Grasp Heart

Chapter 33: Origin

Violin in my lap, I doodled on sheet music as Mrs. Chiles spot-checked the choir on their part, trying to fix the enunciation of the altos and tenors. Some of us were left to sit around aimlessly as a result.

A little clicking from the back caught my attention. Mason was seated at the keyboard just behind me, intently watching my little sketches with an amused smirk. He raised his eyebrows at the small witch I'd drawn, her likeness similar to Chelsea's leer. I pursed my lips in chagrin but he glanced up at her and shrugged approvingly.

I pulled my backpack out from under my chair and subtly tore a piece of empty paper from one of my books. The second and third chair violinists, Luis and Micheal looked over, unimpressed by the small noise, but I ignored them.

I placed the sheaf of paper on my stand and outlined a small crook onto the sheet with three groupings of letters beneath it: six, two, and four. Chin tucked to my shoulder cloyingly, I looked back at Mason. He inspected the little hangman setup with surprise, then grinned lopsidedly with glittering eyes. He tapped out a dot-dash.

Morse code, eh?

I tilted my head, eyebrows raised, but put an 'A' in the first grouping, third to last letter.

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Dot. I place an 'E' in front of the 'A' in the first word and one at the end of the third word. He rolled his eyes, shook his head, and sat back in his chair with his lower lip nipped under his front teeth.

A dark blush bridged faintly over his nose. He wasn't appreciative of me bringing up his current-favorite song; so be it. I'd try something harder. Something from my repertoire of knowledge. Three words: five, three, and seven.

Captured once more, he leaned in to inspect the new hangman.

Dash-dash-dash.

I wrote O and created the hangman's head.

Dot-dot-dash.

A line for the body beneath the head and a U was discarded.

Mason frowned, glancing at Mrs. Chiles as she chirped out instructions for us to start from the beginning. We dutifully took up our instruments and, from the corner of my eye, I watched Mason on the keyboard. His fingers danced across the keys, never missing a single note, though his expression wasn't present in the music. His emerald eyes watched Mrs. Chiles absently for the tempo, not paying the slightest attention to his own sheet music.

Mrs. Chiles was distracted again soon enough. A single tap resounded behind me. I caught Mason's eager, impatient gaze. I wrote multiple 'E's across all three words. His eyes were suddenly accusatory.

'Not English?' he mouthed.

I smiled. He pressed his lips together, then scraped a single dash. Two 'T's were filled in. Tap-tap-tap. An arm was drawn on the figure and an S in the discard. Scratch-Tap. I filled in an 'N' in the first and third words. Tap-scratch-scratch-scratch.

My eyebrows raised into my hairline as I drew-on another arm and I shook my head slowly in exaggerated disappointment. His lips formed a thin, disgruntled line. The letter 'J' didn't exist in my language, aside from a scant few foreign exceptions. Perhaps he didn't know Italian? No, his chagrin said otherwise.

He caught my attention.

'A hint?' he mouthed.

I obliged, drawing the jagged outline of a distinct mountain range and presenting it to him with a subtle wave of my hand. He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Tap-scratch-tap-tap. There's a single 'L' at the end of the middle word, right beside an 'E'. I tilted my head, examining it thus far; the first word was nearly complete, simply missing its first letter, as with the second word. The third was missing its first half.