WOW!

Casey soon returns with a glass of red punch and ice. You take it and thank her. She gives you a little smile that encourages you. As much as you wanted to come right back and ask her out properly you wait. You wanted some space to breath and relax and settle into your new dynamic. Casey had been right. You were moving too fast and desperation was not an attractive quality in a man. She knew you were interested. You knew she was interested. That was enough for now. A few weeks back you might not have had the confidence to accept that but now…now you did. You were the man who stood up to the fearsome Fiona, who broke up with your girlfriend to pursue your heart’s desire, who was willing to sacrifice so much for his little sister’s happiness. Waiting and letting things evolve didn’t seem as nerve-wracking as it once had.

As you relax so does Casey. As the group of you return to the game a pleasant feeling of friendship and camaraderie settles among you. There is chatting and teasing and so much laughter as the game is played. You quickly realize that your team captain was far more concerned with sending balls into the stratosphere than actually winning. The last shot of each round is accompanied by a “Ba ba ba BOOM!”. You soon join in on the cheer. About one time in three he actually hits the ball he means to. Within four more rounds you were down ten to three with a loss staring you in the face. Not that anybody seemed too bothered by it.

Jermaine had just taken his throw with only Anthony left to shoot and it looked all but over when in the flow of conversation you bring up the fact that you had heard Casey was a good singer. This gets quite a reaction.

“Wait.” Bianca holds her hands out. “Wait a second!” Everybody stops to look at the buxom Italian as she is looking at you. “You’ve never heard Casey sing?”

“Well…no, not really.” You confess. “Just little notes and snippets here and there. She’s got an amazing voice.”

“Ohhhh Jesse.” Her grin grows wide.

“Bianca…” Casey warns.

“You’re kidding.” Sean says. “Never?”

“Sean, it just hasn’t…” Casey was trying deflect the conversation but failing miserably.

“You are in for a treat!” Jermaine says.

“She’s that good, is she?” You say.

“Now hold on…”

“Jesse my man, you have no idea.” Felix grins, mostly at seeing his roommate and best friend squirm with bashfulness.

“Felix…”

“No time like the present.” Jamil says as little grins and glances begin to pass between the gathered group of friends.

“No!” Casey says as she points around at each of them. “Don’t you dare!”

You are all smiles as you feel the playful energy of the group rise. You didn’t know what was happening but something was definitely happening.

It starts with Anthony letting a low bassy hum, it seemed tuneless, just a steady shifting between a couple of long deep notes.

“Anthony, NO!” Casey says, though nobody was listening.

Layering atop Anthony’s bass Jamil’s soft tenor fades in humming notes different yet building upon what was already there.

“Guys…” Casey pleads.

In comes Sean and Jermaine to take the notes between Anthony and Jamil to reveal the structure of the song they were all humming. A classical piece but with voices instead of instruments. Casey is looking back and forth between them and you. She was being swept up in something but seemed **** to do it in front of you just now. The coordination of the scene told you that this was something they often did, probably during these little bocce meetings. This was confirmed as a smiling old neighbor approaches to peek over the fence, seeming to know what was coming.

Felix doesn’t hum but instead pats his thighs to give the arrangement a quiet percussion beat. At last Bianca joins in with a rich voice that added complexity and accents to the already lovely a capella symphony.

Casey lets out a sigh in surrender. With her friends humming behind her she looks at you apologetically. “I swear I didn’t put them up to this.”

“I can’t wait.” You smile and step back to play your role as the audience of this arrangement.

She turns to face you and takes in a long slow breath. Standing tall Casey closes her eyes to listen to the music…no, to feel the music. You watch a change wash over her as she seemed to enter another world. Her emerald eyes open to look around her to see things invisible to the rest of you. She was in the music, in whatever scene this represented to her. To you it was simply mesmerizing.

And then…she sings.

“O mio babbino caro…”

As she opens her mouth and the notes pour out you are overwhelmed by the sheer beauty and passion of her voice. The emotion of the swelling aria cuts straight through you letting you feel the heartbreak of the lyrics though you didn’t understand a word of them. That voice! THAT VOICE! It fills the yard, it fills your soul, it surrounds you and envelops you. Transcendent, angelic, ethereal, there just weren’t the words for it. Hearing something so pure, so absolutely perfect, rise from a human right there in the flesh beggared belief. As Casey hits her first high note you are nearly knocked off of your feet. The others smirk at your slack-jawed awe at bearing witness to Casey’s immense talent for the first time but it was all you could do but stand and watch in stupefied wonder.

Beyond even the singular beauty of the sweeping music was the effect it had on the woman singing it. Casey was always gorgeous, but seeing the raw feeling the melody brought out in her allowed you a glimpse beyond the physical to the divinity inside of her. She doesn’t simply sing the song, she lives it. An entire opera played out in her bearing and expression and voice. The song is short yet by the time the final note is fading you felt you had been on a years long journey.

With one last deep breath as the background music dwindles the red haired angel before you returns to herself. Casey smiles as the man on the other side of the fence starts to clap.

You stand there awestruck.

Before you have a chance to react Casey looks back to the others. “Let’s do the last one.”

Bianca looks at her. “Are you sure?”

“I want him to see. I want him to hear. I want him to know…all of me.”

Bianca nods in understanding followed by the others. They glide swiftly into another tune. Once more Anthony starts and the others add their voices one by one until a full rich classical harmony. Once again the miraculous Casey transforms before your eyes. She squares up toward you, sets her shoulders higher, brings her chest forward and her chin tilts lower every so subtly. A dozen or more tiny changes that added up into one big metamorphosis. Despite the make up, the sun dress, and the slender perfect body, in the span of ten seconds she…had become a he.

The soft lilting voice of Bianca starts up in place of what would be a background choir. “Nessun dorma…nessun dorma…”

Casey breaths and enters into the music once more.

And then…he sings.

Octaves lower Casey’s red lips open and out comes a deep rich masculine voice as smooth as silk and as forceful as a tidal wave. Again you are struck by the sheer voluminous power. His voice boomed like thunder through the quiet neighborhood with such might that you could actually feel the vibrations in your chest. The volume could only be experienced to be believed. Casey’s previous song soared high above this earthly realm but this one came up from beneath, as if one of the very pillars of the world was being shook. This was no a mere song, this was **** of nature!

The power of the song and the voice and the emotions of the man who had so enthralled you nearly brings you to your knees. His green eyes glow with an inner light as he breathes life into centuries old words. He sang! He sang for you! He carried you with him into a rapture only true artists could understand. Tears well up in the corners of your eyes by the sublime uplifting potency of Casey’s superhuman voice combined with the impassioned brilliance of the song he was singing. The gloriously deafening crescendo hits like a bolt of lightning and even the others singing have to concentrate to maintain their focus to not be carried away in the moment.

When it was over you stagger back and suck in a gasp of air, you hadn’t even realized you’d been holding your breath. The voices quiet. The gentle sounds of breeze and bird song returns. Around you the bright sunny day in Casey’s back yard comes back into focus.

This time all of the others join the old man in giving Casey his well earned applause and accolades.

Once last time Casey shifts and the pretty girl in the light wafting sundress stands where a man just had. She bows her head to the neighbor and to her friends before turning to you again. She looked at you and waited eagerly for your response.

“Wow!” Is all you say. What else could you say!? It was a performance for the ages here in the middle of a game of bocce ball. Simply surreal. “Wow!”

“Told you.” Felix quips and the others chuckle.

“She is something special.” Bianca beams.

“How!? What!? HUH!?” You stammer. “How can you be that good!? How can anybody be that good!? Wow!”

Casey giggles. She looked so very happy that you enjoyed her performance, both performances. “I think you might be biased.”

“Yeah…but…but…WOW!”

“I think she made a deal with the devil.” Felix jests. “They say some of her family are satanists.”

“Those are filthy rumors!” Casey protests.

“I don’t think a voice like that came from below.” Bianca says. “Casey is our very own angel.”

“How…how are you not a superstar?”

Before Casey can answer Jamil cuts her off. “Because the fossil that runs our department wouldn’t know a generational talent if it kicked him in the nuts.”

Casey waves the comments away. “If I work hard my break will come. Anyways, enough of this silliness. Are we playing or what? Anthony, I think it’s your throw.”

“Ha HA!” He exclaims as he grips his ball tight in his big meaty hand. Turning he lines up and, eight voices in unison, calls out. “Ba ba ba BOOM!”