Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 31

Willie and Mom cut the meeting about my future short since he still had to get Cameron back to his car. Even with that, I was groggy when my alarm went off the next morning. Chef had me come in for early morning training before the lunch rush instead of after, and picked me up on the way to the Sunday farmer market, which meant I was seriously sleep-deprived. Not that I complained to him. He was already doing me a favor with all the training and now he was doing me another one by altering his schedule so I could go to Kat’s swim meet.

It was a lot more conditioning today, since he had to keep going inside to deal with preparing the day’s specials. He did have me walk him through what happened on Saturday. Once he was convinced I hadn’t tried to actually get involved in the fight beyond getting Cameron out of danger, he focused on the specifics of what I’d done, going through the motions several times.

He made a point to show me multiple places I’d made mistakes and how much I could have been hurt had the person not been so drunk. I didn’t have enough leverage on the arm control, I wasn’t aware of my surroundings and didn’t check for any other dangers until after the one guy was on the ground, despite the fact that there was an all-out brawl happening. Despite Mom’s displeasure, I’d been feeling good about how I’d managed, so it was a humbling moment. He then proceeded to put me through my paces hard, just to make sure I learned my lesson. I got the message, being barely able to move by the time we called it a day.

Maybe as a way to counter kicking my ass, Chef did arrange for one of the busboys to give me a ride to the school, although I was on my own getting back up to the Blue Ridge afterward for music practice. I took what I could get. If worst came to worst, it was within walking distance, barely. Although the five-ish miles between the school and the Blue Ridge after a day of conditioning would be hell. I’d made sure to bring my guitar that morning and leave it in Chef’s apartment, along with the rest of my stuff, so at least I wouldn’t have to carry anything.

Walking into the pool inside the school, I was a little amazed. One, I hadn’t realized it was heated until that moment. We had a swimming section of Gym class, but it wasn’t until the second semester, so I’d just assumed it was outdoor. Wellville wasn’t a particularly well-off town and the school was far from new, so what looked like a pretty modern indoor pool seemed a little out of place.

There was a pretty good crowd here; some wore shirts from one of the other small towns along I-26. I wasn’t sure where this one was, but I think it might have been off to the north of Wellville. Someone had put strings of multi-colored triangles from one end of the pool to the other and swimmers were gathered at one end in two groups, apparently the different schools, although there weren’t uniforms like you’d see in football to tell who was who.

The girls were all wearing swimming caps, which really changed the way they looked, making it hard to tell which girl was Kat at first. I found a seat on the far end of the bleachers and waiting for things to start when one of the girls broke off and half-jogged over towards me. It wasn’t until she was almost right in front of me that I realized it was Kat.

“You came,” she said, practically bouncing on her toes.

“Of course I came,” I said standing up.

I hadn’t really considered how Kat looked before and I was surprised with how absolutely ripped she was, which now that I thought about it, was kind of weird. She didn’t dress modestly, although considering it, she didn’t show a whole lot of skin. It was mostly tight clothes and low necklines. It was almost like she dressed in a way that made it seem revealing without actually being revealing.

I was sure I’d have noticed how muscular she was before, although maybe it was because of how she was built. Although she had really good definition along her legs that looked like they could break a man in half, it was wiry muscle, built for speed more than power.

I realized I’d stared a moment too long and shook myself mentally, making sure to make eye contact. I know she caught me looking and she seemed almost scared instead of annoyed or pissed I’d been checking her out.

“Sorry, I was just thinking I didn’t realize you were in such good shape,” I said, deciding to be honest. “I better make sure not to get any wrong answers next time we have a session, or you might rip me in half.”

It was a lame joke, but it seemed to work. I could visibly see her relax.

“I wouldn’t do that,” she said, looking down to the floor.

“I’ve never been to a swimming competition before, so I don’t know how this works. Can I cheer or whatever?”

“Yeah, absolutely. I’m swimming the one-hundred and two-hundred freestyle, plus I’m in the relay.”

“You don’t do any of the other types?”

“I sometimes do breaststroke in relays, but I’m trying for juniors again, and I always do freestyle there since my breaststroke isn’t good enough, so I told coach I wanted to stay focused on just this form this year. If things go well, I might be able to swim in the Pan-Am games in the spring.”

“So you’re really good?”

“I don’t know,” she said, looking at her foot as she drew small circles with her big toe.

“Kat,” one of the girls still huddled up by the pool called out to her.

“Either way, I’ll be over here cheering for you. Good luck.”

“Thanks,” she said, giving me a bright smile and running back to her friends.

I took my seat again. The place was humid and warm, probably because of the heated water, and everything smelled like chlorine. It took about another twenty minutes before anything actually got started, with swimmers and coaches walking around talking to each other.

They started with a couple of men’s races, which helped me figure out how this all went. The fifty-meter race was fast, basically just from one end of the pool to the other, while in the others the swimmers had to turn around in the water a couple of times. It looked like they did an underwater somersault or twist or something, and then they’d plant their feet on the back wall of the pool and push off, popping back up to the surface ten feet further down.

The boys finished the fifty, one-hundred, and two hundred in each style before the girls got to go, starting with their fifty. They seemed to be letting multiple groups go in each race, but I wasn’t sure if this was some kind of semi-final and the winners would swim in a final race later or some kind of qualifying thing. There wasn’t much in the way of explanation, just a guy on the side calling out for swimmers for the next race, after which everyone seemed to know what they were doing.

It was probably thirty minutes before the girl’s one-hundred freestyle, which was Kat’s first race. I didn’t see her in the first group and I thought maybe I didn’t recognize her again, but I saw her in the second group. It turned out there not being a uniform swimsuit came in handy, since there was enough difference between each swimmer I was able to follow one person.

She stepped up on the platform and kind of knelt down almost holding her toes, just like the guys did. A buzzer sounded and she exploded off the platform, knifing into the water. My assessment that she was good turned out to be an understatement as she proceeded to smoke the rest of the girls in the pool. She was almost a full body length ahead of the next closest girl when they hit the wall for the turn, and she stayed under afterward way longer than anyone else. She was underwater long enough I could kind of make out what she was doing.

As she moved off the wall she’d put her hands together in front of her and had her legs tight together, moving them almost like she was wearing flippers or a mermaid tail. When she finally came up to the surface, it was all in one motion, starting the arm motions as she got to the surface in a single, fluid action. She was pretty graceful, actually.

When she finally reached out and slapped the wall at the other end, the race wasn’t even close. She was more than two body lengths ahead of everyone else. She was absolutely beaming when the race finished and they all climbed out of the pool, and she headed to the benches set aside for players to cheer on her teammates.

They went through each of the other three styles, breaststroke, butterfly, and backstroke for the one-hundred meters before getting to her next race. The backstroke was interesting, since the swimmers couldn’t see the wall approaching. It turned out that was what the little triangles stretched above the length of the pool were for. Each divided a lane and it looked like the color-coding might tell them where in the pool they were. I could make out several of the swimmers eying the little pieces of fabric or whatever as they swam, at least it seemed like that’s what they were using them for, I could have been wrong. Kat probably knew, so I made a note to ask her about it some time.

After they cycled through everyone, Kat was back up, swimming the two-hundred-meter race this time. With more room to go, she beat everyone by an even larger margin. A lot of the kids seemed to start fading out in the last fifty, but Kat looked like she picked up speed. Maybe she was holding something back for a final sprint. By the time she touched the wall, she was almost a third of the pool ahead of the next person.

By the time I watched her relay, it was clear she was just in a different class than everyone else here. Of course, that kind of made sense. It seemed unlikely they’d get two kids able to swim at a national level from such an underpopulated area of the country. If I had to guess, swimming was one of those sports that, to get good, usually required money. The person had to have regular access to a pool, for instance. It was possible for an underprivileged kid in a big city to get that, but there weren’t a lot of public pools in this area, at least not that I had seen.

When it all wrapped up, I wasn’t clear on who, if anyone, had won. There wasn’t any kind of scoreboard or ceremony. The teams just packed up and headed off to their locker rooms. As her team headed back Kat said something to her teammates before running over towards me.

“I need to get a shower and stuff. Will you wait?”

“Sure. I need to make a call and see if Hanna can come get me and take me back to the Blue Ridge. I have practice and then I play tonight.”

“I can take you. Wait, okay?”

“Sure, and way to go. You were amazing.”

Her face looked like it was going to break, she was smiling so hard.

“Thanks. I won’t be long,” she said, giving one last smile before running back to the dressing room her team had gone through.

As people started to file out, except for a few families or friends waiting on contestants, it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen Aaron or any of his minions. He was territorial enough that it seemed unlikely he wouldn’t have at least made threats after seeing me talking to Kat. I guess it was possible that his parents were keeping him at home after the incident at the Blue Ridge, but that seemed unlikely. Considering the kind of person they’d raised, I didn’t think they put much value in disciplining him, even when the cops brought him home. I could be wrong of course and he turned out bad despite their efforts, but I doubted it. It did, however, raise something I didn’t consider.

I was looking into the pool, thinking it over, when Kat came jogging over, he long brown hair still wet.

“You waited,” she said, smiling.

“I said I would.”

“So you wanted a ride to the Blue Ridge?”

“If it’s okay.”

“Yeah, it’s great.”

“You’re in a really good mood,” I said as we walked out to the parking lot.

“Swimming always makes me feel amazing. I get into the zone and everything kind of disappears. For that little bit I’m not worried or scared or anything. I’m just swimming.”

“I actually know what you mean. I feel exactly the same when I’m playing. The whole world drops away.”

“Exactly. Man, no one seems to know what I mean when I say that,” she said, beaming at me.

She stopped in front of a little black convertible, probably the nicest car in the parking lot.

“Wow, nice car.”

“Thanks. Dad bought it for me when I was sixteen.”

“Really? This is a really nice car for a sixteen-year-old.”

“I know, but that’s Dad. He likes to spoil me.”

“I can see that,” I said, getting in. “Not to ruin your good mood, but it occurred to me while I was waiting, what happens when Aaron hears you’re hanging out with me. Tutoring is one thing, you’re assigned to people, but this is different. He really, really hates me and he’s never struck me as the kind of person who shares well.”

“I didn’t … I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset.”

“No, you’re right. He’d be pissed.”

“He wouldn’t hurt you, would he?”

“Uhh…”

That told me all I needed to know.

“For now, maybe we should limit how much we hang out outside of tutoring. I don’t want to cause you problems.”

“I … uhh…”

The car started to swerve a little bit, like she wanted to run and realized she couldn’t.

“Kat, pull over for a second.”

She didn’t ask any questions, just pulling off into the driveway of some kind of business that was closed for the weekend. I was surprised she turned off the car, although she then shrank into herself, like she always did when terrified.

“Has he hurt you before?”

She nodded and said, “Sometimes I just make him mad. I don’t mean to.”

“Hey,” I said, grabbing her hand. “You don’t do anything. There’s literally nothing you could do that makes hurting you okay.”

She nodded again, but I knew I wasn’t making an impact. I was out of my depth, and not terribly sure what to do next, besides trying to calm her down. A tear streaked down her cheek, a radical change from her bubbly, happy attitude a few minutes before. I couldn’t tell if it was because she was sad or terrified. She was a bundle of exposed nerves, scared of everything.

“It’ll be okay. The other day you made it sound like he doesn’t care what you do when you’re not with him?”

“Not really.”

“Does he hang out with many swimmers?”

“No. They and the football guys aren’t really friends.”

“I’m betting it won’t even get back to him. We’ll just have to be more careful hanging out in the future, to keep you from having problems.”

“I … I don’t have any friends.”

“Sure you do. I’ve seen you with people at school.”

“Aaron’s friends. They don’t like me. They let me hang around cause of Aaron. They don’t think I notice them making fun of me.”

“There’s no one you hang out with? No friends out of school. Kids your friends with from when you were younger?”

“No. I wasn’t … I don’t …”

“It’s okay,” I said.

Another roadblock. Once again it was like she was almost going to tell me something, but backed off at the last second.

“We’re definitely still friends and we can still hang out. I’m just saying we’ll be smarter about it until we can think of how to deal with Aaron.”

“Okay,” she said, although she didn’t relax like she did the other times she’d backed off of whatever was terrifying her.

She pulled her hand out of mine and for a second I thought she was going to start the car back up, but she surprised me, putting her hand behind my neck leaning in like she was going to kiss me.

“Whoa,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. “You know I have a girlfriend, right?”

“Ohh, I just thought … when boys …”

“Kat, I’m your friend. That’s all I’m looking for, okay? I’m not expecting anything else from you. Let’s go ahead and get to the Blue Ridge, okay?”

She looked confused, but her shoulders relaxed finally. Wiping away the tears on her cheeks, she started the car and pulled back onto the street, continuing on towards the restaurant.

We were quiet the rest of the way, and I was worried about her. Someone had done a serious number on her, and she was seriously messed up.

Pulling into a spot, I said. “Could you come in for a few minutes?”

“Sure,” she said, not even questioning it.

I thought about going into the restaurant, but second-guessed myself, heading her around the side of the building. She seemed confused, looking around, but didn’t say anything, walking a few steps behind me. I led her up the back steps to Chef’s apartment and knocked. When there was no answer, I let myself in. She paused noticeably, like she was steeling herself, before following me in. I could just imagine how this looked to her or what she thought was going to happen, but I needed Chef’s help, and I didn’t think this was a conversation to be held sitting out in public.

“Just sit down on here,” I said, pointing at the couch. “I’ll be right back.”

“What … What are we doing?” she finally asked.

“I just need to get someone I want you to talk to. I promise nothing bad is going to happen.”

She looked terrified, like she was going to get up and bolt from the room that second.

“Kat, I want you to sit right there and wait for me, do you understand? Don’t leave.”

She froze, and then relaxed, nodding. I’m not sure why I thought to do that, but I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to run out now.

“I’ll be right back,” I said, leaving and closing the door behind me.

Running down the stairs I stuck my head in the back door of the kitchen, incredibly happy to see Chef standing there, giving directions.

“Chef, I need your help,” I said as soon as he got to a stopping point in his instructions to the staff.

“Charlie, can this wait a little while. Dinner service starts soon.”

“I know, and I’m sorry, but it really can’t. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

He looked at me hard, measuring, before turning to Vinney and saying, “Take over; you know what needs to get done. I’ll be back when I can.”

“You got it, boss,” Vinney said, looking past Chef at me, raising his eyebrows.

I just waved him off. Vinney was a good guy, but I didn’t think he was who I needed at the moment.

“What’s going on?” Chef asked when we were outside and alone, looking me up and down, probably trying to see if I was in any physical danger.

“You remember that girl I told you about?”

“The one whose swim meet you went to this afternoon? The one with the problem?”

“Yeah. I think I underestimated how badly off she is. She’s upstairs in your apartment at the moment, and I’m really worried about her.”

“How about you back up and tell me what’s happened since you left.”

I walked him through all of her actions. Her joy when she realized I was there and wanting me to wait for her. Her terror when she realized what Aaron would do if he found out we’d been hanging out. My belief that Aaron, at the very least, was physically abusing her. The weird attempt to kiss me and her reaction when I led her into Chef’s apartment, both the fear and apparent acceptance at what she thought it meant.

Chef was quiet when I finished my rambling, his lips pursed tight, clearly thinking hard. I knew better than to interrupt him. As much as I wanted to get back upstairs so Kat didn’t have to just sit in limbo, I knew that I needed to wait on Chef. I was out of my depth and needed him to make the game plan.

“I’m not sure you understand what you’re biting off here.”

“I know I don’t understand, but she’s my friend, and there’s something seriously wrong with her. I think she’s getting abused. I think it might be worse than that, and I’m scared for her.”

Chef gave me a sad smile, putting his hand on my shoulder. He didn’t say anything, just gave my should a pat and then turned and headed up the stairs. I started to follow him when he stopped, holding out a hand.

“Let me go up and talk to her. It’s your practice time anyways. You go practice with the band and we’ll talk later.”

“My guitar’s upstairs and I’d like to at least introduce you, so she knows you’re okay.”

He stopped, considering me again, before saying, “Okay.”

He turned and we went up to his apartment. Kat was sitting on the edge of the sofa, hands on her knees, just waiting when we came in. At first, she only noticed Chef and stiffened, before relaxing when she saw me behind him.

“Kat, I need to go down and practice, but this is my friend Chef Tang. Everyone just calls him Chef. I’d like for you to talk to him for a little bit?”

Again, I wasn’t sure why I told her to stay instead of asking, but it worked again. She just nodded, still looking scared, but at least not running for the door. Chef gave me that weird look again, before shooing me out the door.

I have to admit, I sucked at practice. I was wildly unfocused; missing cues, rushing off the drummer’s beat, and even started playing the wrong song at one point. I apologized and promised I’d have my act together by the time we went on, but the band was clearly not sold. I’m sure they were wondering what was going on, since this wasn’t my first gig with just them, but they didn’t ask. Thankfully, they did me a mercy and called the practice early. I promised again that I’d be better when we actually played later that night, and went back outside.

Chef was still upstairs with Kat, and I didn’t want to interrupt them. I almost went into the kitchen to offer to pitch in since Chef wasn’t there, but considering how unfocused I was, I’d probably end up burning the kitchen down. Instead, I went into some of the Ti-Chi Chef taught me. He’d meant for it to be used as a warm-up and to help me learn to control my breathing, but I found it relaxing and the only thing other than music that let me really tune the world out.

I was beginning to think they wouldn’t be down until after I had to go on stage when Chef came down the stairs.

“Your friend is taking a minute to compose herself and then she’ll be down.”

“Is everything okay?”

“No, but it will be. She’s agreed to come back next week when the psychologist friend I mentioned can be here. After he talks to her, we’ll have a better handle on what we need to do for her.”

“Did you find out what’s wrong?”

“The actual cause of her behavior, no. She’s not ready to talk about it and this isn’t the kind of thing you can push. Past that, it isn’t my place to say. I’m not her doctor, but she’s been let down a lot in her life. What she needs is people she can trust. The best thing you can do for her right now is be that person.”

“What about Aaron?”

“She’ll have to make a decision about that soon. Her relationship with him is one of those problem spots, but I think pushing it will only cause more damage. Like I said, this is outside of my experience so I don’t really want to say one way or another until he talks to her. For now, just be her friend, okay?”

It wasn’t the solution I was hoping for, but who was I to blame him. I’d essentially done the same thing, dumping it all in his lap when I realized how far past me this whole situation was. As much as I liked Chef and thought he could do pretty much anything at this point, it wasn’t fair to expect him to deal with this without calling in help of his own.

“Sure, I can do that,” I said, looking up the steps where Kat was just coming down.

Her face was a little puffy and it looked like she’d been crying.

“I’ll be inside. Kathrine, as soon as I hear from my friend, I’ll give you a call, but it’ll definitely be this week, okay?”

“Sure,” she said in a hushed voice.

“Okay, I need to go and see how much Vinney’s screwed up my restaurant,” Chef said, slapping me on the shoulder and going back inside.

“Everything okay?” I asked Kat.

“Yeah. Your friend is really nice.”

“I know. He helps out a lot of people and I know I couldn’t have made it through this year so far without him. You can trust him.”

“Yeah, I think so,” she said, going quiet and looking at her shoes.

I didn’t want to push her, she’d clearly been put through the wringer talking to Chef, but she was quiet so long I started to feel awkward.

“So …”

“Charlie,” she said, interrupting me. “I’m sorry for what happened, in the car. I didn’t mean to … I know you’re dating someone. I just … it’s … I don’t know.”

“Hey, it’s okay. I get it, I mean, I think I do. Still friends?”

“Please?” She asked, her voice almost begging.

I reached out to give her a hug and she threw her arms around me, clinging to me tightly, shaking like a leaf. I didn’t say anything, just hugged her tightly until the shaking slowed and then stopped.

“So,” I said, finally breaking the hug. “What else do you have going on tonight?”

“Nothing really. I have to be home before eleven or my dad’ll get mad.”

“I have to play in just a little bit, did you want to stay and watch? I don’t know if you like music or …”

“I’d love to,” she said, not letting me finish.

“Great. Now, I haven’t eaten since lunch, and Chef normally feeds me. I’m sure if we ask, he’ll feed you too. Hungry?”

“Starving,” she said.