Chapter Twenty Three – The End of Summer

Shizuku's face in close up, her left profile. Very slowly the camera pulls out and we see she is sitting at her desk in her bedroom. On the desk to her right the Baron and Luisa dolls stand in the corner. Shizuku looks out her window at a damp day, a grey sky. She is thinking and we hear her thoughts aloud. During this train of thought the scene changes and we get images of her memories, of the things she is describing.

(Music: the main theme, melancholy violins. As the monologue starts the theme is sad, a theme that makes you long for better days, happier days. But as the story she tells continues the theme picks up tempo, a piano joins and then a flute. By the end of the monologue the tune is upbeat, happy and bursting with new hope).

Shizuku: "School started. September came and went, the leaves began to fall early. We had such rain. Luisa and Anna-Marie stayed with Seiji's parents. It was funny, Luisa insisted they pay Dr. Amasawa while they were there. Of course Seiji's father was quite put out by this but Luisa got her way. There is amazing strength in the old lady, I don't know where it comes from. With school keeping us busy things almost became normal again. The pain became easier to bear for me but Seiji never did get over the death of his grandpa, something in him changed for good. A light went out. Of course grandpa was such a huge part of his life, the violin making and an escape from the hell of his fathers presence. All that was now lost and Seiji struggles to deal with that. I missed the old man's company, I missed going to his shop at weekends and cooking meals for him. But most of all I missed just sitting by his fire and listening to him talk. He could talk for hours, long into the night of anything and everything. Except for the afternoon of the funeral I never went to Seiji's house – he would meet me in town or he'd come to our apartment. At weekends I would meet Anna-Marie and Luisa at the station. Anna would go shopping and I would show Luisa the town I know, not the shops but the hilly streets up toward the library, the school, the playing fields. I'd push that wheelchair for hours and we'd sit and just look at the view, not talking much. Seiji told me he had a long talk with his father. He never goes into details about such things but I think his father is now making plans to appoint a director of the electronics company. Does Seiji still hate him? He won't talk about it. Luisa did say something strange to me before she left. She mentioned something about Seiji's father in such an odd way, as if she herself had talked with him about Seiji. But what does she know of the situation? Only what we talked about at her brothers house. I don't know what she could have said that might have affected his dad's decision."

(Music: tempo and mood begin to pick up)

"Luisa and Anna-Marie returned to Cremona, we're going to visit them next summer. Something wonderful happened with the Earth Shop though. As his last surviving child the shop became Mrs. Amasawa's property. The antiques were sold off and the place cleared out. But she decided not to sell it. It was cleaned and decorated and now she is renting it out. Seiji told me that she has promised it to him, when he's older, she will transfer it to his name. But will he be here? Will either of us be here?"

(Music: the piano joins)

"Then in October the letter arrived. Seiji cycled round at once and showed it to me. Signore Guarnieri had written. He told him that of all the students on the summer course, Seiji was by far the most outstanding. The signore would accept him as his full time pupil, an apprenticeship that would last ten years. He understood that Seiji needed to complete his high school education, and that he might want to attend university, but when he was ready, the apprenticeship post would be waiting. After the ten years if all goes well, Seiji would be entitled to establish his own workshop in the city and officially state that he is a maker of violins in the most renowned musical city in the world. At the end of the letter there was something odd, the signore mentioned that he had not seen hands working like Seiji's did for many years, not since he had sat as a boy and watched his own father make violins. He said in that last week, the week after we'd been to the Museo di Musica recital, the work Seiji had produced had been outstanding, work of a truely inspired quality. And that settled it, Seiji told his father that once he had finished high school he would emigrate to Italy."

(Music: the flute joins, it becomes a tune to lift up your heart)

"A year ago Seiji asked me to marry him. It was a silly childish thing, and I gave a silly childish answer. Yesterday however he asked me again. This time he wasn't being silly. And when I answered him, neither was I. The Baron and Luisa stand on my desk and even though the love between grandpa and his sweetheart is ended I sometimes sit in my room, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I can feel their love pouring out of those dolls and washing over me. Sometimes its so strong I can't breathe. I've decided that I can never bear being parted from the one I love. I will never leave Seiji, no journey halfway round the world is going to separate us. I've told mom and dad that I'm going to marry him and emigrate with him. And I will take the Baron and Luisa with me. I'm going to go to Germany and find the place they were born. Then the circle will be complete."

The camera pulls out more and we see Seiji standing behind her. He places his hands on her shoulders. He tilts his head forward and places his lips on the top of her head, kissing her hair.

Closing title sequence:

(Music: main theme but now bursting with joy and love). Credits roll. A sequence of still scenes:

It is much later, three years later. The two are adults now. They say goodbye to the four parents at an airport. The four adults stand close together, signifying friendship.

A plane taking off.

The plane getting smaller in the night sky.

A train pulls into a station. We see a sign ARLBERG. And some railway signs in German.

Shizuku and Seiji getting off the train. Shizuku has a box with her. Seiji carries a violin case.

The train departing.

They stand looking at the departing train, they are holding hands.

They walk down the platform as the sun is rising.

The End.

MS-C 4th – 25th October 2006.