Chap 9
They say 'time heals all wounds'. That no matter the injury, no matter the damage, it'll heal.
That's a load of bull.
Time doesn't heal wounds. They make the wounds close up, and fester, and tear you up on the insides for days afterwards.
What they really mean is that time will numb all wounds. All the pain, all the suffering just become insignificant specks of the past and numbs us to all of it.
Speaking of numbing, December is fantastic at numbing us to all sensations. It kicked down the door from chilly November weather to going full-on stupid cold.
Going outside becomes miserable, leaving your bed becomes the hardest task of the day, for some reason, static electricity attacks you from everywhere and if you spend enough time out in the cold, you won't be able to feel a thing.
General Winter is unforgiving.
General Winter demands burly coats and woolly hats.
But that doesn't seem to stop half of everyone in my classes from wearing t-shirts and shorts though.
Their refusal to take refuge in the comfy clothing cave is a courage I'll never have.
But even with all my warm and plush clothing, I can't defeat the cold.
When I play the violin, my fingertips will slowly freeze up the longer I play.
I can't use mittens. My fingers would become too gangly and large, and I'd soudn terrible, so I must endure all the sore fingertips and cold strings.
Frankly, I already cannot wait for Winter to be over. Spring sounds amazing when you're dealing with mid 30-degree weather. Warm skies, bird sounds, and blooming flowers haunt my dreams.
Where am I going with this?
Oh right.
If time numbs all wounds, and thanks to time, we will get December.
Then December kicks you from every direction, and if you last, you get to Spring where everything isn't terrible and you recover from how horrible December was.
So, I guess it's a little true, maybe time really does heal.
The pain from having all my friends leave me has dulled. So if my analogy holds, I'll be healed next.
I'm waiting.
Despite my freezing fingertips, I drew out the last measure of the song with the cleanest sound all day. My chin almost stuck to the violin from the cold, but friction solved that quickly enough.
I took a deep breath of the fresh crisp air. It dried out my throat, but man, it felt like the air cleansed my body.
The guitar besides me finished strumming out it's own last notes for the finale, and we both took a bow.
With that, I started packing up my own gear.
I popped open my violin case with a kick and put everything in it's velvety confines.
Looking behind me, I saw our audience begin to thin out. A small group of squirrels and pidgeons were our proud regulars to our regular 2-man shows.
Everyone was there, from Manny the wispy squirrel, to Chuck the obese pigeon.
The pigeons and squirrels shuffled against each other as they finally finished the bread I tossed out for them.
We didn't get a single dollar into the donation case today, but it wasn't as if our music's bad. It's just that everyone else didn't understand it yet.
Someday, the genre of Acoustaclassical will take the world by storm and we'll be famous. But the days where we don't even get a single person to stop and listen usually stung for the rest of the day.
Not today though.
Even if today was a bad day, I could still hold my head up high.
My good mood today could handle literally anything.
"Well, someone's happy today."
I nodded and looked back to my performance buddy. Michael wrapped himself up in a scarf, several layers of striped polo shirts and had some weird finger gloves that he used to hold down the strings and hold his pick.
Of course I'd be happy. After months of waiting and months of school, something good is finally coming!
Mari's coming back!
Streamers popped and balloons floated up. Some high tempo party music came on. A giant cave levitated inside, while a choir of ghosts began to clap. I began to dance. The one-man party in my head went into full swing.
"Well, what happened?" asked Michael. He leaned in closer.
"Mari's coming back."
"Your sister's going to be back? She's finally home from college huh?"
Huzzah for colleges letting people out from school two weeks early!
"Yup. When she comes back to Faraway, everything can go back to normal."
"Normal? So you're going to leave me for your sister huh?" Micheal clutched his heart, "Oh woe is me, I'm partnered with an ungrateful violinist who'll ditch me for a piano player in a heart-beat. My music teacher was right, it's a tale as old as time." He drew a tear down his face.
I winced at that joke.
"Ah dang, my joke didn't land." Said Michael as he scratched the back of his head.
It's not as if his joke wasn't funny, but it's just hit a bit too close to home with what happened with Kel and Aubrey.
"Reminded me of something sad."
"Ah, sorry about that."
"It's fine. Mari will fix it."
Michael looked at me like I had a bug on my face, but shrugged and swung his guitar over his back and looked to the sky.
"Woah, it's getting dark out. We should break soon."
We should. I could barely make out where Michael was until the streetlights turned on.
"That's our cue, see you on tomorrow Sunny."
Micheal walked off with his back turned and waved my goodbye without looking back. I don't he realizes that it's not as cool as he thinks it is. I won't tell him though, he'd be on the verge of tears if I told him the truth. He does his best to play it cool despite being such a dork. I'll let him have that.
Michael was a good guy. But even then, I didn't tell him about what had happened with everyone else.
To be frank, we barely knew each other. It's only been a month, even if I thought he was pretty nice. Like, I'm thankful he broke me out of my slump. I really needed that. Between this and cram school, it's really helped take my mind off what was going on.
He didn't even pry into why I felt so sad in the first place. It's small things like that, that makes hanging out with him enjoyable in a way.
He managed to pull me into his music sessions and music helped me distract myself from my whole situation.
Also the fact that having someone to talk to makes my day a lot less sad.
We first met about a month ago, and he said that he knew Mari. At the time, I couldn't help but be skeptical. I never saw him around in high school. Instead, the only times I ever saw him were when he played his music in front of Hobbiez back in middle school.
During those years, I thought he was a wandering vagrant who didn't even go to school and made his life on the road going from city to city.
Nope. He lived four blocks away from the local supermarket. Admittedly, that was dumb of me to assume that, but it's the fault of cartoons for poisoning my expectations.
Turns out that Mari and Michael have known each other for a while. He told me that they were taught by the same music teacher in elementary and middle school. He even went to Mari and my recital, where he discovered that our family had another musician, me.
Then jump to a month before today, and thanks to being in the right place at the right time, namely in the park where he always played his music, and the right time being me being miserable, somehow, he managed to rope me into playing music with him. Well, more like perform for tips. Any money we'd made would help him raise money to go into the big city and 'become famous'.
Don't quote me on that.
He bugged me to play music with him, and I was pretty sketchy on the idea at first.
Music will help you clear your mind, he said.
Playing music is a joy in itself, he said.
Should've never believed him.
Now I play with Michael afterschool for half the week. Cram school takes Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So I play with Michael on the free days and on Saturday.
Leave it to Michael to play music for literal hours on end. It's like like we play songs non-stop, we talk a bit between each song and that's nice. But turns out there's not much overlap between songs a guitar guy and a violinist.
Beyond the literal mountain of sheet music, I'm literally learning two or three new songs a day!
It was almost like a job…
I didn't even get a paid! Or a cut of the donations. If I did, I would be like three or four dollars richer!
I should threaten to unionize. It's an idea that's been rolling around the back of my head. Only two or three more musicians reside in Faraway, and I know Michael has no idea who they are, with all that, I could fight for sub-minimum wage!
I'd totally do that if we made any money at all. Maybe if we didn't play in the middle of nowhere we'd make more money, but I'd rather not move. There's something cool in being a underground band, or uh, in this case, a suburban band that people with actual taste have to discover.
And for all that talk of not being paid, I'll grudgingly admit learning his original songs are fun. Michael's taste in music is actually not awful!
Well, between this gig that doesn't pay and cram school, at least I had something to do after they let me out of school.
Also, yay cram school.
To think, at the beginning of the year, I hated it. But if it wasn't for it taking up a few hours every day after school, I'd be in my room, hugging my knees, openly drooling on my bed, practically brain dead from how bored I'd be.
Yup. I can finally appreciate cram school all thanks to me losing my childhood friends. Now, the only person I can talk to is a guy who plays guitar in the street.
Ha. Ha.
Ow.
Speaking of, Kel's still playing basketball. He pretty much embodies basketball now. He has the whole look and everything. It's been an orange basketball jersey for this entire month and the month before. Everytime I pass by the basketball court when I return home from cram school, I see him sweating it out in that jersey on the court. He's usually alone while he practices. But sometimes with one or two others.
I was jealous of them. It's petty as hell of me to be jealous of people just playing basketball with him. Seriously, they're just helping him out. What kind of person gets mad about that?
And y'know, Kel's been really committed to basketball, and he's been getting better everyday. Well, as far as my wimpy noodlely-armed self could tell anyway.
Aubrey's around too. Though, you could barely recognize her compared to a month ago. She has blonde hair now! I didn't recognize her until I saw her ribbon.
Outside of school, she hangs around a bunch of hooligans that mess with the neighborhood on their scooters.
All the rumors I kept hearing about her from the adults made my mind wander. It feels like with every passing day, she's changing into someone I shouldn't know.
But that doesn't matter, because Mari is coming back.
With her here, she'll be able to fix everything in a blink of an eye.
She'll get Aubrey and Kel to make up. She'll get Mom to get me out of cram school. She'll make Gino's pizza taste like actual food again instead of a terrible greasy pile of cheese on a rock.
The sky began to fade into a light navy blue. The one thing I'll give to winter are the beautiful shades of the sky it gives out. Sunsets are great. But they don't last very long, but those few minutes are mesmerizing.
My keys jingled as I fiddled them out and unlocked the front door of home. A warm breeze ushered me in. Kicking off my shoes, I rushed to the one place that'll make my frosty fingertips less numb, the fireplace!
The smoky aroma and warm waves healed my cold, cold, heart.
The heat was nostalgic. During the winter months of yesteryears, everyone hung out by the fireplace when they came over to my house. We all always wanted to make s'mores but never had the right stuff to roast the marshmallows.
Mari wouldn't let us use tree branches. She said they were dirty from all the rain and squirrels. Admittedly, squirrels are not to be trusted.
Aubrey came that one rainy day too didn't she? I don't really remember what we said, but the time we spent then was comfortable.
I ruffled my hand through the carpet. Yeah, it's just as soft as it had been in the past.
I let the carpet overtake my body as I counted the tiles on the ceiling.
How nice it would be to do this with everyone.
Too bad it's not happening anytime soon.
And now I made myself sad again by thinking about the whole problem again. Man, I'm really good at self-destructing.
The phone rang in the dining room. At this time of day, there was only one possible caller.
That must be Mari! One-hundred percent!
I pushed myself up and began to run, but instead of feeling of my weight being shifted between my two legs, I felt a falling sensation.
Shit.
I didn't let my body prepare before my brain told it to run. At this rate, I'm going to trip onto my face.
But I can adapt.
Before my face kissed the floor, I pushed myself up with my arms, brought my knees in, and began to sprint for the phone. Thanks to my socks, I could keep building up speed as I dashed across the wooden floor to the phone. I zoomed as I got ready to turn the corner where the phone was.
Now to turn! I turned my body to face the phone!
It kept going in a straight line.
What?
I looked to my left.
Oh shit, that's the wall, isn't it?
Huh. It is. Mental note, people don't turn like cars.
The wall began to approach my face menacingly, and frankly, I was out of ideas.
The only thing I was sure of was that with how much momentum I had, I was about to smash a hole into the wall.
I could see it now. There'll be a hole reminiscent of a cartoon and then right beside it is going to be mom. Where she will then destroy me. In both the cartoon and real life.
My brain decided it didn't want to live anymore, so my body took things into it's own hands. Literally so. My hands slapped the wall and I stubbed all ten of my fingers, but it killed my speed so that instead of crashing a giant hole into the wall, I just hit my head against a wall and fell on my ass again.
I held my head as I did my best to endure the painful haze in my head and fingers until it went away.
At the very least, no one saw all that.
The phone was still ringing as I got back up. Let's walk on two feet like an actual human being this time.
I picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
I could recognize that voice from a city away.
"Hi Mari!" It's Mari! Yay!
"Hey Sunny!" She cooed, "How's Aubrey and Kel doing."
"They're both fine." I think. I haven't told Mari about what happened yet. There's really no real point to telling her about how I let everything fall apart. If I told her, she'd worry about her everyone, but she can't really do much from all the way across the country.
"Oh that's good to hear." I couldn't see her, but I was sure she was smiling.
"So Mari, what time are you coming back tomorrow?"
"Well, the thing is, I'm not really sure."
Hm? Does she still need to pack?
"Why not?"
"Well, I'm don't really know how I'll make it back tomorrow."
Oh right. The airports must be crowded with everyone coming back for either the break or Christmas. With all that traffic, all the taxis must be taken as well.
"Does Dad have to pick you up from the airport?"
"Probably not."
"Do you need money for a plane ticket?"
"No, no, I have the money."
"Then, why not?" I'm so confused.
"Well, the thing is, you see…" Mari kept drawling on and off.
"Mari." It's not like Mari to be so avoidant.
"Look, Sunny, what I'm trying to say is that," Mari paused, "I don't think I'll be able to come back for the winter."
"What?" What is she saying?
"There's been a freak snowstorm for the past couple of days and all the planes this side of the state froze over."
"Wha…?"
"I know, ridiculous right? All the planes have to be repaired and they say it's going to take a few weeks before any flights start back up again."
A few weeks? But that means…
"So… you won't be coming back?" My fingers clenched the phone. The pain from holding something tightly with jammed fingers were excruciating. But the hurt inside was worse.
"Yeah. Tell Mom and Dad that I won't be able to make it back for the holidays. Sorry lil'bro, also, stay strong. You can last one Christmas without me."
And with a click, she hung up.
This… this can't be happening.
A horrible ringing rang out in my ears. The weight of what she said ran down my throat like a cactus.
Oh.
This just had to be a nightmare. I must be dreaming. I'll go to bed, and I'll wake up, and Mari will be home.
My legs were awfully shaky as I climbed the stairs, but that's okay. Dreams just make walking weird.
I climbed into my bed and let my blankets overcome me.
This just had one awful dream.
It wasn't.
Mari isn't coming back.