As she spoke, she lightly put her hand on his upper arm, as if guiding him inside the room. In his business, he was touched all the time. Tugged at and pulled, sometimes by security and often by fans. Most of the time he ignored the contacts—they meant nothing. But Dena’s gentle touch caught him off guard and sent a faint whisper of awareness through him. It was gone nearly before he registered it, but it had existed. A reminder that he was still alive. That life went on and so did he.

And if he was healing enough to notice when a beautiful woman touched him, maybe other parts of him were coming back to life, as well. Maybe the creative part of his brain would awaken and start to make itself known.

He walked into the room and spotted Noah. The kid grinned at him, then nudged the guy sitting next to him and pointed.

Sally talked about being a veterinarian. She’d brought along some kind of snake, along with a tarantula. Both had about half the students squealing and trying to get out of the way while the other half crowded close.

When her surprise guests were back in their carriers, she shot Micah a look as if to say “top that” before retreating to the back of the room.

Tim talked about being a plumber and how important it was not to pour grease down a drain or put anything foreign in a toilet. Then it was Micah’s turn.

He got out his acoustic guitar and walked to the front of the classroom. Dena had pulled out a stool for him and gave him an encouraging smile that did little to quiet the nerves in his gut.

He sat down and introduced himself. “Noah’s dad couldn’t join us today because he’s a Christmas tree farmer and this is his busy season, so I offered to come instead.”

“Do you cut down Christmas trees?” a girl asked.

“No, I’m a songwriter.”

Nearly all the students stared blankly.

“What does that mean?” one of the boys asked.

“I write songs. Someone has to.”

There were more blank looks.

“All the music you hear in movies or commercials or on TV or in church, all those songs were written by someone.”

He played the opening notes for “Let It Go” from the Disney hit Frozen.

“My mom hates that song,” one girl volunteered.

Micah grinned. “It was written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and her husband, Robert Lopez. How about this one?”

He played the opening to “Moonlight for Christmas.” A few of the kids looked confused but several nodded.

“‘Moonlight for Christmas,’” one boy said. “My mom says it makes her cry but in a happy way. My dad gags when he hears it.”

Micah laughed. “I wrote that song. It was my first hit. I wrote it with my ex-wife a long time ago. Who knows the song?”