60 comments/ 86197 views/ 99 favorites Heart Strings By: MSTarot "Yous from around here?" I hear the cabby ask me. His accent clearly shows he isn't. "Yea. I went to that school we just past" I tell him looking over my shoulder at the massive brick and stone building. Sitting in the middle of a large sea of grass it still looks like a prison. "Is a good to be home aye? You been gone a long time?" he asks as we turn the corner and head up the street where I grew up. I watch the familiar houses go past with a terrible feeling of the surreal settling about me. "A lifetime ago." I tell him softly. I listen to his idle chatter and make the appropriate noises to keep him happy for the next few seconds till we pull up in front of the house. Four white columns across the front, the American flag hanging limp from the one on the end. My eyes go to the dark window in the upper corner. The one I spent so many days looking out dreaming of the places I have been to now. Reaching into my pocket I hand him his fare plus a tip. I open the door and slide out pulling my duffel bag out with me. "Yous enjoy your homecoming." He tells me through the open passenger window. I nod to him as he pulls away. His stereo cranks up by the time he's at the end of the street. I look down at the mossy black cap of 'Short and Horny' the lawn jockey. I grin when the name comes to mind. I haven thought of him in a half-decade, or more but from the looks of things he hasn't changed a bit. My grin turns into a sad smile when I remember grandpa's expression when he came out to leave for work one morning and found me sitting beside 'Short and Horny' with a box of crayons coloring him. I had him every color in the box. I can still make out a little red in his jacket, under the moss. Grandpa had put down his brief case and sat down in his suit and picked up the blue crayon and started coloring the cap. I remember laughing with him when I handed him the lighter blue for the brim. I wipe a slow tear from my eye and walk past the statuary. The blue color, like grandpa, but a faded memory under the moss. It feels strange to lift my hand and push the doorbell, but my key to this house was lost with a bag in Rwanda three years ago. I hear someone approach the door and the locks being turned. "Yes can I help you?" I look at my Mom. Her hair is shorter than I remember it and the amount of gray has doubled. She has her glasses on, So I see her brown eyes through the thick lenses. I see she has still never taken the time to go get the surgery to have her sight fixed. My eyes drop to the turquoise blue evening dress she 's wearing with the white string of pearls worn close to her throat. "YOUNG MAN!" she says loudly to draw my eyes back up from her feet. "Can I help you with something?" I slowly smile. "Yea Mom you can." I tell her softly. Her eyes dart around my face, as they grow wider. "David? Oh my god David!" My mom is in my arms; I drop the duffel bag to the floor and wrap her up tight next to me. The half-forgotten smell of her perfume triggers a flood of memories and a dam of tears breaks under that floor. Crying silently I hold my Mom tight to me. I look up hearing my Dad coming into the room. He is dress in his tux with the tie still around his neck undone. "Vicky?" he asks softly looking at his wife hugging a man at the door and both of them are crying. I look over Moms head at his face. His goatee beard is pepper gray and the old tux looks a little tight around him but other than that he looks the same. "Hey Dad." I whisper. "I'm home can I borrow the car?" My dad's eyes lock on mine. I see him cross the living room in less than a second. I feel his arms come around me with the strength I envied as a teen. "Eeek" I hear Mom squeak between us. Laughing I hug her all the tighter. I wish the group hug could continue forever but finally it has to come to an end. Mom reaches up and wipes the tears from my face. Then her eyes go wide. "Oh my god my makeup!" she rushes out the room in the direction of the bathroom. Dad chuckles. He sticks out his hand to me and I take it. His grip is firm but I know mine is the harder now. "My God David your what? A hundred pounds lighter?" he asks looking me up and down. "Hell I don't think I looked that good when I played for Penn State." I look down at myself, and give a shrug. I sometimes have a hard time remember it, the changes that have come to me over the last five years. "The meals can be few and infrequent sometimes." I look up and shrug. "The toughest job you'll ever love and all that." Dad nod understanding. That was always dad. He didn't like my choices but he at least understood them. We both look to the hall hearing mom's heels clicking on the floor like a woodpecker. "Oh thank god I hadn't put on my mascara yet." My mom says coming back in to the room. She's hanging a pair of pearl earrings from her ears as she's entering. "David why didn't you call and let us know you were coming?" "I made the decision twelve hours ago at the airport. Just decided it was time." I look from her to dad and back. "I only had about two more months I could serve then I would have done the full five years and have to leave. I just couldn't face the idea of meeting a group of people and having to leave them so soon." "Is..." I see Mom hesitate for half a second. "Tina still over there, or is she here?" I swallow past the hard lump I knew was going to appear. "Tina got real sick four months ago. She passed in her sleep." I say softly. I see my Mom's face just fall apart. She's back in my arms again. This time I have no tears. I cried my tears for Tina out months ago. Her memory is a cold ache in my heart. A place I can not fill. "I am so sorry David." I hear my Dad say softly. For once where Tina is concerned I believe him. Mom looks up at me her face a red blotchy mess. "Oh David, I feel so bad now. I am... Oh I am..." "I know Mom it's okay. Past is past." I brush away a tear from her cheek. "Your face is a mess again." "Oh dear lord!" she rushes off toward the bathroom again her dress a flutter. I grin at her back. I turn to look at Dad and really take in the tux he's wearing. "Yall going out tonight I take it?" I ask him smiling. "Where is Kat? She and I can catch up till you two get back." I stifle a yawn. "That's if I don't fall asleep." I tell him covering my mouth to hide the next yawn. "Katrina is at the civic center." He tells me. He turns towards the mirror by the hall and start to work tying his bow tie. "She's playing there tonight at the amphitheater." "What?" I ask confused "Playing?" "Yes playing." Mom comes striding back in her makeup again perfect. I see she's added her mascara. She must be of the opinion she's over crying. Either that, or judging from the bustle she's in figures that she just doesn't have the time. "If our eldest child would contact us more than once in three years he would know about his little sister." I give a shrug. "Some of the places I've been don't have very dependable mail services. Plus I'll get to working and turn a round twice and it the next spring. Tina kept at me to call or write. I always said I would do it the next day then I would get started on something and it would be four months later and we were getting on a plane to go somewhere else." Dad seems to accept that. Mom knows it to be a partial lie. I can see it in her face. "Well your little sister is playing with the city orchestra tonight at the amphitheater." Mom tells me as she takes Dads tie issue in hand. "Her high school music teacher set it up. She even has a solo!" I stand stunned for a second. "Playing what?" I ask. Mom looks at me like I should be a mind reader. "The cello." She says giving dad's tie a pat. "Your good." "Kats playing the cello?" "Yes. For four years now! I told you that the last time I talked to you." Some of her customary exasperation with me slips back into her voice. I chuckle. "Mom last time I talked to you I was in a train station in Jakarta. The place was a mad house, I was doing good to hear one word in three." I stifle a yawn. "So she's playing the cello? I always said she had some music talent. I remember her playing chopsticks with grandpa." Mom stops and a strange look crosses her face. Dad see it and he must be a better mind reader than I am...or more awake. "Not a thing in his closet will fit him." He tells her shaking his head. Mom nods. "How about the blazer and slacks you wore to Daddy's funeral?" Dad looks me up and down as I feel a queasy feeling building in my gut. "It might." Dad says nodding. "I wasn't that broad in the shoulders so it might be a little lose in the waist and tight across the chest but... yea." I eye the two of them like they have suddenly started talking Swahili. No that would be better I know a few dozen words in Swahili. "We have the time if he hurries." Mom nods and off Dad goes like a bee has stung him. "David run up stairs and get you a quick shower. Your Dads going to go get you something to wear." "Where am I going?" I ask befuddled. Then it hits me. "Mom I just spent ten hours on a plane. As much as I would love to go see Kat play I'm going to fall asleep standing up soon." "You can nap on the way over in the car." She tells me. I recognize her feet planted in concrete attitude but I do my best any way. "Mom I listen to classical music to go to sleep at night. I will pass out before the first set is finished." I have to fight back another yawn. "I'll wake you for your sisters solo if I have too. Now go jump in the shower, we are already running late" I head upstairs yawning hopping I don't drown in the shower. I swear I'm still shaving when we get in the car. The ride over is a total blank. I just remember waking when mom touches my arm and we are sitting it the parking lot of the civic center. Dad shows some sort of pass to the security and we are led past the long line to get inside. An usher takes us through and into the long sloping hall. I can see the stage with the collection of large instruments already in place. The seats are empty. The hall fills quickly behind us as we are led down to the third row and to the right. "How did you get me a ticket?" I ask dad as we are seated. "The pass was for family up to four people." He tells me as he helps mom into her seat. The seats around us fill in quickly. I listen to the chatter of people talking in english. It sounds so very different from what I have been hearing for so many years that it puts me a little on edge. That plus the growing anticipation of seeing Kat play before so many people has me finally awake. As the musicians take the stage I look through them till I see her. She chats with another cellist as they take their seats. I see her find Mom and Dad next to me, but her eyes never focus on me. I smile when the music begins. Old memories of coming here with Grandpa and Granna when I was a kid. The city orchestra plays mostly things that people will know who have no true knowledge of symphonic music. A lot of movie themes. I remember with a smile the first time I head them play the 'Imperial march' by John Williams. Tonight they start with 'Requiem for a dream'. I watch with a smile as Kat's cello leads out the song. Over the next hour I don't think my eyes leave Kat once. It's like I'm seeing her for the first time as a person and not just my kid sister. When she plays she sways with the sound of the music. It looks almost like she is slow dancing with her cello at one point. I smile when I realize she has closed her eyes and isn't even aware there is a crowd watching her she is so into the music. After a short intermission they bring a chair to the front and Kat walks out with Mr. Tims. I grin seeing my old music teacher again. He still looks like Gene Wilder's stunt double from Young Frankenstein. His hair is a wild halo around his head. Only his smiling face makes him not look like a mad scientist. " I would like to thank all of you lovers of music who have come here tonight." He says then lifts a hand to the maestro "I would also like to thank Simon Davis our wonderful conductor for tonight giving me the time to show the talent in one of the best musicians I have had the pleasure to teach in many generations." He looks back over his shoulder. "You're still playing a little flat Ronald." One of the violinist chuckles and nods, the crowd laughs with him. Mr. Tims smiles and looks back at the audience. I see his fingers tighten on Kats hand. "In all seriousness though, this young lady Miss Katrina Marshal is going to be ...in my opinion at least," he says with a smile "one of the names that we in the music community will be hearing a lot of in the years to come." He smiles at Katrina, she looks down blushing. "She's a good bit more nervous than she looks so I wont ask her to speak, I'll let her talent speak for her. Playing Dvorak's Cello Concerto... miss Katrina Marshal." I join with a few others in standing to applaud her. She blushes and settles herself into the chair in the front. I watch her face settle into a serious look. "Her dress is too short." I hear my Mom whisper to Dad next to me just as Kat starts to play. My eyes drop to Katrina's bare legs wrapped around the back of the cello. I hide a grin from mom when I notice that I can see a long way up Kat's inner thigh. Then she starts to play. In seconds I find myself lost in the look on her face. She has the look of one awash in the throws of pleasure. I see her drifting with the sounds of the music she is playing. I see her breathing quicken as she sways with the bow driving the sound from her cello by force of talent and will. I'm in awed at the beauty of her. Of her music, I think quickly to myself. No...of her. I look at my younger sister then really look. I see the changes that the last five years have brought to her. The filling out of her body. The curves and hips as Tina use to say. A slow sad tear for my wife falls from my eyes as the music manages to find one more that I didn't know I still had. Katrina's long brown hair sways from side to side behind her as she plays like it's dancing to her music. I find myself looking her over. From the tips of her little black shoes up her pale legs, to those white thighs that hide teasingly behind the wooden body of her cello. But my eyes are drawn to her face. That look of ecstatic pleasure as she plays. It not only ecstatic it's nearly erotic. I'm surprised when feel a slight stirring of myself. I close my eyes and drift with her through the sounds. I 'listen' to her playing. Mr. Tims' had taught me to play a flute but that didn't mean I couldn't tell when a string instrument was being played well. She was playing flawlessly. All too soon the song ends and the audience comes to their feet giving her a loud ovation. She stands up; I can see the nerves have returned. She gives a slight bow, her face alive with a smile that goes from ear to ear. Dad's thunderous clapping next to me is at least an octave above the rest. I see Katrina's eyes go to mom and dad. Dad in a true show of his football roots brings his fingers to his teeth and gives a piercing whistle. Katrina bows to Mom and Dad. When she stands up her eyes finally drift over to me. She looks at me for a second with that I know you from somewhere look on her face. Then I see her eyes start to widen, as my grin slowly splits my face. Her jaw drops and I see tears spring to her eyes. I blow her a kiss as I see her recognition of me. Clearly stunned I see her turn to go back to her seat and my grin widens when I see the orchestra stands and gives her an ovation. The audience behind her redoubles their efforts as well. I watch my sister return to her seat overwhelmed. The violinist next to her hands her a tissue that she dab under her eyes with. For the rest of the performance whenever I look at her, which is often, Katrina's eyes are on me. She never once misses her mark; not one note that I can hear is played wrong. Her eyes will close a second before her time and then she plays with a passion that is beautiful to behold. Then her eyes open and focus on my face. She is so lost in her music several times the looks she gives me would not be out of place on the face of a lover. Lost in the beauty of her and her playing I know my own eyes are saying similar things back to her. After two hours and a several long intermissions the crowd stands to applaud the performance and the musician move to the front of the stage and take a long bow. The maestro moves over to Katrina and leaning in kisses her cheek. I can tell he's whispering something to her. She smiles and nods. I see her say thank you. The crowd beings to depart up the stairs. I watch Kat being told congratulations by the other musicians. I see the players take up their instruments and head off stage. I follow Mom and Dad around the side of the stage and I smile when I see Mr. Tims coming forward with Katrina by his side. He goes to say something to my dad but is interrupted when Kat launches herself from his side and into my arms. My sister, no little flower, crashes into me with enough force to make me stagger back. Laughing I catch us and wrap her into my arms. "Oh my god David!" I hear her crying into my shoulder. I feel her tighten her arms around me like she is never going to let go. I vaguely hear Mr. Tims laughing with Mom and Dad. "You were so beautiful sis. You played incredibly." I tell her whispering into her hair. I feel her lips kiss the side of my neck. "Thank you " I hear whispered under my ear. "David?" I look over my sister shoulder at Mr. Tims. Smiling I nod. "Well I'll be. I had given you up as eaten by lions." Kat turns me lose with one arm and tucks herself up under my arm. I smile down at her face. "Nope no lions. I did have an elephant knock me down with its trunk once." I feel Katrina's hand curl into my side holding me tighter. " We were helping build a wall at a small village in India and the elephant took exception to how close I was." "India! Oh my lord I have always wanted to go there. I want to listen to the music at the Fireflies Festival." His face positively glows. "I missed that I'm afraid. We were only there for a month and a half helping out another group. I did get to do a little sight seeing one afternoon. It's a beautiful place." "I would love to go." He sighs. "Well if you will all excuse me I have a million things I'm suppose to be doing." He shakes dad's hand. When he goes to offer his to me I am still kind of wrapped around Katrina. I grins "You were absolutely wonderful tonight my dear. I am so going to embarrass you Monday at school." I chuckle when I see Kat blush. "Well hun that was absolutely the proudest I have ever been of any of my children." I hear mom say then watch the look of horror cross her face. "Oh god David I didn't mean that like it sounded. I meant..." "It's okay Mom I took it the way you meant it." I tell her meeting her eyes. She looks away. Dad harumps. He's good at harumps. "Well kitten are you done amazing the local society page readers?" he asks Katrina. Mom pops his arm with her fingers. Kat smiles. "Yea I'm good and done. Let me get my cello, and I'm ready to go." "Oh dear." I see the look on Mom's face. I realize why at that same moment. Four people and a cello in a car. No one breathe till we get home. "I didn't even think about how we would get everyone back home." She says shaking her head. "We'll manage." Says Katrina snuggling up to my arm. I'm given a quick hug then she hurries up the stage. A young man in a shirt that says 'Staff' brings her the tall black case. I see her thank him twice. I guess he complimented her playing. Heart Strings I am yawning something terribly by the time we get to the car. Dad and Mom take the front seats and the cello takes up a large part of the back seat. I snuggled in next to it and after a second looking at the little that remained for her Katrina slides into my lap. "Okay all in." she said as she closes the door behind her somehow. "No bumpy roads if you please." "Seconded." I chime in as she squirms to get more comfortable. Finally I catch her hips and lift her up off my legs and settle her down almost cross ways in my lap. "Yall okay back there?" asks mom looking back at us. "Oh were good, just don't take the scenic rout his legs will go to sleep under me." says Katrina laughing. "The way he's yawning all of him may." Says Dad with a chuckle as he gets the car started. It takes more than a few minutes to get us out the traffic snarl by the gate. My hands have at some point in the shuffle come to rest just above my sister's knee. I see her looking down at my hand but when I go to move it she catches my hand and puts it back. Katrina snuggles down into my chest. I feel her breath by my neck. "I'm sorry about what Mom said." I hear her whisper right by my ear. I nod. The hot warmth of her body presses against me, with the sweet smell of her perfume filling my senses has gone a long way towards putting me to sleep. I see her smile at me as my eyes flutter. "Sleep big brother." I feel her hand resting on my chest as I drift into slumber. Given that I'm near six foot I know that no one carried me up to my old bedroom but I also have no memories of getting home or going to bed. I wake to a near dose at three in the morning. My body set to a time zone far away. It takes little effort to convince it to go back to sleep. I awake the second time more slowly. I can tell it's late in the morning by the light coming through the window blinds. I'm awaken by the sound of a cello. Not the soft soaring classical music of the night before. No this is more raw, harder. Sliding out of the bed I grab up a tank top and walk out the room and down the hall. As I step in front of my sister's room I awaken to full at the sight I behold. Katrina sitting behind her cello, eyes closed lost in the powerfully dark music she is playing. She is beautiful. She is also naked! I stand frozen, caught by the dream like sight of her and the hauntingly beautiful music she is playing. I quickly forget who I'm watching, simple watching to enjoy what I see. As her song ends she opens her eyes and sees me standing there. With a gasp she pulls the belly of her cello up close. "David!" Shaking my head I turn around. "I'm sorry Katrina. I shouldn't have been starring. I got lost in your playing. I really didn't see anything; the cello covered you." I start to walk away when she calls after me. "David wait." I stop and half glance over my shoulder then look away again. "It's ok David. I forgot that you were here. This is my normal Saturday morning routine. Mom and Dad go play golf at the club. I play nude. It really is okay David you can turn around." When I turn back she is still naked but the cello is blocking her body from my sight. "I should go." I tell her softly. "You don't have to. Even if the cello wasn't in the way all you would see is your fat sister." She quirks her mouth in a grimace. "You are not fat!" I tell her with a bit of strength in my voice. My eyes go to her white thighs that hug around the sides of the rose colored wood. She smiles then shakes her head. "I am. If this cello wasn't here you would probably gag." "Kat the only reason I would gag over what's behind that cello is if I got a hair caught in my throat." I say before I think. I watch her eyes go wide then she blushes to her toes. I take a second to think and regret what I have said, "What were you playing?" I ask to cover our embarrassment. She smiles. "Its called Forbidden City by Tina Guo. She's kind of what made me pick the cello when I got Mr. Tims class." "I remember my first day in his class. Tina Guo...don't think I've ever heard of her?" Katrina starts to slowly play. Unlike the tearing song she was playing this one is softer, haunting, I can hear the mixture of classical and new. "She plays an electric cello, in most of her videos. This is called 'I lost my love in the Winds'.' I watch as Katrina slowly sways with her bow. For half a second I see her dark nipple come clear on one side. It vanishes before I can lift my eyes away. I feel a stirring in my sweat pants that I tell to go away. "It's beautiful." Katrina opens her eyes and looks up at me. I see again those lovers' eyes focusing on my face. Then she blinks and smiles a sad smile, "I wish I could play it as well as she can. I do my best but I don't have the years of experience she has." She gives a shrug and looks down at the dark wood. "Your playing is top notch. I can tell...I have a good ear for it. Mr. Tims said I would make a good conductor if I wanted to take the time." I grin at the slow smile that creeps back into her features. She starts to softly play again. "Can you still play?" she asks me as she drifts a bit with the sounds she pulling out of her mind. I nod. "Would you get your flute and play with me?" she asks softly. "If you like. I'm not as good as you are by a fair measure, you've put more passion into it than I ever did." I walk back to my old bedroom. In the closet is the silvery flute I haven't touched in six years, but that's not what I'm after. Going to my bag I pull out the flute I carry with me. The engraved bamboo, still after all my years of handling it, shows signs of its muddy rebirth. When I return to Katrina's room I am somewhat shocked to see she is still in the nude. She looks up at me and smiles seeing my reaction. I pull her chair from under her desk and sit down. A couple of breaths and I start to play the tune I was first taught. "Oh my god David that's beautiful." I hear her whisper. "What kind of flute is that. I stop playing and wet my lips. "A Suling, it's a bamboo Suling. I found it in the mud in Indonesia." I run a hand over the smooth wood. A lot of memories come back in that simple gesture. "Indonesia?" she asks softly, I look up to see her leaning her chin on the side of her bridge. "My god the places you've seen." I shrug. "Indonesia wasn't pretty. I got there six months after the tsunami. The place still looked like a sea of mud and trash. We worked for seven months and I barely felt like we made a dent." I run my fingers over the holes in my flute. "I was digging with this local man, we were trying to uncover part of his mom's house. I felt something poke me in the leg. I thought it was as stick at first. Then I saw the engraving. I cleaned it up as best I could that night. I tried to play it the way Mr. Tims had taught me." I lift it to my mouth and blow out a few notes. I see her eyes contract. I nod agreeing it sounds wrong. "A local that was sitting near by came over and showed me how to play it." I go back to the tune I was playing. I watch her listen to the song for a second then slowly the cello begins to join in. I watch her eyes close and I see then the true mastery that she has attained. Her 'ear' is far beyond mine. Listening to just a few notes she picks it up and then takes it to places I could never reach. Her eyes open and lock on mine. I see her mouth open and the pink tip of her tongue come out and lick her lips. I watch her breathing quicken. The minutes pass as I play, watching her, watching me. I see the occasional flash of darker skin from the side of her cello as she moves with the bow. Slowly the song fades. "David that was beautiful." She says in a whisper. I look at her breathing slowly in and out, almost like a runner catching their breath after a jog. "Your playing was beautiful." I shrug. "I've been mostly playing at night for the amusement of children in the villages were helping. It made Tina smile to see them laughing and happy." I swallow past the lump in my throat. "Mom told me." She says quietly "I am so sorry to hear that happen David. Mom and Dad may not have approved of her, but I thought she was the best thing to ever happen to you. I saw the change when you two met. It was like seeing you come alive." I lower my eyes to the flute resting in my lap. Memories flood back to nearly over whelm me again. "Where is she buried?" Katrina asks after a moment. I look up to see her eyes full of concern. "I might like to go put flowers on her grave." I give a humorless chuckle. "It's a long plane ride. She wanted to be buried wherever she died. She told me that years ago. She didn't have any family but me. She didn't want to be hauled around the world to be buried in a graveyard next to people who never really understood her anyway." I smile at the memory of her saying that. My eyes look across endless amounts of seawater to a far distant land. I see again her large cairn of stone. "The local people and the other volunteers helped me dig the grave. Every one brought stones and flowers. The local women took her body and cleaned her up. They wrapped her in white linen, local spices and flowers." I look up to see Katrina silently crying. "A little boy she had been teaching english too placed a huge bouquet of yellow flowers on her cairn. I hadn't seen them before so I asked my interpreter about them. He told me they don't grow locally. That boy had walked twenty miles up into the mountains to pick them... cause she told him her favorite color was yellow." I hear movement but don't look up till I see her bare feet in front of me. My eyes go up her till they meet her eyes. I take in without seeing the beautiful curves of her naked body. She takes my hand and pulls me to my feet. Katrina's arms go around me in a fierce hug. There is an almost desperate power to her embrace. I settle my hands onto the warm smooth skin of her bare back and just hold her as she cries. I feel the need to do the same but there aren't any tears left in me. After several minutes she stops crying and looks up at me. I see the tracks of tears down her face. I bring around a hand and brush them away. I can't pull my eyes away from the dark depths of her eyes. "Would you play some more for me?" I ask looking into those eyes. She gives a sniffle and a smile. "If you would play with me." She says teasingly. I grin. "I never could turn down a naked woman offering to let me play with her." Grinning I see her eyes turn downward. "Even a fat one?" she asks sadly. I catch her chin with one finger and make her lookup. "You are not fat." "Yes I am. Even my own brother won't take a look at me. Your eyes haven't left my face the whole time." I open my arms and take a half step back. My eyes slowly lower down across her face, down her throat. Her breasts are large but not out of portion to her. The nipples a dark rose color, they stand out a little more than my wife's had. My eyes slide past them and down the white skin to the dark tuft of hair. She has herself shaven so that a bathing suit would be modest yet there is still a thick covering. I drop my eyes even lower to those smooth thighs I have been watching from around the cello. Finally I look at her dainty feet and ankles then just as slowly I bring my eyes back up. I see the red of a blush when I reach her breast. When my eyes met hers I smile. "You are absolutely beautiful. You are full figured, you don't have a body like a model, but that in no way makes you fat. You are perfect in every way that I can see." I smile when I see the emotions cross her face. "Your not just saying that?" she asks after a second. "Look down." When she does she can see the tenting in my sweat pants. She gives a giggle. "Wow. I did that? Okay maybe I don't look that bad." She smiles at me then gets a mischievously devilish look. "Try to keep up." I watch with a grin the curve of her ass as she moves back to her cello. She picks up her bow and I lift my flute. Within four seconds I'm lost. "I can't play 'Flight of the bumblebee' on a flute!" I protest as she plays at a ferocious rate. She grins at me. "It called 'Queen Bee" it's the heavy metal version." She saws like mad. I just sit back and watch. She makes no effort to stay hidden now she is simply playing. After a few minuets she switches pace to a slow classical number that I know and I join back in. We must have played like that for the better part of an hour, me constantly aware I'm playing with my naked sister. Then I hear the moan. It's low and if it hadn't come at a pause in the music I wouldn't have heard it. I bring my eyes up and see her panting. Her eyes are shut and she is moving with the music. Swaying against her cello as she plays. The next moan is a little louder. I notice then how deep between her leg the body of her cello is. "You naughty minx!" I tell her with a grin. I chuckle when her eyes pop open. "Now I know why you play in the nude." She blushes a little and gives a shrug. "It really does help me to practice. I can rally feel the music all the way through me." I laugh. "Helps you relax and...really get into it." I tell her with a lot of sarcasm. She blushes and nods. I sit back and start to play softly. I bring up the sound in a slow building way watching her play along. I see her eyes close and her mouth open slightly I watch her breath become a soft pant. With eyes half closed I play a soft counter to her, listening to the growing sounds of a young woman in passion. As the song rises to crescendo I see her moving against the back of the dark wood, grinding herself against the vibrating cello. And then just as it peeks I hear a gasp from her, her bow drops away from the strings. I watch her grasp the cello to her clutching at the neck and stilling the strings. I watch her breath slow from a pant to a heavy gasp for air then to a slow even in and out. Her eyes flutter open. She looks at me with her lover's eyes. "That was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen... and heard." I place my flute on the desk beside me. "I have only one thing t say though." She slowly quirks an eyebrow. "I've never been envious of a cello before." She breaks into laughter. The sound is interrupted by the noise of a car door closing. I see her eyes go to the clock by her bed. "Oh my god it's Mom and Dad." A second car door shuts. Getting up I quickly go to the door and turn towards my room. "David." I hear softly behind me the sound of her footsteps. When I turn I see her in all her naked glory just a foot away. Her hand snakes up behind me and catches my hair. My sister's lips are soft and warm against me. So is her body as it's pressed into my chest. I feel her breast push against the thin material of my shirt as my hands come to rest on the soft curves of her hips. Hearing the front door open and their voices our lips part. I slowly step back from the woman I've just kissed. That she's my kid sister hits me then in an odd way. A mixture of maybe confusion and a little guilt. Guilt that I've only been a widower for a few months and already I'm looking for comfort in a woman's arms. I watch the door slowly close as I turn and walk back towards my room. The memory of Tina pushing me into the arms of a village woman, after a day of her flirting with the both of us, comes to mind. I smile thinking back to that night. I feel the guilt drop away as, in my mind, I hear Tina laughing that I ever felt it. The meal is probably the largest I've had in a long time. Mostly I eat and go back to work. Or eat and go take a nap. Sitting across the table from Katrina I listen to dad chatter on about the latest football scandal. Mom hasn't said much. I can see the wheels turning behind her eyes. As we sit sipping coffee after I hear her plans come spilling out. "I called my brother Daniel. He said he could get you on with his firm. It will be a low-level position of course; you don't have the right kind of experiences for anything else yet. Give it a year of so and he can give you a leg up." She lay is out to me like she already has the glass men etching my name in the frosted door at the firm. I sigh. "Well tell Uncle Daniel I said thank you for the offer but I'm not really interested." I take a long sip at my coffee. "David." My name comes out of her like a drill sergeant on parade ground. "You need that job!" I look up when I hear her cup hit the table "Actually Mom I don't" I tell her siting my empty cup down beside hers. Gently. "Oh really? You're nearly thirty! You have no Real job experience. You have waisted the business degree we sent you to collage for. You've spent five years of your life gallivanting around the world when you should have been working your way up the corporate ladder. You could be nearly ready for upper management by now!" she looks over to my Dad. "Don't just sit there help me talk some since into him!" I turn and look to my Dad. He's sitting looking down into his coffee cup. I wonder if he wants more or wishes it large enough to drown himself in. Always the one told to make me see reason I generally get the idea he's sometimes on my side. "What are your plan's David?" he asks me finally looking up from the cup. I hear Mom huff in frustration. Sitting back I rub my chin feeling the beginnings of stubble. "Well I'm going to find me a small place in town to start. I don't really have a need for a lot of material things in my life a small place will suit me fine." I hear Mom's exasperation. I know she's shaking her head without even looking. "After that I want to get in touch with a couple of the local charities, places like Habitat for Humanity, Toys for Tots. Maybe the local homeless shelters as well. Do some volunteer work there. Retraining people, to do new jobs. I've picked up a lot of odd skills in the last five years. I've already offered to do some speaking at the locals schools, talking about the Peace Corp. Do some recruiting work for them maybe." I give a shrug. "After all that I'll see how it goes. One day at a time basically." "Homeless shelters! Well you better get in real good with them cause your ... PLANS will have you living in one before long!" Mom gets up and storms out the room carrying the tray of cup. I hear them slammed to the counter in the kitchen. I watch Dad cringe at the sound. He slowly turns to look at me. I see him sigh. "David...Son, I want you to know that the fact you want to do those kind of things makes me very proud of you. Most people go through this life just living for themselves and their families. You have gone out of your way for the last five years to help as many people as you can. I'm proud of you for that." He looks up at me and our eyes meet. "Nothing you have just said though is a way of making a living. There all good things...things you could do on the side. You need to be getting started with your financial life. Your going to turn around twice and be old and wondering what happen to all those years when you should have been putting away. What if you meet someone, remarry? What if you have kids? Wouldn't you want them to go to the finest schools? To have the chance at the best education?" I look up from the table at Katrina sitting across from me. Her eyes show a concern for me that tears at my heart. I can tell she wants me to do what I want, but at the same time is as worried about me in her own way as Mom and Dad. "Have I ever told you how I met Tina?" I ask her. That Dad is there is almost irrelevant to me just then. "It was when I was at collage." I watch Katrina slowly shake her head. Heart Strings "I walked the same paths across campus from one business class to the next, day after day. Seeing the same people. Day after day. We were all dressed the same, in the most expensive clothes," I look to our Dad "that our parents could buy." He gives a snort at the knowledge where some of his money went. "One day out the blue I noticed a young homeless lady sitting on the steps of the library. She had a box out in front of her that had 'People Are Hungry' on the side of it. I though she meant her...maybe her family. Her hair was a frizzy mess and she was in second hand clothes. I didn't hardly pay her any mind. I didn't even notice she was reading something." I smile at the memory. "I was headed to my economics class... and homeless people don't mesh with that. Their lazy people that suck the life out the economy." I give a glance towards dad to show where that though had come from. I hear him harump. " The next day she was there again, and the next after that. I was about to report her to school security when I turned around in my chair in class to say something to a guy I knew and saw her sitting at the top of the room. She had a laptop in front of her that must have cost two grand. She was typing and making notes like a person possessed!" I chuckle. "I saw her the next day sitting with her box by the library steps again. I knew that in that bag beside her was a computer that could feed a dozen families if sold. I actually got a bit mad at her then. Here she was begging for other people's money, dressed like some vagrant to win sympathy when she obviously had money! Well I walked over to her...to giver her apiece of my mind. When she looked up, I was shocked to see how beautiful her face was. In nice clothes with her hair done right she would have been one of the most beautiful women on campus." I go silent for a few seconds. I hear a sniffle from Katrina. "I ask her what she was doing, begging when she had money." I chuckle "She looked me up and down, my fat chubby self...in all my expensive clothes. She told me then it wasn't about the money, on a good day she wouldn't make maybe twenty dollars in change. But those people who stopped and dug out their fancy wallets from their designer slacks. Had been made to think...if only for that few seconds...that there are people in the world that... are... hungry!" I stop and shake my head. I feel the rise in my blood. "That while we sit eating out hamburger, pissed because we didn't get the right Monopoly piece on the side of our fries." I wave towards the dining room table in front of me. "That while we stuff ourselves at dinner. Talking about the days adventures at the shopping mall buying stuff that we don't need... someone...not even someone far away is starving! That they haven't eaten a bite of food that didn't come out of someone's trash in months!" I push myself back from the table, feeling more than a little disgust at the full feeling in my stomach. I look up at my beautiful sister. "I reached into my leather wallet. I pulled it from my designer jeans. I don't know how much I dropped into that box...it was every bill I had in that wallet." I swallow past a lump in my throat. Reaching forward I take a sip from my water glass. I look at the patterns in the condensation on the glass... I watch the ice shift. Feels like it's been years since I've seen ice. I look back up at Katrina. "I felt her eyes on my back all through economics class that day. I knew she was watching me without even turning around. That night I didn't eat dinner, nor breakfast the next morning. When lunch rolled past and I walked to the library I was truly starving! Maybe for one of the first times in my life I felt what that was like. I stopped in front of her. When she looked up from her book I told her what I had done...that in one person she had at least gotten the message across. She smiled and patted the stone steps next to her. She handed me a bag of trail mix from her bag" I look up at Katrina, her eyes are aglow with tears. "We both missed economics that day, all the rest of our classes too. We talked," I chuckle " then went to get something to eat." I look up seeing my Mom standing at the kitchen door tears running down her face. "I learned more from her in that one day about how I should be living my life, than that collage had taught me in the two years I had been there. I was also in love with her before that day was out." "David...I..." mom stumbled towards me as I stand up. I catch her as she goes to hug me, stopping her in her tracks. "Tina had lost all of her family when she was in high school. They had money. It all went to her. When she passed she left it to me." I look into my mom's eyes "By her wishes I gave half of it to charities...the rest, several million dollars, is in my bank account and will see me through the rest of my life." I watch Mom take that in, I see her slowly nod. "David, I'm sorry about all the things I have said to you about Tina. I wish I could take them all back." I smile at my Mom "You just did." I watch from my window as Mom and Dad leave to go play bridge with friends. I hear a light tap on my door behind me. "It's open Kat." Turning as she enters I see my sister smile at me. I take in the terry cloth robe she's wearing at a glance. I had heard the shower running a bit ago. Her hair looks damp from her shower. "You may do well at your recruiting speeches. I heard mom talking about getting with Mrs. Wellington. She runs fundraisers for local charities. Mom's always called her a idiot who wastes her time." I smile and nod. "It's a start." I watch Katrina looking at me from my door. I see her eyes go to my bed. "What?' I ask softly. "I've slept in here. More just after you left than lately." Seeing my puzzled look she smiles. "The room kept your scent for about a year after you left. That cologne you uses to use." I chuckle. "God I haven't bought a bottle of that in years. The stock in the company must have taken a hell of a drop. I was all but bathing in it through all of high school." She slowly comes over to me. "I know. I missed the smell when I hugged you last night." She stops close to me and looks up with her dark eyes. I can smell the perfume she wears. The shampoo she used. "David I've noticed you don't cry when you talk about ...your wife." "Oh, I did my share. I cried myself out time after time for weeks. Then finally I started to feel that I was doing her an injustice. She would have been mad at me for spending all that time, and all those tears on some one tears wont help." "But you loved her...she was worth your tears." Katrina says in confusion. I smile. "Tina always had a saying, she picked up somewhere. Today is the god's gift to us, which is why we call it 'the present'. She would want to be remembered yes but not like that. Not with soul tearing tears of loss. For the sake of her memory I try to live in the god's gift." I shrug. "I try at least." I see Katrina take that in for a second. "You left your flute in my room. Come get it I want you to listen to something with me." She turns and walks out the room. I follow wondering what she wants me to listen to. Walking into her room I can smell the sandalwood incense and the vanilla candles. I watch her go to her stereo and start a CD to playing. I see her cello on it stand by the closet. My flute rests on the table next to it. From her speakers I hear a cello start to play softly. The music is hauntingly lovely. I can hear the hand of a master player weaving sounds. "This is the woman who's song you were playing earlier isn't it?" I ask sure of my answer. "Yes. Her name is also Tina. This is called 'Autumn winds.' I watch as my sister walks over to the light switch by the door and clicks it off. The light of the dozen candles gives the room a magical flicker. "David...I have a confession to make." She says softly as she steps in front of me. I smile; 'Confessing' is an old game we played as children I look at her face in the golden light. She is so incredibly beautiful. The music takes a soft turn to a more lonesome sound. " What do you feel the need to confess?" I ask playing the old game with her. "I didn't forget you were here this morning." The implications of that come to me quickly. As I watch she unties the knot on her robe and it drops to the floor, with a rustle of fabric. Again I stand in the presence of my naked sister. "I want to live in 'the gift' brother." She tells me as she takes the last few step to me. As for the second time in one day I hold my naked sister in my arms I find myself both at a loss for words and hardening. Her lips touch mine, softly. Hesitantly. "You're sure?" I ask her as I pull her close to me. "Once we do this our lives will never be the same." "The gift brother...the present is all that matters right now." Her arms tighten on me; her hands run up under the back of my shirt. With only a little help from me she lifts my shirt off over my head. Our bare skin touches, in a warm soft contact. As the music soars I start to kiss her back. I feel her body melt up against me. Hers is soft and a fire begins to heat her from within as we kiss. I sweep her up into my arms and carry her to the bed. Laying her down I settle myself next to her and softly kiss the side of her neck. Katrina moans and turns her head away giving me more access. With soft nibbling kisses I make my way down her throat. I lift my mouth away and look down at her large breast with its dark nipples. I place first a gentle kiss then a harder one up on them. "Oh David." She moans my name as I begin to suckle on the hard nub of flesh. Catching it between my teeth I lash the tip with my tongue. "I've wanted to feel you do that for so long." My hand slides across her belly circling around her belly button then I drop down into the valley by her thigh. My fingers run into the soft wiry curls like I'm caressing a pet. The tips of my fingers are suddenly wet as I push through and down across her lips. She arches her back up towards me bringing her nipple deeper into my mouth and I feel the slick wet lips part. My fingers slip down into her sinking into warmth then into a wet tight heat. That my sister isn't a virgin is a bit of a surprise. But then I wasn't at eighteen either. "I was thinking of you." I pull away from her nipple and look up into her eyes. "When I was with him, the boy who took my virginity. I was thinking of you." She softly brushes my face. "I didn't love him though. I fell in love with you a long time ago big brother." "Why didn't you tell me?" I ask caressing the side of her neck. "Tell my older brother I'm in love with him. What would you have thought? That is was just a silly school girl crush." She twists her lips to a smirk. "That I needed therapy?" I nod at the possibility of that answer being right. "I kept what I felt a secret...and then you were gone. Married and gone far away. Lost to me and my unnatural feelings." She looks down at my chest. She runs a finger through the sparse hair. "It may have been a crush at first but losing you like that made it more." Her eyes come up to mine. "I love you so much now David. I don't care! I don't care what the world will say or what Mom and Dad would say... I want you." She looks up at me as I focus on her face at a loss for words. I watch a single tear run down her face. "Please." I lean in slowly and kiss her with no reservation now. That she is my sister fades to the back of my mind. I feel her body pressed up against mine, but the cloth of my pants keeps me from feeling all of her. Reaching down I start to undo my pants then I feel her hands in the way. "Let me." Leaning back on the soft pile of pillows and stuffed animals that all smell of her I watch my sister doing the unthinkable. I see her slide down my zipper then when I lift up she slips my pants down off my hip. That I'm not wearing underwear seems to catch her by surprise for a second. I see her look up at me and smile when her fingers close around me. The moan from me is involuntary. "You go commando all the time?" she asks her fingers slowly explore my cock. "For about three years." I answer with a smile. A wave of pleasure makes me lean even deeper into her pillows. I close my eyes against the sensation, after a second I open them to see her looking at me with a smile. "Spent three days in soaking wet clothes digging through mud. My underwear got a lot of grit in them and by the end of the second day I was raw. Never again." "Makes a lot of since. What did Tina think of the change? Or does talking about her not feel right while I'm doing this?" she stops and looks up at me hesitantly. I smile and signal for her to continue with my chin. "She liked it. Tina was very open about sex. If she was here you would probably be getting instructions in what I like from her." I chuckle at the memory of her doing that with a volunteer girl two years about. "What would she be telling me?" ask Kat gently tickling me with her fingertips. After a second I answer. "She would tell you that I like it when a woman caresses my...balls while stroking me." Kat chuckles. "Balls? Are you nervous to say swear words in front of your little sister? I'm playing with your cock big brother I think were beyond that stage." She looks down at me in her hand. I feel her fingers start to move over my skin ticking the wrinkled folds. "Like this? What else would she tell me?" I hesitate. My sister looks up and smiles. "Come on David. What would she tell me?' I take a deep breath. "That I like having the head licked." I see her blush for only a second then a wicked grin appears. I suck in a breath when her head lowers to me and I feel the silky soft feeling of my sister's tongue licking at the tip of me. "Oh my god that feels good." She places a soft kiss on the end of me, then looks up. "I've never done this before. Hell I've only had sex twice." She shrugs and goes back to licking at me. "How did you like it?" I ask after a second. She licks the precum off the tip and looks up licking her lips. I she her shrug. "The first time wasn't good. Kind of awkward and fumbling, then pain and then it was over. The second time was better. It didn't hurt, but...well he got off then left with hardly a word." "You need better taste in men." I tell her shaking my head. She gives me another lick. I'm really leaking now. I know I must feel like a steel pipe in her hand. I'm so hard it hurts. "I think I've found a better tasting man already." I chuckle at the joke. Leaning back into her pillows I watch her giving her first ever blowjob to a man. There is the hesitant moment when she put the whole of my head into her mouth. I feel suction then the scrape of her teeth down the sides as she takes me a bit deeper. "How am I doing?" she asks me pulling off and looking up at me. She continues to stroke me. "Your doing wonderfully." I tell her chuckling. "Trust me you're close to getting your first mouthful of cum." I see her grimace. "I don't know if I want to do that. I've hear it doesn't taste good." She quirks her mouth and gives me a slow lick. "You don't have to. Here let me up." I go to try and sit up but she puts and hand on my stomach. "But I want to please you." "You have been but trust me...you'll like this and it will be my pleasure to do it." I slide own her bed and leaning into her face I kiss her warm lips. I can smell myself on her mouth and taste myself on her tongue. I gently lean her back onto her bed and slide down till I'm kneeling on the carpet beside it. Taking one of her feet I start to kiss her skin. First her ankle then higher and higher up her leg. My lips find the soft skin behind her knee and she giggles and squirms up the bed a little. I follow kissing my way down her inner thigh. "Oh my god...are you going to... OH GOD!" My lips find the slick wet folds of her and my tongue lashes them open. I lick the whole length of her tasting the sweet smoky flavor of her. My nose takes in the rich musk and the smell of her perfume as I kiss the soft skin where her leg ends and her sex begins. She moans as I feel my tongue cross her clit. It's swollen to a thick nub that stands out from her body like a little finger. I suck it into my mouth and I feel her fingers dig into my scalp. "Oh god David...oh...oh god, oh god, Oh that feels so good." I feel her fingernails dig in, then she arches up driving the wet hole against my tongue. I push into her tasting the darker flavors, the warm thick honey of a woman coating my tongue in slick wet taste. I lick the inside of her as she pants and moans. I listen with pleasure as Kat says my name like it's a mantra. Her thighs are warm against my ears; my face grows soaked as she grinds herself against my mouth seeking even more pleasure. I look up through the damp curls to see her head thrown back he eyes tight shut. I smile and suck back in her clit. I lash at it with my tongue feeling her body trembling. I see her grab up a stuffed rabbit from beside her and bury her face into it. Her thighs close on my head with an almost painful force as she arches up off the bed. I hear a throat-tearing scream from her muffled by the rabbit. I hold on to her legs and lash her clit through quiver after quiver till she finally starts to push at my head weekly with her hand. I place soft kisses on her curls as I move up her belly. I lick around her belly button then taste the hot skin under her breast. Then her nipple is a hard piece of candy in my mouth. I lick and suck at her listening to the soft moans. I feel her legs open under me. The tip of me feels a wet sensation that I had given up as a memory. I sink into Kat with a soft slow thrust feeling her shiver as I bottom out. I start to slowly move in her, hardly leaving the warm wet heaven I'm in. I look down into my sister's face when I see her eyes open. They slowly come to focus on my face. "Oh god David if you only knew. If you only knew how many nights I've lain here fantasizing of you doing this. Of you making me cum like you just did." He legs open wider. I have no more length to give so I push hard against her making her give way so I go deeper. Her arms softly wrap around me. Her face comes to rest against my neck. It's a few moments till I realize she's crying. I stop and pull up from her a bit. She clings to me. "No don't stop." "Why are you crying? Am I hurting you?" I ask holding myself still inside her. "Oh not in the least. If you felt anymore wonderful I would never let you stop. I...I'm not on the pill. Mom wouldn't let me. She said it would encourage me to have sex unprotected." I kind of look down between our bodies to where my bare cock is buried to the hilt in her. "She may be on to something there." Kat starts to laugh under me and I give in and chuckle as well. The feeling of her laughter along the sides of me is wonderful. I bury myself to the very depth in her and just hold myself there. She clutches at me as if afraid to turn me lose. After a very long time like this I feel myself start to soften. I hear a soft cry from her. Then a sniffle. Looking down into her face I smile then kiss at her tears. "Don't cry Kitten." "But I wanted you to enjoy Me." she says sniffling. "Oh believe me I have." She clutches at me I feel her breath warm by my neck. After a moment I hear her start to say something, stops, then take a deep breath. "I could suck you off. I was enjoying you in my mouth." I look at her as I sit up and slowly ease out of her. She is so tight only the slick wetness of her lets me go. "I only want you to do that if you want to. You don't have to get me off. The taste of you was wonderful and the feeling of you is...beyond words." Heart Strings "I want you to be able to cum in me. You don't have a condom do you?" I shake my head. She looks like she's going to start crying again. "Is this a one and done?" I ask softly. "What? No...No I want you again. Forever and ever. Anytime we can till...you get tired of me." "Hey." I catch her hand and pull her up to me. I wrap her soft naked body into mine. "I'll never be tired of you? What gave you an Idea like that?" "I'm.... I'm no good in bed. That's what he told me when he left. Jason. He was the boy I did it with. He told me I wasn't any good." I kiss her softly. "Well Jason was an idiot who didn't know good when he had it." I shake my head. "From now on you let me be the judge. I'll go get some condoms tomorrow. I promise you as soon as we can get a bit of privacy I'll do my best to run through as many of them as I can." She hugs me close. I hold her enjoying the feeling of her soft body. Kat feels so very different from Tina I feel a soft smile start to form as I think of my wife and how she must be laughing at me right now. "I love you David." Pulling back I look into my sisters eyes. My smile slowly grows. "I love you Katrina." She kisses me. Then after a second or so looks down, I can see she wants to ask for something but wont. "What my little kitten?" She looks up at my face. She gives me a hesitant look then looks away. I catch her chin and turn her back to face me. "What?' I smile "You can ask me for anything." "What I want isn't fair." I chuckle. "Anything you little tease!" "Would.... would you like to kiss me again? Down there? I hate to ask since you didn't get to cum." I slowly smile and chuckle. "Oh you are a greedy little minx. I would love to." I blink in surprise as she slides past me and out the bed. "What?" I watch the round curves of her ass as she goes over to her stereo and takes out the CD. She pulls another one from out of a book on the shelf. After a second I hear the sounds of the cello. It's a song I know from years a go. I chuckle softly. "Really? Bolero? You've been watching too many movies." She blushes. "I played this." She says hesitantly. "I recorded this one Saturday." I hear a soft moan from the tape. I grin. "Lay your naked cello playing ass down." With a giggle she all but leaps into the bed. I watch smiling as she squirms up into the pile of pillows. She's biting her bottom lip as I lean in and kiss her inner thigh. "Don't close your eyes this time. Just watch me and enjoy." I tell her looking up through the brown curls. She nods. Katrina is hotter and muskier this time as I kiss her wet lips. I hear a moan from both the speakers and from her that makes me grin. I settle into the bed and rest my head against her leg a little in no hurry this time. My little sister is soon moaning in time with the beautiful sounds of her music.