musical interlude

HENRY HOLLOWAY

—Now, this is a song my grandfather, Wes Holloway, used to sing, and I imagine Rachel might have heard it when she was so little she didn’t even know it was getting tucked away in her memory. But it’s the song she asked me to sing today, and it’s a pleasure to sing it for two young people who finally managed to sight their heart’s delight.

I worked over that intro a bit, let me tell you. There’s a lot I’d like to say, and a lot I can’t say, about the song and the reason she chose it, about me and Rachel and all that water under the bridge. But she’s here now, hand in hand with Larry, vows said and everyone watching us. And this is the one thing she wanted me to do at her wedding.

Play the first chord, lean in to the mic.

Ye ladies and ye gentlemen, I pray you lend an ear

While I locate the residence of a lovely charmer dear ...

It’s no lie. This was one of Pop’s old songs, and maybe that’s where Rachel first heard it. As for the other reason she wanted it, well, that’s between the two of us. What it took for her to finally break down and ask about Stella! And what did I have to tell her, after all these years? That she was pretty, and clever, and I loved her once, and she kind of fell apart after having a baby at sixteen. Like anyone might.

How can you be so cruel to part me from my love?

Her tender heart beats in her breast as constant as the dove.

—She loved you.

That’s what I told Rachel, and I’m almost sure it’s true.

She told me about the song, how it was like a charm for her. I never let on that Audrey got it wrong, that it was Outer Cove and not Logy Bay, a few miles further down the road, where Stella drove the car off the cliffs. She’s Rachel’s Star of Logy Bay, and if a girl can’t have even one memory of her mother, she might as well have a song.

And if she can’t have a father with enough sense and guts to stick around and rear her up, well, she had something better. She had a grandmother, a whole family, who stepped in and did the job instead. I might not be much of a father or much of a singer, if it comes to that, but if it’s what she wants, I’ll sing that old song for her today, for two people who are far better musicians than I could ever have dreamed of being. In the end, I never had that much to give, but this is what she asked me for.

May the heavens above shine down their love

On the Star of Logy Bay.