Music of the night

Avril was in a cab to her way home, but the driver took the other direction. The cab stopped near the graveyard. The driver said,

“this is your stop,”

“but this place is not my home,”

“you’ll understand once you get there,”

“am I meeting someone?”. The driver grinned. She got off the car and looked around. Moss-laden marble pillars stood as despairing guards on either side of the cemetery. Behind the ancient wrought-iron gates were rows upon rows of crumbling gravestones, their engraved epitaphs bathed in a light split from an ashen moon. Gnarled trees hunched over most of the expanse, plunging the rest in shadow.

 The place echoed with a beautiful music. She moved forward and her eyes stuck at brown hair boy wearing a dark collared shirt, looks at the strings of his beige fiddle that is being stabilized by his neck, shoulders and left hand, as his right hand holds a bow.

She mesmerizes by the crescendo coming out of the violin because that reminds her of her mother’s warmth. The boy stops playing and shoves his head with the tears escaping his eyes, rolled down touching his skin. Avril walk towards him, sees the grief in his eyes and sat beside him. She shrugged her shoulders and said,

“every memory played like a music in my head, repeating itself for what seemed like forever. You played this for your mom, right?”

“yes, each thread resembled the perfection of my beautiful mother,”

“hmm, they are perfect, but when we realize it’s too late.”

“I didn’t appreciate her as intensely as I should have”. He kept looking at the tomb of his mom. You know things become so simple when you find someone in the same position as you. Avril shifted her head upwards and takes a deep breath and the boy turns to her,

“sometimes I run to this resting place and cry my tears upon the ground hoping they will water the grass that grows around but- but instead they kill it with their pain,” his blues looks to Avril and asked,

“why did you run here?”

“I don’t know, maybe it was mom who called me here and hear your music”

Avril smiles to the boy. “maybe your mom and my mom became friends in heaven”, the boy replied, smiling her back.

“yeah, their tombs are beside one another,”

 They both laughed. The pain was turning into a special happy memory by the bond that was forming between them. They walked on the dried leaved fallen on the marble accompanying by the chilly wind. A knitted blue scarf, made by her mom, hung around her neck loosely and it flew as the billowing wind brushed her auburn hair. She asked the boy about the urban legend that’s been circulating for years about a taxicab that doesn’t take you where you want to go, but where you need to go. The boy stopped and looked at Avril and asked,

“so, you got scared that taxi driver dropped you in the graveyard, believing that you’re going to die?”

 “not that but I wished if I could meet mom, but it was stupid of me to think that”

 “and maybe to meet you”, resting her eyes on his bright blue eyes were shining in the moon light.

 “what are you looking at?” he asked with his soft voice. Avril replied,

“angel”

“where?”

“he is standing right in front of me”

“me, what are you talking about?”, he asked furiously.

“I made you my angel.” She smiled and moved forward. The boy didn’t question her because Avril became her angel when he first saw her standing and listening to her music. The boy run to her to walk beside her, then Avril said,

“graveyard need not be grave, yet can be a place of new life and the reaching of blossom from tight bud”

The boy turned himself walking backwards facing Avril, holding his violin in his hand. He placed his violin at his shoulder balancing with his neck and started playing, the tune of pizzicato strike her ear drums make her remember playing hide and seek with her childhood friends. The magical shoulder instrument brings relaxation and moments to her as the sound of vibration touches her inside heart. The boy then held the hands of Avril and take her to the place where he eats lunch.

“this is my favorite place,”

“why would you eat here?”

“here I could map out generations of families, wonder what their lives had been like,”

“It’s difficult when you grow alone and you know there is no one beside you”, Avril’s eyes became numb. The boy wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, gently rubbing her arm. Despite the heaviness in her stomach, it fluttered at the feeling of her body pressed against his. She sunk into the warmth of his side, appreciative of the simple gesture. His touch made the atmosphere warmer. After this blackness of night that brought light in the future of Avril and his, and in a moment the stars raised on the horizon, spreading its gold in every direction. Two of them stared out at the morning sky. Mellow blues and pinks blurred together in a silver mist to create another gorgeous scene.

Avril lifted her hand and noticed she spent the entire night with the unknown boy. The boy looked at her and started walking.

“where are you going?”, she asked before she could stop herself. His head cocked to the side, his eyes shifting from the ground to her. Avril’s heart stopped and she could barely breathe. All she could manage was just wondering. Before her heart completely stopped.

“I’m guessing you need a ride?”. His voice was soft-spoken and mellow, sending a warm glow throughout the body.

“how do you know?”

“I saw your face”. He motions her towards the passenger’s seat and unlocks the car.

“what’s your name?”, she asked him when they were on the road.

“Nix.”

“cute name.” she smiled shyly.