𝙸𝙽 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙴𝙽𝙳 || Original Story

twenty-six | music

Today was a good day. In fact, it was fantastic.

The last time I saw Kate, she had brought up the fact that she remembered that I played the violin and suggested that I should 'put on a show' for her. In return, she would do the same. I happily agreed to her suggestion and took to practising, much to the dismay of Felix and his sensitive ears.

Kate invited me to her house and I had to ask Mr Rogers where it specifically was. I was lucky to find him in the village square and he cheerfully pointed me in the right direction after asking what was in the case I was carrying.

"Oh, a violin!" He exclaimed. "How wonderful!"

The exterior of the house was simply beautiful. Its walls were constructed of dusty-brown brick, its roof like slate, the sash window frames were white, and the door was painted robin egg blue. There was a low wall in front of the house accompanied by a white gate and the tiny garden was planted with pansies, a magnolia tree, and even a rose bush.

I knocked on the door and a few moments later, Kate appeared wearing a white-collared, peach-coloured dress and a gentle smile. She greeted me with a chirpy 'hello' and invited me inside.

The interior of her house was exactly like how I imagined it to be: floral print cushions and curtains, cream carpets, vases of flowers scattered here and there, and photographs of her friends and family on the shelves and window sills. And right by the window sat her piano, polished so that the wood was like a mirror- enough to know that Kate kept it in an immaculate condition and looked after it well.

I then noticed that, propped up against the vase on the sideboard, was the Polaroid of the cliffs and the seagull that Kate had snapped when she had taken me to the beach for my birthday. She'd even wrote the date in the space on the bottom.

Kate had also baked a batch of ginger nuts and she seemed as pleased as I did with them. She suggested that we had tea first, so I placed down my violin beside the sofa before taking a seat next to her.

"I met your f-friend Maya the other d-day," I mentioned after a long while of small talk, tapping my finger against the side of my near-empty mug, trying to make some sort of conversation and not sink into my usual awkward state.

Kate smiled, amused. "She said so. And apparently you quite literally ran into each other."

I nodded. "Her books f-fell on the f-floor and sh-she was rambling about the f-fact she was d-daydreaming."

"Oh, yeah. She does that a lot. It's usually because she practising her lines in her head. She's always involved in some stage show or another. Last year, Maya helped with the local high school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's was bloody brilliant."

"I c-can imagine," I said. "Sh-She was n-nice... Effervescent."

Kate laughed. "She'd love that... effervescent... You seem to have a way with words."