The Link 3 - The Huntress

Chapter 13 - Caleb

Kato Tetsuzan stood before me with his hand out. My idol, the one I never thought I'd meet, was now a mere two feet away. Standing there like an idiot with my mouth open shouldn't have been my reaction. Teagan moved in with a chuckle.

"Welcome, Mr. Tetsuzan," Teegan said. "I believe you've caught Caleb off guard."

"Kato, please," Kato said, shaking Teegan's hand. "And you must be Caleb McGuire. The one who did the duet with the Sax." I nodded like an idiot. "I heard a bootleg of it on the net. I must say it wasn't what I expected."

"You heard it?" I said like a star struck teenager. Damn, I was.

"One of my colleagues pushed it off on me," Kato said. "Amazing is all I can say. The way you and that sax danced, well, it was so original and surprisingly pleasing to the ear. I'd love to hear it live." I finally held out my hand and closed my mouth. Kato smiled as we shook hands.

"I'm not really used to meeting musicians like you," I said. "You're kind of my idol."

"Then you're in a lot of trouble," Kato said, "I play for the fun of it, and I've got no idea why everyone else likes it." We shared a laugh, which was worth gold to me. Here was a musician, probably twenty years my senior, who had achieved everything I ever wanted musically. Without meaning too, I rudely turned away from Teegan and began walking Kato to the library. I was about 10 steps into it before I had realized what I had done. Teegan was smiling when I turned to apologize. She waved me on, sending me bursts of love and a message to enjoy myself. I accepted the gift and the love, then continued to the library.

"I thought you two would be swamped by the press," Kato said as we sat down.

"We're hiding from them," I said. "The announcement of the inheritance has stirred up a hornet's nest. Neither of us knows how to act."

"I don't blame you," Kato said, "at least I can go to McDonald's and be assured of a little anonymity. Violinists usually don't rate high with that crowd." I smiled at his humor. "Teegan seems to be on every channel. They're playing up the rags-to-riches story."

"And the assassination attempts," I added.

"Plural?" Kato asked.

"The press is just getting wind of the others," I said with a sigh. At least they were tying it to the inheritance and not speculating on the true cause.

"You have to tell me, how did you ever come up with the violin-sax duo?" Kato and I talked music for the next hour. It was one of the best hours of my life, almost as good as being on stage with Tom. Kato instinctively knew why I loved music, so we jumped right into the mechanics of it, describing the music as a set of feelings that need to be pulled from the instrument. We were using half sentences and completing each other's words. It was an amazing collision of our thoughts, all without any help from Teegan.

"We definitely need to play together," Kato said.

"That would be awesome," I said, trailing off the last word when it sounded infantile to my ears.

"After dinner," Teegan said, surprising us by appearing at the door. I felt the joy in her. She was feeding off of mine.

"That's right," Kato said, "I was promised a meal." I laughed as we rose and followed Teegan to the dining room. We all sat at one end of a table built for twenty. In hindsight, it would have probably been better to eat out on the patio. Kato was a lot more homey than his musical persona had indicated.

"Caleb told me that you were the inspiration for his duet," Kato said to Teegan.

"I don't know," Teegan said, "the song is as much his as mine." Kato's eyebrows raised at her words.