Silence filled the vacant room as the light bulb situated directly above a grand piano that had been lavishly coated and painted in various swirls and dips of red and black flickered momentarily as the young female shifted from further back onto the soft cushioned bench in front of the piano, offering comfort and relaxation. Albeit, though, other than the piano, and the bench itself, the room had been truly devoid of any furniture or objects besides an occasional note stand and some paper scattered around the floor in arrays of stacks to keep the area she had worked in organized. Although the silence had only been for but a short period of time as a sharp inhale was quick to break it before the woman spoke up softly to none other than herself, offering comforting and encouraging words for the last practice of the night.
"Okay, I just need to go one last session before heading to bed for the night. I've been getting a little rusty in the general area of pieces for Adagio since every client I've been getting seems to be trying to turn the piano into the next modern horror for techno... " An exhausted and exaggerated sigh quickly pressed on past her lips as she allowed her head dip down to shoulder level until her eyes had met with the view of well polished white keys on the front of the piano. The mere sight of the keys had slowly resulted in the once fatigue feeling to slowly die out until nothing but the same sensation of content she had first felt when she had initially received the piano from her family as the college graduation present was there. "Not that I'd let them ruin my love for classics, it's still very precious to me. I've always been the stubborn child for loving old things. "
She softly chuckled to herself as the memory of her family constantly teasing her for being both stubborn and reminiscing in the old genre of both music and a few ways of life replased through her thoughts before carefully lifting up both of her palms until both of her fingers rested on the keys, A1 and E3. As she gently pressed down on the A1 key, she quickly followed it up by transitioning over to E3 with four sharps, beginning to allow her fingers to confidently dance down the keys as the song progressed further in.
Her thoughts roved aimlessly throughout her mind as she took a deep breath when coming upon a Forte in the song as the memory of 3-week weeks ago crossed her mind. It had been the last week of her college year back in Beacon University, the place she had worked so hard in for the past four years of her life to get her degree in Composition, to be able to create the music she desired. It was truly a tough four years for her, but when she had taken the time to think about her graduation. It was still hard to get out of old routines, and grasp the understand that she was officially her own person now, and ready to start her career somewhere.
20 years huh? Where did the time honestly go? Maybe the next time I shut my eyes and open them, I'll be 90 or something. It's still hard to believe, even after all this time on my own. I'm just glad my mother showed me the piano at an early age so I could improvise later in life.. I still wish I could thank her.
The young pianist softly snorted in dejection as the thought of her mother elicited the strong feeling of dread that had immediately latched onto her emotions and resulted in the sensation of her heart sinking into the pit of her stomach. She honestly had wanted to visit her mother for the last few months, but she never could bring herself to face reality, and instead, she dwelled in her world of music to escape life for the majority of her recent days. It hadn't been the best way of living life, burying yourself so deep in one thing, but there was really nothing more she knew of to do.
Just remember things will be okay they told me, and I do try to, but god do I wish I could listen to their advice mentally. I mean, I know I'm not the only one in the family dealing with this since my uncle was close to her. Maybe I've been too selfish lately, and I should have visited her on my graduation like dad suggested. Haah... Who knows any longer? Because I'm pretty sure, it's not me anymore…
The devastating thought of her current situation in life had almost immediately provoked a scowl on her lips as she felt her thoughts becoming increasingly more scattered as they desperately attempted at keeping up with the beat and tempo of the song. Regardless, though, her efforts of pressing the upcoming note of a sharp were quickly discontinued as her index finger absentmindedly strayed onto the close-by flat key, resulting in an impulsive jerk out of her daze state as the harsh sound of the phone loudly resonated throughout the hallway of her house. She reluctantly brought her hands to a halt as she closed her eyes with another exhausted sigh as the obnoxious sound of her house phone repeatedly resonated through her ears as she silently prayed that whoever had been calling her would merely hang up. It had normally been around the time that she usually would practice, meaning the mass majority of family and friends knew not to disturb her.
It's probably just one of those advertisements they do by calls since if it were anyone I knew, they would have called just tomorrow in the morning. Unless it's Yang since she never actually listens to my schedule, but then again, Yang would prefer to regularly just burst through my door and announced herself present more so than calling me. I'm stumped honest.
She quietly contemplated over the limited amount of choices she had of whether or not she would have gotten up to answer the phone, only sparing a few minutes to internally debate if it had truly been worth the effort of getting up and checking to see who had called her. Nevertheless, though, she impulsively hesitated in both of her options since she had almost been done with her final practice for the night and if she had stopped, she knew she would have had to redo it entirely. Although, if the phone call had been something important, she also would have completely felt guilty for ignoring it. She remained silent for a couple more seconds before finally groaning as she carefully stood up from the cushioned bench and begrudging trudging over to the slightly ajar door before reaching out to grab the doorknob as she slowly made a right turn and headed down to the source of the noise at the end of the hall. "I'm coming, hold your dang horses! Somebody's Impatient tonight!"
The cold sensation of wood pressing up firmly against the soles of her bare feet caused the pianist to shudder as she eventually made it to the end of the hallway and quickly snagged the phone off the base on the wall before the caller could have decided that they had annoyed her enough and hung up. "Y'ello," She quickly greeted the caller before she followed it up with an introduction since she still hadn't been entirely sure who had been calling her at that late in the night. "Ruby Rose speaking." Ruby patiently waited for a response before eventually quirking up her brow quizzically when hearing the static sound loudly ring throughout the phone until the voice of another female finally spoke up.
"Hall.. Hello, Miss Rose?" The female hesitantly grumbled the first part of her greeting underneath her breath before slowly building up more confidence in the next few words, giving off the minor impression that she hadn't been entirely sure if she had even dialed the right number. However, the greeting that Ruby had received resulted in her to cringe back slightly since usually, she would have never preferred to be addressed formally for the fact that it hadn't been as if she was well deserving of the whole 'Miss's' part.
"Yeah? Hi. Are you okay perhaps? Or do you possibly need something from me because I don't mean to sound rude but I was in the middle of… Practice." She bluntly states in an awkward tone of voice since it still hadn't been an everyday thing that she would receive odd or confused callers such as the one she had been talking to then.
The other person was quicker this time to respond to her questions and spoke up in a stern tone. "Pardon me for asking this but are the red-haired pianist who's freelancing for various events?" Ruby felt a smile forming on her lips as the realization that the woman hadn't thoroughly read her terms of contacting for business before she softly chuckled as she could hear the various sounds of papers being shuffled around in front of the woman or somewhere possibly to the side of her.
"I'm going to let you off the hook this time since I did have a pretty long description for instructions on how to go about contacting me on my page in the area's hirement. But next time you're looking to hire a freelancer, be sure to message their web page before calling so you can see what time you're available to talk. Now as to the hair thing and pianist, yes to both. What can I help you with tonight?" She leaned against the wall in a calm shuffle, twirling the tightly coiled phone cord in her fingers out of boredom due to simply standing there and listening to the other end on the line rustling around which sounded like paper, lots of it. Ruby had been curious to whether or not the woman had heard anything she had said.
Ruby intently listened to the phone call as another woman began speaking up irritatedly in the background of the call, causing the woman that had been on the other side of the line to groan before audibly turning away from the phone over towards the other female in the room. The female at the phone made a retort back at the other person in the background woman in a foreign language, her accent ringing sharply throughout Ruby's speaker. Agitation in the woman's tone caused Ruby to become nervous considering she was only a mere bystander in an argument she could only hear before she heard the sound of the woman presuming to speak to her. "Excuse me for that; I'm afraid I'll have to ask you if it's okay if we can continue this chat at a later time somewhere else? I can currently supply some details if you would like before we end the call?"
"Oh, um. Yeah, we can continue this at a more reasonable time soon. Just name a date, time, and place and I'll see what I can do. Although exactly how long did you have in mind for me working for you since I've got another client who's been waiting for me to schedule with them properly?" Ruby slowly inquired as she felt her eyebrows furrow in concentration as she organized her thoughts of the last schedule she had discussed her other client before she spoke up again to clarify any questions that the other female might have wondered. "I just have some troubles with adjusting back and forth between client's choices of music. You'd be amazed at all the offers and suggestions of genres we musicians get, man."
"Of course, it is the least I can do for having to leave so soon. The plan including our schedule is to be four weeks prior to the event of my father's company, and he requests that I am in charge of the decoration and music. I believe I picked a very suitable genre of music, but we require a pianist since it's more in the classical department. I do hope I did not waste either of our time if you are not trained in such?" Ruby scowled at the woman's last comment before she quietly sighed underneath her breath since it would have done nothing if she were to get upset over such a small comment when most clients she had worked with so far were all the same.
Well, at least she's slightly nicer than most people that ask me for my time. I'll give her that since she sounds like how most people who live in the northern part of Vale do.
"I play all various genres of music honestly. I studied all types of musical genres for the piano but classical is one of the easier ones for me so of course, but don't you think setting up four weeks early is a bit.. too early?" Ruby carefully stated in soft tone in order to not potentially upset the other female on the other line since normally she hadn't had that many clients request four weeks of working with her for an event.
Ruby flinched slightly when hearing an audible gasp came out of the small speaker on the phone before groaning a little as the other woman spoke up in an offended tone. "Of course not! This will be a grand party, and I will not make a simple mistake that could have easily been fixed in the first place by preparing this party early! I will not fail the most straightforward task of setting up the decor and finding someone to play the music."
Ruby humorously quirked up her brow as the woman had sounded as if she had taken the comment to heart and been hurt by her mention of having started the preparations of the party too early. Oh man, this girl is definition weird so far.. I hope she'll be better whenever I meet her in person for practice or to get our schedule organized more than it is at the moment. Ruby quickly shook the thought away before she spoke up in an apologetic tone to calm the other female down before she could get even more possibly offended than she sounded. Just play along, and be the good guy here is what Dad suggested in these situations.
"Okay, I'm sorry, it's a big party. I get it." Ruby placed the phone between her shoulder and her cheek to make arm movements unseen by the woman on the phone. "We'll go all out. With a bang!" Ruby's sudden excitement only received a little huff in return as the woman seemed to get ticked off even more.
"Yes, a 'bang'" She unenthusiastically repeated Ruby's word choice in describing her party before continuing her request. "I would like to have you as my pianist for the party, would you possibly be willing to do it, Miss Rose? After a face to face conversation of course." She hesitantly offered through the phone as Ruby felt a smile forming on the corner of her lips as she heard the question.
"Would I be willing? Of course, I'd be willing! Playing music for people as well as myself is what my calling in life is. I absolutely love it." Ruby's passion for music was apparent in the tone of her voice as she fought the urge to continue her rambling, only to momentarily pause in embarrassment when hearing the sound of the other woman's sheepish attempts at constraining her chuckles.
Silence quickly filled the atmosphere between the pair on the phone as the other woman on the line coughed softly in an attempt to move away from the awkward silence. "Good, good. Is it alright if I send you the details of where to arrive and everything else over your phone?" The woman inquired quizzically as she quickly went quiet again to allow Ruby to speak up.
"Well, there's a problem there since this is a home phone. You know, the corded type of home phone." Ruby laughed nervously as the phone went silent again before she slowly resumed speaking in order to elaborate more on the topic at hand. "That won't stop anything from happening, though. I can.. We can meet up somewhere. You did check the location of my area on the hiring page, right?" Ruby anxiously shifted around on the balls of her feet as the conversation went dead from the awkward moment just before.
"Oh of course. I suppose we can meet up somewhere in the area, as long as it's a reasonable time and place." More shuffling of paper took place in the background of the other woman's side as Ruby quietly thought of the various locations in the area that they could have a possible meet up at for business solitude purposes before she slowly smiled as an idea popped into mind.
"Okay then! How about we meet at Jumpstart Coffee? You know, the little cafe` at th-" The other woman cut her off before she could continue to ramble on.
"Time and date?" She questioned.
"Saturday at 12 P.M.?" Ruby slowly asked before nodding since she wasn't busy at all and she had two whole more days to herself before she would need to learn whatever pieces of music the woman desired for her to play at the event.
"I suppose that is an acceptable place and time, but for now, I'm afraid I must leave it at that Miss Rose. I have various other matters needing to be attended to at the moment, so I'll have to leave you with a vaarwel. Goodbye. Until next time." The line was quickly cut to silence as the other woman quickly hung up the phone and left Ruby in a confused daze of what exactly she had said since it hadn't been English, nor did she know what language she had even parted her with.
"What did she say? How does she expect me to find out when she's there? I'm not even sure what she looks like.." Ruby quietly mused as a heavy sigh gradually pressed past her lips when thinking back over the whole conversation with the odd woman. "People these days..I honestly don't get them anymore." She mumbled to herself before walking back down the hall to reunite with her beloved grand piano to resume her last practice before bed.
Alright, so this is the first rewrite of SOH, and I hope you can find it more readable than the original that I did like a year ago? Regardless, next rewrite will be in progress over the next few weeks so look forward to more! Remember to like, share, and review because I read everyone's comment and write like a shit load at once from the motivation they pack you know? So I'll make this seem like a typical SOH chapter and say you all need to grab your meme blankets of the ones that followed us into 2017 and relax as you wonder what's. WAIT. You all know what happens. Oh well. I tried.