Part 6. Christmas 2005
Mary, Annie and Seth were among the packed audience in the Kellogg Middle School gym of for the Christmas Musical Program featuring 9th grader Itsuki Gonzales. As the eager friends and relatives found their seats and before Principal Evans started her welcoming Holiday speech, Annie turned to her dad with a burning question.
“Dad, Mary and I still don’t know what happened.”
“What happened about what?”
“The lawsuit about Itsu last year.”
“Yeah Dad, how did you resolve it?”
“I didn’t, your brother did.” Both girls looked at each other with inquisitive expressions.
“What do you mean?” Seth put his finger to his lips and said,
“Shhh. . . it’s starting.”
After Principal Evans speech the lights dimmed and the festive Christmas music began. All of the school’s choruses and glee clubs, bands and orchestra’s put everybody in the Holiday mood. As a finally, Itsuki’s solos of selections from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Mendelssohn’s Hark the Herald Angels Sing had everybody singing. After the applause, the lights went up and the happy crowd proceeded to leave.
“Now wait dad, we’re not going anywhere until you tell us.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s move over there to get out of the crowd and wait for your brother.”
“Okay Dad, what happened?” demanded Annie.
“The other party dropped the lawsuit,” Seth explained.
“Why did they do that?” asked Mary. Suddenly Seth saw Itsuki in the crowd and waved him over as people stopped him to offer their personal congratulations on his brilliant performance.
“That little man right there. He told them in no uncertain terms, that if by chance he ended up with them, he would quit and never play the piano again.” Both Mary and Annie looked bewildered at each other as the unselfish revelation sunk in. Itsuki saw his sisters and ran towards them and they saw him in a different light. He was willing to give up what he loved the most to keep the family together. They all held each other in a long embrace and it was as if time stood still. We love you Itsu!
To be continued