| General Fiction posted February 15, 2025 | Chapters: |
...33 34 -35- 36... 
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Marie continues giving lessons to Cedric
A chapter in the book The Devil Fights Back
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 35
by Jim Wile
| Background Three intrepid women team up to conquer medical challenges. |
Recap of Chapter 34: After stabbing her and Brian’s captor to death, Fran decides they must now leave the island in case there are any other scouts. There is no time to bury the body, and they don’t want it found, so they decide to bring it with them and dispose of it at sea on their return to Manila. Brian reveals to Fran how well he understood the situation and bucks her up by telling her she did the only thing possible under the circumstances.
The following day, they haven’t received word from the DoD that the Chinese boat is gone, so they charter the Cessna again to determine this. Once their recon confirms the boat's disappearance, Fran dispatches the C-130s to spray the island. When this is successfully done, there’s nothing left to do but fly home and hope the mission was successful.
Chapter 35
Marie
“Back straight, Cedric. You’re slumping again. You must have a relaxed posture, but not that relaxed. And pull your head back. Good. Much better.”
He was playing Bach’s Minuet 1 and doing quite a good job of it. This was his fourth lesson, and it was obvious he’d been practicing. Always with a smile on his face, even when I’d been stern with him about this or that, he seemed to be enjoying his lessons as much as I was.
When he finished the number, he said, “How was that, Dr. Schmidt? I practiced extra hard on that one.”
“That’s coming along nicely, but you have to remember your posture. You have a tendency to be too loosey-goosey. We don’t want you to go stiff on us, but too loose is no good either. Your intonation was very good. Your tempo, not so much. Have you been practicing with the metronome app?”
“Sometimes I forget.”
“Let’s try to use it for a while until you have a real feel for the tempo and phrasing. I’d like you to continue working on this one, but I want to introduce a new one too. It’s called “Ode to Joy.”
“We sang that one in our church choir.”
“So, you know that it’s from the fourth movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. Would you like to try reading through it once? We have a few minutes left.”
“It seems like I just got here. You sure the time’s almost up?”
“In fact, we’re a bit over time, Cedric. You’re getting a few extra minutes for free.”
“Haha, that’s a good one, Dr. Schmidt.”
“Alright, we’ll take it a little slower to start. I’ll set the metronome on 72. You can gradually work your way up at home.”
He read the piece quite well. This kid was showing greater promise than I had hoped for, and I found I was enjoying these lessons with him. We actually laughed together occasionally, something I never did with Julia.
When he’d finished sight-reading the piece, I gave him a few directions on things to practice when he plays it at home. I wrote these down for him too.
“Cedric, I just want to say that it’s quite obvious you’ve been keeping up your end of the bargain and practicing your lessons. Are you enjoying the practice?”
“Yes, ma’am. I try to get at least an hour in each day like you suggested, and on weekends a little bit more than that. I’ve had to take a second job on the weekends, but I’m still managing at least a couple hours each of those days. The time passes quickly, though, and it doesn’t seem like that much.”
“That’s a good sign. The time can seem to drag when you’re not into it, and you end up doing all kinds of things to stall for time just so you can say you practiced for an hour. I’m gratified to hear this. Alright, I think we’re done for today. I’ll see you next week.”
He put his violin away, gathered up his things, and headed for the door. As he started to leave, he said, “Goodnight, Ms. Schmidt. Thank you for the lesson. See you tomorrow.”
I smiled and said, “Goodnight, Cecil.”
Two weeks later
At last week’s lesson, he seemed a little off. As soon as he came in, I could sense a difference in him. He wasn’t smiling as he usually was. He seemed pleasant enough, but a little unfocused and less sharp than usual. He did a decent enough job on the two pieces he’d been practicing, but instead of being loose, as he usually was, he was tense, and I had to remind him to relax his wrists and not to hold the bow so tightly. I had to repeat this to him several times.
But tonight’s lesson was a completely different story. I was annoyed with him. He’d made no progress since last week, and his attention wavered throughout the lesson. As opposed to being stiff like last week, he seemed lethargic and without his usual enthusiasm. No smile either. I’d assigned him the “Irish Tune from County Derry,” known more commonly as “Danny Boy,” and he made a complete mess of it.
“Cedric, I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, but I don’t like the direction you’ve been going. I can tell you haven’t been practicing, and that was the deal we struck for the lessons. If you’re no longer interested in lessons, just say so, and we won’t waste any more of each other’s time.”
He hung his head and looked very forlorn. He then placed his violin and bow back in the case on the floor. “You’re right, Dr. Schmidt. About not practicing. I should probably have canceled our lesson for this week. Things aren’t going well at home, and I’ve had to pick up a third job just to make enough money to get by. I’m so tired lately, that I don’t have the energy to practice. I’m sorry.”
I could tell he was sincere. “What’s changed, Cedric?”
He couldn’t seem to look me in the eye and kept his head down. It took him a few seconds to answer. “I live with my mother, and I have two sisters and a brother who are all younger than me. My mother had a job as a library assistant, but she was fired recently, and she refuses to look for another job. She just stays in the apartment all day doing nothing, so I must do everything to keep the family going. I don’t know how to help her.”
“What happened? Why did she get fired?”
He looked very sad as he told the rest of his tale. “She was talked into trying a drug called Dip by a friend who lives in our building. My mother has some history with drug abuse, but it has never affected her like this drug has. She doesn’t want to do anything except to take it all day long. Once she started taking it, she never went back to her job at the library, and they eventually called and told her not to come back.
“She doesn’t cook for herself or for the younger ones. She does nothing all day but sit and stare. I’ve never seen anything like this Dip. It’s ruined her.”
My heart sank for this boy as he told his tale. It was easy to see why practicing the violin was now his lowest priority. The fate of his family rested on him alone.
“Have you tried to get her into rehab?”
“I’ve suggested it, but she won’t go. She doesn’t think there’s anything wrong, and I can’t seem to reason with her. She just laughs everything off and insists she’s enjoying her life like never before. How do you convince someone to get help when they see nothing wrong with their behavior? I don’t know what to do, Dr. Schmidt.”
“I’m very sorry to hear this, Cedric, and I understand now what you’re going through. Whoever invented this drug and is distributing it should be shot. What a horribly devastating thing it appears to be that can so take over a person like that. Why don’t we just suspend our lessons for now until things change and your family is back on its feet? Then we can resume if you feel like it. I would very much like to continue teaching you if you still have an interest.”
He looked up at me, and tears were forming in his eyes. He said simply, “Thank you, Dr. Schmidt.”
 Recognized |
Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.
Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.
Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.
Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.
Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.
Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.
Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.
Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.
Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.
Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.
Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.
Picture courtesy of Playground-v3
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