[A few weeks later...]
Arun had kept the post tailing Miss Swindon. And it had only gotten easier and, if he were honest, more enjoyable! In addition to his solitary, hidden nights spent watching the small family from afar, Arun had made himself something of a few-times-a-week fixture in the household, teaching little Sam the ukulele! In fact, that's exactly what they were doing now. And today was an extra special exciting day for Sam, because today was the day he would play a song for his mother for the first time! They were just practicing again for the last time before Sam would be playing for his delighted audience. And going over important things like 'how to not be nervous,' though Arun didn't tell him the old trick about imagining the audience naked. Because, well...
But when he led Sam into the sitting room where Dylanna was waiting, he decided that he might be nervous, too. And of course he had no family connection. Ahem.
"Ready Sam?" he stage whispered to the boy once they were in the sitting room, his mother sitting in the center of a neatly arranged row of chairs. When Sam nodded, Arun stood dramatically and announced in his old, projected show voice, "Ladies and gentlemen - or, in this case, lady," he corrected, throwing Dylanna a wink, "may I present for you tonight, the one and only, the exalted, the masterful, the very-practiced, whose stage presence far exceeds his stature... playing an original song with original lyrics written by himself... Samuel Swindon!"
