“Bizarrey! Bizarrey!” Solace called as she entered her apartment. “Mommy’s home! Come here, sweetums!” That’s probably why she’s staying away, Solace thought. What self-respecting cat would want to be called ‘sweetums’? She dumped her cane and shoulder-bag at the door and began to search her one-bedroom apartment. She looked in all of Bizarrey’s known hiding places without success—under the bed (which was useless since she would not have been able to see her there anyway); on the window sills, under the table and on the bed. No luck. She returned to the living room, stopped in the middle of the room and began making a slow circle. As she threw up her arms in defeat, she happened to look up and see a lump of reddish brown fur and penetrating eyeballs staring down at her from the top of some very high bookshelves. “Wow! A new trick, Bizarrey? Now what would you have done if I hadn’t looked up? Well, I guess you would have come down for food, if nothing else. You nutty cat!” Solace smiled but suddenly flung herself into her favorite armchair and began crying uncontrollably. Bizarrey jumped down from her lofty perch and onto the arm of the chair, softly meowing and rubbing her soft furry body next to Solace’s arm. She scooped the cat into her arms and stroked the little head that she found so adorable. “Bizarrey, what’s happened? Why has Sanna changed? She had never seemed concerned about…about… Solace could not bring herself to say the dreaded words. Perhaps she had not been aware of the signs. They had known each other for five years and the issue of her visual impairment hadn’t been too much of a problem. Okay. So there had been a few minor accidents. But the consequences hadn’t been catastrophic; they were both still alive. Wasn’t that the important thing? Lately, Sanna had begun focusing a great deal of attention on what she perceived were Solace’s flaws. I think I handled this fairly well, she thought but did not voice.
Bizarrey turned around a few times on Solace’s lap and plopped down, a signal that she was in for a prolonged stretch of petting. Solace began to stroke the length of the feline with one hand as she yanked up the end of her t-shirt to wipe her eyes, stopping short of blowing her nose. She might be distraught, but that would not be good. Bizarrey jumped at the sudden movement, but did not scamper away as she usually did. “You don’t think the fact that I don’t see is horrible, do you B?” Solace asked as she reached for Bizarrey’s head and poked her in the right eye. Bizarrey gave her a nip on her finger and turned around on her lap so that her head was facing in the opposite direction. “I’m sorry, girl.” Solace thought briefly about calling for Chinese take-out, but she found she had no energy. It was as if she had been completely drained. She felt hollow. The only activity she could do was think and thinking was pretty crappy right now because the only thoughts running through her mind were of Sanna. Her mind drifted back to the first time they met five years ago.
1998
Solace stood against a wall, sipping water from a sports bottle. She was eager for the rehearsal to get underway. She had never sung in an all women’s group and she was looking forward to it. She had come as close to the appointed time as possible. In fact, this was positively early for her. No matter that Katrina was going to start in a minute. She congratulated herself on her promptness and placed the bottled water into her overcrowded knapsack. She was absorbing her surroundings and marveling at the immensity of the apartment when her musings were interrupted.
“Do you need any help, Solace?” Katrina asked Solace with a smile in her voice.
“Nah, I’m fine, Katrina. But thank you.” Solace assured her, not wanting to play her poor blind woman role so early in the game.
“Okay. Just let me know, though. I want you to feel comfortable here.”
“Thank you.” Solace smiled an extended her cane in preparation of navigating the large room.
“All right, ladies!” Katrina Belvers bellowed over the din of excited female voices. “If you can get the same volume into your singing as you do your speaking, we should achieve some fantastic crescendos.” Peels of laughter greeted this remark.
“Please find a seat wherever you can. I’ll have more chairs next week. I promise. They were supposed to deliver the rest today, but there was a problem, of course.” She sighed in exasperation.
Solace gingerly picked her way across the room of sixteen women. She was headed for what appeared to be an empty blue chair. As she approached the object, she opted not to use the mobility technique she had learned (where you put your hand out to find out if there’s an obstacle) turned and plopped down on a very shocked Rosanna Romero, who abruptly rose in surprise, toppling Solace to the carpeted floor.
“I’m sorry.” They said in unison as a chorus of embarrassed chuckles rose and fell.
“Well, you might as well introduce yourselves since you seem to be getting intimate.” Came Katrina’s smooth voice as she made to go and help Solace to her feet, but backed away as she saw that Rosanna Romero had the situation in hand.
“I’m Solace Tynan. Did I break anything? I thought you were a chair.” Solace stated while trying to straighten out her peasant skirt and blouse. The women closest to them laughed.
“Rosanna Romero, and, no, you didn’t break anything.” She said calmly.
Solace noticed immediately the low, sonorous tones of her voice. It was very pleasant. She must be a second alto, she thought briefly. She looked up but as the light was relatively dim, she could not make out the features of the woman with the sultry voice standing before her. All she could discern was that her voice came from a slightly higher position, which meant she was a bit taller than her own five feet two inches. Rosanna handed Solace her cane, guided her to an empty seat next to her as if she had been guiding blind people all her life. Solace was rendered momentarily speechless.
Katrina began again “First, I want to welcome you to the first rehearsal of the Upper Manhattan Women’s Ensemble. I know the name may sound a little old school, but I’m open to suggestions. You can e-mail me with your ideas. Next, I’d like to let you know that Myron Owens, our Manager, for those of you who don’t know him, has already booked our first gig on September 29. I know that doesn’t give us much time, but I have ultimate faith in you all.” This last sentence she stated to sixteen women sitting there with their mouths open. “Okay, ladies, we haven’t begun to sing yet, so you can close your mouths.” Everyone laughed. “And now we’ll break into sections. First and second sopranos in the first two rows and first and second altos fan out where you can find seats.
“As usual, the sopranos get the seats. They’re such divas!” came the deep voice of a woman as she passed Solace, who had been guided to a seat by Katrina, probably hoping to avoid another accident.
