Chapter 27

Kara groped for the phone. She glanced at the clock as her hand found her phone. Who the hell is calling me now?

“Hello.” Her voice was laced with sleep.

“Princess?” Richie looked at his watch and winced. “I woke you up didn’t I? I'm Sorry.” He heard the rustle of blankets as she sat up.

“Richie?” Her brain was starting to clear. “Is everything all right? Why are you calling so late?”

Richie sighed, “I didn’t look at the time before I called. We just looked at your e-mail and I picked up the phone. I’m sorry.”

Kara propped herself up against her pillow, “it’s okay, you just …” she trailed off. “You said ‘we looked at my e-mail’, what do you mean we?” She had a very bad feeling she knew exactly what he meant.

Richie chuckled, “Jon is here with me and we watched the video you sent me. Hang on a sec.” He switched his phone to speaker and indicated to Jon to say something.

“Hi Ms. D’Angelo, I’m Jon, nice to meet you.”

Kara swallowed hard, this couldn’t be happening. “Hi Jon, please call me Kara. It’s nice to meet you too, sort of.”

She heard Jon chuckle, “I can understand now after seeing that video why my son speaks so highly of his music teacher.”

Kara felt herself blush to the tips of her ears. “Thank you. Jake is a great kid and has great potential Jon. You should be very proud of him.”

Jon opened his mouth to speak again but Richie jumped in, “if we’re done with the parent-teacher conference portion of the call, can we talk about your song princess?”

Kara grabbed the pen and paper she kept next to the bed so she could remember what they were telling her, an octave change at one part; an increase in tempo in another. The key change she had asked about was spot on. “You have a good ear Kara.” Jon had played the video again as they were talking, “I think you should change the note in that one spot, and take it up half an octave.”

Richie was nodding his head in agreement. “Richie thinks so too.” He looked over at Richie, “speak man, she can’t see you nodding your head.”

Richie flipped Jon off, “don’t mind his royal wise-assness. It just comes natural.”

Kara laughed, “how have you two not killed each other in the last 20 years?”

Richie picked up the phone and took it off speaker, “I’m immune princess.”

Kara yawned, “thank you for the help and thank Jon for me too. I’ll let you know how it works.”

Richie heard her yawn, “listen princess I know you need your sleep but I just have one more question.”

“Ask away babe.” She was starting to fade.

“Have you decided yet?” He waited hoping she would tell him what he wanted to hear.

“I did. As long as all goes well with this faculty/parent night I’m going to give this another try Richie. You still want to help me?” She closed her eyes, hoping she was doing the right thing.

Richie smiled broadly, “Help you? Princess, I’ll be there every step of the way.”

He heard her sigh, “thanks. I miss you.”

Richie turned away from Jon, “I miss you too Princess. You go back to sleep and I’ll call you later when we get to Australia.”

Kara nodded her head, “okay bye Richie. Be safe.”

Richie closed his phone and turned back to Jon, the look on his face was one Jon hadn’t seen in too many years. “What?” Richie didn’t like the way Jon was looking at him.

Jon just smiled, “you’re toast man.”