimes gets a little stressful. The only one who seems to able to keep up with me at all times is Toby.

I slowly spell out the word 'unconventional' for her, and I watch as she slowly sounds it out while comprehending the letters.

"U N...okay that's a C. Unconv...and E and an N, okay followed by a T... Oh! Unconventional, got it. Unconventional ballad, it sounds interesting."

"I hope, I've only just started it."

"May I?"

I pass over my book to her for her to examine it, and I watch as the gears turn in her head as she reads and plays it through in her head. Then, her pale green eyes light up with her smile.