In The Piano Bench

She woke from a dream of singing, and forgot it when the baby cried and her husband tripped over the cat who was racing to get out of the way of her younger son. The two older children were squabbling over the last of a box of corn flakes. When those who were leaving for work and school were gone, and the baby had nursed and was napping, then she wandered past the piano and the bench caught her attention. She lifted the lid.

There was an old book of Christmas carols. Just for fun she sat down and began reading through it, sounding out melodies and chords. One carol in particular drew her into it, and she sang it over and over: "Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming." Every time she sang it her voice changed a little, and soon she noticed she was singing with the sound of a boy soprano.

It was then she realized that a set of thoughts she'd had on and off over the past several years, all belonged to that voice. She realized that in another lifetime she had been a boy soprano in a great cathedral.

The phone rang just then: it was the school secretary, asking her to come pick up her daughter, who was running a slight fever and had thrown up twice. Just as she hung up the phone, she heard the baby waking up. She sighed. Another day.

In the car on the way over to school, to calm the fussy baby, she sang softly, "Lo how a Rose e'er blooming, from tender stem hath sprung.........."

A window had opened into her great cathedral memory. She had found a key.