Night Walker Read Online Free PDF Page A

moonstruck fifth-grader. Great.
    Kate rolled her eyes at her excuses and flipped pages in search of the number for Foundation Arts.
    Her mother supported the arts around San Diego for most of her life. Kate hadn’t been shocked to discover she left her baby grand piano and collection of rare sheet music to her favorite charity. On some level, it did hurt a little that her mother didn’t leave it to her. She was by no means a virtuoso, but she knew how to play, and a piano would have been handy for her job as a choir director. She could’ve used it to plan the music for her classes and student choirs.
    It didn’t surprise her, though.
    Her mother lived to support the foundation, to support “The Arts.” As if Kate’s work was less than art. Her mother had her own set of goals for Kate’s future. You have miles of potential, she’d tell her. She really wanted her daughter to be a performer of some kind.
    Although Kate aced her vocal performance juries in college, teaching was her true passion.
    The disappointment was plain in her mother’s eyes the day Kate turned down an offer for graduate school to study voice. Instead she entered the teaching credential program. She’d found her calling. She wouldn’t live her mother’s dream, but she wished her mom could’ve seen her work.
    If she had been able to witness the joy on the teens’ faces when they sang together on stage for the first time, maybe then she might have realized Kate hadn’t settled. She might have understood Kate was an artist, and better yet, her work ensured an ongoing love of 24 LISA KESSLER
    music in the next generation of art lovers.
    If only.
    Finding the number, she went to the phone and made the call.
    “Foundation Arts, this is Betty.”
    “Hi, I’m Kate Bradley. My mother left her piano to the Foundation—”
    “Oh Kate, I’m sorry for your loss,” Betty said. “Martha was a wonderful woman. We all miss her. She spoke highly of you.” Kate was more than a little surprised. “She did?”
    “Of course,” Betty said, a smile coming through in her voice.
    “You’re a choir director in Nevada, right?” Kate’s surprise morphed into shock. “Yes. I teach middle school chorus.”
    “I’m sure it takes a lot of patience.”
    “Yes, it does.” Kate collected her thoughts. “Um, the reason I called though… My mother left her baby grand piano and her sheet music collection to your foundation. I just wanted to find out who to call about the piano moving.”
    “I can handle all of it for you. I’ll need your signature on a few documents, and I’ll take care of everything else.” Kate raised a brow. “You’ll handle finding piano movers?”
    “Sure thing.”
    “Great. How soon can we get this going?” Kate asked.
    “Well...” Kate heard pages flipping on Betty’s end of the call. “I have a meeting at six o’clock tomorrow night. I can be a little early.
    How about five-thirty at The Fish Market? It’s the one near Seaport Village, on the bay.”
    “Sounds great. I’ll see you then.” Kate placed the phone back on the receiver with a little smile. Maybe her mother respected her work more than she ever realized. Too bad it was too late to tell her how much it meant to her.
    §
    1775
    Gregorio lived with the tribe for nearly three months before they took him to the Old One. He still mourned Tala’s death, unable to Night Walker 25
    move past the pain and emptiness weighing down his soul. He drank very little and ate only when someone reminded him.
    The pain of her loss became his only reality. Shadows and loss colored every part of his world.
    Every time he saw the Romneya bloom in the valleys, he ached with memories of Tala, of the way she wore them in her hair and how they perfumed her skin. The sight of the ocean waves where they learned each other’s customs now tore him apart.
    As the weeks passed, he found some solace in the tribal beliefs and eventually became involved in spiritual discussions with the