Every Song He Stole Was Mine novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Songs for Jo
I opened the door and did not step back to let her in.
Kiera stood in the hall with water running off her hair and the black bag clutched against her coat.
"Tilda's asleep," I said. "Keep your voice down."
"I will."
"You have one minute."
"That's all I need."
She held out the bag with both hands.
I took it, and it was heavier than it looked.
Inside was a black notebook with a cracked spine, the same kind I had bought by the dozen for ten years.
My father had bought them for me first.
"Where did you get this?" I asked.
"Out of the drawer by the kitchen radio at your mother's house." Her voice shook. "The day of the funeral, when everyone was in the yard. I went in the back door and took it."
"You walked into my mother's kitchen."
"I stood in the middle of it for ten minutes. I'd never been in it." She swallowed. "Then I saw this and I took it, and I've been reading it for three years."
I stood in the doorway with the notebook in my hands.
The handwriting was my father's, square and slanted, the same hand that had signed my report cards.
I opened it.
The first page said: Tunes for Jo.
Under it was a list, with dates.
A little rising figure in pencil, three notes up and a fourth that fell back, written out on a staff with great care.
Beside it he had written: For Jo's 8th. She hums it in the bath. Don't tell her I copied it down.
I turned the page.
There were forty or fifty of them.
Every one was labeled with my name, and every one was a melody I had hummed at the kitchen table when I thought nobody was listening.
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