“Uncle Erik!”
“Daddy said that we could watch your fancy TV and eat on the couch,” Rose said looking up from where she gripped me.
I took three-wide legged steps with them attached like barnacles, as they screamed in delight. “Oh, he did? Well, that’s fine, but you tell Daddy he can replace the couches if anything happens to them.”
They laughed and ran into the kitchen, and when they passed again on the way to the TV room, their arms were laden with snacks. Wes passed with Kelly. I hugged her and flicked his ear.
“Ouch,” he winced.
“Oh, Erik, you’re too skinny,” Kelly said squeezing my waist.
My mom hugged me next. “I’m watching you tonight. You’re eating two helpings.”
“Okay, Ma.”
Dad hugged me with a hearty back slap. “You were too good for that place anyway. They didn’t know what they had in you.”
“Right,” I said. “I wasn’t fired. I quit,” I said but they all looked at me with faces of pity that said they weren’t buying it for a second.
“About that.” Ma shot glances at the rest of my family.
“Care to explain this?” Wes handed me his phone with an article pulled up.
“The Devil of the Symphony walks again …” I shoved the phone back at him after reading.
“What is this? You told us you were fired. This article says you quit the last three places,” Ma said. “I don’t understand.”
I shook my head. Cold dread weighted down my shoulders. I didn’t want them to find out the truth this way.
“Let’s forget it and just eat.”
My mom and dad had picked up pizza and salad from a place in town on their way up the mountain. Conversation was polite enough, but it wasn’t long before my mom spoke her mind.
“Ellie, can you go take Rose to watch TV?” Ma asked.
My older niece grinned. “Sure, Grammy.”
The little girls giggled and ran out of the room and I waited for her to lay into me.
“Mom, what is it?” I asked. Her heavy stares had been boring into the side of my face in a way that only moms knew how to do.
“Why have you been telling us you were fired? Why did you let everybody spread those rumors about you?”
“It’s complicated.” I pushed away the half-eaten slice. “They didn’t understand me. Once they found out I was Erik Jones, that’s all they cared about. They asked me to play the song at performances for the symphony.”
“So, play the song,” Wes said. “What’s the big deal?”
“It’s not theirs.” I slammed my fist down. Wes’s eyebrows shot up. “And I’m tired of that being all people care about. All the work I’ve done kept getting pushed to the back burner.”
“You quit to prove a point?” Wes asked.
I lowered my voice. “I knew you wouldn’t understand.”
Wes raised his eyebrows like I was crazy. He looked to Ma for support and she shook her head as though to tell him to stop. “I’m sorry, sweetie.” But she held something back. “Where will you go?”
“Ma, you know I can’t stay here. Not now. I was only supposed to be here for the season anyway.”
Wes and Kelly exchanged a look. The same look my parents gave each other.
