Sweet Harmonies (16 page)

Kyle inclined his head in an exaggerated
display of 'aw, shucks' humility. Karina rolled her eyes, but no
one was paying attention to her at this point.

“
So, I was wondering, as a nod to
having such a distinguished guest in our midst, if you wouldn't
mind taking over the MC duties this evening.”

Karina started to protest, “That's a
horrible, horrible idea...”

But was cut off by Kyle Austen Reed's
gregarious exclamation of, “Love to! Point me to the mic, I'm ready
to go on.”

“
Excellent, excellent,” Henry enthused,
shaking Kyle's hand and then handing him a clipboard, “Here's the
list of acts, written down in the order that they are going on, and
a few facts that you can incorporate into your introductions. Now,
do you need some time to prepare, son? This here show is set to
start right about now, but if you need to sit a spell and study
this here list, we can push back the curtain time.”

“
Nonsense, Mr. Mayor!” Kyle exclaimed,
throwing his arms wide, “You have called upon the services of Kyle
Austen Reed and Kyle Austen Reed will not fail you! I am ready,
sir!”

Henry looked skeptical to say the least.

Karina sighed, and begrudgingly put in,
“He'll be fine, Henry. In fact, he'll probably be fantastic. If
there's one thing he can do brilliantly without fail, it's
improvise in front of a crowd.”

Kyle clutched Karina to his chest, affecting
a pose as if they were on the cover of a bodice ripper. Well, if
the heroines on the covers of bodice rippers had looked annoyed and
been trying to swat at the heroes' faces, at any rate.

“
I can do anything...ANYTHING...” Kyle
intoned dramatically, “Knowing that I have the unmitigated support
of my ladylove.”

From where her face was smashed against the
side of Kyle Austin Reed's neck, Karina managed to mumble, “I have
the feeling this is going to be a long, long night.”

--- ~ ---

Karina stood with Ryan in the wings, just
offstage, waiting for Noah to finish reciting his Shel Silverstein
poem. She could feel the tension of Ryan's jangling nerves coming
off of him in waves. She, herself, remembered the first time she
had performed in front of a crowd this big. She had been every bit
as tense as Ryan was now, and she had had the added benefit of
working her way up from small crowds, to medium-sized crowds, and
finally to large crowds.

Ryan had never played for more than fifteen
or twenty people in the cafe, and that wasn't even a situation like
this – an auditorium replete with lights, and a stage, and an
audience in seats facing forward, their attention focused nowhere
but on him and his music.

She had truly thrown him into the deep end
with this little stunt of hers. She only hoped that he would
eventually forgive her, should it not go well.

She placed her hand on his shoulder and said
tentatively, “How are you feeling? I think you're gonna do
great!”

He turned and looked at her, excitement
sparking in his eyes, and said, “I just wanna get out there!”

A smile spread slowly across her face as she
realized that she had been right about him. Performing was inside
him, deep in his soul. The jangling tension she had felt coming off
of him in waves was not fear, but anticipation. Her instincts had
been correct. He was born for the stage, he just hadn't known it
because he'd never stepped onto one before tonight.

Finally, Noah finished his poem with a
flourish, arms flung out dramatically, to thunderous applause. He
marched offstage proudly, and Karina gave him a big hug.

“
You did great, Noah,” she said
enthusiastically.

He smiled proudly, “I know!”

Karina laughed, and Noah chattered on, “I saw
my Dad and my brother both taking tons of pictures of me! They'll
put them into my scrapbook!”

Karina smiled and ruffled his hair, “And
deservedly so. You were magnificent!”

He smiled and called out his thanks behind
him as he scampered off to find Amanda and share his victory with
her.

She saw Ryan take a deep breath, and she
reached out and grabbed his hand as Kyle Austen Reed stepped up to
the mic, clipboard in hand.

“
Here we go!” she whispered, and he
surprised her by leaning down and giving her a quick but passionate
kiss on the lips before facing forward to listen to his
introduction.

The thundering applause which had been a
staple of every single appearance of Kyle Austen Reed on the Hope
Falls High School Auditorium stage that evening died down, and he
stepped up to the mic.

“
Thank you, thank you,” he said
sincerely, “Again, I'm Kyle Austen Reed. And I want to thank you
for being the best audience I've ever had the honor of appearing
before. That's the truth. I don't say that lightly. I certainly
don't say it to every crowd that I speak in front of.”

Karina rolled her eyes. She had personally
heard him use that exact line on over a dozen occasions, and
couldn't imagine that the crowd would take it seriously. However,
they proved her wrong by erupting in a wave of cheers, applause,
whoops and hollers that put all of their previous efforts of the
night to shame. Kyle encouraged it by stepping back from the mic
and hanging his head slightly, in a performance of modesty. He then
gestured dramatically back at the audience, as if confirming that,
indeed, THEY were the ones who deserved all the credit. Much to
Karina's chagrin, they ate it up with a spoon.

When the raucous cheering at last quieted,
Kyle stepped back to the mic, quickly and subtly consulting the
clipboard. She knew this trick, it was an old acting technique, and
she had seen Kyle use it on more than one occasion. It was actually
an impressive skill, and she did give him credit for it.

He had trained himself, like many actors do,
to glance at a piece of paper and memorize a chunk of the text
written on it, usually about two or three sentences in length,
pretty much instantaneously. In this way, actors at auditions could
do cold reads (auditioning with material they had never seen
before) while still emoting directly towards the casting agents or
into the camera, with only the briefest glances down at the papers
they were reading from to get the next few lines.

It also came in handy in situations like Kyle
Austen Reed now found himself in, because he could introduce the
acts without looking as if he were reading about them from a paper.
He could look like he had really taken the time to learn all about
each of these people.

When it comes to acting, Karina reflected,
it's like the wise man once said. It's all about sincerity. Once
you learn to fake that, the rest is easy.

“
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have to
be honest with you about this next act. We've really saved the best
for last. Ryan Jackson Perkins is not only incredibly talented, but
also a close personal friend of mine...”

Ryan shot Karina a puzzled look, and started
to ask a question, but Karina anticipated it and replied with a
shake of her head before he could even voice the words, “It's no
big deal. He was introduced to you earlier tonight, and you were
standing with me - someone he knows. In Hollywood-speak, that makes
you close personal friends.”

“
Ok, but how does he know my middle
name?”

Karina shrugged, “I don’t know, he must have
asked Sue Ann. But coming from Kyle Austen Reed, I would consider
the fact that he is using it a compliment.”

Ryan looked skeptical, but turned his
attention back to the stage.

“
You know him from his many shows at
Sue Ann's Cafe, and it's my pleasure to be the one to welcome him
to the Hope Falls Town Follies stage tonight. Please put your hands
together for Hope Falls' own, a true rising star, Ryan Jackson
Perkins!”

Ryan strode confidently out on stage to
rousing applause, and Karina was surprised to find herself clapping
and cheering with the rest of the crowd. She normally wasn't a very
outwardly demonstrative person, but Ryan really brought out that
side of her, and she had to admit...it felt natural, and real. She
liked it.

When Ryan reached the center of the stage and
stepped up to the mic, Kyle Austen Reed stood behind him and
clapped him on both shoulders as if they really were the best of
friends. The applause naturally started up again, and Ryan looked
as if he'd never felt happier or more at home than in front of a
crowd.

Ryan began speaking into the mic, and the
crowd immediately hushed so as not to miss a word.

“
Thank you all so much,” he said,
sincerely, “I wouldn't be up here tonight without your support. And
I also want to thank a very good friend of mine, from the bottom of
my heart. She played a big role in my standing before you right
now, and she's very special to me because of that, and many other
reasons."

“
And, you know, this person said
something really meaningful to me tonight, that I really took to
heart. She told me that if you live and breathe the stage, if it's
in your blood, that means that anytime there is a crowd and a mic
and an opportunity to perform, you jump at it.”

Karina began to see where this was going, and
she stiffened. But at the same time, she couldn't help the small
smile that was playing around her lips as she said to herself,
“Well played, Ryan. Well. Played.”

“
That's why I know she won't mind me
calling her out here on stage to perform with me tonight. Ladies
and gentlemen, please put your hands together for my friend and
yours, Karina Blackstone!”

Karina's breath caught in her throat. She had
never, not once in her life, been announced to the stage with her
real name. It was a surprisingly affecting experience. She felt her
heart swell as she walked out onstage, waving at the crowd.

This was all too wonderful. She was in her
hometown, performing to a hometown crowd, and walking across the
stage toward the man she had no doubts she was beginning to fall in
love with. She felt that this was what life was meant to be, and
she couldn't imagine anything better.

Her gaze and attention were so laser-locked
on Ryan that she barely even noticed when Kyle Austen Reed bussed
her cheek as they crossed onstage, him heading to the wings, her
heading to mic. She couldn't see anything but Ryan.

She stepped up next to him, leaned into the
mic, and called “Hey, there Hope Falls!”

When yet another wild round of applause died
down, Ryan leaned up and said, “If you don't mind, I'd like to
share with you a tune that Karina and I worked up the other night.
It's brand new. You'll be the first people to hear it, actually,
other than the two of us...”

“
So, be kind!” Karina joked, and the
crowd chuckled.

“
It's about that thing that happens
when you first meet someone, and sparks start to fly. And you only
want them to see the best side of you. But more than that, you
start to only want to BE the best side of you, and you find
yourself becoming a better person because of them...”

“
It's what we lovingly refer to as the
Honeymoon Phase,” Karina interjected, and the crowd again
chuckled.

She and Ryan looked at each other, and she
felt sparks so intense that they actually knocked her back a half a
step.

Ryan smiled that sweet, enigmatic smile of
his, and said, “It's called Love Is The Key and we hope you enjoy
it.”

With that, he began strumming the familiar
melody that they had created on the night of the tryouts. She
watched his face, as mesmerized as the audience members who had
never heard the song before, as he sang the first verse. She was
grateful for her pitch-perfect musical memory, which enabled her to
almost effortlessly remember the lyrics, melodies, and rhythms of
songs once she had memorized them initially. She understood even as
it was happening that her performance this evening could not be
attributed to concentration or focus, because she had none. She was
completely caught up in the moment.

She felt herself coming in on the chorus, as
she should – lending her voice to Ryan's, harmonizing, their voices
rising and falling together. They blended together seamlessly,
combining to create a sound more beautiful by magnitudes than
either of their admittedly already lovely voices were on their
own.

Then, during the second verse, when she was
singing alone, she realized that this performance felt different
than any she'd done in the past for yet another reason. She was
performing a song about falling in love, which she'd written with
someone she was falling in love with, and she was singing directly
to that person she was falling in love with.

There had never been another performance of
her life which had been as raw, as real, as TRUE as this one,
perfect song with Ryan was.

Then, almost before she knew it, she heard
their two voices, in flawless harmony, holding out the final note
of the song. She heard Ryan strum the final chord. She heard the
music fade away, and she felt herself swept up in the emotion of
the room as the entire auditorium burst into screams and
cheers.

In a far corner of her mind, she realized
that the entire audience had risen to their feet, that they were
whistling, stomping, and clapping for all they were worth. She was
barely aware of their chant of, “Ryan! Karina! Ryan! Karina!” and
only vaguely realized that Kyle Austen Reed had taken the mic and
was closing the show.

All of these things, while they registered in
some far back corner of her consciousness, seemed as if they were
taking place a world away, in a parallel universe that only had the
tiniest thread of connection to her own.