Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
Psalm 147:1 (NIV)
King’s Landing Transit Station
King’s Cross, Texas
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Two years later
Meeting Justice at King’s Landing Transit Station and accompanying eight-year-old Gift and Given to their Springspiration musical performance at Lighthouse Park in King’s Cross, Texas, Sweet Alyce and her husband, Randle, stepped down from the train, holding their great-great-grandchildren’s hands.
Gift and Given had been enrolled at Evergrace Academy, in the School of Music, since they had turned six years old, and this year’s Springspiration would be the first chance they had to showcase their musical skill and talent. Freedom would be joining them later at the park with the other five children: Everson, Eston, Essam, Everly, and Echo, who had come together to form their own Christian musical band, The Evergraces.
Now, here at the train station, Sweet Alyce and Randle stood with Gift and Given: Gift, wearing a white blouse with beige and teal buttons, a black skirt with a beige-and-teal belt, and carrying a matching beige-and-teal backpack, and Given, wearing a black leather jacket with a white shirt and black dress pants, carrying an Evergrace guitar.
They had ridden the train from Evergrace to King’s Cross, and they had come to the King’s Landing Transit Station because Gift and Given had wanted to meet and perform with the social media sensation and charismatic train-station pianist, Q-note, whose real name was True Questlove.
For months, Gift had gushed about the thirty-three-year-old man, and she and Given had watched most of his online livestream videos. Naturally, when the two had found out they could catch the train from Evergrace to King’s Cross and that their dad, Justice, was friends with the man, Given, a consummate music lover, had said he wanted nothing more than to have a jam session with Q-note before their Springspiration performance.
Now, here they were: in King’s Cross, minutes away from meeting the infamous Q-note.
On their quest to find him, in the enormous glass-domed train station, they passed trendy restaurants, jewelry stores, clothing stores, bakeries, toy stores, shoe stores, candy stores, tourism attractions, a movie theater, a game center, and novelty shops, including a sports bar and a bookstore with wall-to-wall cherry wood bookshelves stocked with books of all sizes and colors.
Gift pointed, pulling Sweet Alyce forward. “There’s Daddy!”
Sweet Alyce laughed. “Slow down! I’m not as young as I used to be.”
Given was tugging on Randle too. “C’mon, Grandpa Randle. There’s Q-note too!”
“I’m not running,” Randle said. “We’ll get there when we get there.”
Sweet Alyce looked ahead, and she saw Justice in a royal blue shirt with his hands in his pants pocket, with his black dog, Storm, standing beside a black piano, on which an olive-tan man with pitch black hair and dark green eyes sat, on the bench, wearing a black shirt and pants. Standing off to his other side was an attractive woman with long dark-black hair and blue eyes, in a green and gold jumpsuit, holding a cell phone up, apparently recording him.
Eventually, Sweet Alyce, Randle, Gift, and Given reached the small crowd, forming a half circle around Justice and the pianist, and they stopped because the young man on the piano stood up, smiling, and faced them.
“For those of you who don’t know me, I’m True Questlove, but friends call me Q-note, Q, or True, and I often livestream my jam sessions here in the train station.” He glanced at the young woman with the cell phone. “Behind the camera is my lovely wife, Vanessa Questlove, who keeps me well-grounded, well-guarded, and well-loved.”
Sweet Alyce could tell from True’s accent that he was British, and the sound of his voice was like music to her ears.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I do have an accent, and I am from Great Britain,” he said, as though reading Sweet Alyce’s thoughts. “I was born in London, England, but my family and I moved to the States when I was a teenager, and I’ve been living here in King’s Cross for the last ten years.”
True clamped his hand on Justice’s shoulder. “Today, I have a close friend passing through, whose name is Justice, and by popular request, he and I will be singing together and playing a duet, jamming on a flashback tune from the late 1990s, with New Radicals’ song, ‘You Get What You Give,’ with those lyrics that still resonate today.”
Immediately, Gift released Sweet Alyce’s hand and rushed closer to her dad and True, the biggest smile on her face, as Justice and True began singing and playing together at the piano.
After Justice and True had finished singing and playing together at the piano, the crowd cheered and applauded, many holding out their own cell phones and recording the train station performance.
As soon as Justice stood up from the piano bench, Gift and Given flung themselves into his arms. “Hello, Daddy!” they exclaimed.
Justice laughed and hugged them. “Hello!”
Given raised his head. “Can you introduce us to Q-note? Please?”
“Of course, I can,” Justice said, his hands on Gift’s and Given’s shoulders. “True, meet two of my kids: Gift and Given. They’re big fans of yours, and these are their great-great-grandparents, Sweet Alyce and Grandpa Randle.”
True greeted Sweet Alyce and Randle, then he left the piano bench and joined Justice, Gift, and Given. He knelt down first in front of Given. “Hello, little man! Are you a musician?” he asked, pointing to the guitar case.
Given nodded. “I love music, and I can play guitar, keyboards, trumpet, cello, and violin.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m eight right now, but I’ll turn nine in September, the twenty-fourth.”
“That’s great!” True said. “Before you leave today, maybe we can jam together.”
Given’s eyes got big and round. “Really?”
True nodded. “Really.”
“That’s so cool!” Given said.
“Nice to meet you, Given.”
“You too.”
“Plant me one here.” True made a fist, then reached it out to Given, and the two bumped fists. “Good job!”
Next, True turned to Gift, whose light-brown face was rosy red. “Hello, sweet lady!”
“Hello!” she said, quite shyly, all of a sudden. “You’re great.”
“Thank you.” True rose to his full height. “So, what brings you all to King’s Cross today?”
“Gift and I attend Evergrace Academy School of Music,” Given said, “and we’re in King’s Cross for the Springspiration musical performance at Lighthouse Park. Since we’re twins, and we sing and play together, we go by the name Gift & Given.
“You’re welcome to come tonight if you’re not busy,” Given said. “Gift and I would love it, if you would. It’s free, too, open to everybody.
“Gift and I are supposed to meet our mom and brothers and sisters there because they were too busy to take the train. So, it’s just me, Gift, Sweet Alyce, Grandpa Randle, and Dad, who you already know. We’ve got a big family, so it gets pretty loud and crowded when everyone is together. Usually, ‘the five,’ our other brothers and sisters, travel together, and Gift and I travel together, usually with Grandpa Randle and Sweet Alyce, our grandpa Eli, or our dad, Justice.”
“Breathe and give the man time to talk, Given,” Sweet Alyce said.
Given lowered his head. “Sorry. I just really want you to come.”
“Actually, True will be there,” Justice said. “He and another friend of mine, Israel Goodwin, will be performing alongside my niece, Alannah Prince.”
Gift’s golden-brown face glowed as her eyes darted from Justice to True. “Really?”
True smiled at her. “Really.”
Given pumped his fist. “Yes!”
Sweet Alyce stepped closer and shook True’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person. Gift and Given both wanted to take the train instead of the car because they knew you would be here, and they both wanted to have the experience of traveling by train, meeting you, and possibly even performing with you.”
“It’s my good pleasure to meet you,” True said, “and we’ll see if we can’t make those dreams of performing together come true today.” He looked at Gift, who was still tucked snuggly in her dad’s arms. “Your brother says you’re in the group Gift & Given. Does that mean you sing and play instruments as well?”
Gift nodded. “I sing, I write songs, and I play the piano, the flute, the piccolo, and the violin.”
“What’s your preference in music?” True asked.
“Grandpa Eli is a preacher,” she said, “so my brothers and sisters and I are into praise and worship music. Besides that, I like classical and instrumental music, and I really love singing, playing, and listening to inspirational opera songs, like ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ and ‘The Prayer.’” She lowered her backpack from her shoulder, then unzipped it and pulled out a music book. “I even brought the sheet music to both songs in case I met you and you agreed to perform them with me.”
True grinned, his smile reaching his grass-green eyes. “You’re ambitious for an eight-year-old. But I like that. So, how about you and I perform ‘The Lord’s Prayer,’ with you singing the song and me playing the piano, and for the encore, you and your dad, Justice, can sing ‘The Prayer’ as a duet while I play the piano, Given plays the guitar, and my wife, Vanessa, gets it all on livestream?”
Gift’s eyes got big, and she looked at her dad, her mouth open. “You can sing opera, too, Daddy?”
Justice laughed. “Don’t look so shocked. Your dad is a man of many hidden talents and foreign languages, too, mia bella.”
“Mia bella?”
“It means ‘my beauty’ in Italian,” he said.
Her blue eyes sparkled. “I like it—mia bella.”
Justice grabbed her hand and led her beside the piano. “Then, that’s who you’ll be to me from now on, mia bella.”
True sat down on the piano stool, and Gift placed the sheet music on the music shelf in front of True.
Not wanting to miss a second of the performances, Sweet Alyce, like others around them, pulled out her cell phone and began recording. She knew her great-granddaughter Freedom would appreciate especially her capturing the duet between Justice and Gift.
True spread his fingers over the black and white keys, then he began playing, and soon, Gift was singing a powerful and anointed rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer,” ending the song resoundingly with “amen.” As she did, Sweet Alyce could see Justice discreetly drying tears from his ocean-blue eyes.
The crowd around them cheered and clapped, and True applauded Gift, then hugged her. “Congratulations on becoming the next social media sensation,” he said. “Now, Given, bring your guitar over here so you can perform with me, your sister, and your dad.”
Given bobbed his head. “Yes, sir!” He kneeled down, then opened his guitar case and removed his Evergrace guitar. Finally, with the biggest smile on his face, he took his place near the piano, next to True and across from his sister and dad.
Justice moved closer to Gift, and he grabbed her hand. Smoothly, True and Given transitioned into the instrumental part of “The Prayer,” and before long, Gift was singing, then Justice. Their duet was divinely delivered, such that Sweet Alyce and nearly everybody else were left with tears in their eyes.
After they finished singing and playing “The Prayer,” Justice hugged and kissed Gift and high-fived True, and the entire train station seemed to erupt in cheers, whistles, and applause.
Gift leaned toward True and hugged him. “Thank you!” she said.
“You’re welcome,” he said, kissing her forehead. “From now on, I’m your number-one fan, and I’ll be cheering you and your brother on during your Springspiration music performance in the park tonight.”
Randle glanced at his wristwatch. “It’s nearly time for us to go,” he said. “If we don’t want to miss the rendezvous with Freedom and the other kids, we need to get on the road now.”
“Before we leave, Grandpa Randle, can Given and I take a picture with Q-note and my dad?” Gift asked.
“That’s fine with me,” True said.
“I’m up for it too,” Justice said. “Just as long as you send me a copy.”
Within seconds, they were all posing for pictures and snapping photos.
Finally, Sweet Alyce, Randle, Gift, Given, and Justice waved at True and his wife, Vanessa, and made their way, alongside Justice’s dog, Storm, toward the train station exit, straight to Justice’s truck in the parking lot.
From the backseat, where he sat between his sister Gift and his great-great-grandfather, Randle, Given smiled from ear to ear. “This has been the best day ever,” he said. “I can’t wait for it to get better during Springspiration in the park.”
“I can’t wait to tell Mama I sang with Daddy and show her all the pictures we took,” Gift said. “Maybe one day, we’ll all be in the same picture: you, me, Mama, Daddy, Everson, Eston, Essam, Everly, and Echo, like one big happy family. That’s my wish, really,” she said. “For Mama and Daddy to get married already so we can be together, forever and always.”
“That’s my prayer, too, mia bella,” Justice said. “Maybe one day soon, your wish and my prayer will come true.”
From the passenger seat, Sweet Alyce snuck a glance at Justice, and she could see him clutching the steering wheel tightly, with tears gleaming in his eyes. Facing forward, she palmed her hands in her lap, wondering what she could do to help her great-granddaughter and Justice get closer to the altar as husband and wife.
It was apparent to anyone who knew them that Justice and Freedom truly loved each other. Justice had even resigned from the Cheerwell Police Department, and he had relocated to Evergrace and had joined the Evergrace branch of The Sword & Shield Security Agency so he could be closer to Freedom and his kids.
But no matter how many times he pressed Freedom to accept his proposal and marry him, she kept turning him down. Sweet Alyce, like everybody else, knew something was holding Freedom back from accepting Justice as her bridegroom and husband. Sweet Alyce had a suspicion it was good old-fashioned fear, and that just wouldn’t do anymore. She and Randle weren’t getting any younger, and they had sat silently on the sidelines long enough. So, before either Randle or she met the Good Lord, their Maker, they would definitely do their part to make sure Freedom and Justice got married sooner rather than later.