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"How did he knohat it sounded like? I mean, in order to write music, don’t you need to be able to hear it?" Sauess" I pursed my lips in conteuess he felt the music, so he didn’t have to hear it with his physical ears" I paused "Sonja toldBeethoven, have said that the music they compose is in the air, that’s it’s already there, you just have to be able to hear it Most of us can’t…we can only appreciate that people like Beethoven seem to be able to, and then write dohat they hear"

"Do you hear it?" Sa

"I don’t hear it…but I know it’s there" I struggled to express so that I’d never put into words "Sometimes I think if I could just see without my eyes, the way I feel without my hands, I would be able to hear the music I don’t use my hands to feel love or joy or heartache - but I still feel thes, but soets in the way of what’s…what’s just beyond the beauty Almost like the beauty I can see is just a very lovely curtain, distracting me from what’s on the other side…and if I just kne to push that curtain aside, there the music would be" I threw up my hands in frustration "I can’t really explain it"

Sa ht in the church Others did the sa to hear what our eyes keep hidden"

He understood I felt a lu him

"It’s in the air," Samuel mused softly His eyes were unfocused and his brow creased in reflection "Like ni ch’i"

"What?" I didn’t understand

"It’s like ni ch’i Ni ch’i is the Navajo for air or the windbut it is more than that It is holy and it has power My Grand in the living world coh ni ch’i Because of this, the Holy Wind Spirit, ni ch’i, sits at the ears of the Dineh, or the people, and whispers instructions tells thenore the ni ch’i are abandoned, the ni’ch’i will not re down on randmother believes that the ni ch’i is breathed into a newborn baby as they take their first breath The child then has the couides hirows

"It sounds like the Holy Ghost I learned about the Holy Ghost in church It helps you to do what’s right, guards you, warns you, leads you, but only if you are worthy of His company It only speaks the truth My Sunday School teacher says it is the way God talks to us"

"Maybe what Beethoven hears is ni ch’i singing God’s ht"

I rewound the cassette and extended the earphones to fit a head the size of Goliath’s Then I leaned close to Sa over both of our heads, one earphone on ht and we listened to God’s ether, for the rest of bus ride

Samuel never complained about my taste in ed my earphones so that we could turn the fuzzy ear pads outward, so that our heads weren’t pressed together e listened I hadn’tto adht misconstrue the intimate proximity of our heads We each held one side of the headphones pressed to our ear After about a week of non-stop Beethoven, I broughtintently to Prelude in C Sharp Minor, and Sa He turned towardsfinish

His voice ed "Thislike nothing could stopinto my head And there’s just that one small part where theand cli and then those three chords play and it says ‘I did it!!!’ - kind of like Rocky raising his hands at the top of all those stairs You knohat I mean?" His voice was soft and sincere, and he looked ata little sheepishly at his enthusiastic review "It’s so powerfulI al I would becohted with his rare humor Samuel didn’t joke around a lot, and he was definitely not verbose

"I know exactly what you mean Remeot a little carried aith the music in my head and for a minute I was convinced I could fly"

Sa his head

"Maybe I will have tocapes and this can be our theme music" I struck a pose "Super Sa out

Sahed out loud The sound was even better than the music, and I s

Sa the earphone back up to his ear I pushed the stop button on my player