It had pained Nadir greatly that entire day. The discordant sound of the keys had been a torment, truly. One might have called it the straw which broke the camel's back. Never again would he try to teach a fussy 9-year-old how to play on an out-of-tune piano, this he swore to himself. This is why he simply had to return to the small music school after having retrieved his tools to fix the damn instrument that very night. He knew it would take him hours, expected it even! "My peace of mind is worth it," he muttered as his calloused fingers fumbled with his keys.
What he didn't expect, however, was the soft melody that greeted him when he opened the door. It was nothing crazy, just a simple tune, but its sweetness almost made the music teacher forgive the piano's previous transgressions. His musings were however quickly interrupted by a much more immediate concern: "Who the fuck would sneak into my office simply to play the piano?" He slowly crept through the dark hallway, making sure to avoid that eternally creaky floorboard, and finally making his way to the source of the melody. The door stood slightly agar and through the gap, he finally saw his mysterious intruder.
The child could not have been more than 10 years old. His coat hung limply off his small frame and the thin wrists which led his pianist's fingers across the keys would make starvation shudder. Nadir further assessed the young musician who sat with his back to him, lit by moonlight. He cataloged the black hair which sat like a rat's nest upon his head, the dirt which coated his jacket, and the sickly pallor of his skin. He reminded Nadir of a stray dog.
"No, not a dog, a boy," Nadir thought, "I will not strip this poor child of his humanity". That said, the man was still unsure how to proceed. Should he make his presence known by a noise? By speech? Should he even interact with the boy at all? Maybe he should sneak back out and call the police, or simply go home and forget about the whole ordeal. "After all, you can not assume the boy is harmless," logic told him. "Or you could help him, be gentle, such a mistreated child certainly doesn't deserve any more violence" compassion retorted. Nadir was saved the trouble of sorting out his feelings when a loud bark coming from the street pulled the boy from his musical trance. The song faded into oblivion as the boy jerked his head around. He seemed rooted to the bench in terror as they examined each other.
The boy's eyes were sunken but when hit by the moonlight they glowed like flames in the darkness. However surprising this feature should have been, Nadir found himself more distracted by the black mask which surrounded those eyes. "Great," Nadir sighed internally, "he must be some kind of criminal to hide his features".
But just as he started conjuring up a plan to rid himself of the young delinquent, their eyes met. There was emotion in the boy's eyes. Terror. Loneliness. And there was a depth that can only appear in a child's gaze, a bittersweet innocence. Another pair of eyes appeared in Nadir's mind. Another innocent gaze, one he was reminded of every time he looked in the mirror. The man soon found himself yielding to the boy's silent plea.
"You play well," Nadir uttered softly, thinking it wise to stick to safe topics.
As he took a step forward the child's eyes widened and his frame stiffened.
"Would you mind if I sit next to you? I could play some songs for you," he suggested, "I promise I don't want to harm you son." he added, seeing the reticence in the boy's gaze.
A small nod had Nadir joining the young musician.
"The composition you were playing when I arrived," enquired Nadir "I've never heard it before, is it a nursery rhyme?"
The boy gave Nadir a confused glance and shook his head.
"Well, whatever it was I found it very beautiful."
Nadir broke the small silence that followed, "Would you like to take off your mask? It can't be very comfortable–", but at seeing the terror which filled the boy at his words he quickly reassured him, "You don't need to if you don't want to, I won't force you to do anything."
The boy still seemed tense. Nadir, in an attempt to calm him, plucked out a soft tune but quickly pulled his hands from the keys when his ears cringed at the strange notes produced by the piano.
"You must forgive me, my boy, this piano is quite out of tune," Nadir chuckled, "I came here to fix it you see, so the notes wouldn't sound so wrong–"
"No." a small voice interrupted.
Stunned by the boy's voice, Nadir spoke slowly, "No?..."
"It doesn't sound wrong," the boy added hesitantly, "It just makes special notes, it can still play beautiful music" he added in a reverent tone.
Nadir nodded encouragingly, "You're not wrong, some songs are even composed to be played on out-of-tune instruments"
A small smile seemed to flash across the boy's lips, "Yes, like my song."
"The one you were playing before?"
The boy nodded as he started calmly playing the tune.
Nadir watched the boy's hands pluck at the keys with a calm confidence that seemed uncharacteristic for the boy. "Music suits him," he thought as he observed his playing.
An angelic sound then filled his ears as the child's voice rose to harmonize with the tune. "Who are you, my boy?... I could almost believe you a fallen angel…" thought the man, fascinated by the prodigy at his side.
Eventually, the angelic voice faded out, then came back, only it was speaking now.
The boy explained, "Only this piano can play my song, they were made for each other."
"What exactly do you mean?" Nadir asked, more and more confused by his young friend.
"Well when I would try to play the song I had imagined it didn't sound right, so I adjusted the inside of the piano until the right notes played" the boy added proudly, his hands still gently drawing music from the broken instrument.
The realization filled Nadir's brain. He had never before in his life witnessed a piano become so out of tune from simply being played for a few months, which of course meant there was more to it. But up to this point he had been incapable of pinpointing the cause. "It might be the harsh weather," he had pondered, "Or some rodent nesting in the strings," he had theorized, but in the end, as his investigation continued to turn up dry, he had felt quite incompetent. To have been bested by an old piano was simply embarrassing. One would think, then, that finally finding the culprit would start a vengeful fire in the man's soul. "And they could not be further from the truth," Nadir realized. The boy's innocent tinkering had previously driven Nadir mad but now all that remained was a strange sort of endearment towards the little musician next to him.
"I'm sorry if you don't like it," the masked boy added fearfully after seeing Nadir's surprised expression, "I should not have used your piano without you knowing and I promise I would have used the piano in my house but I don't want my mother to be angry and she hates it when I play–" He stumbled over his words anxiously.
"It's no trouble at all son," Nadir added, trying to calm the frantic child, "I would never deprive a born musician of his instrument and, well my boy, it seems you've got a connection with the piano," Nadir praised, "And I quite disagree with you mother, your playing is wonderful" Nadir wondered if his mother was to blame for the boy's condition and suddenly felt a deep hatred for the woman– anyway he held such thoughts confined to his mind and continued, "What would you say about some lessons– and, don't worry, you wouldn't need to pay, consider it a gift from musician to musician," he added at the boy's hesitant look, "If you would like to you could come back, I would teach you all I know about music, even how to read it if you cannot already, and with some hard work you'd be able to play any song you could possibly imagine," Nadir suggested.
The strange boy looked up at him with a new kind of hopeful glimmer in his eyes and nodded enthusiastically.
"Well then," Nadir smiled and held out his hand, "It's nice to meet you, young man, I shall be your music teacher. My name is Nadir Khan."
The student hesitantly shook his teacher's hand and smiled when the man nodded encouragingly, "Hello Mr. Khan, I am Erik, I promise I shall make you proud."
"I'm sure you will, Erik." Nadir chuckled to himself as he started teaching yet another child how to play on this old, out-of-tune piano, "Now son do you know where the middle C is…"
And at that moment, as Nadir received the admiring gaze of a poor but hopeful child, he knew he could never let him down, that he would find a way to save and heal this masked boy.
Hello there :D I've been reading fanfic for years so I thought it might be time to finally publish my own story! This fic will probably be quite short (only a few chapters) as I don't want to get in over my head. Thanks so much for reading!
Til next time my dear readers, writers, and lurkers 3
LB