Nicole stood on the balcony, overlooking the running street. On the corner was a musician playing his familiar tune. Oh, how loud the trumpet sounds, even with his mute. Yet she knew the trumpet was not the main character. It was the piano! Why would everyone only notice the clarinet, or the trumpet? Why would they stop the soundtrack as soon as the piano comes in? Oh Adela my daughter, she thought, tell me why, teach me!
It was 5 years since she saw the father of her daughter. Adela had long taken her mother’s surname when she entered pre-school. And now she’s leaving to grade school: how happy it was for Nicole to see her daughter grow up so fast; how happy it was to raise her up, oh how happy.
Adela tapped Nicole on the back, “Mommy, where’s Uncle Ben?”
“He’ll be a little bit late, dear. Why don’t you watch the television for a bit?” Nicole knew Benjamin would be back some time, unlike the father, who disappeared for ages.
The winds were gradually strengthening, and the musician packed his trumpet and left the corner. The piano sound was continuing though, as if an orchestra assembled across the street, just for the sake of playing the whole piece of the Rhapsody.
Buzz-buzz.
“I’m sorry for today.” Benjamin took his coat off as he apologized.
“Don’t worry. It’s not your fault. It’s totally not your fault.” Nicole picked up the coat and hanged it in the closet.
“How’s dear Adela doing?” He laughed, as he stepped towards the television. Nicole turned her attention onto the man and the girl. What a great match for a father, she thought, if only he wasn’t the brother of the girl’s father. Oh, if it wasn’t for him few years ago, maybe Adela would still be asking what Dad stands for.
The piano died down a little bit, and the brass choir came roaring behind, trying to capture the audiences from the soloist. But the piano came back, chord after chord, arpeggio after arpeggio. The hands went up to the top, and down the black keys. No, the conductor no longer controlled him. It was his world, the concert was all his.
Yes, she could not forget. The face that appeared humbly on the subway train, the sight that made the bond between man and woman. But he abandoned me, she thought. The pale face that turned red at an instant, the emerald eyes that he had, oh how beautiful. But he abandoned me, she thought.
And she looked towards Adela. The face was her father’s one. Adela looked back. Her lips didn’t move, but the sound of her father appeared, “Come to me, Nicole, and we will live happily together. Trust me.”
Bump.
Nicole crashed the mirror behind her, but the mirror didn’t shatter. She looked into the mirror. There she saw, was the very face she was thinking. The lover of her life. The love that she could not forget.
-Pollux
Une Barque sur l'Océan 