“Happy New
Year!”
Punxsutawney
Phil Sowerby*
I entered the
Writers of the Future contest last year. I've mentioned it in detail
before the on the blog, it's a Sci-fi fantasy competition for new
writers that's international and pretty big with big authors as the
judges for the ultimate winners. I didn't place last year(d'oh!) but
since you can enter again and again until you win I'll keep trying.
Pity I didn't win, if I got first in the quarter I entered in that
year I would have gotten $1000! For being delared the winner among
winners I would have gotten an additional 5000. But eh, that's what
this quarter is for.
Now the reason
I rambled about this subject matter is 1) I am now working on my new
entry for this quarter. And 2) I'm going to show you what I entered
last time.
If you get deja
vu while reading this story it's because its a revamped, super-mega improved
version of a story I've put on this blog before with a great deal of
editing, pumping and upgrading. (And it was a story from quite awhile
ago so I doubt you'll remember it)
Anyway enjoy!
(Copy pasted
from writers of the future submission minus page markings so sorry
for any odd spacing)
Fate's Keys
The
belly of the theater held a thousand seats, and in the balconies
above them a hundred more. Clean, plush, blue felt covered the
cushions of each polished mahogany chair. The lights of the theater
shined in even beams. The massive, red curtains opened to reveal a
stage made of blackened oak with a single pianist on it. Not a single
person sat in the audience.
The
pianist did not need an audience to perform because he was a Fate.
His piano had the ability to weave time and he slowly placed his
fingers on the keys to play the song of a woman named Mary Woodton.
The Fate sat down to play, the slight slump in his posture bending
inward like a folding leaf. His eyes, hair, and suit all blended
together with the same shadowy black trapped by the spotlights of the
stage. The piano did not have one simple color set. It looked like a
slightly blurred painting, the color of the wood and the colors of
the keys shifting a little in tone every second.
The
Fate began the song of Mary Woodton. He hit a single medium-high note
and she was born in a quaint, little town tucked inside a valley. The
Fate started playing a melody with the predictability of a clock's
ticking and the low tones of a lullaby. A few years passed with those
notes weaving time, guiding Mary's mother as she held the little baby
and then Mary's father as he helped her to her feet. The Fate played
high notes to weave birthdays, family trips, Thanksgivings,
Christmases, and when she said her first word, “Home”. When he
played a string of low notes a thick rain went through her town and
he soon pounded the lowest keys on the piano and her parents met
death in a car accident. The news reached her while she played with a
dollhouse given to her for her eighth birthday just two weeks before.
Her
uncle took her in and drove her out of the little town on its only
road out of the valley. When he brought her to the large city he
lived in the Fate's song became faster and faster. The melody sounded
chaotic, and any time it became consistent the Fate pounded on the
keys. Still lost in her depression, all the notes in Mary's song fell
on the lower scale of the piano. She struggled through school and had
difficulty adapting to it all.
But
then in high school in the middle of senior year, just as Mary felt
like dropping out, the Fate played a high note. This note brought a
man named Jason into her life. They met and spoke and they shared the
same story, the same song. Though with Jason it was a different town
and an aunt instead of an uncle that took him to the city when his
parents died. The Fate played high notes, as instead of deciding to
wallow in grief together, they supported each other and they
graduated high school together. The Fate started playing a swift
melody with many hard strokes as they got jobs together, moved in
together and went into college together.
Four
months after they got their degrees Fate played several high notes in
a perfect tune and they wed. For two years after that the Fate danced
two of his fingers on high notes in a steady pattern to match the
happy monotony of their marriage, sometimes taking his other hand to
hit a few low notes for little arguments that no one remembered the
day after. Occasionally he hit even higher notes for holidays and
good fortune.
The
happiest notes started when their twins were born. The exact moment
was two little dings on the highest end of the scale of the piano.
Each twin had a different melody played by the Fate, one on each of
his of hands, one for Chris then one for James. Chris was the Fate's
left hand and James was his right and both were distinctly happy and
cheerful. Mary and her husband were never happier than when the Fate
played those melodies. These melodies were not the melodies of the
twin's own lives but of their times with Mary. The twin's own lives
would be songs played by other Fates.
The
song slowed down once the twins moved out. But then the couple made a
habit of traveling around the world and the song would speed up and
adapt to wherever they traveled to. The Fate made a really high note
whenever they reached one of those perfect spots with one of those
perfect sights and then they immortalized it on camera shortly
afterwards. They kept all the pictures in an album on the bookshelf
right next to the dictionary just because that's where it fit the
best.
But
then the Fate no longer adjusted his melody to new parts of the
world. His notes had dragged Mary to old age and she didn't have the
energy to travel. The notes were high, but not as high as before and
they were always the same rhythm. Life had become boring. And as she
grew older and older still the Fate weaved the notes to become lower
and lower and when she became deathly ill the notes became their
lowest.
Though
she still loved her husband as she always had so when he held her
hand the Fate played the notes higher. And her husband stayed next to
her on the hospital bed keeping the notes high. The Fate began to hit
the notes to the rhythm of a heartbeat lined up with Mary's own. As
her heartbeat slowed down, the song did along with it. And when her
heartbeat stopped he stopped playing and finished the song. The Fate
then stood up faced the empty seats in the theater and took a bow. He
stretched, then sat down to play another song. This next song would
belong to Hiroshi Takahashi of Toyko, Japan.
No comments:
Post a Comment