Violet and her Client finished the record, allowing Violet the time to fully listen to and appreciate the music. It was truly beautiful to Violet's ears.
The story was about a young woman who lost her lover to the sea in a tragic accident. She waited by the sea, forever and a day, but he would not come back to her. Eventually, knowing her true love was lost, the Young Woman walked into the sea one day, and never returned. The story suggested she eventually met her love again, but Violet suspected she had simply drowned.
In a way, it made her think of herself. Gilbert had been missing for years, but Violet refused to accept that he was gone. Her better logic told her to forget him, but the most important part, her heart, promised she never would.
As the record ended, the Client sighed deeply and said, "I love that record. You get to feel so many different emotions in such a small amount of time. You wonder about the woman in the red dress, what she was thinking, what she was feeling"
"Can you really tell a person's feelings from music?" Violet asked quietly from her seat.
"Sure," She said, "Let's start with how you feel, Violet"
Violet stopped, sighed, and replied, "I… do not know how to feel about it"
The Client stood up and raised her voice slightly, "You're not a Doll, Violet! You're a human being. Don't act like one here, it wont work on me!"
Quietly, Violet tried to answer, "I am not supposed to become involved with my clients like this, I – "
The Client hit the cover of the book and slid it towards Violet, "Could a simple Doll have written words like this?! Read your own words! What Doll could write something like this?!"
Violet stared at the book, and with a single gloved hand opened the cover flipped the pages through. She glanced, briefly, at the section where Felix described how safe he felt the first time he slept in a real bed. Comfort, happiness, contentless joy…. It was all just words to her.
Her job was to express other's feelings in her words. But Violet always buried her own feelings, not daring to explore her own heart and emotions. Inside, she had happiness and comfort, in a small measure. But in the larger measure, she had hate, fear, and sadness. Gilbert. Felix. Isis. The Boy from the Observatory.
She had lost so much. And for all her skill in battle, there was nothing Violet could do.
"I feel," Violet starting to say, feeling her voice break with anger, hate and sorrow, "I feel… lost. And alone."
"Just like the ocean," The Client said back, calmer and quieter, "Well, there is one thing we can do to try to get those things back"
"What is it?!" Violet asked, shouting more than she wanted, "I'll do anything!"
The Client laughed, "Let's tech you how to sing. What good is a song without someone to sing it?"
Violet stopped and was dumbstruck. She could only answer back, "I do not know how to sing"
"It's not that hard, really," The Client said as she lifted a small bell, "Watch this"
She rang the bell, and moments later, Wulf rolled a small piano into the library. He politely bowed and left again, while the Client rose from her seat and sat down at the small bench that Wulf had set at the base of the piano, with her back to turned to Violet.
The Client's hands struck the chords, and she hit seven keys in successive tone, raising until peaking at the sixth key, before again going backward in reverse of the tone. Violet listened intently, and noted that the way she played matched their time signature and key:
Eb 1
2
The Client started the sequence again and sang in tune, "Do Re Mi Fa So La Tiii," holding the last note for a few seconds before ending with a lower "Do".
Her hands match the notes, and the Client sang again in reverse, "Ti La So Fa Mi Re Do", extending and lowering the final note.
The Client struck a single key and said, "See? Nothing to it. Those notes are the basic keys on a piano. They work on a guitar as well. You sing them in order, and match the sound of the keys to the note in your words"
The Client turned slightly, allowing Violet to see her shape, but still not her face, and breathed in and out in a short but constant rhythm, "When you sing, don't make the noise from your mouth, like you do with words. Sing with your lungs, breathe in, and exhale the note. Understand?"
"I think so," Violet said, matching her breathing to the Clients, "I am ready".
The Client turned away and returned her hands to the piano, "Match the note to the key. Here we go." The Client struck the keys, and Violet sang back in perfect Harmony:
Do
Rei
Mi
Fa
So
La
Ti
"Nicely done Violet," The Client said in a compliment, "Now, lets go backwards. Ready?"
She struck the chords again, and Violet sang back once more:
To
La
So
Fa
Mi
Rei
Do
When the client finished playing, she clapped in her hands for Violet, "Amazing! You have such a beautiful voice, Violet. Are you sure you've never done this before?"
"I have not" Violet said as she sat down and typed out her notes, "Sometimes, during the war, some of the other soldiers would sing. Songs of their childhood, folk music, the anthem…But I never joined them"
The Client struck a single key to the sound of So and said, "I've heard soldiers sing before. They're a bit rough for my tastes, but there's a simplicity to their music. It comes from the heart, and you can really feel the emotions in their songs"
As the Client stood up again, she slid another record down the table, "I'm going to go see about our supper. While I'm gone, listen to this. This one has more singing in it, a children's choir. Listen to how they sing, and when I get back, let me know what you think. And then we can start the hardest part of our work…the lyrics and melody".
Violet listened to the Client's footsteps as she left out of the library, trying to match their noise with her time signature:
Tap tap tap-tap
And once she was gone, Violet in turn walked to the record player and placed the new record on the turn. She sat down on chair beside the play, closed her eyes, and simply listened forever.