The Harp

“You play an instrument?” Elise asked.

Marsh thought her eyebrows were going to fly right off her face.

“It’s not uncommon,” Cody said, hunching his massive shoulders defensively. “Reading music helps children read better when they’re younger, and practicing an instrument instills discipline –”

“Yeah whatever,” Elise said, waving a hand dismissively.

Cody hunched his shoulders further. “Promise you won’t laugh.”

“Why would I laugh?” Elise asked. “It’s not something embarrassing like the tuba or triangle, is it?”

Cody cast a shifty glance in Marsh’s direction.

Glee lit in Elise’s eyes. “It is the tuba, isn’t it?”

“It’s the harp,” Cody said flatly.

“The harp? Like...angels on a cloud harp?” Elise’s glee turned to puzzlement.

“It makes sense,” Kyle said, and Marsh blinked; he’d almost forgotten Kyle was there. Kyle was prone to long bouts of silence while he set wards on a safehouse.

“I guess...since Cody’s so big he can carry one around,” Elise said, but she was eyeing Cody with a newfound skepticism.

“King David played the harp,” Kyle explained.

“Like David and Goliath David?” Elise asked.

Marsh hummed tonelessly and attempted to sing, “I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord –”

“I always figured it was a piano,” Elise said.

“They didn’t have pianos back then,” Cody said. He cast Israfel a look. “Don’t you teach her anything?”

Israfel shrugged and sketched quavers in the air. “She sings, and I answer.”

“Play us a song,” Elise said.

Cody cast her a withering look. “I don’t have a harp with me.”

Elise snapped her fingers. “Israfel. A harp for the boy.”

“He’s an angel, not a genie in a bottle,” Cody said.

Elise shimmied her hips and sang an old pop song. Cody sighed. Marsh laughed. Kyle finished the wards.

(300 words)