Page 113 of Strum Me

Chapter Thirty-Five

Brad

“Ready guys?” I wink at the others and they all nod in bright enthusiasm.

“Hit it!”

We all break out into our new piece, a medley of Disney movie theme songs. We keep the tempo upbeat, chopping and changing between parts, moving around the room, dancing a jig in our costumes. Our audience squeals with delight and Hailey takes some by the hand and twirl them around in the free space, all of them singing along at the tops of their sweet, little voices.

It’s our first concert at a children’s hospital, and we couldn’t be happier with how it’s turned out.

After having a chat to Dennis a few days ago, he agreed to try to fit in some hospital visits, mostly in children’s wards. Within twenty-four hours he’d arranged at least one hospital or treatment center in the eight cities we had left on our tour. We spent the next day figuring out some kid-friendly songs we could do, as a band or in solos or duets. But this one was by far our favorite, and it was proving to be a favorite among our audience too.

“A handful of lollipops to whoever can guess the next song first!” Marius calls out and he starts transitioning into the next song in our medley.

“MOANA!” they all yell at once and their parents laugh. Marius throws his hand up in defeat. “You guys are just too good at guessing. I’m going to make the next one super duper hard for you.”

We finish the chorus of the theme song to Moana and move right into the next one.

“THE LITTLE MERMAID!” they all yell again, barely a few notes into the song. Marius stops playing and pretends to give up, flopping down on the edge of one of the kids’ beds. She squeals with joy and reaches out and hugs him. He breaks out into a grin and hugs her right back.

I jog over to him and poke him in the stomach with my bow and he yelps.

“Hey, get back on your fiddle! Don’t let him be such a lazy bum kids, he’ll try to get out of anything to lie down!” I tell them and they run over to him and drag him to his feet.

Marius tries to be a dead weight, then he turns around and starts tickling anyone he can reach. They giggle and run away. He picks up his viola and joins in with us again. We come to a loud finish and then bow to the sound of clapping and cheering.

It’s the best audience I’ve ever had.

I feel a poke in my back and I turn to see Sebastian beaming at me.

“Thanks, Brad. For bringing us here.”

He gestures his head towards Cadence, who looks so happy her face might literally split in two. Cadence, who in the short amount of time she’s been with us, has taught us how much better it is to give than take. I tilt my head in acknowledgment of Sebastian’s thanks.

“Now kids, any requests?!” I ask.

We have to cover our ears from the volume of their screams back at us.

***

“Wow. That was fun, but exhausting,” Marius says, flopping onto the couch back on our bus.

“For sick kids, they sure have a lot of energy,” I comment.

“Imagine how much they would have if they weren’t sick,” Jez says, turning pale at the thought.

Then we all turn sober for a moment, as we remember a certain little boy that was recently with us, with all the energy in the world.

Dennis breaks up the rare quiet though, barreling into the room, talking even before he’s reached the door.

“Whoa whoa. Slow down. Breathe, then talk.”

“I don’t have time to breathe. I’m trying sort out your lives,” he quips.

“Oh, then screw breathing. Work away,” Jez tells him.

“So, tomorrow, the whole day’s been set aside for rehearsals and then—”