“where are we off to now, my dear suttie?” taylor asked as he sipped his drink. “you’ll have to wait and see,” sutton said as she led them towards the center square in downtown tulsa which held a small covered amphitheater, city hall, and police and fire stations. as they neared the small amphitheater, sutton noticed the music had already began so she quickly grabbed taylor’s hand and dragged him to a center row. on stage was a female, in her early 20s sitting at a large black grand piano and a small strings orchestra behind her. “what is this?” taylor smiled as he sat to the left of sutton. “i heard about it on the news. the lady at the piano’s name is renese, and she’s from sweden. supposedly she’s a fantastic pianist, and she’s just getting started so she’s doing a lot of small, free concerts in big cities in hopes to get noticed; heard. they played a little bit of her stuff and she sounded so wonderful.” taylor gazed at the stage in appreciation as the strings quartet played a beautiful piece. the lady at the piano had not begun to play yet, though she appeared to be ready to start. she fiddled with her microphone and taylor looked over at sutton. “i really thought you would like hearing her. i wanted zac and Ike to be able to come too since they play piano as well, but she’s going to be here until friday so we’ll have to bring them back. i heard she’s wonderful.” taylor smiled at sutton. “does she sing, too?” “no, she just plays piano, and the quartet behind her plays along with her.” “wow,” Taylor said. “i bet the piano and strings sound really well together.” “we’ll soon see,” sutton said and sipped her drink. a few moments later, renese stood and bowed to the medium sized audience, and seated herself back at the piano and began speaking into the microphone. “hello, thank you all for coming. my name is renese, i come from sweden and i am an aspiring professional pianist. i’ll be playing some songs for you, along with my orchestra over here, so i hope you enjoy.” the audience politely clapped, and taylor stretched his arms against the back of the wooden bench. sutton looked at him and they exchanged smiles and leaned their feet against the top of the bench in front of them as renese began playing. she played a variety of different piano songs diligently for close to an hour, with the accompaniment of her strings quartet, and both taylor and sutton sat in awe of her miraculous talents. it was nothing like they had ever heard before. taylor and his brothers had taken classical piano lessons for years, and sutton played piano to an average degree, but this woman’s talents surprised them both. “how old is she again?” taylor asked. sutton put her finger up to her ear, unable to hear what he said through the great acoustics of the amphitheater and the strong piano chords renese was producing. taylor leaned closer to her and touched his hand to her shoulder as he repeated in her ear, “how old is she again?” sutton momentarily shrugged, feeling his fingers still on her shoulder and looked up at the woman sitting at the piano. she turned her head towards his, their shoulders pressed together. “she’s really young, maybe in her very early twenties.” “god...” taylor sighed, his voice tickling her ear. “she is incredibly good. i only hope that i can be that talented when i’m her age.” sutton grinned as the last song ended, and they jumped to their feet, clapping wildly. renese stood and bowed several times, and leaned to the microphone attached to her piano. “thank you, thank you very much for coming.” the audience began filing out and back into the outside as the sun started to go down and the temperature began to drop, but sutton and taylor hung around awhile. “do you want to go see if we can talk to her?” sutton asked taylor, who was leaning against the bench in front of them, back to stage. “is she still up there?” taylor asked, and looked behind his back. “yea, she’s over there by the quartet.” sutton pointed. “do you want to?” he asked her. “i would love to talk to her if we can. there isn’t any security or anything around here, you can walk right up to the stage if you wanted to.” “okay, lets go,” taylor said as he gently guided sutton out of their row with his hand gently on her back. they quickly walked down the sloping aisle to the front of the small amphitheater and stood to the right of the stage, near renese. when she was done speaking to the quartet they gathered up their instruments and carried them off to the back of the stage where several black cases laid. renese turned around and saw sutton and taylor standing there so she politely smiled and made her way back to her piano. taylor and sutton followed her and sutton called, “excuse me, ma’am.” renese came to the edge of the stage and smiled, “do i have fans already?” sutton and taylor laughed as they held out their hands. “i’m sutton,” she said as she shook her hand. “taylor,” renese shook his hand, and he looked up to her, amazed at how younger she looked up close. he quickly pulled his hand away and stepped behind sutton a bit, thankful that she didn’t recognize him, but suddenly bashful. “i’m renese. did you enjoy the little concert?” “it was amazing,” sutton smiled as she looked over to taylor who grinned and agreed, “you’re extremely talented. how long have you been playing?” renese jumped down off the stage so she was the two teenagers height. she leaned against the back of the stage and sutton and taylor stood in front of her. “ah, for as long as i can remember, which is usually the case for pianists.” she laughed. “i seriously studied classical piano my first year at college back in sweden, and I’ve moved here for a short time to study in new york.” “are you still in school?” sutton inquired. “yes, i’m in my second year of college now, i transferred over here and i go to school in new york, like i said. i’m on a short break now and so i’ve taken up touring some small venues to try to get aquatinted with people so i can try to begin playing professionally.” “wow,” sutton smiled. “we both play, piano, and were amazed at your talents. well taylor is better than i am, he’s taken classical piano lessons before too, i only play a little bit.” “that’s wonderful, do either of you seriously study piano?” “i - my two brothers and i have played piano for a great majority of our lives, and both of our parents play. we’re all in a band and i play the keyboards, but all of out first love is piano.” taylor shyly said, finding it unnecessary to name his band had renese not recognized him, or the fact that they were about to tour. sutton put her hand on the small of his back, supportively. “how impressive, i wish you the utmost of luck in the future!” renese cordially said. “yes, well none of us are nearly as experienced or talented as you are,” taylor blushed. “it was really wonderful, we enjoyed listening to you. we just had to come up here and tell you,” sutton added. “thank you, thank you. i sincerely appreciate it.” renese smiled, pushing her long dark brown hair out of her eyes. “we should let you go, and we better get going, though.” sutton smiled, and held out her hand as renese gladly shook it. “yes, thanks for talking to us, though,” taylor said and shook her delicate hand once more. “of course. i am glad you enjoyed what you heard.” taylor and sutton nodded and smiled, and waved goodbye to renese as they made their way back up the aisle and out of the amphitheater. taylor stuck his hands in his pockets and sutton crossed her arms over her chest, and shivered. the day had passed quickly as had the sun, and it had cooled off greatly. “she was nice,” sutton commented as they began to wonder around, going to where in particular. “she was. i can’t get over how talented she is. what i play and how i play is like, nothing compared to that.” “shut up,” sutton said and kiddingly pushed taylor in the arm. he pushed himself back into her as she added, “you can hardly compare yourself to her. she’s like, five or six years older than you and has studied in sweden,” sutton emphasized. “i know, but it makes me wish i was more talented. i can play just about anything, but i’m still missing something, i guess.” “you learn fast, and you put a lot of feelings into your songs. don’t start getting all depressed because you heard one great pianist.” Sutton said. “i know, i know. i really want zac and Ike to hear her now, though. i’m sure that they could appreciate her, too. thanks for bringing me, sutt.” “you’re welcome. do you want to come back tomorrow with ike and zac?” “yeah, if they’re not busy.” taylor said. “i’d love to see her again.” “wow, sounds like somebody has a little crush,” sutton giggled, and looked up to taylor. “ugh, no, i don’t think so,” he said, rather unconvincingly as he rolled his eyes. “you always think that i like girls... any girls.” “well you sure look like you liked her,” sutton said to the ground. she looked up to him and smiled, satisfied in knowing that he knew she could see inside of him. chapter twelve back