AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Agatha nodded, attention stolen by the black and white keys.
“Right, well, if you started with this note here.” Billie pressed a key. “Do you think you could work out the rest of the song?”
The child came closer to the keyboard and pressed a few keys experimentally. “Start with this one?” she asked.
“Mmmhmm.”
After a couple of false starts, Agatha managed a shaky but very recognizable version of the first line of the nursery rhyme. Billie let out the breath she was holding. Holy shit. The kid was four, five maximum.
“Do you have a piano at home?” Billie asked her.
“No,” Agatha said. “I’ve got a baby brother though, his name is Dash but he still can’t even talk properly so probably I’d rather have a piano.”
“Right,” Billie said. “Well, you’d better run on to class then, you don’t want to be late, do you?”
“Okay,” said Agatha, beaming a smile. “’Bye, Ms. Brooke.”
“’Bye,” said Billie, watching as Agatha bounced out of the room.
The question was, what was she going to do with this information? Agatha was obviously talented, more than talented. Billie herself hadn’t been able to wring a tune from the keyboard for at least a couple of lessons. Ag was a natural.
Which left Billie in an uncomfortable position.
Agatha’s parents should probably know about this, she should probably tell them.
And yet…
Yet if she did, she already knew what Agatha’s life would be like. She knew because she’d lived it. Agatha’s world would shrink down to music lessons and competitions and exams and concerts. And it broke her heart a little to think of that little girl losing any part of what she was now.
Her heart felt heavy. It wasn’t her decision to make, was it? She’d have to tell someone, she’d have to tell Agatha’s parents. And a little bit of her was excited. A little bit of her wondered what beautiful music Ag would bring into the world.
There was real talent there. Serious talent. A talent that just needed training and nurturing.
For the rest of the morning, Billie kept the news to herself, debating whether she should have even asked Agatha to play. By the time she was ready to leave, she still hadn’t come to any decision at all.
THE SUN WAS shining as Billie walked home, cutting through the High Street on her way. Half her mind was full of thoughts of little Agatha, who had been yelling from the top of the climbing frame when Billie had left the school playground. The other half was filling up with thoughts of Jules, with how exactly she was going to proceed.
She skipped a little, propelling her more quickly toward home. She was, she found, looking forward to the challenge. And it was a challenge.
Jules was annoying. Definitely annoying. But she was clever enough. Billie thought she could actually do this. She grinned a little and wondered just when it was that she’d started looking forward to Jules coming over.
Annoying, bossy, Jules.
“Help you, love?” Sylv said, as Billie pushed into the shop.
“Just some biscuits,” said Billie, who hadn’t planned to do this at all. But then, Jules would probably like some biscuits with her coffee, wouldn’t she? And there’d have to be coffee. Billie was exhausted after a morning with the kids and Jules was going to have to stay longer than the forty five minutes a lesson usually lasted.
“That aisle just over there,” Sylv said, pointing the way.
Billie made her way over and began the debate over what to buy. Jammy Dodgers were too infantile, chocolate Bourbons too posh, digestives too boring. Chocolate digestives, on the other hand, might do nicely.
“It must be a handful, teaching all those kids,” said Sylv as Billie bought the biscuits up to the till.
Not as much of a handful as teaching Jules was, Billie thought. But she just smiled. “They’re cute most of the time.”
Sylv grunted. “They’ll be shoplifting in no time. You teaching the new reception class? That Daniel Cunningham will either end up being prime minister or running a Mexican cartel.”
Billie laughed, the kid was definitely worth watching.
