Read Online Anomaly by Krista McGee - Free Book Online Page B

tempo, knowing that John doesn’t want this song to end. I hold out the final notes, my finger wavering on the string to make the final notes sing with vibrato, filling the room.
    And then I am done. John falls back onto the couch. I am sure something is wrong. I go to the wall-com to call an Assistant.
    “No,” John whispers, like he is forcing his voice past rocks lodged in his throat.
    I wait. John wipes his eyes and smiles at me. “Thank you.”
    “For what?”
    “For bringing back a beautiful memory.”
    “What memory is that?” I sit on the sleeping platform and watch John spin a thin gold band on his finger.
    “Do you know what a wedding is?”
    I think back to my history lessons, but I cannot recall that word. “No.”
    John looks sad. “A wedding is a ceremony where two people promise to love each other forever, no matter what. This was something the Designer intended from the beginning of time.Marriage is a picture of his love for the people he created. His commitment to them. Sadly, that picture grew distorted over time. But Amy and I knew what he wanted. Our wedding was a celebration of what the Designer intended—to care for each other for better or for worse.”
    “That sounds wonderful.” Strange. Impractical. But wonderful. “But you said something about walking down an aisle? And a string quartet?”
    John’s blue eyes sparkle. “Yes, our wedding was at a church.”
    “A church?”
    John looks like he is going to be ill. “You have never heard that word either.”
    It isn’t really a question but I shake my head. I can see the answer pains him.
    “A church is a place where people who want to worship the Designer gather together. We would sing and pray and listen to men speak from the holy book.”
    I have read about ancient rituals like that. The Scientists tell us those types of gatherings were for people who were incapable of sustained rational thought. They needed superstition in order to function in their society. The need for such ideas has been eliminated with the evolutionary advances made by the Scientists and their predecessors. It is odd seeing someone from this era, someone for whom this superstition is so real. It is fascinating, though.
    “So you had a wedding in a church?”
    “Yes, we did. I stood at the front of the church and my Amy entered from the back. She was wearing the most beautiful white dress.” John can’t speak for a moment. I am uncomfortable with so much emotion, but I am also intrigued by it.“When she walked toward me, a string quartet played ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.’ Amy’s mother played violin, like you, so Amy grew up with classical music. Bach was her mother’s favorite composer.”
    “There were four instruments playing this song?” How I would love to play alongside other musicians. I can imagine the richness of the sound, the harmonies and countermelodies that would afford.
    “Yes. I can’t hear that music without seeing Amy in her dress walking toward me, that beautiful smile aimed right at me, promising a lifetime of love.”
    A lifetime of love. Superstitious, maybe. Primitive, certainly. But since I am malformed anyway, I suppose I am allowed to long for this. Perhaps I would have thrived in John’s time, before the war, when emotions were seemingly encouraged.
    Would I have been like Amy and John? The thought fills me with feelings I can’t define. “But what does it mean?”
    “The music?”
    “Yes.” I ask him the questions I have had since I first played this song, since I was taken away for the emotion it stirred within me. “I can hear answers in this music. But I don’t know the questions. What is it saying?”
    John closes his eyes and sighs. “Thank you, Lord.” When he opens them, his face seems younger, replaced with a glow I cannot describe. “My mother-in-law, Amy’s mother, used to say that the Designer speaks through music. He reveals himself to his people through the notes on the page. She would