Joneses – 14.1 Maestro

The night after Kolby’s birthday, he treated himself to a solo night out on the town at the Blue Velvet nightclub for dinner and a show. He gave flirty glances to all the pretty ladies who walked by not knowing who was taken hoping someone would smile back

Being far too nice and a little bit shy, he never got that girlfriend he wanted in school. But, now that he was a man, he had to try harder.

“Hey, little buddy,” Marcus Flex called. “She’s mine! Keep looking.”

Kolby was glad he laughed it off, but he was so embarrassed.

The bar began filling up, and Kolby felt decidedly inspired in the moment. Being in a grown-up place doing what grown-ups do in a new chapter of his life, he had to express the excitement he felt. Once he finished his dinner, he left the bar, sat at the piano in the lounge area and channeled his thoughts through his fingers.

He thought about the first time he fell in love with music. He was very young. Not even in school yet. He and his parents were still living in the Pruett family estate, and his cousin-in-law, Giancarlo, was a violinist. He would hear him work on the songs he wrote all day. When he began walking, he’d toddle around the music room and attempt to bang on the piano. Sometimes Giancarlo would pick him up, set him in his lap and allow him to “play” the piano. His parents didn’t understand and always took him away from there, but Giancarlo knew and encouraged him.

When Kolby was school-age, Asia and Jared thought he wanted to be like Giancarlo and bought him a child-size violin. He did very well with the violin, but the piano had captured his heart long before then. Kolby began piano lessons when they moved to Courtyard Lane, and the rest is history.

Asia had nicknames for all her children, and he was “cute little maestro.” Now it’s more like “handsome maestro” and sometimes just maestro. She always encouraged him to follow his heart and go after whatever it was he wanted to do. All he ever wanted was love and music. Many parents got nervous when their child had their teen birthday like they would suddenly turn into some hormone-crazed woohoo robot. Asia and Jared weren’t like that. His mother encouraged him to get out there and find a nice girl, and his father taught him how to be a gentleman. Perhaps one day when Kolby was famous, he would dedicate a song to them.

Kolby thought about these things as he tickled the ivories, changing the mood and the melody with every changing thought. He wasn’t really aware of what he was playing; he just felt it. When his train of thought pulled into the station, he slowed things down a bit and brought the melody to a close. Still sitting at the piano, he breathed a satisfying sigh of relief. Whatever he had just played felt so cleansing and freeing. Apparently, the patrons of the bar thought so too. When Kolby looked up finally, he saw he had a captive audience.