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A small sliver of light creeped through my bedroom window. Small specks of dust danced around in the beam of light. I was laying down, just staring at the sight. The smell of dinner being prepared wafted through the house.
The sunlight was becoming a soft orange now, throwing the world into darkness. The only thing lighting the way were streetlamps and house lights. That's when I realized I wasn't in my room anymore. I was somewhere outside, a place I was unfamiliar with.
The sun was falling faster now, faster until the entirety of the sky was enveloped in a blinding darkness. Streetlamps went off one by one, only sparing a few as they reached me. I walked towards where the lights started going off and reached out my hand. As soon as my hand left the light, it felt ice cold. I immediately pulled it back on instinct.
Suddenly, the lamps' lights started dancing around my feet. Dancing and dancing, as snow piled up around their circles. Then I heard voices. Voices of so many people, so many I didn't know. Flying around the sky, with inaudible sentences emitting all around. It was getting to my head. So, I ran.
I ran right into the snow. Everything was starting to feel ice cold. As I ran, I stopped myself at the edge of a cliff. Beneath me there was a seemingly endless drop. A drop to my death, for sure. There was no leap of faith to be found here. I looked behind me and saw the voices coming closer. I backed up, and backed up, and backed up, and then...
I was warm again. I felt a pair of arms hugging me close. If this was a person, they didn't have a voice. Or I couldn’t hear their voice.
Then I woke up. It was still dark out, and I looked at my phone. 2:37 AM. This was too early, even for me. I looked out of the window, and the sky was a dark blue. Although no light came from it, there was still color to it. Clouds flew around without a single care. At that moment, I wished I were a cloud.
* * * *
On my walk to school, I kept looking behind me. "Is Isa coming today?" I asked Jack. She had been joining us on our morning walk for weeks, but she wasn't around this time.
Jack shrugged. "Haven't really talked to her since a couple days ago."
"The festival... right," I said. "That's not really a night I'm allowed to forget, huh?"
Then as we turned around a corner, someone had jumped into me with a hug. "Surprise!" The voice had said. Although I knew the voice, the sudden action had caused me to immediately push them off. "Aw, come on."
"Isa, what have I said about scaring me like that?" I said, brushing myself off. "You know I don't like sudden actions like that."
"Yeah, yeah," she said. "It was fun, though!"
"For you, maybe."
Then she gently came in for a hug this time around, in which I returned. "I thought you weren't coming to school today for a second," I said. "All your house lights seemed to be off as we passed your street, too."
"I wanted to surprise you, silly."
Then we broke from our hug. Jack had already walked ahead of us. Well, he's always done that if I stay behind for whatever reason. "We should get to school," I replied.
"Good idea." Then Isa took my hand in hers and walked with me.
When we arrived at school, Faith was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Jack, though he was likely somewhere near the cafeteria. That was his usual hangout spot inside the school, after all.
"I should get to class," Isa said. "I don't wanna be late again."
"Ah," I said. "I should probably go to class too, then."
"See ya!" Isa said, hugging me. She caught me off guard, so it took me a few seconds to hug her back. We waved to each other, then she disappeared around the corner of the hall.
I didn't mind seeing her go, we had already planned something for after school, after all. I wasn't sure of it, but she convinced me to give it a shot.
I was going to learn to play piano.
* * * *
Isa opened the door to the storage room, and I was instantly hit with a blast of dust. I let out a few coughs and a sneeze. You could see the dust particles here, and the only source of light was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. This was most definitely the room in Isa's house that nobody took care of; it didn't even look like it had been touched in years.
Surprisingly though, I didn't see any cobwebs, which was something I was expecting. Maybe spiders didn't come down here? The only kind of web I remember seeing was a fishing net, and that's stretching the definition. It was all tattered and teared, it didn't even look like it could catch a singular big fish anymore.
"It should be down here," Isa said. "I remember mom putting the piano away after my last show."
"Wasn't that back in elementary school?" I asked.
"Hey! For a kid, I was good back then... I think."
Isa told me about how she used to play piano for her school. Apparently, she was playing with the piano in the school auditorium one day, and got in trouble for it. Her parents thought she wanted to become a pianist though, so they got her a piano. She did shows too. But those shows never really went farther than playing for school plays. When she graduated 5th grade, she didn't really play the piano anymore. She didn't tell me why. I just assumed she lost interest.
It wasn't a professional piano by any means, but it wasn't a toy one either. Apparently, Isa's parents found it through someone selling it on some reselling website. They did get it for a good price. At least, they did by piano standards. It was only $78.
"Aha!" Isa said, pulling a cover off and sending dust flying both our ways. She waved her hands in front of her face. "Found it!"
Sure enough, a piano made out of fake mahogany was sitting before us. The lid was down, and the keys seemed aged. The white keys were starting to become yellowish. It almost looked like a rat had taken shelter in it.
"Are we sure this still works?" I asked.
"It should," Isa said. "Though I'll admit, I haven't used it in years."
I looked back at the piano. It felt like if I asked the piano if it was still working, it wouldn't even know itself. "Well," I replied. "Only one way to find out, right?"
"By playing it, right?"
I chuckled a bit. "Yes, Isa."
I brushed off the small wooden bench that was near the piano. It was seemingly missing a cushion on it, but neither me nor Isa really cared enough to look for it. An old cushion probably wouldn't help much anyway.
"Wait," Isa started. "I think we're forgetting something... sheet music! We've got nothing to follow!"
"There aren't any online?" I asked.
"I... forgot about that."
And so, Isa took out her phone and started her search. Her phone case was a pretty simple one—it was a dull blue with a small pattern on the back. She seemed to brush her fingers up and down the pattern on the back while holding her phone. Almost like she didn't even realize she was doing it.
"Found it," she stated. "Are you sure we'll be able to follow it though? It's a bit small."
"We'll figure something out," I said. "Probably."
Isa turned her phone horizontally and placed on the crevice of the piano where a book of sheet music is meant to go. From this view, it was obvious this was a training piano; not meant to go on stage.
"Okay, so..." Isa had moved into her teaching voice, which was very similar to her know-it-all voice. "I haven't taught anyone piano before. So please excuse me if I mess something up."
"We'll be fine!" I assured her.
"Hopefully... So anyway!"
From there on, Isa attempted to teach me where all the keys were. But she herself seemed to be getting confused. She even seemed to be getting a bit frustrated.
"This is so much easier when I'm following a sheet!" Isa exclaimed. "I can never remember where the notes are off the top of my head, even when a piano is right in front of me."
"Let me guess," I said. "You just play, and your body kinda does the rest for you?"
"Yeah," she sighed. "Something like that."
"Jack is like that with some things." I tilted my head back a bit to think. "Then again, I thought he was the only one that did it."
Jack had a habit of knowing how to do something, but not knowing how to teach it. He could open up a computer and get it all set up in no time, it's not a problem for him. But if he were to try and teach someone to do it, he'd have no luck... I think that's a reason he never got into IT support, despite being the only one in our group who knew computers past the basic premise of "power it on, log in, and do whatever."
"Hmm... well here," Isa said, taking my hands and putting them on the piano keys.
"H-Hey! What're you-" I was about to ask her what she was doing, but I was interrupted and amazed by the next action she took.
Isa put her hands over mine, grabbed on lightly, and started playing along with the sheet music that was displayed on her phone. I guess that was her way of teaching.
It felt nice, though. Even if I jumped a bit when she grabbed my hands, I was starting to get used to the feel of them. It almost felt like I was the one playing the piano, too.
"I knew this would be hard to read," Isa suddenly said. "Let me try something." Isa pushed herself closer to me and put her head on my shoulder. "There, that's better."
And so, it was the two of us. We were sitting in a dusty old storage room, with the soft sound of the piano playing. A small buzz emitting from a singular light bulb meant to light what little room was in here. Dust particles were flying past our faces, as they danced around the room to the songbirds of an old medley.
Then at one point, the music stopped. I looked to Isa to see what was wrong, but she just kissed me as soon as I faced her. Her soft lips on mine felt like a bliss I was reliving, yet also a type of bliss I had never seen before. Never felt before. A sort of bliss that was beyond our world; only existing somewhere mystical, somewhere magical.
When the kiss ended, the bliss was still there. And suddenly, Isa and I were the only people left in the world. Everything around us had stood still.
"I love you, Isa."
"I love you too, Josh."