“Now you’re just milking it,” Taryn called from the couch.
“Let the man cook,” Raschad said, recording on his phone.
I was wedged into the corner of the couch with my shoes off and my feet tucked under me, laughing, and I caught myself looking for Julian.
He stood at the threshold of the room, arms crossed, shoulder against the frame, a quiet half-smile on him, watching everybody be loud in his house like it was the best show he’d ever seen.
“Okay.” Tre finished his song. “Who’s following greatness?”
“I’ll go.” Khairos reached for the mic.
“Actually.” Julian came off the wall. “I’ll go.”
The room didn’t go silent. It glitched.
“I’m sorry. What?” Tre turned to him.
Julian hosted karaoke all the time. Julian did not sing. Not the night I closed my eyes and sang “Ready for Love” to a room I was pretending wasn’t there. Even then he only leaned on a wall and watched. Never once reached for the mic himself.
Simone was already smacking Raschad’s arm. “Record this. Record this right now.”
“Julian is doing karaoke,” Tre announced. “Everybody bear witness.”
I was grinning. Even though I’d heard him sing a few times, I hadnever once seen him hold that microphone. He didn’t then either. Instead, he crossed the room and sat down at the piano.
The temperature in the room changed.
The laughing drained out of it. Aunt Lorraine’s hand came up slowly and pressed flat over her mouth.
“Is he gonna play?” Taryn whispered.
Nobody answered her.
Julian settled onto the bench. Rolled his shoulders once. Laid his hands over the keys and held them there a second, like he was asking the piano for permission.
Then he pressed down.
The first notes came out soft and round, and then they opened into something, and I felt Simone go still beside me before I placed it myself. I knew this song. Everybody in the room knew this song.
Knocks Me Off My Feetby Stevie Wonder
“Oh,” Uncle Reggie breathed.
Years came out of that piano one chord at a time.
Across the room, Raschad put his eyes on the ceiling and breathed slowly through his nose.
Then Julian started to sing.
The first line out of him broke the room open. Somebody made a sound like they’d been hit. Behind me, I heard a wrecked, “My Lord.”
Aunt Lorraine gave up and started crying where she sat. Zion reached over and pulled Taryn into his chest.
I had heard Julian sing.
But not like this.
Not with his whole family in front of him, falling apart at a voice they hadn’t heard since they were kids.
