Page 55 of Share with Me

Chapter Nineteen

Chopin’sFantaisie Impromptuin C Sharp Minorwas difficult to play, but Brinley was determined to finish. It was Mom’s and Dad’s favorite opus. They were listening to her and drinking their usual Kona in the adjacent sunroom. Grandpa Brooks’s Steinway grand, now Brinley’s, helped her along, masking her rusty dynamics and her lack of musicality.

Brinley supposed she was more self-conscious than she ought to be. She hadn’t been home in months, hadn’t practiced the piano for as long, and her fingers were locking up, so to speak. They stretched not. They kept playingandanteandlargowhen she had to goallegro.

With great effort, Brinley clawed and mangled her way to the last note.

She heard applause coming through the houseplants behind her. “Thanks, Dad!”

Dad had always been her unconditional encourager. She could play like a kindergartener, and he’d clap like she had just performed at Carnegie Hall. Brinley didn’t hear Mom in the sunroom. She might have left.

She moved on to something simpler.Thank you, Sergei Rachmaninoff.

To her right, the grand stone staircase framed Aunt Ella waltzing down the stairs. She was wearing something in Christmas green, topping it off with bright pink lipstick. Outfit notwithstanding, Brinley thought that Aunt Ella must’ve been quite a beauty in her heyday. She had that Brooks elegance that Brinley had seen in paintings of Damaris Brooks when she was nineteen years old, the same year she was gifted the Stradivarius. As Brinley was thinking that, Aunt Ella continued to descend.

Brinley half-playedPiano Concerto No. 2and half-watched Aunt Ella tiptoe toward the Christmas trees near her. Aunt Ella reached into the lower branches of a twelve-foot Colorado blue spruce and plucked off ornaments, stuffing them into a plastic bag in her hand.

Brinley hit a bad note.

She sprinted to Aunt Ella’s side, thinking her great-aunt was having another episode. “What are you doing?”

“It’s an ornament exchange party.”

“A what?”

“Yun’s Christmas luncheon today. We have to bring ornaments.”

Brinley had forgotten about it. She glanced at her watch. The party started at 11:30 a.m. They had forty-five minutes to get there.

Aunt Ella was now holding a Swarovski crystal ball in her hand.Mom’s favorite.

“Stop, please,” Brinley said.

“You’re driving me there, aren’t you?” Aunt Ella kept bagging ornaments.

“Yes, as agreed.” Brinley gently pried the bag away from Aunt Ella and rehung the ornaments. “How many ornaments do you need?”

“Just one, but I thought I would bring some spares.”

“If you need ornaments, we can stop at the store.”

“These are more expensive. More valuable.”

“Precisely why we need to not steal them from the owner.”

“Willard owns this house.”

Owns? Uh-oh.“Grandpa Brooks gave this house to my parents, so everything in it belongs to my parents now.”

“They’re used ornaments.” Aunt Ella scooted close to the Christmas tree. “They won’t be missed. Your mom has plenty more in boxes in the basement.”

“Aunt Ella, I don’t think you should give people used ornaments.”

“New ones cost money.”

“Come on, Aunt Ella. I’ll pay for them.” Brinley knew Aunt Ella could afford the ornaments herself, but it didn’t matter. These were just things.

Brinley was happy to know that Cara had been assigned to make sure Aunt Ella took her medications properly. Brinley wished that Aunt Ella’s caregiver would show up, but she understood that she had her own family to return to at Christmas.

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