“Sky!” he said with pleasure.
She smiled and hurried to him, bending to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Sweetie, it’s wonderful to see you,” he told her.
“You, too, Hank. And you look—”
“Thanks! I get out of here in a few days. I think they’re being overly cautious, but, hey...my grandson is a dictator. And I will do everything they tell me. I’m anxious to come back to the drums myself. Oh, and if you’re going to start playing with those guys often, I have a great gift for you. Seriously, half the drummers I know are deaf now! But I found these great earplugs—they let you hear, but they keep out the deafening volume. These are just about perfect!”
“Thanks, Hank. I’m sure Chase appreciates them,” Sky said sweetly.
“There are tons of perks to what we do,” Hank said. “And a few drawbacks, but there’s a set of the earplugs in my drawer. I’d love you to have them.” He grinned. “There’s no way I get to play this gig, so please take them?”
“Take them or he’ll make me crazy,” Chase said.
“Hey! You have hearing thanks to me!” Hank said.
Chase grinned at him. “And I can play the drums, too, thanks to you. No lack of appreciation meant, just—”
“He’s a dictator!” Hank assured Sky, grimacing, and shaking his head. “But other than that, a good enough kid. So how are you? Ran into a friend of yours before I found myself in here, Sky. Virginia Hough. She said you were a miracle worker with troubled kids, that they spent time with you, got deep into music and showmanship and stopped being so much trouble.”
“Virginia is a lovely woman,” Sky said, shrugging. “I like kids. I like working with them. One of the students I had the first year I was working went on to become great at improv—he’s working at an improv comedy club in South Florida. It’s great, Hank. Really rewarding.”
“Like the boy here,” Hank murmured. He looked quickly at Chase. “Always trying to learn something new!” he added.
“It’s all right, Hank. She knows,” Chase said. As he spoke, he frowned suddenly. She saw he was looking out the small window of the door to Hank’s room. “Excuse me,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
He left the room. Sky watched him go, lowering her head and smiling slightly.
The place was crawling with police. That would be the only reason he’d be away from her, she knew.
“Kid he saved is down the hall,” Hank said quietly.
“I heard...something,” Sky said.
“I am proud of him. Chase was in a place where he could have gone on to be the top of top—but he went on to do something he saw as being more important.”
“And he knew what to do for...for what happened,” Sky said.
“He still takes classes all the time. He’s like a sponge, wants to know everything and it all makes him invaluable. And...” Hank looked down, a frown tearing into his forehead.
Hank, as a grandfather, was still an impressive man. Even in a hospital chair, he had a strong face, solid jaw, bright eyes and his headful of handsome white hair.
She imagined that one day, Chase would look like him. Or maybe Chase did look like a young Hank, as he must have looked all those years ago when Skyhawk had first hit the scene.
“He never believed what happened to my father was an accident,” Sky said.
Hank looked up at her. “Neither did I,” he told her. He shook his head. “Your dad and I... You know, I was the one with the garage. My folks let me have a drum set out there. And your dad started coming over, and the two of us were the beginning of it all. He just...he just had it! I’d heard the story that his dad wanted him drafted, that he wouldn’t do anything about getting him into college to get out of Vietnam. I thought it was the cruelest thing I’d ever heard. But Jake told me, no, that it was the best thing in the world for him. His dad had told him that if he was going to kill himself, at least he could do it for his country.”
“I heard,” Sky said softly.
“He said war was brutal. And it hurt him—he lost friends he made in the service. But for him, it turned out to be a lifesaver. He’d been given back a chance in a double way, and he was going to be smart and grateful for all his years to come. I loved him, Sky.”
“I know you did, Hank. He loved you, too.”
“He made us all better musicians—and better human beings.”
Sky smiled, hunkered down by his side and took his hands. “Thank you, Hank. I know that after what happened... I was horrible for a while. Now...”
“Now you want the truth. And I understand. So does Chase. And I believe in him, Sky. I believe in my grandson. If something can be done, Chase will be the one to see that it is.”
“Where do you think he’s gotten off to?” Sky asked.
Hank shrugged. “Well, he knows the place is swimming with cops, and you’re safe in here with me. That kid he saved—I say kid loosely at my age—anyway, like I said earlier, he’s just down the hall. Maybe he’s conscious.”
“And Chase is trying to find out what he can from him?”
“I would think. So tell me about tonight. Are you at all excited? Did you really want to perform? Are you doing it just to try to discover what happened in the past?”
“Both. If I can honor my dad, I’m glad to do so. If I can find the truth, so much the better. I should have said if we can find the truth. I didn’t realize until we got into this in the last couple of days just how ill-equipped I was to find out anything.”
Hank smiled. “You’re in good hands, I promise. Even if...”
“If?”
Hank shrugged. “I read people.”
“Oh?”
