I added a harmonizing line, letting the central melody weave through it.#p#分页标题#e#
Esme sighed with contentment, sat down on the top step, and leaned her head against the banister. A
new song. It's been so long. What a lovely tune.
I let the melody lead in a new direction, following it with the bass line.
Edward is composing again? Rosalie thought, and her teeth clenched together in fierce resentment.
In that moment, she slipped, and I could read all her underlying outrage. I saw why she was in such a
poor temper with me. Why killing Isabella Swan had not bothered her conscience at all.
With Rosalie, it was always about vanity.
The music came to an abrupt halt, and I laughed before I could help myself, a sharp bark of amusement
that broke off quickly as I threw my hand over my mouth.
Rosalie turned to glare at me, her eyes sparking with chagrined fury.
Emmett and Jasper turned to stare, too, and I heard Esme's confusion. Esme was downstairs in a flash,
pausing to glance between Rosalie and me.
"Don't stop, Edward," Esme encouraged after a strained moment.
I started playing again, turning my back on Rosalie while trying very hard to control the grin stretching
across my face. She got to her feet and stalked out of the room, more angry than embarrassed. But
certainly quite embarrassed.
If you say anything I will hunt you like a dog.
I smothered another laugh.
"What's wrong, Rose?" Emmett called after her. Rosalie didn't turn. She continued, back ramrod
straight, to the garage and then squirmed under her car as if she could bury herself there.
"What's that about?" Emmett asked me.
"I don't have the faintest idea," I lied.
Emmett grumbled, frustrated.
"Keep playing," Esme urged. My hands had paused again.
I did as she asked, and she came to stand behind me, putting her hands on my shoulders.
The song was compelling, but incomplete. I toyed with a bridge, but it didn't seem right somehow.
"It's charming. Does it have a name?" Esme asked.
"Not yet."
"Is there a story to it?" she asked, a smile in her voice. This gave her very great pleasure, and I felt guilty
for having neglected my music for so long. It had been selfish.
"It's...a lullaby, I suppose." I got the bridge right then. It led easily to the next movement, taking on a life
of its own.
"A lullaby," she repeated to herself.
There was a story to this melody, and once I saw that, the pieces fell into place effortlessly. The story
was a sleeping girl in a narrow bed, dark hair thick and wild and twisted like seaweed across the pillow...
Alice left Jasper to his own devices and came to sit next to me on the bench. In her trilling, wind chime
voice, she sketched out a wordless descant two octaves above the melody.
"I like it," I murmured. "But how about this?"
I added her line to the harmony-my hands were flying across the keys now to work all the pieces
together-modifying it a bit, taking it in a new direction... She caught the mood, and sung along.
"Yes. Perfect," I said.
Esme squeezed my shoulder.
But I could see the end now, with Alice's voice rising above the tune and taking it to another place. I
could see how the song must end, because the sleeping girl was perfect just the way she was, and any
change at all would be wrong, a sadness. The song drifted toward that realization, slower and lower
now. Alice's voice lowered, too, and became solemn, a tone that belonged under the echoing arches of
a candlelit cathedral.
I played the last note, and then bowed my head over the keys.
Esme stroked my hair. It's going to be fine, Edward. This is going to work out for the best. You deserve
happiness, my son. Fate owes you that.
"Thanks," I whispered, wishing I could believe it. Love doesn't always come in convenient packages. I
laughed once without humor.
You, out of everyone on this planet, are perhaps best equipped to deal with such a difficult quandary.
You are the best and the brightest of us all.
I sighed. Every mother thought the same of her son.
Esme was still full of joy that my heart had finally been touched after all this time, no matter the
potential for tragedy. She'd thought I would always be alone...
She'll have to love you back, she thought suddenly, catching me by surprise with the direction of her
thoughts. If she's a bright girl. She smiled. But I can't imagine anyone being so slow they wouldn't see
the catch you are.
"Stop it, Mom, you're making me blush," I teased. Her words, though improbable, did cheer me.
Alice laughed and picked out the top hand of "Heart and Soul." I grinned and completed the simple
harmony with her. Then I favored her with a performance of "Chopsticks."
She giggled, then sighed. "So I wish you'd tell me what you were laughing at Rose about," Alice said.
"But I can see that you won't."