While Ursula was setting up her keyboard on its stand, Finn tilted her head back to observe the stars glistening through the glass panes. Then all at once they blinked out of existence.

When the stars reappeared, they were different somehow.

She saw Orion, the hunter. Canis Major. In fact, she could name all the constellations in the sky that night.

Ursula could. This was her memory, not Finn’s.

Then. A note.

The only word she could think of to describe it was shimmering.

It sounded like a sequined dress looks under stage lights; a tincture made of starlight dropped straight into the soft shells of her ears.

Another note joined the first, followed by another, then another.

Soon the whole sky was shimmering.

Then her eyes adjusted from the infinite blackness of space to the lamplight of Ursula’s observatory. Neither Ursula nor Zadie were there.

I must still be in the echo, Finn/Ursula thought.

Ursula’s memory wrestled a pencil into her hand. She began furiously scratching out notes on a piece of sheet music.

The door to the observatory opened.

Nic. Her wife’s mouth was moving, but all she heard was a loud ringing sound.

A flash of recognition on Nic’s face. She switched to sign language.

Finn/Ursula found herself signing back: I’LL BE DONE SOON. I JUST HAVE TO FINISH UP THIS PIECE.

OKAY. I LOVE YOU, Nic answered, then closed the door.

As the lock clicked shut, Finn was jolted back to the present. Both Ursula and Zadie were staring at her. “What did you see?” Zadie asked.

The ringing in her ears was gone, but it still took Finn a few seconds to find her voice. When she did, it was unsteady. Her eyes, she realized, were wet. “The stars. I heard their music. It was … I’ve never heard anything that beautiful.”

Ursula studied her for a moment. “You saw something else, didn’t you?”

Finn nodded solemnly.

“What is it?” Zadie asked.

Finn cast her eyes on the ground. It was not her story to tell.

“I’m going deaf,” Ursula said bluntly, then looked up at the stars as if they gave her the courage to continue. “I found out six months ago. Turns out, even my headphones aren’t strong enough to block the damage the sun is doing to my ears. I can hear okay most of the time, but there are moments when everything just goes silent. That’s why I’m rushing to get all this music written down, because soon I won’t be able to hear it anymore.”

Finn finally raised her eyes to Ursula. “I’m sorry.” She was both sorry that Ursula was losing her hearing and sorry that she had found out the way she did.