Damn the Violin!

Sometimes, it happens that...who am I kidding? Most of the times, it happens that an object will always be present within your eyesight. You find it lying around when you are looking for your homework. You find it lying around when you are searching for your glue stick. You find it lying around when you least need it but when you actually want it, it magically disappears. 

Meet Louis, a high school sophomore who badly wants to impress his crush. He had a crush on Christina ever since middle school. Unfortunately, he has the courage of a peanut when it comes to talking to people at school and never was able to even hold a proper conversation with her. But now things have changed. He firmly believes he can win the girl of his dreams with his ‘flirting skills’ acquired by watching youtube videos at 3 am in the morning. All he needed now was the goddam violin. He knew Christina was head over heels over instruments and music. His plan was simple. He would go to the talent show auditions tomorrow that he knew Christina would be filming. He would play the violin. The girl would be immediately impressed and hug him.

(Honestly, I think this Louis guy or whatever has seen too many unrealistic high school movies)

After hours of searching, he finally finds the thing which has been playing hide and seek, in the attic. He goes downstairs to his room. He puts up a YouTube video and tries to revise what he taught himself yesterday. He learnt all the theory. He just need to improve his chords. Lilly, his 13-year-old sister knocks on the door. “Do you want your lovely baby sister to DIE BECAUSE OF BURSTED EARDRUMS BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT GONNA HAPPEN IF YOU DON’T STOP PLAYING THE DAMN THING” He lets out a puff of air.

He has to move someplace else. He decides to go to the guest bedroom. That's where his grandfather is sleeping but that old man sleeps so deeply, he wouldn't wake up even if a hurricane takes down the entire house. He settles there with his violin and iPad. Suddenly, the video pauses. “Mom! What happened to the internet?” “Oh Honey, I totally forgot to tell you. The carpenter is here to fix the cupboard. It'll take a couple of hours to back the internet.” She replies from the living room. An old middle-aged woman around her early sixties enters the room. “Ya know kid. Back in the day, we didn't have all this internet and all.” “Back in the day, Grandma. You weren't lesbian and didn't have any Christinas to impress by learning an instrument. Men are way easily impressed than women”, he whispers under his breath while packing and leaving towards the kitchen. At least, the kitchen won't have any distractions.

(except for the food, duh!)

He sits on the floor with his legs crossed and a violin resting on his shoulder. He was ready to prepare to impress. A white-furred poodle hops onto his lap. Duffy had been brought by Mr.Johnson, two years ago. Louis loved Tuffy, but this too was unfortunate and tragic anecdote- a one-sided love. Tuffy rarely came near Louis. Even if it did, it wouldn't be as enthusiastic as it was near his sister. There were very few occasions when Tuffy voluntarily played with him.

Somehow, in all these two years it decided that this is the best time to play with Louis. It makes circles around Louis, occasionally kicking him with his tiny foot as if to ask Louis to get up. “Christina...Meh! Poodles before Crushes” They both go to the backyard to play. Duffy jumped into Louis’s arms. “Who’s a good boy? My little Tuffy is!” 

2 hours pass by. Both of them were exhausted. Louis promised himself that he would take a nap of only 30 minutes and back to learning Violin as soon as he wakes up. He goes and falls asleep in his bedroom with Tuffy. He wakes up and sits. Rubbing his eyes, he looks at the clock. “Darn it!” Somehow his half an hour became 3 hours. 

(It's hard to admit but we've all been Louis at some point in our life)

He immediately grabs his Violin, hoping that his sister has her headphones on or she would be too busy to notice the sounds and give death threats. A drilling noise fills the house. It stops and it comes back again. He ignores the dreadful disturbance. It stops and it comes back again. Both him and his sister come out their respective rooms, bothered by the noise. The Carpenter is struggling with the drilling machine. They both sigh. 

Lilly just puts back her headphones and increases the volume, meanwhile Louis has to find another room. 

(Wow, that rhymed. I think I will start my career as a poet as soon as I'm done being a procrastinator)

Anyway, back to our protagonist. Louis decides that he would go back to the backyard. The sun is about to set. The sky is infused with peaceful colours. It's so amazing. The nature, the wind. The pleasant sound of music would just be the cherry on the top for this situation. As soon as he starts to play, the word ‘pleasant’ probably remembered it had some work and ran away because the sounds Louis was making with his violin is just the opposite of pleasant. Louis knew this, deep down that he wasn't meant to be a musician. He hoped that his plan will work out in the end, even though he knows that isn't what's gonna happen at all. He knows for a fact that he sucks at most of the things he tries to do.

(This Louis is getting more and more relatable. It hurts)

Two minutes into practising his chords, something interrupts him, again. It's their neighbour. 

Their neighbour is an old woman. His Grandma and her would often go out for Bingo nights together. One major problem is that she too had a problem in understanding technology. She thinks that whenever her son calls her from Italy, she has to shout in order to talk to him since he is far. Louis would often go to the old lady’s house and tell her but she continued doing what she thought was right. “HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME, SON?” 

He finally decided to go where he found the violin in the first place. Even though the place was dusty and small, there was no Tuffy to get distracted, no sister to yell at him, no drilling machine that made a noise louder than his class during recess. ‘Finally, some peace! I can't wait to see Christina’s face when she learns that I play the violin like her favourite musician.’ He thought. 

He thought of all the wonderful things they say about music, the elegance of violin and benefits of it as said by the bald man in some video. He didn't care about all the other advantages. He only cared about Christina. He thought about her hair- blonde and silky. Her smell that reminded him of freshly baked bread. Christina’s mother was a baker. He finally, decided to play. He practised the basics he knew. He finally was getting better. His hopes went up. The smile on Christina’s face he imagined, grew clearer and happier. He closed his eyes and let himself drift into the happiness of music. He suddenly heard a sudden raise of tempo for a split second, almost if something came loose. He noticed a string just broke.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”