To save a life

# t w o

#2) Perform in front of a crowd

Aubree was a great pianist. She started taking classes for a few months at the age of eight but later stopped, only to teach herself. She said that she learned more by herself than she did in her boring classes. Bree was also an amazing singer. Her husky melodic voice blended beautifully with the way she played the piano.

I on the other hand learned how to play the guitar. It was on her request that I ought to learn how to play an instrument. 'I already play the piano,' she used to say 'so why don't you learn something else and then we can play together?'

The memory of the both of us in her backyard having our last duet about a year ago replayed in my mind while I was tuning my guitar in front of the murmuring crowd inside the café. It was the both of us then. It's just me now.

Fred, the manager of the café hurried his way to me. 'You've got around ten minutes left to prepare,' he said as he glanced up from his watch. 'All good?'

'All great.' He beamed at my reply. I continued fidgeting with my guitar for a while, shifting my fingers on the fret board and plucking random strings. I twirled a purple strand of hair between my fingers and started thinking seriously.

Up till now I wasn't too sure with my song choice. My mind kept on wavering over different ones. Aubree never had a favourite song. She liked them all. 'I don't know how people manage to choose one song. I mean, there's so many and they're all so good. How can you choose just one without looking like a traitor to the other songs?' She would giggle at the end everytime someone asked her that question. 

Well I couldn't argue with her on that. There were too many lyrics scattered around in different songs. Too many concealed meanings that take a lot of time for people to figure out. People don't listen to music solely because they enjoy the beat. They listen to music because those scattered lyrics and concealed meanings are fragments of who we are, and we listen to make ourselves whole. There's a message in every song that has ever been written and the only ones who can decipher it are the people who the songs are for.

When Fred called me on stage I was anxious. My nerves were on edge and I felt nauseous at the amount of faces that threw calculating looks at me. 'Happy thoughts, happy thoughts' I silently chant.

Bree you owe me big time. I'm so gonna kill you if this ends up badly.

So much for happy thoughts.

I take a deep breath and play the first song that cones to mind.

"It's just another night and I'm staring at the moon. I saw a shooting star and I thought of you."

I imagined that Aubree was there, sitting at the back of the crowd, beaming at me and showing me a thumbs up. I smiled back.

"I sang a lullaby by the waterside and knew, if you were here I'd sing to you."

Aubree was squealing in happiness. She grabbed her cheeks to stop her from grinning madly.

"You're on the other side as the skyline splits in two. Miles away from seeing you. I can see the stars from America. I wonder do you see them too?"

Aubree suddenly sits very still with a frown on her face. I sing louder so she can hear me.

"So open your eyes and see the way our horizons meet. And all of the lights will lead into the night with me."

Aubree is smiling. She's also crying at the same time. I close my eyes because I don't want to see her sad.

"And I know these scars will bleed. But both of our hearts believe,"

I open my eyes and she's gone. She's evaporated. She left me alone again. And I realised something that I didn't then. I'm sending a message to Aubree.

"That all of these stars will guide us home."