WINDOWS TO THE SOUL

Challenge 5 The lavender piano

My footsteps echoed through the hallway as they filled my head with emptiness and questions.

" that damned piano."

I do not dislike the piano as a whole, the instrument itself simply still holds too much weight for me. As I entered my room, I wondered what was so displeasing about that moment, but I ignored it for now and went to bed.

My father was a man of few joys. Even fewer were the number of people that gave him happiness. In fact, I struggle to thank many times I remember him ever smiling.  I can't say I resent him, I have enough humility to not feel insulted. My father's greatest passion was music; my uncle even told me that he married my mother for her musical Talent. 

For the first eight years of my life, I remember my father being nothing but a straightforward objective seeking utilitarian, even something as mundane as chess was only an opportunity for him to test my skills to make sure I was improving. Regardless I respected him for nothing less then his demeanor being respectable and infallible. That all changed when he got married. The idle I had once worshipped, became nothing less than a puppet for that spider to control her web.

It was summer when she was born, I was nine at the time but, even then I could tell the joy he felt for her. I thought she was a doll when I first saw her, and she was so quiet and pretty. I took every opportunity to pamper her, and so did her mother and our father. At age five they discovered her exceptional talent for the piano when when she and I were playing with it, and she began to feel the music in a way I never could. 

That was the first time I had ever felt jealous, but for me, it was a learning experience, not an excuse to be angry at her, after all it was her talent, not mine. I became even more supportive so much as to invest myself deeply in her affairs. Her favorite toys, hobbies, sweets and her love of all things purple. I even referred to her as purple rose for a time. I believe I was seventeen or possibly eighteen when the spider declared I was distracting her from the piano and that it would be in her best interest if I stopped distracting her.

I regret little, I have made mistakes of course, but I move past them like most people, but I do regret not fighting that woman. I became a phantom in my sister's life and eventually left that house altogether.

*****

One day Madison came to me with a surprised look on her face. Her soul seemed flustered and concerned that I may become upset. I told her to tell me what was the news and she conceded that I had been invited to a piano recital.

A welcome to the concert a whole three weeks later on, I am not sure what to expect. I had not seen Ashley play since she was young and I lived with her. A significant amount of people had shown up to the recital. At first, I believed it was because it was an organized event but I didn't realize that the only person playing today was my sister. It appears my sister has a lot of admirers. 

I quietly found my seat amongst the Sea of individuals who would come here to see her. The lights in the concert hall dimmed, and then it grew quiet. A young girl with golden blonde hair walked out on stage her soul was a thick almost dark purple it was an aura that slumped from her eyes. I did not recognize this girl at first, but as she entered the Central stage and set at the piano, I realized it was Ashley. I do not know why I did not recognize her; maybe it was because we haven't seen each other in so long, or perhaps it was merely because her soul had become so foreign to me. I could tell that she was not particularly happy, our gazes met. She Smiled at me, only for a moment then turned To Face the piano.

When the music started, it was quiet, almost like even though she was playing the notes they were shy. Slowly the song begins to pick a more optimistic Melody, they became deeper harder , Strokes the tempo quickened, and I felt as though it had touched my... own soul. I never heard her play like this and as such, I never felt music that had resonated with me in this way. And that moment I thought that if my power was the ability to see mankind's soul my sister's soul was the power to touch the soul with her music. I woke up from the inspiring bliss and noticed something odd about her face. It was without Joy, in a form no one would think happy. Her eyes were so more apparent to me now. to hear the music was not a joyful experience; it was merely her life. As I made this somber conclusion, the music softly came to an end. She stood and took her bow and left the stage.