The Musician | Marcel Gerard

Chapter Two

 When Marcel woke up the next morning, something felt different. What is was, he couldn't say. All he would have been able to tell you was that something must have changed, somewhere. 

 On his walk that day, he took the same new route he had taken the day before. Everything was still the same as usual. 

 And then he heard the voice.

 It was that young woman again, sitting on the same corner. She was singing a different song today, but it was still beautiful to Marcel. 

 When he got to the corner, he put some more money into the old hat. "You sound good, ma'am."

 She looked up at him, and gave him a little smile. "Thanks. I wrote that one myself."

 "Well, it's great. Keep it up."

 As he walked away, he wondered if his encouraging words made any difference.

~~~~~~

 For the next few days, Marcel started going out for longer walks, just to hear the music. He felt drawn towards it, compelled to listen. Every single day, he walked by, dropped in a bit of money, and told the girl she sounded good, and she always thanked him. Later on, he realized that he should have thought about the fact that she might start to get suspicious of him.

 When he showed on the sixth day, she stood up and asked, "All right, what's your story, then, huh?"

 "'My story'?" Marcel repeated. "What do you mean?"

 "Oh, you know what I mean," she said. "You've been coming around here for six days now, same time of the day, always complimenting me. What are you, some kind of stalker or something?"

 "What-no, I-" he sighed, "Look, I'm not a stalker, all right? Six days ago, I happened to walk by and hear you playing, and I thought you were good. I just wanted to hear you play, so I made this my new daily route."

 She nodded. "Is that all." It was more of a statement than a question. "You got a name?"

 "Oh. Yeah. It-it's Marcel. Marcel Gerard." 

 When he said his name, she seemed to nearly drop the old hat, which she had been clutching in her hand.

 "Did you say Marcel Gerard?" she asked slowly.

 "Yes. Have you heard of me?"

 "Yeah, I-well-" she sighed. "Yes, I've heard of you. I hear the name often. Not sure what it is you  do, but you're a big name around here." She sighed. "Look, if you want to come by and listen, I don't mind. As long as that's all."

 He nodded. "Understood."

 She knew his name, he thought as he walked towards home. Maybe she had just heard his name around, since he was often talked about throughout the city.

 But what if she knew about the vampires?