On my tenth birthday Grandma held a party for me. She baked a delicious Devil's Food cake shaped like a racing car, and set out a plateful of egg salad sandwiches for us. It was too cold to go outside so we drank root beer and played darts downstairs. Louie told us a story about how his dog gave birth to six puppies. We made a model car. I even showed them my bullet. It was my best birthday ever. Robbie gave me a new baseball, Louie gave me a giant Tootsie Roll, and Larry bought me some comic books. After my friends left, Grandpa and Grandma were waiting for me upstairs.
"Grandma's got something for you, Junior," said Grandpa.
She pulled out something from under the sofa. "I hope you like them," she said, as she opened up a pair of blue boxer shorts with squiggly things on them.
"What are the squiggly things?" I asked
"Those are saxophones!" said Grandma. "I sewed them myself. Now you have your very own boxer shorts like Grandpa."
"I guess you know what that means," Grandpa said.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"That means that you are a man now, ready for the big world. Happy Birthday, Junior." I slipped on the boxers over my pants. They hung down to my knees. I pretended I was Gentleman Jim, and pranced around the house throwing uppercuts.
Winter had settled in on Denver, and it was snowing every day now. I wore my boxers and my long underwear and my corduroys to school. It was cold. I also needed to find a new way to take Cleo to school. The snow covered everything in a thick white blanket. It came up to my knees, so the skateboard idea didn't work anymore. Grandpa helped me make rails from some old peach boxes, and we attached them to the bottom of Cleo's case. We found wax in the paint room, and slicked up the rails so that Cleo could cut through the snow like a sled. Now I could slide her along beside me in the snow!
At school we began learning about the Greeks. I learned about Zeus, who threw thunderbolts at people he didn't like. He married his sister, Hera, and they had a bunch of children who went around fighting and tricking and killing and causing all sorts of trouble. Zephyr was right. It was a mess up there in heaven. Their world was unbelievably confusing. I had about given up on the Greeks, when I discovered a god named Apollo. He was the one who drove his chariot through the sky, pulling the sun along. I liked him a lot because he was the god of music. He was the god of truth as well, so he could never tell a lie. He seemed like a good guy, different from the others. But what really struck me was that his bird was the crow. Now that was amazing! I had dreamed I was a crow when I found that little girl. And it was a crow who was responsible for making my saxophone fall to the Earth. If it wasn't for a crow, I would never have met Zephyr. I had to thank Apollo for bringing Zephyr and I together.
Little by little, my world started making more sense. I went to Robbie's house once after school. It was a big house with two stories and lots of rooms. He had two sisters and a brother. He told me he had something very important to do.
"What do you have to do?" I asked, following him around as he put things away, throwing things into the dishwasher. The place was a mess. There were open potato chip bags, dirty dishes, and half eaten food lying around everywhere. Some green stuff grew over the water in the sink.
"I have to be finished before 4:00," he said, looking nervously at the clock on the stove.
"Finished with what?"
"The kitchen!" he said, exasperated. It was 3:45. "Help me clean up the trash. Put everything into that big black bag, and we'll take it out to the dumpster."
"So what happens at 4:00?"
"My mom comes home from work!" He brushed all the crumbs and garbage off the counter onto the floor, and began sweeping like mad.
"So?" I replied, not getting the point.
"So, if I don't have it done when she gets back, I'll be grounded for a week!" he said, panicked. He pointed at a list on the refrigerator. There was a sheet with everyone's name on it. Across the top were the days of the week. Each day had a chore listed next to it. Today was Thursday, kitchen day. There was a check mark besides Robbie's name. That meant that today was Robbie's day to clean. He sprayed blue cleaner all over, and began scrubbing.
"Oh, I get it," I said, a little embarrassed. My house was a lot cleaner than Robbie's. Grandma always made sure the house looked nice. We finished cleaning the kitchen up and drug the garbage bag out to the dumpster. The backyard was filled with all sorts of strange junk. Frozen newspapers, bicycle parts, tires, and an empty cage.
"We used to have a dog," Robbie said as we tossed the trash away. "But he ran away. He ran through that hole over there." There was a big hole in the fence next to the garage. I knew if I were a dog, I would run away too. "Bill said he would fix it, but he never did."
"Who's Bill?" I asked.
"He's my mom's boyfriend. He drives an orange truck."
"Oh," I said. I thought for a while before I spoke up. "So what about your dad? Where's he?"
Robbie paused. "I dunno. He left a long time ago."
"Oh." I couldn't imagine Robbie's mother having a boyfriend. It felt weird, like a wet finger in my ear. I felt sorry for Robbie. "So you ever talk to your dad?" I asked.
"Nope. I don't know where he is," Robbie said bluntly.
"Gee, I don't know where my dad is either," I blurted out. "My Grandma says he might be in Vietnam."
"Wow, Vietnam," Robbie said, impressed. "That's far."
"Yeah, I guess so."
As we stood there gazing at the ruins of Robbie's backyard, a feeling of inseparable understanding passed between us. We were both in the same boat.
"So I guess that means we're like brothers," Robbie said as we walked back to the house.
"Yeah, I guess so," I said.
After the Statewide Orchestra camp, Mr. Leonard made me his student assistant. I helped him set up the band room every morning, and he let me practice there after school. It was a good trade. He told me that I should get into the habit of practicing every day no matter what. He said that a musician is one of the most disciplined people in the world. I felt proud to be a musician. It was like being in the army. I told him I was writing a song, and asked him if I could perform it at the Christmas Day concert coming up.
"That would be wonderful!" he said. "What is it called?"
"I don't know yet," I told him. "But I'll think of it before the concert."
We were all excited about the Christmas concert. The whole school would be there, and all the parents were invited. It was the biggest event of the year. Each class prepared a skit. In orchestra we practiced Christmas Fantasy, the William Tell Overture, and Winter Wonderland. I couldn't wait!
The Christmas program finally came, and we were all assembled into the auditorium. All the boys wore bowties, and the girls wore skirts. I had on my best shoes that Grandma called my Buster Browns, and my hair was slicked down fine with Grandpa's Vitalis oil. This was it! I had been practicing Cleo several hours a day preparing for this day. No one would stick a sock in my saxophone this time. No loud cow moans this time. I knew Zephyr was watching. I knew Grandpa and Grandma were watching. Everyone was watching. It was time for the orchestra to perform, and we took the stage. We played through our pieces without a hitch, and Mr. Leonard smiled proudly at us from conductor's podium. He even winked. After the last song, Mr. Leonard turned to the audience. "Tonight, we have a special treat. I would like to introduce our finest young musician, Junior Okabayashi." He nodded towards me, and I stood up. "Junior will perform a song he has written himself." The audience applauded.
I walked over to the microphone and said, "This is a song I wrote for my mother. It's called "In Your Dreams." I took a few deep breaths to settle the butterflies in my stomach, then I picked up Cleo and began to play. I played about Indian sunsets, and Gentleman Jim, and the airport waiting room in Seattle. I played about gazing at the stars and meeting a bear. I played about finding Cleo and Zephyr and how I dreamed I was a crow. I played about broken windows and pencil boxes and not being able to play football. I put everything that had happened to me since I came to Colorado into the song. And in that song I told my mother that I loved her. I told her I was okay here in Colorado. I told her I even had my own pair of boxer shorts. I thought it was a pretty good song. At least it was my own song.
I looked out into the audience and saw Grandpa and Grandma sitting in front. Grandma waved at me with her fingers. I saw many faces I knew. I saw my neighbor Mrs. Norman. I saw Robbie, Louie, Randy and Larry. I saw Mr. Reynolds and Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Harrison. I even saw Fat Wayne sitting way in the back. While I stood there playing my song, I realized something. I realized that I wasn't alone anymore. I had a family. This was my family. Zephyr was right, all I had to do was look around at the rest of the world. My family was everywhere.
When I finished the piece, everyone cheered and clapped. "I hope that my mother can hear this too," I thought as I bowed the way Mr. Leonard had showed me. I had no doubt. I knew Zephyr would play my song for her in her dreams.
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