Mary and Steve walked together to the bus stop. They looked again at their schedules. "I guess I will see you in Music. That is the period before lunch." Mary frowned.

"We have a break before that."

"Yes, let’s find a place to meet."

The bus pulled up. As they stepped into the bus they looked down the aisle. There were no bench seats that were empty. Most of the seats had at least one person in them. They found seats across the aisle. The seats were in the back, so they had to walk through the bus. Steve was very conscience of Mary’s limp. He gave her a small quick smile as they sat down. It was Mary who was looking down at her feet.

As they got off the bus they tried to orient themselves. They found a spot in the quad and headed off to their classes. First period for Steve was P.E. Fortunately they didn’t have to suit up. The P.E. teacher drilled them on their responsibility. Steve knew he wasn’t going to like this.

Mary had Home Ec. Her Mother had taught her how to sew, cook, clean, and firmly drilled into her that she was not going to be a professional homemaker.

They met in the quad at their break. They sat and watched as people passed, then headed off to their classes when the bell rang. After music they got their lunches out of their lockers and went back to the spot in the quad.

As they sat eating Warren walked up to them. "Hey Steve, I see you have a girlfriend. Good going."

Steve looked up at Warren. He didn’t say anything.

"You know you guys, brown bagging is not cool. Just thought I’d let you know."

Steve looked at Mary. Mary didn’t look up the whole time. ‘Noted, brown bagging, not cool." She said. "Must remember to get a years supply of brown bags."

Steve kept looking at Mary. "Girlfriend?" He finally said.

"What, you want me to be your girlfriend?"

"I don’t know. What would we have to do?"

"Kiss and stuff."

"Really?"

"Yea."

"Do we have to?"

"Don’t you want to?"

Steve thought about it for a while. "I guess if I was to kiss anyone it would be you."

"You guess?"

"Huh?"

"Don’t worry, I’m just teasing." She looked at Steve for a minute. "Besides, I would kiss you way before Warren."

Steve looked back, confused. "You want to kiss Warren?"

Mary laughed, and shook her head. "No, silly."

The rest of the day they had the same classes. Most kids had the same classes together, and since they were in music they had the same schedule. Warren was also with them since he played the trumpet.

They both liked school — Correction, they both liked learning. Neither of them were fond of actually going to school to learn. They would rather some place else. Two problems, they couldn’t relate to the kids in school. Mary had spent most growing up around adults. She also hadn’t gone to traditional school. Mary spent her education with tutors and her Mom.

Most of Mary’s education had been informal. The people that passed through her house were musicians, educators, politicians, and a most eclectic mix of personalities. Mary talked with them all. She spent most of her time with the musicians. They taught Mary everything they knew about instruments, composition, and song writing.

Steve, like Mary could not relate to the other students. They seemed like little kids to him. Of course, that was on a mental or intellectual level. Steve was interested in stories, poems, politics, history, and now because of Mary — music.

Now, coincidentally both of them were totally bored with school. In some cases they were smarter even then their teachers. In the social area they both needed each other. Academically they also needed each other. It wasn’t like they could not do their work. Together they did their work faster, so they could have time to do what they liked.

A week before Christmas break Steve was waiting for Mary. It was lunch time and Mary was late coming from her locker. They had found a place away from the quad. When he looked up he saw Mary with another girl. Steve frowned.

"Steve, Annie, Annie, Steve."

"Mary." Steve said. He wasn’t looking at Mary.

"I met Annie in Home Ec."

Steve looked up and Mary and grimaced.

Mary frowned. "What’s wrong with you?"

"It happens all the time."

"What happens?"

"It."

"What is it?"

Steve grimaced more and looked away.

"Steve." Mary said trying to turn his head to look at her.

Steve resisted.

"What’s wrong?"

Still looking down, "It happens all the time." He paused for a while. Mary knew that when Steve was upset she just needed to wait. "As soon as you get a new friend I’m out. You know — ‘Three’s a crowd."

"You think I won’t be your friend now?"

"It happens all the time."

Annie was uncomfortable.

"She’s not going to come between us."

Annie looked at Mary. "Hey, I didn’t know you had a boyfriend."

"Well, he’s not really a boyfriend."

"Not really?" Steve looked at Mary.

"We’re friends."

"Friends?" Steve looked up at that.

"Not that I wouldn’t want him to be my boyfriend, but we weren’t interested in that now."

Steve was confused. Not that he didn’t wanted to be Mary’s, he just didn’t’ really know what that meant.

Annie had just moved to the area. She lived near the Middle School in San Dimas. It didn’t take long for her to fit in with Mary and Steve.

Since Annie liked music, she was in music class with them. Annie played violin. When she could, Annie came over to Mary’s. Steve was coming along in his drum lessons. Mary also taught him how to play standup bass and the bass guitar. They didn’t come easy for him. When Annie came over Mary gave her lessons on the violin. Annie was already pretty skilled on the violin. Steve couldn’t play as many hours as Mary and Annie, so he would read, write and play with the reel-to-reel. He would often record the girls rehearsing.

The first day Annie came over to Mary’s house she rode with them on the bus. "Wow, you guys live by a cemetery. I love cemeteries." Annie wasn’t used to the slow pace they had to walk because of Mary. She ran into the cemetery to look at some of the headstones. When they got to the edge of the cemetery they waited for Annie.

"We sometimes walk in the cemetery and look at the headstones." Steve said. As they passed his house he ran in. "I’ll catch up." He yelled.

As Mary and Annie walked into Mary’s house Mary yelled. "

Mommy, I’m home."

Mrs. Brady was sitting in the living room reading. "I’m in here Mary. Try too keep quiet, you Daddy is sleeping."

"When did Daddy get in?"

"This morning." Seeing Annie. "Who is your friend?"

"This is Annie, we met her at school. Can we swim?"

"As long as you are quiet."

"I don’t have a suit." Annie said. " I would have brought one if I’d known."

"Don’t worry, I have plenty."

As the girls came down in their suits they saw Steve sitting and talking with talking with Mrs. Brady. The girls went out to the backyard.

Sitting with their feet dangling in the pool Annie asked. "So, where has your Dad been?"

"He was on tour with a jazz band. He left right after we bought the house. Mommy and I waited until the end of the school year. Daddy usually works in the studio’s here, so hopefully he will be home for a while."

Sitting in the music room upstairs Annie sat and stared at Steve. Steve looked away, looked down. "What?" He said. "What do you want?"

Annie smiled and kept staring. "Did your Mother cut your hair?"

Steve still didn’t look right at her. Of course, he couldn’t look at her too closely since he had his glasses off. He had been drying his hair and had laid his glasses on the stand.

"Look at me." Annie said. "I want to see your eyes."

Steve didn’t look up.

"Come on, I want to see your eyes."

"He won’t." Mary said. She wasn’t watching them. She was drying her hair.

"Won’t what."

"He won’t look in your eyes."

"I can get him to." She walked over to Steve and sat next to him on the couch. She touched his chin and moved his head to look at her. His eyes were shut tight. "You are so tense. Why are you shaking?"

"He doesn’t like being touched." Mary said, watching them.

"You are a strange boy. Now look at me." She said more forcefully.

Steve opened his eyes wide.

"You have pretty eyes."

"Can I shut them now?" He asked, shutting them.

Annie started combing her hair with her fingers. Mary handed her the comb. "Stop shaking, are you cold?"

"No."

Annie parted his hair down the middle. "There you go. This has much better symmetry. Give me some scissors so I can straighten up the bangs.

Seventh grade passed pretty uneventfully. They did have one adventure. For Easter Break Mary invited Annie and Steve to go to the studio with her Father.

"Now, you three sit quiet right here." There were three chairs next to the wall. The engineer turned back to the board. "I ain’t babysitting you."

They sat all morning — barely talking. Mary sat between and Annie would whisper in her ear, sometimes holding her hand. Steve sat on the edge of his seat and watched the engineer. It was like watching a musician. Mary closed her eyes and listened.

It was three in the afternoon, and Mary’s Father walked into the booth. Annie was staring at him with her mouth opened. Mary and Steve seemed in a trance. He smiled and shook his head. "Did you guys have a good time?" Silence. "You guys want to eat? We are breaking for dinner." They hadn’t moved from the chairs, to eat, to drink, to pee. "We will be here all night. Do you guys want to go home?"

Annie nearly jumped out of her chair. "No, no, let us stay!" They all looked up at him.

"Oh, OK, well, we are going to eat."

They didn’t get home until five the next morning. Their Mom’s wouldn’t let them go back the next day.

Steve stared at the walls in Mary’s music room. Mary and Annie were sitting on the floor. Spread out on the floor were about fifteen albums.

"I think we could sound-proof this room. We will need to cover the window. Could you talk to your Dad into getting an air conditioner? This room is hot. It will be even hotter with no window." Steve stared at the walls.

"We could do Joni Mitchell. I think I can do her voice." Annie held up one of Joni Mitchell’s albums.

"You don’t have to do her voice, and I can transpose if we need to." Mary said, holding a Thelonious Monk album. "All of the songs don’t have to have lyrics."

"Let’s each pick one song from a different album." Steve said, holding a Stones album.

All summer they practiced. They learned three songs at a time.

"What do we call ourselves?" Annie asked.

"Well, I’m Steve, You’re Annie, and uh I think she is called Mary." Steve said, smiling.

"No, silly, we need a name for our band." Annie said, frowning.

"I like dolphins." Stave said.

"That’s nice, but we are not going to be called Dolphins." Annie scowled.

"Well, there are three of us, so how about Three?" Mary said.

"Triangle."

"Triad."

"Tre."

"Is that a word?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not really."

"Ok, so we are Tre."

"What if we get another band member?" Annie asked.

"Steve frowned. "No, it’s just the three of us."

"OK, it’s Tre." Mary smiled. "Now, let’s go swimming."

They practiced all that next year. For most of the year their only audience was Mary’s cats. It was hard to tell what Mary’s cats thought of their music.

After their eighth grade graduation they put on a concert for their families. They sat at one end of the living room with all their instruments, and the families sat in rows of chairs.

Annie sang and played the violin and Guitar — both acoustic and electric. Steve played the drums and bass guitar and a variety of things that banged, crashed and tinkled. Mary played piano, and well, I won’t bore you with the list. Mary was amazing, beautiful, the leader, composer of our music.

The concert went very good, and as all families would be, they were very proud of us. We all went to the kitchen and ate a nice dinner that all of the families had prepared. We promised then that we give them a new concert by the end of summer.

They were all sitting by the pool and Annie smiled. "When will your Mom be back?"

"She is going to have lunch with Daddy. She won’t be back for a few hours."

"So what do you think, let’s go skinny dipping?"

Steve looked up and gulped.

"What’s wrong, shy?" Annie smiled.

"Well, yes, he is." Mary said, defending him. "There is nothing wrong with being shy."

"I’ll go into the house. I’ll make lunch while you swim." He got up and walked into the house. Mary watched him as he went into the house.

"You think he’s cute?" Mary asked.

"For a boy." Annie said. "He’s kind of weird, though. "Do you like him?"

"He’s OK, for a boy."

"You coming in?" Annie said, starting to take off her suit.

"Not now." Mary said, still looking at the house.

Annie kept her suit on, and jumped into the pool.

We spent the summer practicing, swimming, reading and going to the book store and record store. Some times we would talk Mary’s Mom into taking us to the beach. Laguna Beach was our favorite.

At Laguna we would spend the day swimming, eating and like normal fourteen year olds we visited every art studio on town. Some days we hung out at the art festival. One week Mary’s Mom rented a motel room. It was the best week. At the motel Mary’s Mom slept in one bed, Mary and Annie in another, and Steve on the floor. He didn’t’ seem to mind.

One day at Laguna we spent the whole day at the art festival. We spent most of the day at the booth of an artist named Ernesto. Ernesto made sculptures of bulls, nudes, and the ugliest rigs I have ever seen. They were all pretty cool. I think he would have kicked us out, but we spent the whole day dragging everyone we saw to his booth. I think it was his best day ever.

The last day at Laguna we swam the whole day. At the end of the day we sat on the beach and watched the sun set. Mary and Steve held hands. The next week we had to start school. Summer was over and High School was beginning.

The last weekend of summer we gave our concert. Mary’s Father invited some of his friends. We were hoping for a better perspective and at least a little constructive criticism. Mary’s Father and friends were very helpful.

The Velvet Underground and Nico is my favorite album. I found it the week before we went to Laguna. I listened to it all that week. We all listened to it at the beach. Of course, we listened to other albums there and practiced a little.

High School was a little harder to take than Middle School. Maybe it was because we were at the bottom of the heap. It seemed that three was beginning to be a crowd. In time one of us needed to go.

It was not that three can never work. There must be some triads that work. I was truly willing to try. Yet it seem to me I always tag. in. I wonder if she will ever. summer seem so far. what a good day we have this summer. I like my music. this the day the best. Sit by the pool listen to the music. they swim. tap tap tap tap tap tap the drumsticks feel good in the hand. why does she like me doesn’t she like me. tap tap tap tap tap tap. I think I will swim. into the music get into the music. improvise this song feel good going this way. This is where we are good when we are a triad one two three you you we make one I see you standing there did you kiss one two three you you me make three wonder when tomorrows parties will where will she go when midnight come when will midnight come here she come wherever are you am I am I one why can’t I be three what is my fate our fate her fate what are my choices what choice no choice no way one way only one one way tap tap tap tap tap tap what are the answers questions too many answers questions no answers no answer no questions no question one answer one one one one single silent silence silence sound silent sound no sound silent always screaming screaming make it stop the silent scream make it stop stop stop stop stop no more gone gone I gone gone I am gone

He walked up the stairs, holding her hand, walking slowly as they always did. This was new, or seemed new. Was it love? It was the beginning of love. This feels good and fresh. Along slow walk up the stairs was not long or hard, it was what you wanted to do at the moment. He looked at her. He looked in her eyes. It was almost easy to look into her eyes. Did she smile? They made it to the top of the stairs. They kissed. Why is it a small kiss is almost better than anything. It is like just one small sip of a sweet drink — it is just enough. When is she… she can be so quiet.

"Annie?" Why is she sitting there? What is the look on her face? Why is she so white? What is in her hand? Why is it red? "Annie? Annie! Annie No!"

Steve ran to Annie. She was sitting on the floor. He grabbed her and held her. She looked up at him. Annie looked in his eyes. He saw. He knew. Annie whispered in his ear. Annie kissed him on his cheek.

Why is Mary lying on the floor? Why is Steve holding me? Why is it so quiet? Steve is saying something, but I can’t hear him. Why is it so cold. It is so cold.