a sound she hadn't heard before

sixty.

That evening, after a great first day of rehearsal and a lovely little dinner at home, Taylor and Ayla are sitting at the piano while Joe is in the other room relaxing and watching TV. As much as Taylor loves living with Joe, she really cherishes the moments that she gets to spend with just her little girl. Just like the good old days. It was just the two of them for five years, and everything changed so quickly.

Tonight, they're working on Ayla's music lesson together. It was the first thing that Ayla talked about when Taylor picked her up from Elizabeth's house. Even before her awesome scootering trip in the afternoon. It is the coolest thing for Taylor to watch her daughter comprehend the musical concepts in her own special way. Kids have such a unique way of viewing the world, and Taylor doesn't really understand why or how they lose that. Especially Ayla. She has always been so clever, so creative. She has told vivid stories since the day that she could talk. She can offer a solution to nearly any problem- even if it isn't quite a realistic one. She has been drawn to music since before she was even born. Taylor used to play songs around the house and she would be able to feel the little baby moving to the beat inside of her. She knows that her little girl really is something special.

"So Ayla, sweetie, we are going to do something really cool today."

"What's that?"

"Remember how we were clapping the rhythms on the cards? The whole and half notes?"

"Yeah."

"We are going to try something new. Instead of clapping, you can pick a key on the piano and you can hit that to the rhythm. So four quarter notes would be like this." Taylor reaches out her finger and presses down on the middle C four times. "Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," Ayla nods.

"Which key do you want to hit?"

"Hmm..." Ayla thinks for a moment, eyeing the white and black keys in front of her. She presses on a few of them to hear the options before settling on one key. "This one."

"That's a great choice," Taylor smiles. "I'm going to put up some rhythm cards on the iPad and we can hit them together, okay?"

Ayla nods, and the two work through several rhythm cards together. At the end, Ayla even tries a few all on her own, and she does them perfectly. Taylor is so proud of her little girl.

"I think that we can call that a lesson for today. We'll do a little more in a few days, alright?"

"Alright," Ayla smiles.

Taylor takes a deep breath and swallows. She figures that, since she has her daughter in here right now, and it's just the two of them, she needs to talk to Ayla about something.

"Sweetie, I have something to tell you about."

"What?"

"Do you remember how I told you that I'm going to have to go to court with your father?"

"Yes Momma."

"I got a call the other day with the court date for that. I have to go back to the United States for it, it's going to be in April, right after we open the show." Taylor pauses. "I don't know how long of a process it is going to be. It will probably be a few days. It could be a few weeks. Joe is going to have to stay here and perform in the show. You can make a choice. You can come home with me, or you can stay here with Joe."

It was really hard for Taylor to come to the decision that she is going to let Ayla choose what to do. Her and Joe had a long talk about it a few days ago. She trusts Joe whole-heartedly, but she's just so scared to be apart from Ayla. However, she knows what it's going to be like during the trial in New York.