Enjoy it. ;)
Music in the heart
Operation "Iraqi Freedom"
4th Infantry division headquarter
Tikrit,
Iraq,
2007
"Listen, get along." Thundered Haruka into the satellite phone as she stood up from her desk. "Doctors Without Borders want a hand to transport from Samarra to Baghdad airport, but Unesco does not want military in the city because of the archaeological excavations, so where the fuck should I let my men go?"
"I will try to fix the blockade in Samarra, Major." The military replied to the other end of the cornet, in Baghdad.
"I did not know about the Unesco thing."
"Well, now you know, but I would like a little more organization, I can not change itineraries because the NGOs are annoyed, this is not a trip." Haruka approached the window, glancing outside while her interlocutor tried to give logical explanations to what appeared to be a Major Tenou more choleric than usual. The girl glanced at the rows of tensile structures surrounding the old factory that now served as headquarters, and the loading-unloading in the vehicles in preparation for the following day. Parked between two curtains a CNN van was seen, for the usual reports on the life of soldiers in Iraq. But running her gaze up to the entrance of the headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division, of which she held the command - second only to Colonel Coleman, she noticed the shape near the access point, almost ignored by the two solemn soldiers who they were stationed on guard. Haruka frowned. "... unless they pass by-"
"Now I'll tell you what you have to do." She interrupted the military's chatter.
"Tomorrow the sixty seventy men from my team will leave for Samarra, and it will be better if they do not encounter problems, otherwise I will come in person to Baghdad to strip you in the ass."
"Major, wai-" Haruka closed the communication and threw the phone on the desk.
"'Fuck everyone." She murmured, while she was back to her window with her arms outstretched. The figure was still there, and she watched curiously the coming and going of means. She heard a knock on the door, and soon a soldier entered the office. "What's up?" Churches, still irritated by the telephone conversation. And she also had menstruation, extenuating which she could not use in that context. Nor should it be communicated to third parties.
"Major there is a problem at the entrance." Said him.
"Mm, I see."
"They told her more than once to go away, but I don't think she understands. She even sat down."
Haruka scratched her head, rolling her eyes. She knew she wasn't an enemy, yet she couldn't stay there.
"Ok, I'll take that. You may go." Said then and the soldier went away.
She walked herself toward the exit of the building where her office was located, and once under the Iraqi sun she wore the Ray Ban she kept in her field uniform pocket. With a quick step she reached one of the neighboring tents, greeted by the attention of her men, and entered it: inside there were two rows with twelve beds each, in tubular steel, arranged on the right and on the left. At the back, lying on one of those field beds, a boy was absorbed in reading a book.
"Banks!"
At Haruka's shout, he jumped. "Come on Banks, I need you!"
"God, Major! You made me come an heart attack!" Said her Richard walking towards her.
"Move on Banks, I need a man to speak Arabian, not a careful little woman."
"That was the advanced Grammar, Major."
He replied defensively as they headed toward the entrance to the camp.
"And then, with all due respect, she can not really tell me that woman."Haruka ignored that comment, and passed the two guards. When they turned the corner, they saw the girl sitting on the low wall that surrounded the perimeter of the ex-factory, her hands tied around her knees.
"Samira." Called Haruka and the young woman turned smiling and jerked up, cleaning the long black dress she wore.
"Ehi but this is.."started Banks as Haruka nodded.
"Yeah, tell her she can't stay here."
The boy bowed his head, lowering his eyes, to greet the young Arab; then he translated the request of his superior. Samira replied, and Banks waited for her to finish. It was the first time Haruka had heard the girl speak, and the new image of Samira overlapped with the one she had of her: a frightened wren in the house where the Militias had slaughtered her family.
"She knows it, but she wanted to see you. She wish to thank you."
"She already thanked me. How did she find me?" Banks asked Samira who answered. "The girls of the house of welcome helped her to find the squad who did the blitz." Translated Richard.
Haruka scratched her head, before slipping off the sunglasses and resting them on the blonde mop.
"Tell her she has to go away."
"But Major she traveled a l-"
"She can't stay here, Banks."
The guy sighed, then repeated what the Major said. Samira lowered her gaze, evidently sad. Then murmured something.
"She said it was enough to see you."Richard communicated, but as he spoke he saw the young woman fall on her knees, and after grabbing Haruka's hands, start kissing them.
"Oh no. No." Said Haruka trying to get away from her. "Leave me! What are you doing?"
Richard was surprised. "Major, uhm, with all due respect... does Samira know that-"
"Of course she knows, you idiot! How do you think I could reassure her and take her out of that house, if not with the absolute certainty that I could not rape her?"
Haruka catched Samira from her shoulders.
"Stop that. It's not necessary, really." She said shaking her a bit. Samira looked at her smiling. "It just was a bit too much."
"Really." Said Banks "Well, Major you saved her life."
"She will do little to do with life if she keeps coming here, a lonely girl who is more of a Shiite, and will get herself into trouble."
Richard nodded looking at the young Arabian. "So what shall we do?"
Haruka stayed quiet for a moment. "You'll take her back from where she comes."
"Good id- hey! Wait!"
Banks did not seem quite agree, but Haruka had already reached one of the guards and was instructing him to go get a jeep. The boy ordered Samira not to move, and followed Tenou to the entrance gate.
"Major, wait! Why should I bring her there?"
"Because I have to prepare a blitz for tomorrow morning."
Then Haruka brought her hands to her hips, fulminating Banks with her gaze.
"And since when do you dare disobeying my orders?"
"Since I have to do the driver through Tikrit."
"Listen, do you really want to go to search for you beloved Advanced Grammar in the river Tigri,maybe after a good dive from a trampoline in the ass?"
Richard looked at her. "Major, when you do that you are really a bitch."
Haruka smiled. "Don't tell me too many compliments. I could get used to it."
Banks shook his head, silently cursing, and Haruka watched him retrace his steps toward Samira. The girl had followed the exchange between the two soldiers, and had returned to look at her. Then she lifted a hand in greeting, and the smile immediately returned to the face of the young woman, who bent to greet her and then raised her hand in turn.
Haruka set off for the camp entrance, and reflected on the fact that Samira seemed extremely happy. She had left her wounded and traumatized in a Red Cross hospital, and now it seemed that those few moments when she had the chance to be with her had solved her day. The fact that she had asked where to find the soldiers who had saved her was not entirely a good sign. Haruka put the Ray Ban back on, and hoped that Samira's interest in her would subside with time. Or that, at least, do not take an unwanted turn.
xdxdxdxdx
Medical Hospital "Edward Dewenish VA Medical Centre"
Portsmouth, Virginia
7 May 2008
Day 18
When Michiru entered in the room 4, Haruka was sitting on her usual chair; she had her eyes closed, her chin laid on her hand. She seemed to have drowsed, but the rhythm of her breathing did not support the thesis of sleep. She placed the folder on the armchair and looked at it for a long moment, realizing then that Haruka was no longer there.
Her mind had ended in a faraway place, sheltered from her indiscreet questions. Michiru knew that Tenou had to speak to treat herself, and she had learned that the other was hiding herself to protect herself. Whom or from what, first or later she would have find out, and not only for a professional duty, or a personal interest. Michiru started to desire to know how to accede to that deep woman's soul, who pretended to be like a man to live the life she didn't want to. A life that her father decided for herself.
She kneeled in front of the chair, keeping looking at her. She needed to touch her, as if to be sure if Tenou really was in the room - physically at least, while her thoughts weren't at all; so in a gesture which surprised before herself, laying a hand gently caressing her check. She felt her becoming tensed below her touch and opening suddenly her eyes. The emerald gaze overwhelmed her for a second, then she came back.
"Where were you, eh?" Asked Michiru without taking her hand off of her check. "You went away, leaving me here."
Haruka didn't know what to say, surprised from that sudden touch.
"Where you in the same place where you harassed me?" Haruka shook her head.
"No, that was a good remember."
Michiru smiled. Then stand up and she took a sit on a chair. " would you like to tell me?"
The other sighed. She remained silent for a moment, pondering the request as usual: now Haruka was slightly more yielding, but with each question she always waited a few moments before answering, as if she was to carefully evaluating the words.
"What if I told you I don't want to?"
Michiru struggled. "Guess I'd find something else to ask you, until you won't answer me."
Tenou leaned forward the Doctor. "You're pedant, and annoying." But she put a hand to her chest, and exasperated a dreamy sigh.
"It's neither 10 am and you tell me all those compliments. I could get used to it, Major."
Haruka tried to stiffen a laugh, but it didn't work. And Michiru thought the other one should laugh more because her laugh sound had something very charming. Almost musical.
"It usually is my joke, doc." Said before stretching her arms and legs before looking at the ceiling.
"I was thinking about one of my men, while I was stationed in Tikrit." Michiru looked on the sheets.
"Stationed in the 4th Fantery command?"
"Yes. Steadfast and Loyal." Said the other one in a solemn voice.
"What was his name?"
"Banks." Answered after a while.
"Was he a soldier of yours?"
Haruka nodded. "Simple Soldier Richard Banks class 1987. He was from New York, he studied oriental languages in Yale." She smiled, before keep going.
"He was my right arm, I trusted him as a brother."
"He was very young but he was not a foolhardy exalted. He was a thoughtful, extremely intelligent. And I called him a little woman."
Michiru arched an eyebrow "ironic."
"It's even more if you think that he knew."
The doctor was very surprised. "You trusted him so much that.."
"It was an accident." The other interrupted her. "We were supporting the blasters who had to defuse a couple of bombs in a town of Tikrit, with one spinning everything smooth, but the other, well, it was faulty, so while trying to neutralize the trigger, a part of the explosive jump."
Haruka leaned over to the doctor, took a white sheet from her folder and stole her pen.
"I do not know if you know," She began, making sketches on the paper.
"But they are often rude, rudimentary, assembled devices to create the greatest damage possible, not only to things but also to people." She lifted the paper, so that Michiru could see it: above it there were schematic signs to form square and rectangular shapes, with arrows pointing out the various parts.
"Often the explosive is blown up with blocks containing everything from glass to nails." The girl understood where Haruka wanted to go, and she felt a sick feeling at the thought.
"I said, the device shone, although not in all its potential, but we were hit by a rain of objects. Forale of the story: I found myself with two nails planted in the side .. It took a while 'before the rescue arrived, but I I had already taken them off and was biting the wound, I certainly would not have bled to death, but Banks was on the verge of a hysterical crisis. " Also Michiru smiled, like Haruka, at that image. "Richard was with me recently, and perhaps he was afraid of losing a point of reference, or perhaps I allowed him to get too attached to it, an error in which I have always, diabolically persevered." Haruka frowned for a moment, and the other noticed.
"Then?" Michiru said, "what happened?"
"He wanted to check the wound, to help me in healing that. He practically undressed me, and I was forced to tell him."
"How did he take it?" Michiru asked, thinking about his reaction.
"He said I had more balls than so many men he had known, that I was a badass." The doctor laughed. "Well, this Richard was right."
"I had almost a thousand men under me in Tikrit." Haruka told her.
"Twentieth century in Mosul, when I commanded the 100th Battalion, 442th infantry, I had to be a bit of a wrist." Haruka rolled up the paper, and tossed it to the trashcan with a worn-out basketball player's move. Silence returned to the hall again.
"Do you know where he is now?" Michiru then asked, even if he sensed the answer. The other just moved his head.
"At the Long Island National Cemetery in the state of New York, close to his family." She told her in a flat, monotonous tone, and Michiru clearly saw the armor in which Haruka Tenou had shut up. The armor with which it detached itself from the external world and from the people that had known, in order not to suffer when these would not be there anymore. A mechanism, she thought, that had to be well established: Haruka had probably learned so well to leave a safe distance between herself and the world, and to relinquish her suffering under a flat, empty façade, which she was no longer capable of externalizing. She watched the other take a deep breath, passing a hand through her hair.
"Richard enlisted as a volunteer because he believed he could do good, he believed in what he was doing, we all believed it." A bitter smile curled Tenou's lips.
"And he was one of those people who immediately attracted sympathy, which is really hard not to love." She tilted her head before continuing.
"A little like you, doc." Michiru was surprised. Then she smiled.
"This is a true compliment, though." The other shrugged, then stood up.
"Call that what you like, I'll go to the bathroom."
"Do not step out of the window with a sheet, I recommend." She joked the doctor, and the other smiled at the door.
"As if it were easy to get away from you, you'd probably look for me all over Virginia if you ran away." When she closed the door, Michiru returned to look at her notes.
"Yes, I would probably do it." Finally she muttered to herself.
xdxdxdxdx
"Sugar!"
"Uar!" Repeated Hotaru bringing the sugar to Michiru.
If there had been a Kingdom of Chaos, probably at that moment the kitchen of the Kaioh house would have been a detached place: the table was covered with ingredients, stained here and there with flour; the sink full of crockery; the nearby shelf occupied by two bowls over which Michiru was busy working, with Hotaru beside her. From the corner of her eye the girl noticed an egg smashed on the ground, and sighing tried not to think about what time it would have finished rearranging that disaster, the result of full autonomy left to a little girl of just over three years in the preparation of ingredients for that day's cake. But it was The Day of the Sweet, set up by herself, and therefore she could not stand to disagree too much on the conditions of the kitchen. Michiru threw two tablespoons of sugar into the mixture, continuing to mix. Then she turned to Hotaru, whose face was stained with flour. She imagined that she herself should not have been so different, and she laughed.
"Hotaru who should end up in the oven? You or the cake?" She asked kissing her little nose "you are all covered of flour!"
"You also are ditty!" Said the child jumping on the chair so that she was as tall as her mother.
"Be quiet, Hotaru, or you'll fall!" She scolded her good-naturedly, and the baby stopped.
The day of the cake was a pretext to recover a bit 'of time that Michiru could no longer pass with Hotaru. The job kept her busy until late afternoon, and the girl, once out of kindergarten - around four o'clock, waited for her to return with Jenny, the student who was babysitting her. Sometimes Michiru could not spend a lot of time with her once at home, between the things to be done and the reports to be drawn up. That's why she decided that once a week it would be Sweet Day, and that day it would be all about Hotaru, playing, cooking and doing things like girls.
"Mommaaaa! When do we finish?" The girl burst out, and Michiru switched off the electric whisk. "Now we have to add only the chocolate, and then put it in the oven." Michiru lifted Hotaru and placed her on the ground, filling her with kisses and raising her daughter's hilarity. "Go get it, come on!" It was while the little girl ran to another kitchen counter, which Michiru heard the phone ringing. She wiped her hands cleanly, and with a towel she also removed the flour from her face. When she grabbed the phone, he saw that the caller ID was unknown.
'May speak to Kaioh Michiru?' Said a female voice
"Yes, it's me."
'I'm Clara Tyron, of the Organizing Committee of the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk. Do you have a minute? " Michiru's heart skipped a beat. The Harrison Opera House calling me? I think. Their summer season was something astounding, with performances by exponents of classical music of the highest order. "Moooommm!" She called Hotaru, holding the tin of chocolate in both hands. Michiru covered the phone's microphone.
"Shut up a second treasure, it's important." Then she turned she attention back to the interlocutor. "Excuse me, would you say?"
'We were given your number by the Conservatory of Portsmouth, and we had excellent references from the Richmond Philharmonic. Lately she has performed with them, is not it? " Michiru did not know what to think.
"Yes, it is."
'Very well.' The other agreed. 'I wanted to propose that you perform here at Harrison, in a choral concert scheduled for the next twenty-eight May.' "Mommmmmmaaaaaaa !!" shouted Hotaru, her hands all completely inside the tin of chocolate. Michiru felt her head turn.
"A concert for Memorial Day? For the Day of the Fallen?"
'Exactly.' The first answer that emerged in Michiru's mind was No. She could not play that day. Just that day. But it was also the Opera House of Norfolk, that is an opportunity too important to pass up; she wondered if she would be able to hold it. Interpreting that silence as indecision, Clara was quick to add: 'You may not answer me right away. I can call you back tomorrow to tell me what she decided, Miss Kaioh. But realize that the concert is in three weeks and we'll need to have it here for the tests and- '
"Wait," she interrupted her. "I have a job, a little girl, I can not guarantee I can come to rehearsal, at least not always." Clara remained silent, then explained the details of the exhibition. Together they agreed that if she decided to perform, a solution would be found. By now Hotaru was dirty with chocolate to her hair, and she never stopped calling Michiru at regular intervals, whose time was beaten by a wooden spoon held in her right hand. The girl from the Opera House laughed.
'I think someone is trying to get your attention, Miss Kaioh.' She told her, and Michiru looked at the child, disconsolate. 'Then think about it, I recommend. It would be a shame if it was not for us as much as for your. " They said goodbye and Michiru closed the communication. The Harrison Opera House, he thought dreamily.
"Mom!" The girl went back to the kitchen, and Hotaru's white teeth rose from the brown of her face; Michiru smiled and held her up.
"Let's put this cake in the oven, but you'll end up straight in the shower." But then, looking at the little girl at three hundred and sixty degrees, including clothes, she thought better of it. "Or maybe directly in the washing machine ..."
xdxdxdxdx
Medical Hospital "Edward Dewenish VA Medical Centre"
Portsmouth, Virginia
8 May 2008
Day 19
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Michiru lifted up her head from the documents, running her gaze at Haruka, who from her chair didn't stop throwing her anti stress ball towards the wall, making it land on the floor before catching it.
"You're sorry?" Asked ironic the doctor, the other one neither looked at her.
"Absolutely not, go on."
Thud.
The girl shook her head, giving some documents to Haruka. "Here we are, mark below here. Next to the date."
Haruka blocked the ball and took the documents for give them a look. "I'm not used to mark anything unless I give a look at it."
"Then read them, but they're just hospital-internal protocols. I began admission, insurance data, things that you could not get signed at the beginning of your stay here at the Dewenish Inn. " The girl peered at the doctor from behind the paper, then went back to reading it. Michiru stood up and headed for the window of her office, sliding it downward to open it.
"Take my curiosity," she told her, leaning on the glass with her back. "How could you never find out in West Point?" Haruka had her face on her hands, elbows on the table, and was intent on reading.
"I did not sleep in the dorms with the others, I had my room."
"And with the other boys?"
"I isolated myself from them," continued the other. "They thought I was a dick snob just because I was the daughter - or rather, the son - of Tenou, but I could not have made friends even if I wanted to - in any case I've never been Miss Company, so ... " Michiru returned to the desk, sitting down.
"And on a physical level?" Haruka scribbled the signatures, then tilted her head.
"Well, that was the minor problem, I'm not exactly Marylin Monroe, doc, I do not know if you've noticed." The doctor smiled.
"I would say more Annie Lennox."
"I would say, yes, having an androgynous body helped me a lot, in the end it was enough to cut my hair." She remained thoughtful for a moment. "Damn, I could have given me a career in rock, I never thought about it." She concluded with a smile, then started humming Sweet Dreams. Michiru laughed, and that laugh greeted Mamoru's entry into the office, after a quick knock.
"Dr. Chiba," She greeted him at attention, Haruka, then holding out her hand to tighten it. Mamoru offered his own.
"Major Tenou, I think Dr. Kaioh is doing a great job." He began that once the grip was broken. "I find it well, certainly better than the last time." The man thought of the girl lying on the ground under the weight of the nurses, the pale face and the eyes filled with adrenaline, shortly after trying to strangle Michiru.
"Have you seen, I'm training her properly." Joked Michiru, approaching Haruka.
"In a little while she will also give her paw and sit on command." In response, Tenou cocked her head to the side and made 'Wouf'.
"How did you come in?"she asked then.
"I locked the door."
"The locker is broken." Quickly said Mamoru, then a doubt came into his mind. "You use to lock yourselves in?"
"Well of course." Haruka quickly said, receiving the curious gazes of Mamoru and Michiru. "Doc is insatiable, she never gives me time to breath."
"Yeah, you'd like that." Said Michiru while walking towards the library.
"I lock up because someone's sex is almost a state secret, and I would like to prevent the news from reaching indiscreet ears."Haruka repeated what her doctor had just said, making her the verse. Mamoru nodded, then put his hands in the pockets of the gown. "About that, Michiru..."
"Yes I have to pay attention about styled relationships,"
He smiled "thank you."
"You don't have to thank me." Said her "I still haven't forgave you for hiding me something like that..."
Mamoru tolled his eyes and Michiru turned to Haruka "Could you please wait me in room 4? I'll be there in a second."
Haruka didn't answer yet she stands up. She said goodbye to Chiba then took the anti stress ball.
"The ball stays here. Or I should start thinking you are to report?"
"You are sour." Said Haruka but the doctor didn't mind that. "Like someone I know." Michiru said smiling.
Haruka disappeared behind the door, and Mamoru -who observed the scene with curious eyes- and then took a sit.
"Wow. You get on very well." The man didn't know how else to describe what he just saw.
"It's enough for me." Said Michiru. "Haruka is slowly getting better. Maybe she just understood she can trust us... that she can trust me. I think that the accident helped us."
Mamoru nodded. "How are you instead?" Asked her then.
The girl nodded. "I was called by the Harrison Opera House. I was asked to come to a meeting for the Memorial Day."
"Oh." Was the only thing Mamoru could think.
"Are you going to accept?"
"I don't know. I honestly don't know if I can do it. You know too well what means for me every year, facing that day."
"You always told you couldn't make it with Tenou, and here you are. You are doing great."
Michiru leaned on the desk, her hands on her face. "I do know it. But I'm afraid to exaggerate, Mamoru. Haruka, the concert, I'm afraid to exaggerate, that I can't stand at it."
"I think you should accept instead. It's a unique happening."
"I should go three afternoons a week in Norfolk for rehearsals, how can I do it with Hotaru and with the job?"
"With Hotaru it's not a problem," Mamoru reassured her. "We and Usako can help you, as far as work is concerned, you can use the hours of leave."Michiru sighed, then got up from the desk.
"I do not know, really, they call me back tonight, and they want an answer."
"Accept." The man was peremptory, approaching her. "I believe Mitsuo wanted this, Michiru."The girl did not answer, and grabbed the clipboard. "I really have to go," She murmured, heading for the door and exiting. She reached Room 4, and found it open. But above all empty.
Where the hell is her? She thought.
She walked along the corridor, peering into the rooms she met. Nothing in the other meeting rooms, nothing in the dining room. She went to the hospital ward, but she was not even in her room.
"Any problem?" A male voice asked Michiru. "No problem, Samuel."
Foster approached to the girl and looked sceptically her, "you seem worried."
"I lost Haruka."
"Haruka... you mean Major Tenou?"
"Do you know any other?" Asked sarcastic Michiru "I told him to wait for me in room 4, but he's not there."
"Well, isn't he a bit too much grown up to worry about?"
Michiru ignored his being ironic. Then a thought flashed her mind. "And if he has had another crisis?"
The girl's mind began to think of scenarios that might have triggered the violent nature of Haruka, but Foster put a hand on her shoulder, looking for her.
"If it happened, we would have already known, do not you think?"The other thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
"I'll help you find him," Samuel told her. "Let's try and see if they saw him on the first floor. Maybe he just went for a walk in the park."They walked back into the corridor, and Foster could not help himself. "Michiru since when Major Tenou become Haruka?"
The girl rolled her eyes. "Samuel, would you like to help me or not?"
"Ok, never mind."
A reddish-haired boy crossed the elevators, scratching his head with the same hand he was holding his baseball cap. He held a piece of paper in his hand and the logo of a musical instrument store stood out on the faded sweatshirt. He seemed confused.
"Excuse me, where do I find Dr. Chiba's office?" He asked the two doctors, calling their attention. Dr. Foster was quicker to answer, and pointed to the way to go. That was about to leave, when Michiru thought it best to ask him if he had even just crossed a tall blond boy.
"Uh, the stub, like not." The young man said, and Michiru's heart began to circulate the blood in her body. "He came with me downstairs, in the room where I unloaded the cello, where did you say Dr. Chiba? He must sign the delivery note."
"Samuel bring him there, please."
It was Michiru peremptory, slipping into the elevator and pushing the button on the first floor, thus freeing herself from Foster. She walked briskly through the wide space that opened in front of her, and while she saw the indications of the Music Therapy room, she heard her. A slow, extremely sweet melody, muffled by the walls between her and the room where the sound came from. She slowed her pace, letting herself be guided by the so reassuring sound that entered her soul, reassuring her. She leaned into the room, leaning against the white door where the Music Therapy plaque stood out, and what she saw made her hold her breath. Haruka was sitting at the grand piano, intent on playing. The face was concentrated in the memory of the right keys to press, yet it seemed that the music easily came from the hands, without particular effort. Around her several other musical instruments, and leaning against the wall, still covered by plastic packaging, the cello that the company had unloaded earlier. Michiru felt enveloped by the melody: she analyzed times, pauses, scales and chords. It was not a complex execution, not even a Sunday pianist song. She was amazed at the intense sweetness of that sound, which almost screeched with the Haruka she was used to knowing. Yet she never doubted for a moment that the feeling that Tenou was putting into music was not more than authentic. A discordant note broke the magic of the moment, and the melody broke off.
"Shit," Haruka murmured, closing her eyes and trying to get back to her.
"It does not matter, go on" The girl turned to the door, to see Michiru enter the room and approach the piano, the cobalt-colored look of emotion. "Please, Haruka, go on." But that shook her head, closing the keyboard.
"I do not remember her any better, it would be painful, doc." "What I have heard so far was anything but painful." Michiru tried to hide the disappointment as she detached herself from the instrument and sat in the narrow stool, next to the other. She felt Haruka stiffen, and had further confirmation of how much Tenou did not like the invasion of her personal space.
"Why you didn't tell me you played? You are very good."
"I did." Said Haruka struggling.
"No, you told me your mother played. And right now I even know what."
Haruka smiled and reopening the white keyboard, she caressed the white keys.
"She sat me downstairs for the first time I was maybe four years old, and she let me strum them between rehearsals, and she loved the torments I produced."Michiru smiled, and thought about how Haruka should be as a child. She could not find another adjective than adorable.
"Your mother had to be a wonderful woman, what was her name?"
"Emily, Emily Woodsbridge." Tenou stayed quiet for a while. "Her biggest disgrace was to have married my father." Said then, anger in her voice.
Michiru shook her head. "Don't say like that. She wouldn't have had you if she hadn't met him."
A bitter smile appeared on Haruka's features.
"Great lucky, ne?"
"How did they get to know?" Said trying to reach her gaze.
"A classic concert. In Washington. It was an event organized for the commemoration of Vietnam's veterans, and at the end of the exhibition my father asked to be introduced. It must be a family thing. "
The girl did not grasp. "What?"
"Finding the fascinating musicians." Tenou smiled, looking at her as she blushed.
"Ah, I got you again."Michiru hit her arm, rising from the stool.
"I will ask Mamoru for the keys to this hall." She then communicated her, diverting the speech.
"I would like to hear you play again, I will put it in your therapy program."Haruka crossed one leg, leaning on the end of the piano.
"I would like to hear you, doc."They looked at each other in silence for a long moment.
"As soon as there will be an opportunity." Michiru told her in a smile. "I promise you."
xdxdxdxdx
Michiru lifted up Hotaru from the sofa where she fall asleep, and brought her to her bedroom. She put her under sheets, and after kissing her, closed the door, coming back to the kitchen table. Some strands weren't at their place in the ponytail she just did. And she put them behind her ears.
She gathered some sheets, switched off the laptop, switched on the recorder thinking about her progress. "Michiru Kaioh, continuing of before. Like I was telling, hearing Haruka play had been a great surprise, through music she expressed a self that otherwise - I'm sure - she would never ever let it leak out. "She heard a thunder in the distance, and peered into the darkness beyond the window." Haruka is a concentrate of compressed emotions. , of feelings that she is unable to express and that hides under her cynical and detached behavior, even if - another surprise - today she said she wanted me to play. "She could not help but smile." I decided to accept the offer of 'Norfolk Opera House, and to hold the Memorial Day concert. I'll make sure she can come with us. "She pressed the recorder's stop button, pulled out the tape and put it back in the case, where she had written with a marker Tenou- day 19.
She went to the toilet and then, finally she fell into the bed. In the silence she heard the rain hit the glass, and her last thought before falling asleep, was for Haruka. By that weather, the pain of her shoulder was surely back.
Author's notes: yes! I did it! I'm sorry I couldn't update yesterday, I had some things to do for school :-/. Anyway here is the new, chapter! Something more about Haruka's past and a little about Michiru's.
I know what you are asking for: who's Mitsuo? Read to find out. Ahaha. Until next time this is Milla23!