News from Squire's Isle

December 24 – Kira McManus

I’ve never really liked Christmas carols. Nothing against them, though, I just don’t really like much modern music. Give me a violin concerto or an adagio in G minor by Albinoni and I’m a happy girl. Classical music carries my spirit in a way that rock or pop music just can’t. So those Christmas carols playing incessantly on the radio and in shops this time of year never really did anything for me. I enjoyed The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky, and I usually played that in the watch shop to appease customers who expected Christmas music.

 

But I have to admit, there is one modern song that stops me in my tracks. Hannah, my friend, or… well, girlfriend, I suppose I can call her now (although it still sounds weird) introduced me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Big, majestic instrumental carols that combine the best of the classics with the best of modern music. My absolute favorite is Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24. It’s dramatic, booming, and it really works for me. And most of all, it’s the best of both worlds. It’s a song Hannah and I can both listen to. It’s rock for her, classical for me.

 

It’s one of the compromises I’m getting more and more comfortable making for Hannah. I’m not used to having someone else in my space, sharing my world. I never thought I would be willing to make the effort, mainly because I doubted anyone worth it would even look twice at me. But Hannah is worth the effort. Worth twice the effort I’ve put out so far. And she loved me. She really, really does. And if that means I have to listen to classical Christmas music with an electric guitar, then so be it. For Hannah, I feel like I can do anything.

 

– Kira McManus appears in the short stories Everything for Time, Better Sorry than Safe and Peace in Rest.