Maestro kept hold of her, and Annasophia started to dial the number Maestro had given her for the police. As she moved the rotary dial, number after number, she met Elena's gaze. Elena had moved her head so she could look in Annasophia's direction, her face pressed against the floor. Incredibly, Elena began to smile. The smile spread over her lips like a malignancy, and her eyes gleamed oddly. Her expression reminded Annasophia of how Elena had looked at her while Matt had been coming into the world, and she shivered and dropped the receiver.
Shit
. She'd have to hang up, then start dialing again, because she'd forgotten where she had left off.
Elena turned her face back to the floor. Perhaps she knew when to give up. Maestro would never let her up off that floor until after the police had come. After Annasophia called the police, she needed to call an ambulance. Maestro needed medical attention as soon as possible.
Why had Elena been smiling? Maybe she'd gone right out of her mind. Remembering how she had almost been stabbed, how Maestro had taken the knife meant for her, Annasophia felt her heart twist. Surely, he would be okay. Elena had to have gone way around the bend if she'd decided to resort to outright murder.
Annasophia started dialing the police again, but her fingers froze when she heard Elena's voice humming the opening bars to Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2. Since her face was turned toward the floor, Maestro couldn't clap his hands over her mouth without releasing her and giving her a chance to lunge for Annasophia – or the knife – again. It was up to Annasophia to stop Elena. She dropped the phone and rushed toward the woman. She would shut Elena up even if she had to stuff a loveseat cushion in her mouth to do it.
Elena kept humming, and her humming increased in urgency. Annasophia looked around as she reached Elena and Maestro. How odd! Her surroundings weren't fading, as they'd always done before when she had heard the concerto or played it. Everything looked as solid as ever.
Elena's humming reached a fever pitch, and she started to shriek and hum at the same time, but nothing changed. Annasophia stayed right where she was. And she realized: the conduit must be closed. Maestro was alive over here, so the conduit – the concerto – could still work from his side, in 1974. But in 2010, he was dead. That had to mean that the conduit – the concerto – no longer worked from his side in the future. Since he was no longer there, he could no longer create his half of what seemed to be their full circle of magic, love, and music that had enabled Annasophia to time travel.
She no longer had the option of going back to 2010. She was in 1974 to stay.
Annasophia went back to the phone to call the police and have them arrest Elena and take her away. Attempted murder was a serious charge, so she would likely be behind bars for quite some time. After she called the police, she called the ambulance. She went to little Matt's bedroom and picked him up. Here he was, her precious son. Her precious baby. At her touch, he quieted. He already seemed to know her, to remember her. It couldn't have been long. Maybe a few days ago. She kissed his little forehead, then lay him back down in his crib to sleep.
Annasophia returned to the living room and sat down beside Maestro, who still held the now-silent Elena, and began to cry. Not out of sadness, but out of relief. No matter how much Elena hummed, she could no longer send Annasophia back. She could play all the records she wanted, and Maestro could perform the concerto with symphony orchestras within Annasophia's hearing anytime he wanted. She would stay put.
Here, where she belonged. With her son. And her soon-to-be-husband.
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Epilogue
2010. It had arrived much more quickly than Annasophia could ever have imagined. Here she was, a sixty-three-year-old woman, and what a wonderful life she and Maestro enjoyed!
They still lived in Larchmont, New York, and Maestro was still performing to packed concert halls. He showed no signs of slowing down, even in his seventies. She urged him to have regular checkups, remembering the cancer that had killed him in the other 2010, but he remained incredibly healthy and fit. Annasophia had a thriving musical career of her own. It meant she and Maestro weren't together all the time, since both had to tour according to their particular schedules, Maestro as a concert pianist and Annasophia as a folk singer. But she had become quite well-known in her own right, and her original music had been better received starting in 1974 than it had been in 2010. In her original timeline, Annasophia had been a moderately successful local singer-songwriter. In her new timeline, though, she'd become quite a well-known artist, recording with a major label and touring all over the country. Her and Maestro's lives were filled with love and music.
Matt, raised in a home with two parents who adored him, had thrived and had grown up to become a nationally-famous music producer. Though Annasophia hadn't been crazy about the idea of having another baby, she had become pregnant in 1984 at the age of thirty-six with Beate, Matt's little sister. The birth had been comparatively easy, and Maestro had been by her side, holding her hand the whole time.
Beate, who was the apple of Maestro's eye, had inherited what seemed to be Maestro's and Annasophia's musical talent put together. A piano prodigy, she had begun singing before she could talk and started playing the piano by ear soon thereafter. Now, in 2010 at the age of twenty-six, she was a world-famous singer-songwriter, fully living the dream for which Annasophia had striven in her original timeline. Despite their age difference, Matt and Beate were very close, and Matt had been Beate's producer ever since she had gotten started with her career at eighteen.
Elena had never bothered Maestro and Annasophia again. She had served a jail term, then had been paroled for good behavior. After that, she had seemed to drop off their radar. Neither Annasophia nor Maestro spoke of her, and the kids didn't even know who she was except as a woman to whom their father had briefly been married many years before his marriage to their mom. That suited Annasophia just fine.
In 1984, Annasophia and Maestro had traveled to East Tennessee to see if, in 1984, the same year Beate had been born, Annasophia's own mother had given birth to a child she'd named Annasophia. In fact, she had. Annasophia had befriended her younger self and had given her exactly what the young girl needed, and had indeed gotten in the other timeline: a teacher, friend, and mentor. The younger Annasophia was still living in East Tennessee, working as a local singer-songwriter, but this young woman was different from the young woman the elder Annasophia used to be. The young Annasophia, thanks to the elder Annasophia's influence and friendship, had made wiser choices in life with regard to sexuality, and she had a steady boyfriend, Calvin, a sweet guitar player who adored her and played with her in her band. She and Calvin visited Larchmont regularly, though, and Matt had offered to bring her and Calvin to New York City to produce their next album. Matt was married to music and only music, but he seemed to genuinely enjoy his life, unlike the laconic, sad-faced sound man Annasophia had known in the other timeline.
Wife to Maestro, mother to Matt and Beate, and friend and mentor to her younger self. She owed herself nothing less. And Maestro couldn't agree more.
###
About Thomma Lyn Grindstaff
Thomma Lyn Grindstaff gets some of her best ideas when hiking in the mountains. She’s both a novelist and a freelance writer. She’s also a musician: a classically-trained pianist, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and composer. Other passions include studying philosophy, science, and spirituality. Last but never least, she’s a cat wrangler. She shares her home with four Ballicai (also known as cats). If you could sum Thomma Lyn up in three words, they would be Artist, Seeker, and Adventurer.
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If you enjoyed
Maestro
, check out
Heart's Chalice
, a novel by Thomma Lyn about getting a second chance at love in an alternate universe.
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