Gwenny June

  Chapter 48 – Happy People

  Anna sat at the piano on the stage at The Hall looking at Richard. He sat staring at his Roland Juno Gi synthesizer, wondering what he had gotten himself into. Writing a ballet. Jesus. When he looked up, Anna smiled, and that made things better. A lot better. Anna was the bomb.

  She had asked her grandfather if he would lend her his piano because she was working on something musical, and that made him happy, so he said yes. Now the Stirg Bosendorfer sat on the stage, sending beautiful sounds throughout The Hall. Richard and she and Helstof were here every day, working on the score. Helstof had set up the computer at the edge of the stage and wired it to the synthe. Richard would play, fiddle, play some more, and after a while would nod to Helstof, who would start the computer recording. Anna would listen to his melodies and transcribe them to the piano. She did this by ear, not writing anything down in musical notation.

  Also on the stage were four large white boards, five feet high and seven feet wide, on rollers. Written on the boards, in a variety of images, was Richard’s story about the interplay of southern and northern cultures. The images made up a story book, similar to what directors first draw on paper and later capture in action on film. The images on the boards changed as Richard composed the music. Selgey and Bart were at The Hall every day, too, watching as Anna and Richard drew the images on the boards, and then discussed the evolution of the story. Sometimes they would lie on their backs on the stage floor, dreaming of dance movement, and sometimes they would move around the stage together, talking about the story, about positions, about interactions, and sometimes they just moved together, without thinking. Peter and Pater ran the operation at The Hall, hanging around until Richard or Anna needed something done, and they would do it. Then they would hang around some more, until Selgey or Bart needed something, and they would get it. Every hour or so they would go in the offices in the back where the academy administrator was working, and help her. They were gophers, and they loved every minute of it. Henric would stop in once a week to see how things were going, and Peter and Pater would run around and show him what his money had paid for. At first Henric kept track of the money he spent on the academy, but he gave that up. He was happy with what was happening at The Hall, and gave them a blank check.

  One reason he did this was because he was very happy doing what he was doing. Sailing. The College of Charleston sailing coach took Henric, Constantine, and Jinny out twice a week, teaching them the basics. Their first run outside the jetties was up to Georgetown. Henric and Jinny got seasick. The second run outside was down to Hilton Head, where they brought the boat into the marina where Henric had bought it. On this run Constantine got sick. All three of them were in paradise, and puking never had been so rewarding.

  Henric and Helstof hardly stayed at the Kiawah house, sleeping on the boat at the marina. Jinny asked if he could sleep on the boat too, but they said no. Guignard also said no.

  Anna moved out of the Sullivan’s Island house the day after she met her grandfather. It wasn’t right to be there anymore, which Slev understood, but she missed Anna. Anna asked Peter and Pater if she could stay at The Hall. After the reconciliation with her grandfather, she could live anywhere and feel reasonably content, but she liked The Hall, and it had lots of rooms, so she set a cot up in one of them, becoming like the phantom of the opera, living and working in the same place. She became the spirit of The Hall and of the writing of the ballet.

  Gwen visited The Hall one day with Jinny. It was hot, and after a while both Gwen and Jinny took off their jackets. Peter and Pater noted that neither was carrying a gun on their waistband at the rear of their hip, and looked at each other with relief. Thank God, that was over. Back to art. Gwen took them out into the seats and sat down.

  She said, “How much time does Anna spend here?”

  “She lives here.”

  “I know she’s staying here, but what does she do? When you guys are not working?”

  Peter looked at Pater. “Don’t know.”

  “Does she have a boyfriend?”

  “She spends her time with Richard.”

  “I mean, is she sleeping with anyone?”

  “As far as we know, there’s no lucky guy.” Peter said this as a matter of form, not substance. He was being quaint.

  Gwen pondered on this. The world of men was being deprived. Why?