Page 10 of String Boys

“No, they made it,” Seth muttered, seeing his father in the audience. He closed his eyes, hating the awkwardness. Two and a half years—it had been two and a half years since his dad had gone to rehab and come back a changed man.

And hehadchanged.

All of the promises he’d made—no more hitting, dinner every night, activities on the weekends,beingthere—Craig Arnold had taken that shit seriously. Seth had to give him that.

And Seth was grateful. So grateful. Not just for not being used as a punching bag, but because the world was starting to feel… solid again. It was like those dark times, right after they’d moved to Sacramento, were just a bad dream, and the better times now were what was real.

Now, when he didn’t tell his father things, it wasn’t because he was afraid he’d make him angry. It was because he was afraid of… changing things. They’d made a big change in second grade, coming from Arizona to here. For a while, that change had meant… bad things. Bad things all the time.

But he was keeping his grades up, and he was practicing the violin all the time, and… and he was getting promoted to the seventh grade, which meant a different school and different teachers and….

And it was all going to shift again.

And that change would be even worse if he couldn’t keep Mrs. Sheridan away from his father.

“They’re there, right?” Kelly said, peering through the curtain. Then he groaned. “No… no. Mom brought everybody!”

Everybody was the twins, now almost ready for kindergarten themselves, and Agnes, who was almost two. Seth had a special fondness for Agnes—he’d seen Linda and Xavier bring her home brand-new. When she’d been tiny, he’d held the bottle of expressed milk for her while Kelly and Matty had chased Lulu and Lily around the house so Linda could get a little bit of work done. He’d held Agnes’s hands as she’d learned to walk and read her stories while Matty was getting the other two girls their baths.

All of the girls were special—they were like his little sisters too. But Agnes was…his.His dad had teased him gently about picking out a little sister just for himself, and he’d actually smiled.

“I don’t mind your little sisters,” he said to Kelly.

“But Agnes is gonna go nuts when she sees you on stage,” Kelly muttered. “And when you and Matty are up there for the promotion thing, we’ll be lucky if Mom and Dad can keep them from swarming you guys.”

“My dad’s there too,” Seth offered, then bit his lip. Well, his father reallyhadchanged, right? He’d watched all the kids once every other week or so, so Kelly and Matty’s parents could go to the movies.

Seth wondered if his dad ever wanted to go out with a girl himself, but he never asked.

It was one of those changing things he didn’t want to do.

“Crap!” Seth muttered. “It’s time to go out there!”

The choir had finished, and the band too. Mrs. Sheridan stood up and asked her string boys to come up on stage.

Then she did something that blew Seth’s mind.

“Now, before we have the boys play,” she said in her sweet, high-pitched voice, “I want to introduce you to someone very special. Dr. Barnard Boyle has taught music at CSU Northridge for the past ten years, and has had some very prominent students go on to play in the LA Symphony. He’s now working at UC Davis, and as part of an outreach program, he’s coming to Joseph Crocker Junior High to teach music to our newly promoted string boys. He’s been working with our students—one in particular—to perform this next piece. Now, I haven’t talked to every parent, but for those of you who haven’t heard from me, please find me after the ceremony today. I have the paperwork to get your child enrolled and on the bus to Joseph Crocker. Don’t let me forget to hand it to you in person.”

Seth grimaced and looked down at his toes so he could avoid his father’s irritated glower. Joseph Crocker was a charter school known for its art program—andnotthe neighborhood junior high.

He was surprised by a punch on his arm. “You knew?” Kelly whispered harshly. “That she wanted you to go to Crocker?” Kelly had known Dr. Boyle was there, of course. But he hadn’t known it might mean Seth would go to a magnet school instead of the scary neighborhood junior high.

“I was trying to avoid it!” he whispered back, and before he could explain that he didn’twantto go to a special school that would split him up from Matty, the auditorium grew hushed as Dr. Boyle stood up.

A handsome man in his late thirties, Dr. Boyle had skin the color of faded ebony—just enough brown to give him warmth. He’d shaved his head and kept a neatly trimmed goatee.

He stood in front of the students and winked, partially raising his hands with the baton in them.

“Hi, boys. You ready for what comes next?”

They all nodded, and Kelly sighed unhappily and pulled his violin up.

“Bows ready?” Dr. Boyle prompted.

Seth straightened his spine and positioned his violin, taking in a deep breath. Abruptly his concern about going to a different school faded away, as well as his father’s possible irritation because Seth hadn’t told him it was even a possibility. Even Kelly’s hurt over Seth keeping secrets diminished, although it burned brightly as a presence next to him for the entire rest of the night.

All that remained was the music.