“Bull?What is that?” asked Cam.
“He’s writing a symphony.Something I’ve never seen before in my life,” said Bull.
“I haven’t either,” said Erica.“It’s complicated, complex, advanced.It’s so fast I don’t know if my fingers could play it.How?How is this boy, who can’t even hear music, writing a masterpiece for the ages?”
“Holy shit,” muttered Cam.“A symphony.”
“That could be why he was opened or why they left him,” said Jane.“Maybe they thought he had musical talent with an instrument.But it’s his brain that’s the instrument.”
“What do you mean?” asked Luke.
“Luke, that boy is writing a complicated, complex symphony and has neverhearda note of music.Explain that to me.”Luke looked at his cousin, Jane, then back at the boy, shaking his head.
“I can’t.”
“Neither can I,” she said.“And yet we’re all witnessing it.They tried to figure it out or take it from him.I’m not sure.But either way, that child is creating something miraculous and if I had to guess, the other children will be able to perform it.”
The boy was determined to not allow Keith to leave him.After repeated attempts to get his name, he continued to just shake his head.Hex walked in with Sutton and she stared at the boy, then back at the rest of the people in the room.
“Was he in that hospital?Was he one of the kids?” she asked.
“We were hoping you could tell us, Sutton,” said Luke.
“I don’t remember seein’ him but they kept a lot of the kids separate from us.He looks different,” she said staring at him.
“He is different.He doesn’t play music, he writes music,” said Jane.“Do you understand what that means?”
“Yes, ma’am.They tried to make Pip read music once and he couldn’t.He said it made his head hurt but if they played it, he could repeat it.You know what I mean?”
“I know what you mean, honey,” said Hex.“It’s an amazing gift your brother was given.”
“Why do you ‘spose I wasn’t given a gift?” she asked thoughtfully.
“But you have the biggest gift of all,” said Eric.“You protected all those children for more than a year.You were clever, careful, and thoughtful.Not everything you did was legal.But your gift saved all of them.”
“You really think so?” she asked with a small smile.
“Honey, I know so.”Eric paused and then sat down beside the girl.“Sutton, do you ever remember seeing them take children to the basement?”
“The hospital didn’t have a basement,” she said shaking her head.“I remember because there were tornado warnings once and they said there wasn’t no basement for us.We had to hide in the library.It scared me.”
“Why?” asked Eric, knowing what he’d found there.
“The doctors and nurses and all them folks told us we couldn’t touch the books.What kinda adult tells kids not to touch books?That didn’t make no sense to me.I got a whippin’ once because I went in there and was readin’ a book about kids like Pip.I think it was somethin’ called prodgides.”
“Maybe prodigies?” smirked Luke.
“Yeah.That was it.Anyhow, they came in and saw me with the book and screamed at me, gave me a whippin’ with a belt and everything.It wasn’t my first.Or last,” she frowned.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” said Luke.
“Better me than Pip,” she said straightening her shoulders.“He never understood when he got whippins’.”
“They beat the children?” asked Jane with concern filling her features.
“Wasn’t really a beatin’.Beatins’ are real bad.Whippins’ are better, I guess.If they didn’t do what they was told they were given a whippin’.For bein’ so smart, them doctors were stupid.The kids didn’t understand what they were askin’ of ‘em.”
“And what were they asking of them?” asked Cam trying to repeat what she said in correct grammar, hoping to give her a hint.
