The basement of the church was a bit cold and drafty and the wind was howling outside as the dozen or so children were led in song by the two women at the front of the room. The weather had kept many of the students away on this stormy Saturday night, and the ones that showed up were singing "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands" with widely varying levels of skill and interest, but that didn't stop the women from performing earnestly.
The tall slender woman leading the vocals had been the teacher for than half of her 49 years, and her plain and placid features matched her stern, no-nonsense approach to the class. Nobody attended the classes because of Victoria Swanson's charm, and while her often toneless vocals weren't usually dreadful for the most part they lacked emotion.
The biggest fan of the Sunday School teacher was her piano player Jill Lombardo, and the way the teenager looked at her mentor while she sang made her admiration quite clear. Jill's piano playing was the perfect fit for Victoria's singing, her strident and often awkward style made her sound like she stopped taking lessons far too early, and in Jill's case that was true when her father deserted her family and money got tight. Her main qualification was that she was the only parishioner willing to spend nights rehearsing and playing without any compensation save the teacher's gratitude for not having to sing a cappella.
Victoria obviously enjoyed the way that her young protege admired her voice, because she had few other fans of her talents in the parish. The congregation was grateful for anyone willing to take on the duties that no one else wanted, and when the church changed the Sunday School to Saturday nights that immediately boosted the attendance because parents could dump their kids off and have a couple hours to themselves,
"You don't mind, do you Jill?" the teacher had asked several years ago, and while the idea of a teenage girl having Saturday nights tied up might have had most kids declining, Jill Lombardo was perfectly happy to do whatever Miss Swanson wanted.
"Yes, I'd love to, especially if it gets more children to attend!" Jill had said excitedly, and so for all her high school years and beyond, the cherubic brunette sat at the piano, playing and sometimes even assisting in the teachings when Victoria permitted..
On this particular night when class finished and Victoria led the students upstairs so their parents could take them home, Jill was shocked when she saw that the snow was really flying and the wind was howling. With no windows downstairs in the classroom clean enough to see out of there was no way to tell that the flurries that had begun when she arrived had turned into what might become a blizzard, and the teen shuddered as she grabbed her coat, dreading the nearly mile walk she had to face.
"You didn't ride your bike, did you dear?" Victoria asked, knowing that was how her piano player often traveled.
"No Miss Swanson. I walked," Jill replied and then shrugged and added, "I need the exercise."
"Well you certainly can't walk home in this," the teacher responded. "Can't you call your mother and have her pick you up?"
"No," Jill answered. "It's Saturday night and she always has - company. Probably already went out. I'll be fine."
"You mean to say she lets you stay home alone?" Victoria said in a shocked tone.
"Sure. I mean, I'll be 20 next month."
"You're - oh my! How time has flown, but that's right," Miss Swanson recalled. "You started accompanying me six years ago this month. Silly me. Regardless, I can't have you walking home in this. Would you consider staying here with me tonight?"
"Really?" the chubby teen chirped happily.
"Mind you, my room is hardly what you would call elegant. Very small and not very furnished actually - nothing like you're probably used to, but if you would like I would love to have you. Nice to have company for once."
"Yes. I would love to," Jill replied happily as she looked out the door at the storm which must have been the answer to a prayer she had made many times over the years.
"Then follow me," Miss Swanson said, and as Jill followed her up the stairs her heart was racing, and not from the climbing of the steps either but for the possibility that their relationship would go beyond that of singer and accompanist.
***
"Be it ever so humble," Victoria declared as she let her young protege into the cramped studio apartment that she had called home for over a decade, and as Jill entered she saw immediately that Miss Swanson hadn't been kidding because it was certainly nothing special. Jill's home might have been larger but was no better, she didn't care about the spartan furnishings, and besides she was going to spend the night here with the woman she loved.
An old TV, a phonograph and a clock radio along with a full bookcase seemed to be the only entertainment, and outside of an overstuffed chair as old as the owner the only other furniture of note was a little kitchen table and a bed. A bed, as in singular, and while it was queen-size there was only one, so unless Jill was going to sleep in the chair that meant only one thing.
"How would you like some hot chocolate?" Miss Swanson asked after turning on the phonograph and cuing up the album on the turntable that the teen recognized as Erik Satie's piano works, and as Jill eagerly said yes she noticed that her mentor's voice was far less strident and cold than it was most of the time. While she was still no Mary Poppins the change was noticeable, as was her less strict attitude towards her.
As Miss Swanson prepared the cocoa on the stove - no microwave visible - Jill followed her over and watched her intently. Victoria had taken off the jacket of her pant suit and the dark blue blouse beneath was very loose, almost billowing as she moved around the stove. Jill wished she could be that thin, and also wished that she wasn't wearing such a bulky sweater because it was warm in this apartment and she had only a bra on underneath.
"Hot in here, isn't it?" Miss Swanson said, almost as if reading her mind, and after Jill nodded the teacher explained. "This old church, bless it, has a heating system that is so primitive that in order to make the basement even halfway warm, the rest of the place has to be made unbearable because there's only one control. After we left the basement I turned it down, but it will take a while for us to notice. I can open the window if you want."
"No, this is okay. It is so pretty looking out the window and seeing it snow."
"Yes, it is," Miss Swanson replied, and as her eyes went down Jill's chunky frame she told her she could feel free to take off her sweater.
"No, I don't have a blouse underneath. Can't," she said with a shrug, because she knew she wasn't attractive and needed to lose about 30 pounds, but the only part of her that anybody ever paid attention to was under the loose fitting cardigan.
"Oh," Victoria nodded, and as she did her eyes went briefly to Jill's chest.
While when men did it that it made Jill's stomach turn, when Miss Swanson did it that was different - and Jill noticed that her teacher did that fairly often. Not in an overly obvious manner and not nearly enough to suit the teen, but when Miss Swanson did her whole body tingled, making Jill wonder whether the stories around town were true. Maybe they were just lies spread by malicious people. Jill had never seen anything out of the ordinary and Victoria had never done anything her.
