Page 128 of Perfect Composition
Two.
One.
First, Austyn slips out of the wings. Then, I follow her. Both of us head directly to center stage. This will be the one and only time I’ll do this, so I have to make it count.
For all of us.
The noise is surprising. Even to someone who has heard propositions of marriage and solicitations of sexual acts, I’m surprised by how loud the thundering of applause is. And I’m grateful for it, not just for me, but for the prodigy at my side.
I wait for a slight lull before I begin speaking. “Thank you all very much. When I agreed to work with Evangeline Brogan and Simon Houde on a score for a Broadway show a little more than a year ago, I was asked to consider writing about the story of my life. What I didn’t realize is that so much of the pain in my life had already been endured by so many others. Yet, so much had yet to be healed. Both are because of the same reason: a woman.”
There’s a tittering in the audience. I go on. “This woman encompasses more than the simple concept of past, present, and future; she’s omnipresent. She is a healer, a warrior, and someone who nurtures those around her. Quite simply, she’s composed of the traits that in history would have her revered as a queen. With my co-composer’s help, we worked with Evangeline and Simon to bring modern music to a heartbreaking story of survival, theft, and justice. It’s the true story behind Adele Bloch-Bauer, the muse behind Gustav Klimt’s famousGolden Ladypaintings.”
There’s a hum through the audience as Austyn and I move off the stage so we can come up beneath it and sing the songs I wrote about the love I have for her mother then, now, always, for another woman whose last remnants were left behind in the smoldering ashes of her life.
And yet, somehow, her legacy lives on.
That’s what I want to give my child, I think fiercely as I sit down at the piano. Not wealth or fame but the richness of love. And as I feel Paige’s eyes upon me when I lay my hands on the keys, I know I’ll have her by my side to do just that.
I hear Austyn whisper almost soundlessly in my ear, “And a one, two, three…”
On four, I hit the first chord and let my fingers dance along the keys for a moment before I lend my voice to the melancholy notes. “Is there more for a man like me? Each day gets longer, harder. I am worn. I am worn. So many days remain.”
My head twists to the side, and I sing directly to where I know I last spied Paige. “Then Moses revealed you to me. Days swirl. Nights drift by. You remained in my heart. Always.
“I became your disciple. Lived for you and me.
“Until a war they fought tore me apart. I knew I had to go. Don’t make me go. The choice wasn’t mine to make. So many days ahead. How do I go on without you when heaven’s gate arrives?”
Austyn’s voice starts harmonizing on top of mine. First on “Mine to make.” And then, “Heaven’s gate arrives.”
The first time Austyn heard me sing the title song of the Broadway show I scored titled “Mine to Make,” she said her mother was going to cry. But when I try to find Paige’s eyes in the audience, it’s her father’s face I find.
And he’s wiping a handkerchief beneath his eyes, nodding slowly.
Keith Richards said music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words; it speaks in emotions.
I always admired the man for his music. Now as I finish singing a song I wrote right after I left Paige, I realize I admire him for his wisdom.
Wrapping up the song to a ridiculous amount of applause, Austyn and I slide right into the opening number, and Evangeline Brogan steps into the spotlight, belting out the opening words to “Secret Garden.” Moments later, Simon Houde joins her onstage.
And just like that,The Golden Ladybecomes Broadway history.
“So, what do you think?” Simon yells as he hands me a glass of champagne.
“About the show?” I lift my glass to toast him. “I think the number of curtain calls you received should give you a good idea how it’s going to be received.”
He grins. “No, I meant about backstage at a Broadway cast production. Is it different than what it’s like at your shows?”
“There’s no comparison.” I take a sip of my drink.
“Why’s that?”
Seconds later I feel a body jump onto my back and arms wrap around my neck before a smacking kiss is laid upon my cheek. “Do you really think this would happen at one of my shows?” I twist my face and find Austyn grinning at me. “Well, hey there.”
“We killed it!” And before I can say anything, she reaches over and yanks my glass out of my hands before draining it.
I just sigh. “Please tell me your mother is around here somewhere.”
