“Ouch,” he said. “That sounds like you’re trying to get away from me.”
“Really? I wouldn’t expect that you would be here all that much longer,” she teased.
He nodded. “That’s true, and I was figuring out about an apartment or something in town, since I won’t be here forever.”
“Right,” she said. “Maybe a ground-floor place?”
“Maybe,” he said, “or at least no stairs. I guess I could handle an elevator. I’d kind of like to be more in the country though,” he said. “I just don’t know what the options are.”
“I don’t either,” she said, “but Dani would be a good resource on that.”
“Of course,” he said with a laugh. “It sounds like Dani has the information on a ton of things.”
“She doesn’t get rid of people just because they’re done at Hathaway,” she said with a smile. “I know she visits some of the guys who used to live here. She checks up on them to make sure that they’re adapting well to the outside world.”
“Nice,” he said. “It doesn’t happen all that often to find a place like Hathaway House that is run by somebody with as much heart as Dani has.”
“That’s why she does what she does,” Jessica said.
“Well, maybe she can help me find a place a couple months down the road.”
“And those couple months will go by fast,” Jessica said. “Too fast, really.”
“Meaning?” he challenged.
She shrugged self-consciously. “Meaning, I’ll miss you,” she said.
He reached across and gripped her fingers. “I’m not going far,” he said, “and you said you were planning to move into town yourself.”
“Maybe,” she said, looking around. “This has been a really good place for me, but sometimes I wonder if it isn’t too easy to be complacent here,” she said. “I don’t get out and meet other people, and you know I used to love going to the blues club,” she said. “However, living out here, I tend not to go anywhere because I have to go into town to do it.”
“But, on the other hand, how will you feel driving out here to work every day?” he asked.
“I’m not sure about that either,” she said. “If I got something on this side of Dallas, where I don’t have to deal with the traffic, it would be a quick hop to work every day. Then I’m already three-quarters of the way there, if I wanted to go do something in town, so it’s not nearly as stressful.”
“Stress is the big progress killer,” he said. “That’s what Shane told me that I’m supposed to avoid.”
“Good luck with that,” she said. “It’s something we all have to deal with.”
“It is, indeed,” he said. “I’ll talk to Dani first and see if she has any ideas.”
“Do that,” she said. “Have you worked up your songs for tomorrow night?”
“Yes,” he said. “I was hoping to play just a few, to keep to Dani’s schedule, but that won’t work. I can’t wait until tomorrow.”
By the time he got there at four p.m. that Saturday, the songs thrummed through his body, and he couldn’t wait for his fingers to touch the guitar strings and the piano keys. He started off in the same community room, not sure if it would be the same size crowd again. He didn’t have the piano in the cafeteria. It was on wheels, but he didn’t know that anybody was prepared to move it. However, as he sat down at his place with his guitar, he frowned because the piano wasn’t here.
Dani walked by, smiled, crooked her finger at him, and said, “We’re in the other room.”
“It got bigger, did it?” he asked, with a sheepish grin.
“Way bigger,” she said, a mysteriously secretive air to her. She looked particularly smug.
He pondered that for a moment, then stepped into the cafeteria to see that easily one hundred people were here, all waiting for him. As soon as he arrived, they all clapped and cheered. He shrugged self-consciously, but he walked up on his crutches to his designated chair and sat down. As soon as he started to play, the crowd calmed down. He lost himself immediately in the music, starting with an Aretha Franklin song which flowed into another then another.
As the music flowed from his fingers, Lance also sang along. He would often sing when he did his music before, but he hadn’t done that since he had started playing again. He didn’t realize it now, until he opened his eyes at the end of the song to see everybody staring at him in amazement. He shrugged and said, “Well, I guess you never know what to expect here, right?”
There was a lot of laughter and clapping. Lance hopped up, grabbed his crutches, walked to the piano, and started ripping into some rock and roll. Before long, the whole dining area was filled with people stomping and clapping in time. Lance went through several of his favorites, and, when he finally came to a crashing crescendo at the end, and then stopped, he had timed it perfectly to be done an hour and a half later. He waited for the silence to fall, and then the entire room erupted in cheers. Just as he turned around, arms came around him, and he was hugged from behind. He twisted and wrapped his arms around Jessica. “I figured it was you,” he murmured.
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “How could it not be?” she said. “That was absolutely amazing.”
With a smile he realized that Dennis had come over with some drinks on trays, handing them out to everybody. When the tray was offered to him, Lance said to Dennis, “You never miss a trick to show what a good guy you are, do you?”
Dennis laughed with a pleased smile. “Tonight deserves something special,” he said. “You really outdid yourself. Do you have any idea how good this is for all these guys and gals?”
“I feel great,” he
