Jane's Harmony (Jane's Melody #2) by Ryan Winfield Read Free Book Online Page B

it belonging to her, just a red pair of shoes to carry it around and a clock to tell it when to sing.
    As soon as she finished her song, she looked down at the stage again, so she didn’t even see the five thumbs that turned up. The judges held them there until she did finally lift her head, and when she saw them, both hands leaped to cover her mouth, and she looked as if she might cry.
    “Congratulations, young lady,” a judge said. “You’re going to the City of Angels, where that voice of yours belongs.”
    “Thank you, thank you,” she said, her grin so big she looked to be all teeth. “I can’t believe I’m going through.” Then she turned and left the stage, and only her wad of pink gum that hadfallen from her ear while she was singing remained. A stagehand scurried out and collected the gum, then carried it off cradled in his hands as if it might be precious.
    When the judges had finished chattering about her, and after the handler had called again for quiet, an awkward pair of twins stepped out onto the stage with matching ukuleles.
    Jane wondered how she had missed them in the other room. They were each at least six and a half feet tall and as thin as fence posts, their hair thick and as blond as straw. They gave their names as Buford and Billy-Ray, and their accent was so thick Jane could hardly understand them. One of the judges asked them where they were from, and they answered in unison.
    “Sir,” they said, “we’re from L.A.”
    The judge laughed. “Come on, if you two are from Los Angeles, then I’m from Mars.”
    “Not Los Angeles,” the one drawled. “The other L.A. You know, Lower Alabama.”
    “That’s right,” the other added. “Down around Mobile.”
    Jane couldn’t help but chuckle.
    “Okay, boys,” one of the judges said. “Let’s hear it.”
    They had hardly begun playing their ukuleles and singing before the judges all turned aside and shook their heads, squinting as if they were in pain. And Jane could understand why. The twins were terrible. So terrible, in fact, that she wondered if they hadn’t come with hopes of their audition making it into the show just for the shock value of it. The judges all stuck out their thumbs, pointing down, of course, but the boys kept on playing anyway.
    “Enough, enough!” the main judge cried. “Stop already.”
    They stopped and blinked up at the judges as if stupefied. “We could play somethin’ else,” one of them said.
    “I think not,” the judge replied. “We’ve heard too much.”
    “Maybe jus’ a little gospel piece we wrote together?”
    The judges all shook their heads, but the boys began plucking their ukuleles and humming anyway.
    “Will someone get them off the stage, please?”
    Two handlers appeared and took the twins by their bony elbows and led them off. They never did stop playing, and Jane could hear the sound of their ukuleles fading across the auditorium until a door slammed somewhere and shut the sound out. When Jane looked back to the screen, Caleb was already out in front of the judges. He was standing center stage with the guitar she had bought for him in his hand, and he looked so at home and perfectly made for the setting that she would have sworn he’d always been standing there, and that they’d designed and built the entire set around him.
    “Tell us your name and where you’re from, fella.”
    “Caleb Cummings,” he said simply. “Seattle.”
    “Seattle? We were just up there.”
    “Well, I’m here in Austin now.”
    The woman next to Jane nudged her with an elbow. “This one’s really cute,” she said.
    “I know,” Jane replied. “And he’s all mine.”
    “And how old are you, Caleb?” the judge asked.
    “Twenty-four,” Caleb answered. Then he cocked his head and scrunched his brow as if he were thinking. “Wait. Today’s the thirty-first, isn’t it? Today’s my birthday. I’m twenty-five.”
    Jane almost had a heart attack. How had she forgotten his birthday? She had