My Life's a Fermata

Dal Capo

After a short dinner in the studio, everybody took their leave, talking happily on the way. I was about to get on my way into the night when a hand tugged at my hoodie. The same hand that brought me out of my monotone world. Saki was imitating my surprised expression when I turned to look at her. Then she waved a hand, motioning for me to follow her. "Standard procedure in making a friend, the heart to heart talk. You have some time right?" I nodded, following her.

she lead me through the dusk into a small park, not far from where I live. There, we found some open space, beside a canopy of trees. We sat, back to back, letting the stars rain their magic over us. The wind was whispering, blowing away all the troubles, leaving us in peace and serenity. The only sound left was the little whisper, and that was only audible to me. She was the first to speak.

"You know, music brings happiness to my life."

I nodded, I understood.

"When I'm with the band I would forget about everything that's around me, all the pain and sadness seems to just melt away. That's really all it takes to make me happy. That's really all I need." She strokes her violin case, I can't see her face but I know she's smiling. It's a sad smile.

She tells me about all she went through, all she's dealing with underneath her smiles. Her dad's in a hospital bed right now, fighting against a fatal lung disease, her mom stays at the hospital when she's not working, leaving her and her sister at home. Her mother tells her to live like all the other normal teenagers, to not worry about the family's problems. But that was hard to do when you know why nobody's ever at home. It was impossible.

I asked if I could see her violin, to see the only thing that makes her happy. She nodded, pushing the case to me.

Under the dim moonlight I held the violin, and studied it. It had perfect, amber-like varnish, but there were strange streaks. Faint lines of white trailing all over the body of the instrument. I couldn't stop myself. My eyes welled up from a sharp stab in the heart.

It was like my violin.