Snippets of Greatness

Short Story: Final Performance

The house lights went out, leaving only lambent stage lights to illuminate the performer and her accompanist. Everyone in the audience focused their attention on the woman wearing a simple black dress who stood in the center of the stage, holding a flute. When she began to play, they were amazed by her dexterous fingering, astounded by the way she effortlessly produced a flawless tone, and awestruck by the emotions her playing evoked. Even the demagogic mayor ceased masticating the wad of gum in his mouth and listened, an expression of wonder on his face. The music soared through the air, with its sparkling high notes, rumbling low notes, and gorgeous harmonizing of the flute and piano. It was a roller coaster ride of crescendos, decrescendos, flowing legatos and sharp staccatos, and the audience was completely absorbed.
When the last note rang in the hall, they were breathlessly silent for a moment before erupting with thunderous applause. After taking several bows, the performer exited the stage. The audience rushed enthusiastically out of the auditorium to congratulate this bona fide professional musician, but no one could find her. The backstage dressing room was empty, and nowhere else showed any sign of her ever being there.
Then, just as the clock began to strike twelve, time reversed itself and it was seven pm that same night. The audience that had been so captivated by the disappeared flutist was entering the hall and taking their seats, expecting to see a piano performance. Not a single one of them remembered what had just happened, but they were all slightly confused, as if they had just woken from a dream and couldn't quite recall what it was about.
The flute player herself was hovering over the entrance, watching the scene below. She smiled to herself, then turned away and flew over the city streets to the cemetery on the other side of town. There, she floated through the rows of graves until she found her stone. She sank into the ground and back into her body, clutched her flute to her chest, and breathed a sigh of relief. She'd had her final performance, and now, at last, she could rest.