Graceland Beginnings [Elvis]

Chapter 9 - Town Gathering: Part 2 - Matchmaker

This music was like nothing I'd heard before. It sounded like a violin, but more... Asian? Mr. Louse and I stopped when Mr. Frasure started playing the instrument on stage, and people were completely silent as he was playing. It was almost hypnotic, the sound.

I stood there listening to this, to the beautiful music. The instrument was played like a standup bass, but it sat in Mr. Frasure's lap as he played, and he had his eyes closed as he played, as if he was off in another whimsical, enchanted land where nothing bad could ever happen, where flower blossoms danced in the wind.

Mr. Frasure ended the song with a long, sweet note, and everyone was silent for a few seconds until someone started clapping. A few women were dabbing their eyes with a handkerchief. I was intensely interested to know more about this instrument. I walked up close to the stage as that lovely feeling was still taking hold of me from what was just played. I had never felt such peace from music, other than religious music. What came from that string instrument was almost spiritual.

"Excuse me, sir, what is the name of that instrument?" I asked him as he sat there in a chair on the stage, and I was looking up at him.

"It is called an urhu," he said loudly so everyone could hear. "It is a Chinese instrument that people played hundreds of years ago in ancient China."

"The sound is beautiful," I said. "It really gets ya in the heart."

"Indeed, it does. You see, when I was a lad of about fifteen years, my family was in a poor state, so I chose to travel to California and work for the railroads and mines along with the Chinese that came over for work and for a new life. I stayed with a Chinese family who had two of these very instruments and would play them every day. I was entranced. They taught me how to play it, and they gave me one of 'em, the very same here."

My chest pinched a little, touched by this story. He went through a lot to learn to play that instrument. I respected that very much since I went through a lot to become the musician I was. "That's very special."

He grinned, and a woman called out, "Please play another song, Mr. Frasure!"

He got to it, and as he played another beautiful tune, I remembered that I wanted to talk to Mr. Louse. My heart pulsed in fear, and I turned around to see if he didn't walk off, but thankfully, he was standing right there a few feet away from me. My nerves eased a little but weren't completely gone since I still needed to talk to him.

"It is still alright if we talk?" I asked him, and he nodded.

"You were the one who wanted to talk in the first place, so yes."

I nodded, and we walked away from the music and close to the bake sale where ladies were looking at all the delicious goods. We stood more away from them, close to a gazebo that was a nice element to this park and had vines growing on it, and they were embellishing with little pink flowers.

"You are quite interested in music," Mr. Louse commented as we were stopped and stood there next to the gazebo, and the erhu music was still heard, along with the laughter of children and adults playing games over in the field.

"I am, very much so," I said as I pushed my hands into my pockets. "Music is my life."

"I know."

My brows creased. "How?"

"It's easy to tell. Plus, did you not say that you sing and play guitar for a livin'?"

Oh, yeah. I did. "I suppose so. And I guess it's easy to tell with how crazy I was while performin' those two songs earlier."