The day hadn’t been one of her best. Come to think of it, the whole week had bounced between tiring and uneventful. Her head was beginning to hurt, a product of rather dismal thoughts filling her head and the effects of looking at the computer screen for too long. All of a sudden she closes the computer. It’s time for a change. She walks briskly out of her room and down the stairs her piano.
She sits on the bench and pulls down a binder full of sheet music from the top of the piano. She flips through it quickly, searching for one song in particular, then starts to play.
The first few notes come out harsh and unfeeling, mirroring the stinging thoughts that preoccupy her mind. She tries to push those thoughts away, telling herself to focus on the music. Gradually, the sounds become much more musical. She clears her mind of all things except the music she plays, carefully shaping every phrase, following every dynamic marking. At the end of the piece, she lets the last cord ring out longer than usual, enjoying the way it extinguished the stifling stillness of the otherwise silent house.
She begins to play another piece, this time from memory. It is a song that she has known for a very long time; she closes her eyes and lets her fingers dance across the keyboard by themselves. In her mind, she pictures a green field with tall grass, a tall oak tree giving shade from the shining sun. A single flower in the center of the field waves in the light breeze in time with the music. Eventually, this song, too, comes to an end, and the green field begins to fade. She immediately starts on another song, also from memory, for she doesn’t want to have to stop playing to find sheet music. The image of the field appears in her mind’s eye again, this time with more trees and small squirrels scampering around them. As she plays the runs, the squirrels zoom up and down the tree trunks.
And so she continues, playing one song after another, wishing she would never have to stop. For the music creates a haven of happiness, a place where the downsides of life all disappear. Before long, it has already been more than forty-five minutes. A glance at the clock reminds her responsibilities, but before trudging back upstairs to her room full of homework, she starts on the first song she played again. This time, the field turns into a stage; she sees dancers twirling and leaping in synchrony as the music fills the air. Not wanting the song to end, she melds the ending with the middle and repeats her favorite section of the piece. When she does reach the end of the song, she lets the last cord sing out, just like the first time. This time, though, the song had sounded relaxed and musical from the very beginning.
She closes the binder and puts it back on top of the piano. She turns off the light, and closes the lid of the piano. As she sits down to get back to schoolwork, the music still plays faintly in her head.
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