You wake up on Friday morning to the sounds of Alumni Weekend already getting underway all around you in Jubilee Station. You make your bed, brush your teeth, and shuffle down the hall to your kitchen, to start your morning tea. Your toes are warm and cozy inside your soft slippers. You can smell honeysuckle and peonies out the windows from the back garden. You rub your eyes, stretch your arms overhead, and take a deep breath.
This morning, you are heading to the Jubilee Inn to meet the featured speaker for Alumni Weekend. When you arrive at the hotel lobby, the speaker is sitting on one of the couches, dressed in jeans and a hoodie from the college in town. You fumble with your Alumni Weekend badge, trying to pin it to your jacket, and the speaker stands up to greet you.
“Good morning! I’m Liz. Are you my chaperone for the day?”
You say, “Yes, I suppose I am.”
Liz says, “Excellent, excellent. Hey, I need you to break me out of this schedule.”
You say, “What?”
Liz motions for you to sit down. They say, “Now, I promise you I will be a good citizen for the rest of the day. I just need to make a little detour from the schedule. There’s someone I really need to see while I’m in town. But I know we might both get in trouble with Joshua. Will you help me?”
You say, “Yes, I will help you.”
Liz claps their hands and says, “Wonderful. Thank you. Let’s get going.” They leap up from the couch and head out the front door of the hotel, where a car and volunteer driver from Festival Committee are waiting. As you scramble to follow, you hear them say, “Good morning! We have a little change to the schedule….”
A short ride later, you are walking through the lobby of the Care Center, waving at the receptionist, as Liz strides into the lounge behind the front desk. Sitting on a walker, by the grand piano in the far corner, is Elise, an older resident you have seen before.
You hear Elise say to Liz, “Oh, it’s been too long,” as she gives Liz a fierce hug.
When you catch up to them, Liz turns to you and says, “There you are. I’d like you to meet Elise, my piano teacher.”
Elise chuckles softly and says, “Former teacher. Hello again, You!”
Liz says, “You know each other?”
You say, “Yes, we do! Elise, how is that dolphin puzzle coming?”
She sighs and says, “Way too much ocean. All the same blue. But never mind that. Elizabeth, I’m so glad to see you. And I got your message. Do you really want to spend your time here on a lesson?”
Liz says, “More than anything. You’re the best teacher I’ve ever had, in anything.”
Elise touches her hand to her chest and looks away for a moment. She whispers, “That’s kind of you to say.”
Liz says, “I like to say true things.”
Elise straightens her posture and clears her throat. “Well, down to business, then. What piece are you practicing right now?”
Liz answers quietly, “You know the one.”
At this, the teacher’s eyes fill with tears. Then, with her face set in determination, she reaches in the pocket of her dress and produces two hard candies, offering one to you and one to Liz. Elise says to you, “I have always given my students a little piece of candy at the start of their lesson, as a reminder to play sweetly. Also, they were usually hungry when they got to me after school. Anyways. Just take a moment and enjoy that.”
You take the individually wrapped candy and see that it is a mint with red and white stripes. These were your grandmother’s favorite when she was alive. You unwrap the candy, place it carefully in your mouth, and taste the mint oil mixed in with cane sugar, dissolving on your tongue. Meanwhile, Liz moves from the chair to the piano bench, and sets their fingers on the keyboard to play. You close your eyes, remembering how your grandmother would play her own piano, and take a slow breath.
You open your eyes and realize that all other conversation in the room has stopped, while everyone else listens, too.
When Liz reaches the end of the piece, Elise says in a shaky voice, “I have no notes. That was truly beautiful. It was perfect, but even if it hadn’t been….” She and Liz finish her sentence together: “Perfect is not the goal. We play from the heart, to reach other hearts.”
Elise says to Liz, “You have filled my heart with pride, all over again.”
Liz kneels down in front of Elise on her walker, and takes both of her hands in theirs. Liz says, “That’s all I ever wanted.” The two of them embrace again, and just like that, Liz is marching toward the exit, calling over their shoulder, “Try to keep up, Chaperone.”
At the union hall, after lunch and a reception in the rooftop cafeteria, Mayor Ashley introduces Liz to a standing room only crowd. The mayor says, “Elizabeth Findley is a world-renowned classical pianist, whose performing career began on this very stage, with a third-grade recital back in 1994. They will play for us, after a few remarks. Liz?”
You are standing just offstage as Liz, now dressed in a sleek black suit, takes the podium. They look over the crowd and say, “Alumni Weekend is a time for all of us to come back to our roots. To reconnect with friends and loved ones, and to remember how much this place has formed us.”
Liz slips off their watch and sets it on the podium.
They continue, “Would you take just 15 seconds with me to think of the people who have helped you become who you are – those who have cared about you, and who believed in you? I will keep the time.”
Liz fixes their gaze on you, waiting in the wings, as they say, “Thank you.”