NINE
THE SONG OF DEVIN
ALEX
The momentI left the room, Sebastian started to hum. His voice drifted through the door to my ears. It was ever so quiet, but since it carried the melody of the song I had written that morning, I stopped in my tracks. A small tingle spread from my heart through my chest. It started out faint, but the more I focused on the melody, the more unbearable it unfortunately became.
No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t go back in there. I couldn’t tell him how much last night meant to me. And I certainly couldn’t keep listening.
As I went downstairs, his voice grew quieter, but, like yesterday, it still reached my ears even when I entered the kitchen.
The sizzling of pancakes frying in butter—a Sunday sound I loved because it reminded me of home—tried to drown out his voice, but couldn’t. Neither could the morning greetings from Laura and Dany, the clinking of dishes, or the crunch of my teeth as I dug into Laura’s pancakes after she urged me to eat so I would finish before the extended family woke up.
I tried hard to ignore the hum. Not that it was unpleasant. On the contrary. In fact, it was so pleasant that I wondered howI was supposed to live knowing I might never hear it again in person after today.
When Sebastian closed the door to my room as quietly as possible, it got even worse. Without the door between his voice and my ears, his humming forced its way into my brain so fiercely that I had to close my eyes and surrender to it. I stopped eating and just listened. It was probably my last chance to hear it anyway. Fortunately, Dany was engrossed in his newspaper, and Laura was too busy making more pancakes to notice.
Sebastian hummed on his way downstairs, stopping only when he entered the kitchen.
“Good morning, everyone,” he said, his voice suddenly half an octave deeper.
“Morning, my dear.” Laura glanced at him but quickly returned her focus to the pan. “I’ll have these ready in a second.”
“You can feed the others first.” Sebastian walked over and rested a hand on her back. “I’m not that hungry.”
“You have to eat something! They only taste good when they’re fresh. We’re not waking the rest of the family for another half hour.”
“Okay, I’ll haveone,” he sighed.
“There’s also fresh coffee,” Laura said, flipping one of the pancakes. “Help yourself.”
She pointed to the table. Sebastian’s gaze followed her finger and landed right on me. His lips curled downward, suppressing a smile.
“Thanks, Mom.”
He squeezed past the counter, pausing in the walkway as he took in the seating arrangements. We had extended the table for the reunion so that as many people as possible could find a seat, which made the already cramped space even harder to navigate. Right now, it was still possible to move around, but only because most of the seats were empty.
“Morning, Dad,” Sebastian said.
Dany sat on a chair next to the fridge, his newspaper spread so wide it blocked the entire walkway on that side of the table. “Morning,” he grunted, straightening the newspaper in his hands and sending a sharp flap through the room.
Sebastian ignored it entirely and scooted to the seat farthest from his father—the one right next to me.
A hushed smile crossed his face as he sat down, but when Dany flapped the newspaper again, it disappeared.
With a big smile lighting up the room, Laura walked around the kitchen island and set a plate with ten pancakes in front of Sebastian.
“Let me know if you want more,” she said, her eyes shifting between him and me. “How about you, Alex?”
“I’ll finish these first,” I replied, cutting a bite from the three remaining pancakes on my plate.
“Sure!” Laura looked at everyone at the table, nodded, and walked back to the stove.
Looking at the plate in front of him, Sebastian pulled his lips together, shook his head, and then reached for the coffee pot in the middle of the table.
“How is everyone?” Mila sang as she came around the corner.
“Good morning,” Dany and Laura replied in unison.
