• Beautiful Music

    Chapter One

    Twenty-three year-old Abby shut her eyes and sighed in frustration for the second time that night. Her cheap piece of Thank-You-Very-Much Car had broken down. Again. Abby put it in overdrive, and with a great hacking cough, the Cursed Car was able to make it the curb near Tsukimura Park.

    After leaving her tiring, yet wonderful job at the local book shop/café and sweet shop, Sweet Novels; Abby was more than ready to head for home. By the time she got in her car and started down the road the sun was setting.

    Unluckily for her not only did she get stuck in night-time traffic, her car broke down after finally freeing herself from the sea of honking horns and blaring headlights.

    Now, with Beethoven's 5th Symphony in her ears and sitting in her stationary car, watching the blinking “LOW BATTERY” sign on her mobile, Abby deeply regretted not charging her phone before leaving the house this morning. This is all your fault! She mentally reprimanded the car, hitting the steering wheel, also chipping some purple nail polish from her finer nails.

    She shut the car off, yanked the keys from the ignition, and opened the door to the Cursed Car, stepping out onto the damp night’s sidewalk.

    I’ll just walk home and call the Tower’s in the morning and ask them to take that… thing to the auto shop. The raven headed woman thought bitterly. Nakamura Street… that’s about four blocks from home. Abby groaned aloud. Better get walkin’. She thought.

    She began down the street, hugging her arms to herself.

    She didn’t walk very far when a strange melody reached her ears. After a moment she realized the sound was a violin, emanating from the park entrance.

    A violinist street playing this late…? She thought.

    She wandered into the park, following the sweet sound into the Foliage and Garden Section, with high shrubs, trimmed trees, and strategically placed gazebos, all lined with different flowers and crawling with vines. Her heels clicking the brick walkway, she heard the beautiful music grow louder and peeked from behind an eye level shrub.
    Standing under a pearl white gazebo was a tall, tan man with long black hair the nearly touched his shoulders. His easy closed in concentration, and his hands hard at work, playing each not of the red wood violin in his arms perfectly.

    Stepping forward a bit more, Abby’s foot caught on a crack and she fell to the ground. She looked up from where she was lying.

    The nameless man had stopped playing, and looked on her with surprise.

    “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude I just heard your music and thought it was so lovely and I’m really sorry if I interrupted. Of course I interrupted, what am I saying…” While struggling to get up and babbling on end, she tripped again, ending up on the same patch of ground.

    When she looked up again he had disappeared, violin and all.