𝐏𝐄𝐆𝐆𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐓 [𝟏] | 𝘿𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙨 𝙒𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙣

14

Life slowly became normal again. Me and Pony went to school, Darry and Soda went to work. I was able to catch up on the school work I missed easily. It was a little overwhelming since there was so much of it, but I got it done little by little sitting at the dining room table.
It was a Friday afternoon. Pony and Johnny were out getting ice cream, Soda and Darry were probably on their way home. Unless they were working late. I was working on homework. My eyes glance towards the piano against the wall next to the bathroom door. I stare at it for a moment before going back to working. But for some reason, my mind was on the piano. I glanced at it every so often but I kept going back to my work. Finally, after trying for a half hour, I gave in. Getting up from my seat and slowly making my way over to the instrument. There was a thin layer of dust over the wood. It hasn't been touched in months. Not even dusted. My fingers lightly run across the wood cover, leaving a trail in the dust. I lifted my hands and saw the dust in my fingers. Quickly, I wipe off my hand on my jeans. I bent over, pulling the wooden bench out before switching down. My hands carefully lifted the wooden cover to reveal the pearl white and black keys. My right pointer finger gently pressed down on the C key. It was miraculously still in tune. As far as I could tell. The rest of my fingers rested on the keys and I just started to play. The movie me and my mom saw when it came out last year was Marry Poppins. My brothers have never been the a fan of musicals and I begged my mom to see it. She said yes and the two of us made a night of it. Her favorite song from the whole movie was 'Feed the Birds' and she sang it a lot. We both did. She even got us the record to play when the rest of the family was gone and it was just us. My vision became blurry but I just closed my eyes. It was muscle memory, my mom also got us the music book for us to learn the music. Once I learned it, I wouldn't stop playing it for my mom. Anything to make her happy. The tears streamed down my face as I played the song. I would sing, but my voice was too choked from being on the verge of sobbing. I just played the song, using the pedals at my feet as I was supposed to. It didn't help that it was slow and sad song. Why couldn't her favorite song be 'I love to laugh' or 'Jolly Holiday'? To say I felt the music flow through me was cheesy gut it's the only way I can describe it. I only heard the song I played, nothing else. Memories of me and my mother flooded my brain, causing the tears to gush down my face. I felt so much closer to my mom, closer then I've been to her since the accident. Maybe it was her that wanted me to play. I was never spiritual but maybe it was her that pulled me to the piano, because now I felt her. As if she was next to me as I played.
  The song was about four minutes long, I played the whole thing and kept from sobbing through it all, tears still streamed down my face but I didn't feel like sobbing anymore. My hands lifted from the keys and I sniffled softly. A soft sigh escaped my lips as I used the back of my hands to wipe the tears from my face. A sniffle that came from next to me made me jump and turn, all my brothers were standing in the doorway from the living room. Tears running down all their faces, especially Darry's.  "You haven't played since..." Darry covers his mouth. "Since mom and dad died." I finished for him, getting up from the bench and taking a step to them. Darry pulls me into a tight hug. "It was beautiful Peggy." He said hushed, in my ear. "Thank you Darry, it felt good to play again." I whispered back. More tears flooded down my face. I'm so used to crying into his shoulder that I always seem to just release everything in his arms. I felt Pony and Soda hug us too, we were a crying mess.
   We've had the piano in our dining room since I can remember. Our mom played all the time. She told us a story when we got older. When Darry was 4, I was one and mom was very pregnant with Soda, she would play for us and me and Darry wound dance in the living room while dad was on the couch trying to watch TV. Then as each Curtis was born after that, we all danced together to mom's music. Her laugh still resonates through the house. Me and Pony danced the most together. Hand in hand twirling around the living room to any song my mom was willing to play.
I remember, when I wasn't dancing, I would watch her fingers on the keys as she played. Until one day when I was five, she placed me next to her and started to teach me how to play. While my brothers ran around the living room, my mom was teaching me how to play 'twinkle twinkle little star'. Ever since then she taught me how to play everything. As I got older, I got better and better thanks to her teaching. Then, after the accident, I stopped. Never touching the piano again. Until today. My brain wouldn't let me just ignore the urge to play.
    "It was her favorite song." I began to cry softly into Darry's chest as my brothers held me. "I know..." he said softly, rubbing my back. "Let it all out Peggy..." Darry whispers. "You haven't cried in a long time, I was getting so worried. We were getting worried." He continued. I let it all out as they held me. It felt nice to finally be able to cry again with my brothers close by. They mean the absolute world to me. Soon I was calming down. "What made you play again?" Pony asked. We all slowly pulled away from each other. I wiped my face again. "Well I sat down at the table to get some work done, but instead of my normal place facing the window to see you guys come home, I sat with my back to the window. I kept looking at the piano and my brain wouldn't let me ignore it. So I sat down and...played. It was like I never stopped. The muscle memory was all still there. I didn't need music, it was all I'm my head."