Fantasia

25

Eddy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm running, running so fast that my surroundings blur. Every time one of my feet makes contact with the cobbles, my whole body judders. Each jolt through my spine is like an emergency alert. I must find Brett. The Bach Double manuscript thrums in my hands, though I cannot focus on it now.

I suddenly find that the neon lights of the shops are now blurred. Red and yellow, now flickering circles. Tears run down my cheeks, and a sob rises in my throat.

Please. Please don't take him away from me again. 

I wouldn't be able to take it. I've only just met him again. And if he goes...

Oh Brett, come back to me!

I skid to a halt, at the doors of the music hall. My chest rises and falls, my heart hammers. Staring at the doorway is a girl, holding a violin case, and shoulders hunched, her back to me. 

"Hey" I shout, approaching.

She turns around, and I stagger to a halt. A look of recognition flashes over her dark brown eyes.

She is the girl from the mirror world. The very same.

"Hey, have you seen my friend? He's called Brett."

She looks up, eyes wavering in tears. "I just called the ambulance, and they took him away. I was walking past and I saw him just sprawled on the floor. He looked so exhausted, so defeated by life. I hope he gets better. His violin had been thrown to the side, so I kept it."

Sure enough, when the plain black case swung round, a small Mozart badge glinted in the sun.

"What's your name? I've seen you before."

She nods. "Chloe. Chloe Chua. And you?"

Her name rings a bell, stirs something inside my brain, but I can't think of it yet.

"Eddy Chen. Brett's my best friend."

"Do you play violin as well? I do." 

Of course. Chloe's a prodigy, she won the Menuhin competition a few years back. Her playing is just astonishing.

"Um, well, I used to. What about you?"

"I went to the Con here in Singapore. Some call me a prodigy, I say I just practise more than the average person."

"Wow! Do you know which hospital Brett was taken to?"

"I'd say Singapore General Hospital, it's not far from here."

We ran down the street corners until the hospital building came in sight, exchanging breathless conversation and voicing our concerns for Brett. 

Please God let him be alright.