Posted:
14 years ago
Call of silence
I look at him sleeping on his stomach, a newspaper cutting clutched in his hand. It's hard to take my eyes off the serene scene in front of me. His violin lay next to him on the bed, like an old lover. In a way, it was his old lover. I run my hands through his hair and he doesn't stir. I had met him in an old music store couple of years back. I was searching for a melody which I had heard on my way to work and had been searching ever since. It was hard to search for a just a tune, I had realized after a few weeks. But the nagging feeling hadn't left me and made me pursue my search even more vigorous than before.
The store was sandwiched between a popular deli and a supermarket. A friend had advised me to go there and talk to the owner. "He has hung around for a while", my friend had said.
There he was, in an old music store, tuning a violin and did so with so much of fervor and intensity that I felt as if I was a voyeur looking a very intimate moment. I stood there until he finished his task and tested his work by playing a lullaby.
He had looked up, gave me an inviting smile and asked me if I was searching for something.
I had replied - "Not anymore."
I hummed the tune which had taken a permanent residence in my head and looked at him expectantly. He shook his head but played me something else. I was okay with that.
After that we went for coffee and few weeks later we went on several dates. After three quarters of a year, I moved into the apartment where I am currently standing and staring at his sleeping form. It has been a wonderful year for both of us. Once together, we had searched numerous music stores for the melody which I was searching. It had become sort of our thing.
He wrote music, I listened.
He just wrote and I simply listened.
When he played violin, I could not do anything. With that music, whatever I felt was everything and nothing; it was like sky diving and scuba diving at the same time. One minute there is so much energy and the next there is complete void. I never got to define what that feeling was. It just was.
I see his sleeping form and smile fondly. I wonder why everything is so unkempt around the apartment; newspaper cuttings, CDs were out of their cover and music sheets lay all over the place. I want to move around and start cleaning the place but something is stopping me from doing it. I wonder why.
There is a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feel an oddity surrounding the air and a feeling of dreadfulness washes over me. What is wrong?
I see that there is a music sheet right below the violin and few notes seem familiar. It takes only a moment for me to realize that it was exactly the same tune I had been searching for couple of years now. The elation in me makes me cry in joy and I start shaking him out of his sleep. He doesn't budge however the newspaper clipping which was clutched in his hands flutter out and fall beside his hand.
I am surprised to see a picture of myself in that clipping. It was my obituary which was published three weeks back. I collapse on the bed and let tears fall, silently accepting my fate.
The melody lay forgotten.
Sookie
