The melody
Trish really liked being in the big old house that seemed so unstable from the outside but so warm, stable and homy once you had set one foot in it. Originally it was the mansion Trishs father had lived in when he was a kid. He had inherited it when his parents had passed away. And when he himself died of cancer the house devolved to his wife Carol.
Trish loved every angle of the house although she still hadn't discovered all of the secret passages and rooms that often hid so clevery behind dusty tapestries and portraits of long ago dead peers. The building itself even for a mansion was enormously big and from the outside one could think it might be castle. Patricia often spent her weekends wandering throught the house looking for new secrets and adventures. It was easy for her with her petite figure to squeeze into narrow chambers to find out what secret they were hiding.
Today on her seventeenth birthday as always she was awake before everybody else .
As she was walking through the house an aisle that she had never seen before caught here attention. Sie was looking for the light switch when she heard her mother shouting "Hey birthday girl, you either come down here and let us celebrate you or we are coming upstairs to search you. Which one will it be?" - "I will be right down, Mom." Patricia was a little sour that she did not get the chance to explore the aisle better because once you had lost sight of one of those rambling aisles it was nearly impossible to find it again. But she wanted to prevent her Mom from searching her because Carol usually avoided the upper floors. After her father had died and they had moved into the new house Trishs Mom brought every single thing that reminded her of her husband upstairs so she would not have to see it all the time. After that she avoided going upstairs because she still got very upset when she was thinking of her husband.
When she reached the bottom floor Trish was very surprised because against her expectations everybody was awake who was living in the house with her and her mother. Back when they moved into the house Carol decided they could use some boarders because even now with five people living in it the mansion was still way too big.
With a smile bright as the sun her Mom greeted Trish and embraced her. "Happy birthday, honey. I wish you a year full of luck and success. From her Mom she was handed down to Paul. Paul was a very handsome man in his early 40s with warm laugh lines around his eyes. They had met him when they were shopping in a city nearby called Lourdesville. He too had lost his spouse and was looking for a new home for himself and his twins. "Happy birthday, little one. It seems like yesterday when you knocked at my door in the middle of the night because you had a bad dream and now you are seventeen. God, I am getting old." - "You are getting old?", Carol asked in a high pitched voice. "If you are old what am I? A dinosaur?" While her mother and Paul were teasing one another about their age Leslie walked towards Trish and embraced her. "Feliz cumpleanos, Trish. That is spanish and means Happy Birthday." Leslie was petite like Patricia and 17 years old also. She was barely ever at home because she went to a boarding school for very gifted girls three hours away from Lourdesville. Unfortunately she only spent her holidays at the big house and so the two girls never really had had the chance to bond. The exact opposite was it with Leslies twin brother Nathan. He and Trish had connected from the very first minute and were living as close as siblings ever since. "Happy Birthday Trish. Next time, get up a little later so I can sleep longer, okay?" He laughed and kissed her on the cheek. "Time for cake!", sang Carol and they all went to the kitchen to celebrate. While her family was singing a birthday song Trish looked into the four happy faces that mattered the most in her life. There was Carol with whom she could talk about anything. Then there was Paul who could fix anything and who always secretly helped her when she was in trouble. She did not know Leslie well but they always had fun times when she was spending the summer at the mansion. And finally there was Nathan, her brother and best friend. They had avery special bond and knew each other inside out.
Once the others had finished singing Trish blew out the candles and started cutting the cake. After a loud and blitheful breakfast Paul and Carol left the house for work. A little later Leslie left the kitchen to take a nap. She felt sick because, as usual she had had too much and it was not treating her well that day. Trish and Nate were left to clean the table.
"Nate, what did you want to do today? Because if you are free I would like to look for this aisle I found this morning. There is something special about it." Nathan had been standing at the sink doing the dishes but now he was turning around. "Trish, stop always looking around in this house. You could do so many better things. I am free today. Why don't we go to the mall?" Trish was confused. Usually Nate loved to search the house for hours but today he apparently was not feeling it so she agreed. "Okay I will meet you fully dressed in the hall in fifteen minutes. Ready?" he screamed. "Go!" They laughed and stormed to their rooms to get ready. The two of them always made it a race of who could get ready faster. Twenty minutes later they were sitting in the car singing along to the music that was playing. Trish loved riding with Nathan. Although he was driving, he always managed to spot little wonders at the side of the street or at a field or anywhere. So they often stopped to enjoy the little things in life. Like perhaps a little flower in the snow or a snowman that did not melt altough the whole city had melted already.
As they reached the mall they stopped right away to listen to the busker who was sitting on the ground strumming his guitar and singing a song. That was one of Trish and Nates problems. That was the reason why they never were on time when they went to the city. They loved music. Wherever they were, no matter how hurried they were they alsways stopped to listen to the buskers. Because from the streets, and in that they agreed, came the real music. The rhythms that improved live, that touched the heart those you could only find on the streets. They were magical.