Rock Prodigy

Chapter 39

Pushing the doors open, I pasted a small smile on my lips, taking a deep breath and telling myself to focus. In the past three months, I’d spent a lot of time at St. Albert’s Children’s Home and I knew every kid there by name. I’d moved to the city just before my surgery and it hadn’t taken long before my barren apartment started to feel like a prison to me. I’d walked into St. Albert’s on a whim, feeling nostalgic and bereft of all the good things in my life. I’d needed a distraction, a reminder of where I came from.

“Hey Carol,” I said, sending a wave to the receptionist sitting at the new desk just inside the double doors. She was on the phone so she just sent me a distracted wave before jotting down some more notes.

I walked further into the building, absentmindedly noting the pictures lining the walls dictating the history of the old building along with the group shots of the children I tended to avoid.

“Rose!” Martha said, barrelling towards me, her eyes on the clipboard that never left her hands. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said, giving me a distracted smile before focusing downwards once more. “The carpenter for the stairs never showed up today which could put us behind schedule. I can’t find his number, do you have it?”

“Yes,” I said, reaching out and plucking the clipboard from her hands, flipping through the pages that were haphazardly stacked on it before finding the work order for the carpenter. “But he’s scheduled for tomorrow, not today.”

“Really?” she said, squinting down at the clipboard, taking a step back to try to bring it into focus. I chuckled, reaching towards her head where her glasses were tangled in her curly red hair. “Thanks,” she mumbled, reading the paper in front of her without squinting this time. “Well that’s good,” she said on a sigh, smiling softly up at me. “I was getting a little stressed out.”

‘Stressed out’ was Martha’s middle name but I just grinned at her and jotted the carpenter’s number down on her clipboard just in case he didn’t show up tomorrow. For a woman of barely five feet, she seemed larger than life, her energy bursting from every single pore and there wasn’t a moment where she wasn’t moving at hyper speed. She was the head caretaker at St. Albert’s and probably the reason why I still had at least a small amount of sanity left.

“So, the new music teacher is working out well,” Martha said, sending me a sideways look as we walked deeper into the building.

“That’s good,” I said, unable to stop my spine from stiffening slightly at the mention of music.

“I still don’t understand why you wouldn’t just teach them yours―”

“I don’t really want to get into it, Martha,” I said tightly, my right hand curling into a fist unconsciously. Martha was one of the few people in my new life that knew who I was and so far, she’d been pretty cool about it. When I’d suggested a music program for the kids here, she’d agreed that it would be an excellent opportunity for some of the older kids but she lacked the funding.

Luckily, I had lots of money that was just sitting in my bank account collecting dust. If music wasn’t going to be a part of my life anymore, then at least I could help a few other kids find it like I had.

“Okay,” Martha said softly, mumbling something under her breath that I couldn’t quite hear but was probably offensive. Around the kids, Martha was great but around other adults, she lacked a filter. “Well,” she continued on a sigh, flipping through the pages on her clipboard again. “We’re still looking for a community coordinator. You know I’d give you the job if you wanted it, Rosemary.”

I was shaking my head before she even finished the offer. “I can’t. It’s too public.”

“You can’t hide forever.”