Chapter 5 
	Bob sat in the school cafeteria, occasionally taking a 
bite of lasagna, as he transposed several sheets of music using 
his circular "key changer." Just as he finished transposing the 
last line, his cell phone rang. 
	"Hello Bob, this is Angela. Is Helen there yet?" 
	"No, not yet? What's up?" 
	"I needed to tell her, tell all of you, that you can 
come at 14:45 to make your recording." 
	"Whoa! What recording?" 
	"Didn't Helen tell you? I asked Victor to do you a 
favor, and make a recording of you three performing your music. 
Victor thinks he can give you a chance to earn lots of money 
by selling your music worldwide." 
	Bob hesitated a moment before speaking. "How much would 
it cost. We wouldn't be able to pay you any time soon." 
	"We're not asking for money. You didn't ask for money 
when you chauffeured us to the hospital. We're just returning 
the favor." 
	"Thanks. That's very nice of you, Angela. I'll tell the 
others." Bob did not voice his question of why Victor waited
almost three months to do this favor for them. It might have
made him sound ungrateful. 
	As Bob gathered up his music and shut down his music 
laptop computer, he saw out of the corner of his eye that, 
across the room, Joe had just entered the cafeteria. 
	Joe waved, and rapidly traversed the room to sit across 
from Bob. Bob pushed across the table to Joe the two milks, 
peanut butter sandwich, apple and banana that he'd earlier 
gotten for him. 
	Just then Helen strode into the cafeteria to meet her 
friends.
	Bob spoke as she approached. "Hello Helen. Are you 
going to get lunch?" 
	"I'm not hungry." 
	Joe teased her. "Are you sure it's not just that you don't 
want to go down the line because everyone will notice this?" 
Joe brushed his hand lightly upward against Helen's mismatched 
solid yellow shorts and dark red blouse. 
	She glanced down at her clothes and smiled. "No, of 
course not." Then she frowned as she remembered. "I'm still a 
bit riled from getting this speeding ticket on my way over 
here." She tossed a yellow slip of paper down onto the orange 
tabletop. 
	Joe looked puzzled. "But you don't have a car!" 
	Helen smiled ruefully. "That's true, unless you count 
when I drive Bob's car. The traffic cop interrupted my jogging 
to give me this ticket." 
	Bob picked up the ticket and looked closely at her. 
"You look serious. Surely you're joking. Why did he give you 
the ticket?" 
	"I think he got mad when I told him he 
should get his speedometer fixed." 
	Joe looked wondering at her. "And why did you tell 
him he should get his speedometer fixed?" 
	She grated out her answer. "It tagged me as jogging 
twenty meters per second along the sidewalk." 
	"Bob, how long has it been since Helen showed us her
first super power?"
	"You're kidding, aren't you?  It's been 114 days since
we met our friends Victor and Angela."
	Joe reached across the table, and took the ticket 
from Bob. "Wow. Hey! This isn't really a speeding ticket. It's 
only a warning ticket. It says that if you're a public nuisance 
again, you'll be subject to a fine. May I keep this ticket for 
my 'Helen Archives'?" 
	She smiled at him. "Of course you may. Thank you." 
	"Did you find any really valuable coins while you were 
outrunning a racehorse?" 
	She looked at him, a look of puzzlement crossing her 
face. "Why would I?" As she realized Joe's meaning she grinned. 
"Quit teasing me." 
	Bob changed the subject. "Helen, don't you have some 
other news for us?" 
	"Indeed I do. Remember when we took Victor and Angela to 
the hospital? "She paused as she looked at them to see their 
reaction. 
	Bob merely smiled. Joe expressed curiosity in his 
response.  "How could we not remember.  From that day, the day 
before your friend Melody returned safely from the moon, they 
met us every first and third Sunday of the month to walk our 
beach with us."
	Helen nodded her head afirmatively. "Victor owns a 
recording studio, and he's asked us to be recorded on a disc, 
free!" 
	"What!" Joe exclaimed. "How can you be so lucky?" 
	Bob answered for Helen. "Angela convinced Victor he 
should do us a favor." 
	Joe laughed. "I suppose this illustrates how women 
run the world behind the scenes." He smiled his teasing smile. 
	"So, when do we get to do this recording?" 
	"I don't know. Angela's supposed to call me to tell me 
the exact time." 
	Bob recalled his previous conversation with Angela. 
"We're supposed to meet Victor at his home, right after our 
next tutoring session, at 14:45. He's setting things up, even 
as we speak." 
	Surprised by this comment Joe stared at Bob. "You 
sly dog. You knew all the time, and didn't even tell me!" 
	Enjoying the moment Bob smiled. Not often did he have 
the chance to tell Joe news. "I didn't know until just a few 
minutes ago. Angela called me." 
	Bob looked at his watch. "We'd better hurry 
if we want to use our scheduled time at the music lab." 
	The three friends hurried to the music lab. As Helen 
answered the pretest questions on the computer, she found 
herself daydreaming about the recording she would be doing 
afterward. She didn't notice that she'd automatically answered 
correctly all the pretest questions about pre-tonal, tonal and 
post-tonal theory. If she had been more alert, it would have 
surprised her because she had not yet studied the topic. 
	After the computer session, Helen met Joe and Bob in 
the parking lot. Bob already sat in the camper truck on the 
passenger's side. Joe held the driver's side door open for 
Helen so she could slide in to sit in the middle. 
	The trio arrived at Victor's exactly on time. "Hello 
folks. Glad you could make it. Come in." 
	"Let me show you my equipment." Victor led them 
into a small room whose walls were covered with glass cabinets 
holding electronic equipment. "I designed the door and walls 
to make this room soundproof." 
	"You will perform there." Victor pointed to three 
small stools in the center of the room. Taking care to not 
bump their instruments, Bob and Joe each perched on a stool, 
and Helen stood between them. 
	"We will be ready in exactly twenty seconds." Victor 
flipped a switch, and then pulled a cigarette package from his 
shirt pocket. At Helen's frown, he returned the cigarette 
package to his pocket.  "Sorry.  I forgot you are allergic."
	"Actually, Everyone's allergic to cigarette smoke. It's 
just that some people don't know it." 
	Victor stood silently a few seconds. "I wondered about 
that.  Do you really think I'm killing myself with these cigs?" 
He looked expectantly toward Helen. 
	Helen could only nod her head. 
	Victor stood silently a few moments as he reconsidered 
why he smoked. "Well . . ., shall we resume the countdown?" He 
flipped some more switches. "Twenty, nineteen . . . "  At five he 
stopped counting and used his fingers to show the number of 
remaining seconds. 
	Joe and Bob, at the same time, began to play. Helen's 
lovely voice harmonized immediately with their playing. Victor 
smiled as he listened to their playing. They performed so 
beautifully! Surely this would make the top hundred. 
	With the recording completed, Victor spoke to them. 
"It's a very good recording. Thank you all. Now I need to 
record your answers to a couple of questions. Next I can submit 
everything to my producer. If he likes it, then we all might 
be a bit richer. I'll let you know when Grant sends me his 
evaluation." 
	Victor led them into another room obviously designed 
for photography. He instructed them to sit on a long couch 
and look expectantly into the video recording camera. 
	Victor waited until they were seated. "Now I will ask 
two questions, and each of you will answer the question in 
turn." 
	"The first question is: 'Why did you become a 
musician'?" 
	Bob answered first. "On my 7th Birthday, my grandfather 
gave me a piccolo. The next year, in a school play, I used it 
to play the ending part of 'The Stars and Stripes Forever.' 
Later I learned how to play other musical instruments." 
Bob turned to Helen, swinging his open hand toward her as if 
to say, "your turn." 
	"I've always loved music. My mother sang professionally, 
and she sang to me all my life, including before my birth. That 
may be why I have a natural perception of intervals. It wouldn't 
have made sense for me to go into any other field of study." 
	Joe grinned at Helen before taking his turn. "I had a 
high school sweetheart, a beautiful girl in the church choir. 
I wanted to impress her. So I began to study the fiddle. But 
she moved to Sweden." 
	Then Joe smiled.  "But now I know how to 
play the fiddle." 
	Victor returned his smile. "Good. "Then he asked his 
second question. "What do you want to be doing one year from 
now?" 
	Bob answered first. "I have my eye on being an 
instructor in the school of music here at the university." 
	Next Helen answered. "I see myself as joining some 
opera group. I had expected that when I finished school, I 
would become an opera singer. If that doesn't work out, I 
can always support myself by teaching music." 
	Finally, Joe answered. "I haven't thought about this 
yet. I will be out of school. Perhaps the three of us would 
continue to play as a band, and support ourselves by playing 
at various special events." 
	After the interview, Victor gave Joe the first disc 
already made by his recording equipment. "Here's your copy 
of the recording of the music and interview. Later today, I'll 
email a copy to Grant so he can evaluate your performance." 
	"Thank you, my good friend. We appreciate your faith in 
our music." 
	Victor combed his red-orange hair with his hand. 
"I wanted to do you guys a favor for helping me. You were friends
when I needed friends.  And it looks like I'm doing myself a 
favor also. Thank you again." 
	Bob turned to Helen. "Are you ready to go?" 
	"You and Joe go ahead. I promised to give Angela some 
driving lessons." 
	Bob smiled as Angela suddenly appeared in the doorway. 
"And here she is. She must have known we were done. Helen, 
you are just too good for your own good. See you later at 
Joe's place for our regular practice session?" 
	"Sure. See you in a few hours." She gave them goodbye 
hugs. 
	As the guys drove away, Joe asked a favor from Bob. 
"Will you help me locate opera singer prospects for Helen?"