The Missing Piece of a Piano By: Sean Roberts
Author's Note: Please send all feedback to seanr_13@yahoo.ca Thanks!
Bar 7
He walks into the room where Faye and Daniel are sitting, sipping water. The dry weather outside has made them thirsty.
"Hi Seth," Daniel says.
"Hi." Seth is dressed in red basketball shorts and a jersey. His shorts, however, do not conform to the latest fashions. They are short and reveal a large amount of his smooth, skinny legs. Did Keith's legs used to look like that, like sticks? To Daniel, Keith's legs were not skinny but accommodating, made up of tight muscles and alluring flesh.
A violin case sits on the floor beside the chair Seth uses. Faye excuses herself and Seth begins to take the instrument out.
"I hold it like this, right?" Seth asks.
"No." Daniel walks over to the boy. Seth has it positioned properly under his chin, but there is more than this involved. Slowly Daniel pushes, with the instrument, so that Seth raises his head slightly. Daniel places his right hand in between Seth's legs and pushes them slightly apart. He adjusts the fingers of Seth's right hand so that Seth is now holding the bow properly. He shows him how to form a note by pressing down the strings of the violin. "Go ahead, play it." Seth brings the bow confidently across the instrument. The sound is screechy and rough. It sounds nothing like a violin. A look of disappointment crosses Seth's face, but only for an instant.
Daniel walks around to behind Seth's chair. He puts his hand over Seth's and together they move the bow again across the strings. This time the note plays smoothly, accurately. Seth and Daniel both feel the vibrations from the strings until they fade out. For the first time Daniel can feel the silence of Faye's music room. There is a piano and a violin; music stands and tables upon which lie scores and workbooks: Faye's music school. But Daniel and Seth's breathing alone do not make music.
"Try it on your own," Daniel says. He stands to Seth's side where the boy cannot see him. This time the sound is better though there is room for improvement. Daniel notices that Seth's legs remain absolutely still while he moves his arms. He looks away quickly before the temptation to touch the boy again becomes too strong.
There is silence in the room once again. Daniel breaks it by starting to tell Seth how he can improve the sound of his notes. He does this without looking at the boy. He does not get distracted by Seth's body until the bare legged and naked armed boy plays the note again, this time almost perfectly.
A look of triumph crosses Seth's face and this time it stays. Daniel smiles at him. Without being asked Seth plays the note again. Daniel does not stop smiling. The sound from the instrument is comforting. He sits in a couch across from Seth. "If you like, we can up it to an hour a week." Seth nods.
The school is deserted early in the morning. Daniel is there because he woke up before dawn this morning, overcome by a desire to play the violin. He showered quickly and did not bother with breakfast. The sun started to rise just as he arrived in the almost deserted parking lot. The car that was there told him that someone was already there, that the school would not be locked.
He heads directly upstairs to the music room. But he stops, suddenly, outside the door. Someone is inside; there is sound coming from the piano. It takes him listening to three notes before he recognizes the piece. Nocturne in E Minor. It is Faye. She sits, perfectly poised, her fingers lightly touching the keys. She makes mistakes but does not seem to notice. The copy in front of her burns from the intense stare she gives it.
Daniel claps lightly when the piece ends. She turns around, startled.
"You scared me!" she said. She is not smiling.
"Sorry." Daniel walks towards her. "What are you doing here so early?"
"I-I came to practice. It's quiet this early. What about you?"
"I couldn't sleep," he lies. "I thought I'd come to the library to do a bit of studying."
"The library's downstairs."
Your music gives off pheromones, that's why I came up here.
"So you really like that piece?" he says instead.
"Yeah. After Christmas, Mr. Christie always asks if anybody wants to do a solo in the concert. I want to do that one. Daniel, since you're here, could you play it for me?"
He feels tired as soon as he sits on the bench. His loss of sleep will hit him at inopportune moments throughout the day. She sits beside him and he looks at her.
"I want to watch," she says. "I need to learn how your fingers move."
"It's not your fingers," he says. "Your fingers are beautiful. And the way you move them is fine. You have to visualize the piece. You have to read the notes and get the sounds in your head. You'll play it perfectly." Wise words, he thinks, but he does not know where they come from. He doesn't even know that he does this himself when he plays.
His eyes close when his fingers hit the keys. He plays the notes softly and lightly. He makes mistakes with the pedals, sleep beginning to take over his brain. He makes a mistake with a note and it jerks him awake. But he does not stop as he continues to drift in and out of sleep.
He sits at a familiar piano, playing the same piece. He is looking to the side. Keith lies on his stomach on the floor in blue jeans and a red t-shirt. He does not wear socks and his feet kick the ground with no specific rhythm. There is a notebook open in front of him, he is writing something. Suddenly Keith sits up, smiling. He jumps over to the bench and pulls Daniel's right hand off the keys. He kisses Daniel's index finger, just below the nail. "You really should just stick to the violin," Keith says.
The music stops suddenly and Daniel jerks his head up. He sees a light brown piano in front of him, an open sheet of music resting on it.
"What happened?" Daniel asks. "Where am I?"
"I-I don't know," she replies. "You looked like you were sleeping but you were playing so beautifully, and then you just stopped."
He remembers. Everything. He remembers Keith and the piece; he remembers lightly shaded notes from an orange pencil. He gets off the bench and he smiles.
"I have to go." Daniel runs out of the room and into his black Jeep. It is still early and there is little traffic on the streets.
One car sits in the driveway. Ashley's parents have left for work but she is still home. Despite the three hour drive his excitement has not faded. In fact, now that he is there, it has increased. He rings the bell twice, in case she is sleeping. He does not think that waking her would be a problem.
She answers the door dressed in jeans and a sweater.
"Daniel!" He walks into the house.
"I need to see your piano!" he says quickly, kicking off his shoes and running into the room where he knows the instrument lives. He does not wonder why she is home.
He climbs onto the bench and lifts the top. Ashley follows him into the room but says nothing. He is standing on the cover of the keys, his hand inside the piano, feeling around. He knows the mechanisms that create the notes and he knows what he is looking for. He pulls out a notebook, waving it happily in Ashley's face as he climbs down.
Now that he has it in his hands he calms, and understands the confused look on Ashley's face. "My music class is doing a concert at the end of the year. I want you to come. And your parents. I'm going to play this."
"What is it?" The question makes his heart beat faster. But he does not answer immediately. He leads her to a couch and hands her the notebook. He sits at the piano. Daniel starts to play the Chopin, more quickly and more heavily than it was intended.
"Isn't that--"
"Yes. The piece you didn't recognize. It really was Keith's favourite." But he played it only for me. "And I love it too. We always wanted to play it together, but as you know I played the violin and there was no violin part written for it. It's strictly a one man piano piece."
"But this says for violin," Ashley replies, holding up the notebook.
"Keith wrote it. I wrote it with him. But it was mostly Keith. We wanted to play it together so we decided to write a violin part. You're holding -- you're holding something he composed. I remember us doing it together. He'd write a bit, from his head. Then we'd play it to see how it sounded and I would make suggestions." Daniel's voice drops and slows suddenly. "We never got a chance to play it through, so I don't really know how it sounds. But working on it was so much fun! He taught me how to play the piano so I could play this piece. He'd ask me to play bits of it while he was working on it, so that he could think of a part for a violin. And I used to bug him so much! He'd lie on his stomach on the floor right there. And when I saw him concentrating the hardest I'd lean over and kiss him; he'd get so--" Daniel stops talking when he sees the look on Ashley's face. Suddenly he realizes his mistake. He looks away. The room with the instrument is silent.
"Oh God Daniel."
"Ashley--"
"Does Mark know?"
"No. Nobody knows. Keith and I were the only ones."
"How long were you, you know?" She is probably still shocked but he has opened the door for her to learn about a whole other part of her brother's life.
"Since we were about thirteen. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, or anybody. After he, umm, I tried a few times but--"
"It's understandable Daniel. Can I ask you something?"
"Anything."
"Were you two--I mean you were only fifteen, so I guess there couldn't have been too many problems--umm, were you happy?"
"Very. He was ecstatic when he finished this piece. He couldn't wait to hear it. And yes, we were very happy. It didn't matter to us that nobody knew because like you said we were fifteen. We were having fun. But I loved him and I know he loved me. He never told me this but I'm sure the reason you've never heard that piece before is because he'd only play it for me. I had no idea until I played it for you the last time I was here, and you didn't recognize it." Ashley stands and embraces Daniel. He now knows what it's like to have a sister.