Alice's Guitar Lesson

“I just don’t know what to do, Lupa,” Lemy says. He and Lupa are sitting on the couch in his living room. Both Lyra and Alice were out, Alice at a friend’s house and Lyra helping with a function at the church.

“About what, exactly?” Lupa asks him, sipping from the coffee he had made for them when she had come over.

“Alice,” Lemy replies.

“What about her?” Lupa keeps the mug of coffee near her lips.

“She… has been acting strange lately.” Lemy continues.

“Misbehaving?” Lupa asks.

“Well, not exactly,” Lemy says.

“What do you mean?” Lupa presses for more information. Lemy turns a bright shade of red as he scrunches up his face, trying to form the words.

“The other day…” he manages to choke out.

“Yeah?” Lupa coaxes him.

“Alice said that she likes me” Lemy blurts out.

“What?” Lupa asks, not fully registering what he had just said.

“As in when kids say they like like somebody, you know?” Lemy spins his hand in a circular motion.

“Oh…” Lupa half shocked and half-amused at Lemy’s predicament. “And… What did her mother have to say about that?”

“I can’t tell Lyra!” Lemy exclaims. Lupa nods at him.

“Well, I think she might be confused and what she wants is to spend more time with you,” Lupa says, taking another sip of coffee.

“It’s not like I don’t spend time with my family, it’s just that with work and everything… it can be hard.” Lemy rubs the back of his neck.

“I know, but put in the extra effort to connect with Alice, do something fun with her,” Lupa advises.

“Hmm, that sounds like a good idea, thanks, Lupa,” Lemy says with a smile.

“But” Lupa places her hand on Lemy’s knee. “If she’s not confused… and keeps pursuing this, even after you start spending more time with her, well it’s up to you what to do from there.”

“Oh, right. I had almost forgotten. Your ‘thing’ with Dad when you were younger.” Lemy looks up at the ceiling trying to remember. Lupa starts to blush hard at that.

“Right… Look, to Alice you are the image of a perfect man because she has only had you as a male influence in her life. She doesn’t see Dad or grandpa enough to take anything from them.” Lupa takes Lemy’s hand before continuing. “If she seeks Male attention, it ought to come from you, not random boys that would try to use her. In all honesty, you are kind of the best man for her at this point in her life.”

Lemy was a little shocked by what Lupa had just told him but he took a moment then said, “I guess I never thought of it that way, thanks, Lupa.”

With that issue settled they visit for a little while longer, talking about the current going ons of their lives, how the rest of the family has been, major updates on anything relevant. Before too long the evening sun begins to peak through the window and Lupa looks at her phone to see the time.

“That late already?”Lupa asks no one in particular. “Well, I must be getting home.”

“Alright, thanks for coming over Lupa. I’ll be sure to take your advice regarding Alice” They embrace in a hug before Lupa leaves Lemy’s house and she gets in her car. Lemy stands on his small porch to wave her goodbye as she drives away before heading back inside.

~

“You’ve gotta strum lighter on the cords to get the sound you want,” Lemy says, demonstrating on his guitar. Alice tries to mimic him but still applies too much pressure and the tune comes out too forceful.

The two are sitting next to one another on the edge of her bed. In her room, in the upstairs of the house. They had been up there for about forty-five minutes now plucking away at their instruments. They had to get their practice in now while Lyra was out of the house. Lyra was fine with Alice playing music, she just didn’t want Alice going down the same path her grandmother went down, and to a lesser extent her father in his younger days. So, Lyra all but forbade Lemy from teaching her guitar when Alice was little. Despite that, and all the other options given to her, Alice gravitated back to her family’s instrument of choice. It must be in her blood.

Lemy could see it in the young girl, whenever Alice would look at Lemy’s pristine Electric Gibson guitar. Or whenever he would pull out his old acoustic for some special occasion. That was the instrument she wanted to play. When she finally asked him to teach her behind Lyra’s back, he couldn’t say ‘no’. So, over the past couple of months, Lemy had been secretly teaching Alice guitar whenever he could.

“It’s alright, we have done enough for today anyway, you are improving quickly, you know?” Lemy says.

“I am?” Alice asks.

“Yeah, it took me probably a month to learn that song when I was your age and you nearly have it down and it only took you a week.” Lemy reaches over and tussles Alice’s red hair. Alice beams at him, a big smile on her face. Alice’s smile fades and her eyes look away for a moment before she begins to speak.

“Hey, Dad? Do you think you could show me how to play the guitar solo after the second chorus again before we end the session today?” Alice asks.

“Uh sure, if you want.” Lemy picks up his guitar, getting ready to play it again.

“No. I mean… guide me through it.” Alice holds up her guitar, which was Lemy’s old guitar from when he was young. Lemy sets his guitar aside on the bed. Alice repositions herself sitting next to her father, letting Lemy wrap his arms around hers, his hands engulfing hers as she holds the neck of the guitar and the pick. Their bodies pressed up against one another, Alice’s back to Lemy’s chest.

“Ready?” Lemy asked. Alice nodded. Lemy slowly began to pluck at the guitar strings as Alice absentmindedly held down the correct order of notes at the neck. But Alice wasn’t focused on the song. She was focused on Lemy. and how strong his chest felt. How big and rough his hands were. How muscular his arms where.

Alice intentionally brushed her arms against his as he played, and swayed next to him, just enjoying being in his embrace. Her face flushed pink as the song went on and she could feel her heart quicken. She didn’t know why it had to be this way, a part of her felt that her feelings were wrong. But, anytime she got to be alone with her Dad like this she just felt happy and warm, she couldn’t help it.

Alice’s behavior wasn’t lost on Lemy, he noticed her slight undulations. He even noticed when she started to breathe quicker. He played out the solo. When it was over, Alice didn’t seem to notice, but he slowly released her hands.

“There. Was that good?” Lemy asked.

“Hmm? Oh! Yeah, yeah that was good.” Alice smiles at Lemy, still blushing. There is a moment of silence,

“Alice? Is something the matter?” Lemy asks her after a moment.

“N-no, it’s just, I was just thinking,” Alice says.

“About what?” Lemy prods her a little.

“Oh, about how I like this.” She motions around the room.

“Guitar practice?” Lemy asks.

“Well, yeah. But what I meant was... being here with you.” As she says this, Alice leans her head to the side and rests it on Lemy’s chest.

“Oh,” Lemy says, taken aback. He smiles and places his hand on her head, his fingers combing through her reddish-brown locks of hair. “Heh, I like spending time with you too.” She lays there for a moment, lowly humming as he strokes her hair.

“Do you remember what I told you the other day?” Alice breaks the silence. Lemy’s hand stops in the middle of what it’s doing and slowly slides down to her shoulder, gripping it.

“Yes…” He answers her. A pit slowly starts to form in his stomach. He didn’t want to have this conversation. Especially not now, after having a good practice and a nice moment with her.

“So…?” Alice asks from her position still nestled up next to her father, her back snugly against him, her head on his chest.

Lemy is unsure what he wants to do, or how to handle this. He had been trying to mentally prepare for it for days but that wasn’t helping him now that he was faced with the reality of it happening. After his talk with Lupa he had been trying to prepare this speech about how boys her age were no good and she should swear off dating for a while. He was going to offer his own time to the girl more because he thought that’s what she needed. But that was all coming apart at the seams now. Offering to spend more time with her now might feed into whatever she thinks is going on. He slowly starts to pull away from the girl, making her sit back up. When she is no longer resting on him and instead sitting next to him once again, she turns to face him. Lemy knows he's in trouble. He can already see the fringe of heartbreaking disappointment in her eyes just from him pulling away.

“Alice.” He starts, “You know I love you more than the world itself, right?” That gets a slight smile out of the girl who is wearing a confused look. But she doesn’t answer right away.

“Well, I do.” Lemy finishes. He pauses for a moment. “But… there are… different kinds of love. Understand?” Alice cocks her head a bit, narrowing her brow.

“I love your mother. But I love her differently than I love you. See?”

“Yeah… I guess…” Alice says. She looks like she still has something to ask. But Lemy breathes a sigh of relief anyway. He feels like he got over what would be the biggest issue with this problem. Nothing she could ask could be worse than that.

“So… how do I get you to love me like you love mom?” Alice asks after a moment of contemplation.

Lemy feels like he was just punched in the gut. All the air left his lungs at once just by hearing his daughter ask a question. He never knew words had such power. After taking a moment to take a deep inhale of oxygen, lemy looked at the girl who wore a contemplative look now.

“Well… Alice, honey… You can’t.” Lemy sighs.

“What? Why not?” Alice asks, taken aback by the answer.

“Well… there are... “ Lemy’s eyes flit around the room, searching for some way out of this terrible position he’s in. He says the words almost immediately as they come to him, hoping for an easy out. “Rules. To this type of thing.”

“Rules?” Alice looks puzzled again. Narrowing her eyes at her father she presses for more information.

“Yes… like, the rule that you can’t love more than one person the way I love your mother at a time.” Lemy blunders his way through his made-up explanation, hoping the young girl will just buy it and be satisfied with his bullshit.

“Oh.” Alice’s face becomes more neutral all of a sudden.

‘Did it work?’ Lemy thinks to himself.

“Does that make sense?” Lemy asks, wanting desperately for this conversation to end.

“Yeah, I understand,” Alice responds. ‘Thank god’ Lemy thinks.

“Okay, good,” Lemy says before quickly trying to change the subject. “Well, let’s get wrapped up here, your mother will be home soon and we don’t want her catching us in the act, right?” He forces a weak laugh.

Lemy and Alice put the guitars away and straighten up her room a bit like they always do after a practice session. With that unsavory business squarely put behind them, or so Lemy thinks, he asks Alice what she wants to eat for dinner before heading downstairs.

In Alice’s room, with Lemy gone, Alice sits on her bed in the silence and slowly goes over everything Lemy told her. His exact wording, and contemplates. No matter how she looks at it, she keeps coming back to the same answer over and over again.