7:30 p.m. Later that evening, Pietro was on the balcony, watching the stars in the sky and he thought to himself, "It shouldn't be long before ze treep comes by. I steell need to keep an eye on my friends, zhey do need my help after all." His thoughts were suddenly stopped once again, this time by the sound of a knock on his door.
"Come een!"
The door opened up and much to his surprise, Louise walked slowly walked in. "Bonjour, Pietro."
"Bonjour, Louise." Pietro replied with a smile. "What breengs you up here?"
"Well..." began a nervous Louise. She didn't know what to say to him at this very moment. "I-I want to watch ze stars weez you, eef zat's alright?"
"But, of course! Come on over!" Pietro had no clue whatsoever why she REALLY came along to his room. For a few long moments, they both were looking up to the sky, amazed at how stars were there and looked for any signs of constellations.
Pietro nudged Louise a little and said, "Hey, see those stars to the right?"
"Oui, I do." replied Louise. She looked to where the boy was pointing, but the constellation looks a little blurry. It consisted of a group of stars going down right, up left, straight right, down right again, a little up left, and down right once more. "Uh, what eez eet?"
"Very hard to see, no? Zis one eez called ze "Leettle Fox- Vulpecula."
Louise was amazed by the boy's analysis of this hard-to-see image in the dark-blue sky. "I...I had no idea."
"I know. Many of us deedn't see it at first and thought it was just a bunch of faded stars. But, eef you look at eet a deeferent way, zhen you can see zat zhere eez more to zhose stars zhan just ze fact zat zhey're all scattered. Each one of zhose stars eez unique and zhey work togezher to show us what makes zhem special in zhis world."
"I like how you said zat."
Pietro looked surpised. "Wow, child psychology DEED do a good job on me." he thought to himself. Then, he looked to Louise and said, "Uh, oui, heheh, I've been kinda studyeeng on zhese sort of zhings."
"I see." The two continued to look up at the stars and Louise felt a strange feeling inside her. Only she knows what it is and not Pietro, so it's not her fault. "Hey, Pietro?"
Pietro looked at her again. "Oui?"
The girl can feel the blood rush to her face as she tried to speak. "Uh...well, uh....Pietro...I..I was wondereeng what your life was like back een our home." Louise felt relieved after that.
"Oh! Well, eet's sort of a long story...but I'll tell you anyway. You see when I was leetle, I deedn't really have any interest een ze arts whatsoever. I just zhought zat eet was boreeng and too hard to understand."
"Eez zat so? Zhen how DEED you get eento ze arts zhen?"
"Well, my Fahzher was a very arteestic man and he was very createeve whenver he paints a picture or even tells us a story. So, one day, I was goeeng outside for baird watcheeng because eet was one of my favorite acteevities to do. Zhen, while I was followeeng a blue jay, Fahzair came up to me and asked eef I knew what made ze birds seeng when zhey fly. I was very young at zat time, so I deedn't know for sure. Zhen, he told me zat zhey have notes inside zhem."
"Notes?"
"Museecal notes. Fahzair says zat bairds were geefted weez museec, and everyday, zhey love to fly off to deeferent places to try and put on a show, so other people can see zhem and leesten. We love to leesten to zhem so much, zat zhey inspired us to make muzeecal instruments, just so we can play along weez ze bairds and many ozhers who would love to join us.
I realized zhen zat he had a good point, eef I loved watcheeng bairds so much, why can't I sing and play weez zhem too? So, from zat day, I was deeply een love weez ze arts (primarily muzeec), and I want to inspire ozhers to come and see somezheeng zhey might have been misseeng."
Louise smiled at Pietro and commented, "I must say, Pietro, your Fahzair WAS a very createeve man. Was he zhe one who gave you zat instrument?"
"Ze bowed psaltery? Why, yes. He built eet himself a very long time ago and enjoyed how eet sounds."
"Eet must have been very special. I mean, I never seen such an instrument zat can..well..." Louise tried to find the right words to describe the instrument. "..create...a world...zat eez...unlike any ozher."
"Oui, I know. Fairst time I haird my Fahzair play eet, even I was amazed. He even said zat he's goeeng to geeve one to me too, but before zat happened, I had to learn a certain song about one of our favoreete arteests and one of heez most famous artworks of all time."
The girl felt her heart leap for joy again. "Can you seeng eet to me, s'il vous plaƮt?"
"Of course I weell, Louise. Hang on for a moment." Pietro went inside his room and brought out his bowed psaltery. "OK, here eet goes..." He placed his bow on the strings once more and started playing in a slow tempo. Suddenly, the night sky begins to change and a vision of memory appears depicting a red-haired man putting different colors in on different canvases.
Starry, starry night
Paint your pallet blue and gray
Look out on the summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and daffodils
Catch the breeze and winter chill
In colors on the snowy linen land
(Louise sees that the man is very sad when he paints his pictures.)
Now I understand
What you tired to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen
The did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
(The colors suddenly form into the artist's masterpieces.)
Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber gray
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand
Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
(The man still feels sad about his work and walks away from his work.)
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when your love was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you
(A gallery of the artist's paintings are show in a straight line.)
Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn, a bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
(The portrait of the man now shows in the vision.)
Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They're not listening still
Perhaps they never will....
(Pietro played the last few notes and the vision slowly disappears.)
Pietro put his instrument down and was surprised to see that Louise was wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't zhink I can make you ZAT emotional."
Louise looked up with tear-stained eyes and smiled. "No, no, don't say zat. Zat was really delightful. I deedn't know much about Van Gogh's life unteel now."
"Oui, heez life was a very sad one, but heez paintings are steell around us and we can appreciate heem for all zat he's done for us despite ze tradgedy."
"Oui." Louise said with a sniff. "You're right. Well, it's getteeng late and I must get back to my room." She slowly bowed to Pietro. "Au revoir."
"Au revoir." And with that, Louise closed the door behind her and Pietro continued to look up. "Eet probably won't be long teell zat vandal strikes again. I must succeed in zhis case, so I can join my mentor."
