Sing You Home: A Novel Read online

  Lucy, however, is a blank slate.

  Her eyes stare straight over my shoulder; her thumb absently scratches at the carvings on the desk made by ballpoint pens and bored students.

  “So,” I say brightly. “I thought that, today, maybe you could help me learn a little more about you. Like, for example, have you ever played an instrument?”

  Lucy yawns.

  “I guess that’s a no. Well, have you ever wanted to play one?”

  When she doesn’t answer, I move my chair forward a little.

  “Lucy, I asked if you ever wanted to play an instrument . . .”

  She pillows her head on her arms, closing her eyes.

  “That’s okay. A lot of people never learn to play instruments. But, you know, if that’s something you become interested in when we’re working together, I could help you. I know how to play everything—woodwinds, percussion, brass, keyboard, guitar . . .” I look down at my notebook. So far I’ve written Lucy’s name and nothing else.

  “Everything,” Lucy repeats softly.

  I am so excited to hear her sandpaper voice that I nearly fall forward out of my seat. “Yes,” I reply. “Everything.”

  “Do you play the accordion?”

  “Well. No.” I hesitate. “But I could learn it with you, if you wanted.”

  “Didgeridoo?”

  I tried, once, but couldn’t master the round breathing. “No.”

  “So basically,” Lucy says, “you’re a fucking liar, like everyone else I’ve ever met.”

  I learned a long time ago that engagement—any at all, even anger—is a step above complete indifference. “What kind of music do you like? What would I find on your iPod?”

  Lucy has slipped back into silence. She takes out a pen and colors an elaborate pattern on the inside of her palm, a Maori knot of twists and swirls.

  Maybe she doesn’t have an iPod. I bite the inside of my lip, angry at myself for making a socioeconomic assumption about a client. “I know your family is pretty religious,” I say. “Do you listen to Christian rock? Maybe there’s one particular band you really like?”

  Silence.

  “How about the first pop song whose lyrics you memorized? When I was little, my best friend’s older sister had a record player, and she used to play ‘Billy, Don’t Be a Hero’ on repeat. It was 1974, and Paper Lace was singing it. I saved up my allowance to buy my own copy. Even now when I hear that song I get teary at the end when the girl gets the memo about her boyfriend’s death,” I say. “It’s funny—if I could pick one song to bring to a desert island, I’d take that one. Believe me, I’ve heard a lot more complex and deserving music since then, but for sheer nostalgia, that would have to get my vote.” I look at Lucy. “How about you? What music would you want to bring if you were stranded on a desert island?”

  Lucy smiles sweetly at me. “The Very Best of David Hasselhoff,” she says, and then she stands up. “Can I go to the bathroom?”

  I just stare at her for a moment; Vanessa and I haven’t really talked about whether that’s allowed. But this is therapy, not jail—and besides, keeping her from going would be cruel and unusual punishment. “Sure,” I say. “I’ll wait here.”

  “I bet you will,” Lucy murmurs, and she slips out the door.

  I tap my fingers against the desk, and then pick up my pen. Client is very resistant to providing personal details, I write.

  Likes Hasselhoff.

  Then I cross off that last bit. Lucy only said that to see my reaction.

  I think.

  I had been so certain that I could break through to Lucy; I’d never doubted my skills as a therapist. But then again, the work I’d been doing lately involved either a captive audience (the nursing home residents) or those in so much physical distress that music could only help, not hurt (the burn victims). The factor of the equation I had left out was that, although I may have been looking forward to this session, Lucy DuBois wanted to be anywhere but here.

  After a few minutes I start looking around the room.

  Although most special needs kids are mainstreamed, this small conference room has the facilities for those whose Individualized Education Programs mandate them: bouncy balls to sit on instead of chairs; mini workstations where kids can stand behind the desks or work with others; shelves of books; tubs of Kooshes and rice and sandpaper. On the whiteboard is a single written phrase: Hi, Ian!

  Who’s Ian? I wonder. And what did they do with him so that Lucy and I could meet?

  I realize that about fifteen minutes have passed since Lucy left to go to the bathroom. Walking out of the classroom, I spy the girls’ restroom just across the hall. I push through the door to find a girl leaning toward the mirror, applying black eyeliner.

  I duck down, but there are no feet beneath any of the stalls.

  “Do you know Lucy DuBois?”

  “Uh, yeah,” the girl says. “Total freak.”

  “Did she come into the bathroom?”

  The girl shakes her head.

  “Dammit,” I mutter, walking back into the hallway. I glance into the room where we have been meeting, but I’m not naïve enough to think Lucy will be waiting.

  I will have to go back to the main office, and report the fact that Lucy left the session.

  I’ll have to tell Vanessa.

  And then I’ll do exactly what Lucy did: cut my losses, and leave.

  After failing miserably with Lucy, the last thing I want to do is go home. I know there will be messages waiting from Vanessa—she wasn’t in her office when I signed out, and so I had to leave an explanatory and apologetic note about the abortive first music therapy session. I turn off my cell phone and drive to the most anonymous place I could think of: Walmart. You’d be surprised at how much time you can spend wandering through the aisles; looking at Corelle dinnerware with lemon and lime patterns, and comparing the prices of generic vitamins to those of brand names. I fill up a cart with things I do not need: dish towels and a camping lantern and a BeDazzler; three Jim Carrey DVDs packaged together for ten dollars, Crest Whitestrips. Then I abandon the cart somewhere in the fishing and hunting section and unfold a lawn chair. I sit down and try to read the latest People.

  I don’t quite know why my failure with Lucy DuBois is so crushing. I’ve had plenty of other clients whose initial meetings were not dynamic successes. The autistic boy I worked with at the same high school a year ago, for example, did nothing but rock in a corner for the first four visits. I know that, in spite of what happened today, Vanessa will trust my judgment if I say that next time will be better. She’ll forgive me for letting Lucy slip away; she’ll probably even blame the girl instead of me.

  I’m not afraid of her being disappointed.

  It’s just that I don’t want to be the one to disappoint her.

  “Excuse me,” an employee says. I look up to see his big Walmart badge, his thinning hair. He speaks slowly, as if I am a toddler unable to understand him. “The chairs are not for sitting.”

  Then what are they for? I wonder. But I just smile politely, get up, refold the chair, and stick it back on the shelf.

  I drive mindlessly for a half hour before finding myself in the parking lot of a bar that’s only a mile from my house. I used to work there—first as a waitress, then as a singer—before Max and I started in vitro. Then, I was tired all the time, or stressed, or both. Playing acoustic guitar at 10:00 P.M. twice a week lost its appeal.

  It’s nearly empty, because it’s a Wednesday, and it’s only just past dinnertime.

  Also because there is a big sign out front that says, WEDNESDAY IS KARAOKE NIGHT.

  Karaoke, in my opinion, is right up there on the list of the greatest mistakes ever invented, along with Windows Vista and spray-on hair for balding men. It allows people who would normally only have the courage to sing in the confines of their own showers with the water running loudly to instead get on a stage and have fifteen minutes of dubious fame. For every truly remarkable karaoke performance you�€