"It's so nice to meet you. You're just the person we wanted to talk to. I'm Kaia Mercer, and this is Jax Ridley. Do you have a minute to speak to us about your mother and your aunt?"
"Of course. What do you want to know?"
"We're friends with an older man named Walter Cobb. He used to go to the Starlight Lounge, and he told us that he was friends with your Aunt Reina, a very long time ago. Actually, he implied they were in love. But he was in the Marine Corps and was deployed to another side of the world, and they never saw each other again."
Ella stared at her as if she'd never heard the story before. She didn't know if that boded well or not.
"Walter is an older man now," she continued. "He's a widower, and he recently moved back to Oceanside. To make a long story short, we discovered that Reina had left him a song that she'd written for him in the dressing room at what used to be the Starlight Lounge."
"That club closed decades ago," Ella said, surprise in her gaze.
"But it's still somewhat intact in the basement of the current bookstore. We were with Walter when he found the song tucked just where she'd told him she'd leave it, behind a loose brick in the dressing room."
"That's a wild story," Ella said. "My aunt left your friend a song hidden behind a brick? And it was there all this time?"
"We were all shocked," she said. "But his name was on it, and so was hers."
"I never heard any of this from my mother or my aunt."
"Your aunt is why we're here," she said, getting more nervous as she asked the big question. "Is Reina still alive?"
"Yes, she is."
At Ella's confirmation, her heart jumped. "That's great. Do you think there's any chance she would want to reconnect with Walter?" she asked.
"I—I don’t know. This story sounds odd."
"I know it does. But Walter is a nice old man, who really loved Reina, and even though they've been apart for more than fifty years, he never forgot her."
"We don't want to cause any problems for your aunt," Jax interjected, clearly sensing she needed backup.
"He's right," she said. "We were wondering if you might ask her if she has any interest in speaking to him. If she doesn't, then that will be the end of it. But we thought she should be given the chance to say yes or no."
"I'm not sure what to say," Ella said slowly. "His name is Walter…"
"Cobb," Kaia finished. "Is your aunt local?"
"She is," Ella said, but declined to expand on that. "I guess I could ask her if she remembers him. But my aunt was happily married for a very long time."
"So was Walter, but he's a widower now."
"My aunt is a widow, too," Ella said. "My uncle passed away two years ago. They always seemed very much in love. It's strange to think she might have loved someone else."
"Can I give you my phone number?" she asked. "If your aunt doesn't want to talk to him, we completely understand. We didn't tell Walter we were going to try to find Reina because we didn't want to disappoint him if it didn't work out."
"Although there's a chance he'll try to find her on his own," Jax said. "Walter was very touched by the love song she left him. We both read it, and the sentiment seemed very real."
"My aunt has always been a romantic," Ella said. "My mother used to call her the dreamer in the family, the one who liked to believe in Santa Claus and fairy-tales, even when she knew they were just stories."
"You look like your mother," Kaia said, waving her hand to the photograph. "Do you sing as well?"
"No. Even though she named me after Ella Fitzgerald, I can't even carry a tune."
"Do you have any of your mom's records?" Jax asked. "Did Anita and Reina ever record together?"
"Not together, but I have some old 45s from each of them. Would you like to see them?"
"I would."
