Chapter 5. The beginning of it all

 

“It was back in December 1995, when I would leave home for the first time. I was offered a scholarship to continue my studies in another high school. My mother thought that I needed a change of environment… a new school, new friends. Of course my then headmaster wasn’t too happy about it… he was far from happy. After all, he was losing one of his good students to another school. And he knew the reason why I wanted to leave. I was angry with the system, unsatisfied, etc. I wanted to leave.

 

It was with that frame of mind that I packed my bags, said goodbye to my family, my piano and everything else. Left on a jetplane with hopes, aspirations and dreams.

 

The school was absolutely beautiful. Lush greenery, quaint old style British buildings, students dressed in white uniforms… I was absolutely thrilled to be part of this new big family. I was excited, thrilled… I wanted to explore.

 

It was in this beautiful school, that I would meet him for the first time.”

 

“Who?” Lynnette asked eagerly.

 

“Jason. The smartest, cutest guy in the school. I never met anyone quite like him. He totally blew me away. I met him for the first time in the school music room. He was playing William Sinding’s “Rustle of Spring.”

 

“Do you play the piano?”

 

“Yes I do actually. But since I got engaged to Toby I haven’t played much. Even the Wagner sitting out there didn’t seem to relive my interest in the piano. Perhaps because music used to be such an integral part of my life, when I lost my one true love, that part of me vanished as well. Toby never is much of  a music fan anyway. It’s a pity though.. perhaps he would have been a much happier person had he actually slowed down to listen to real music… and not all that crappy heavy metal stuff..”

 

“Forget about him. Lets continue with Jason. So what did you do to him?”

 

Freda looked gobsmacked. “I never did anything to him, honestly.” (with an evil glint in her eyes)

“Yeah right. I don’t freaking believe you.”

 

“Anyway, here’s what happened.” And she took a sip of her coffee. “I had to find out when he would be at the practice room. So I observed him for a week.”

“Stalker!” chuckled Lynette.

“I managed to observe that he usually practices piano every Wednesday. So after “stalking” him for three weeks I decided to make a move.”

 

“Man Fred you sure have some guts in you. Quick, out with the juicy bits. What did you do?”

 

“I played William Sinding’s Rustle of Spring. Hehe… I managed to beat him to it. He usually starts practicing at 2.30pm, so I was sitting in the room like nobody’s business at 2pm. Needless to say, he was pretty confused when he came to the music room and there I was, playing the song that he always played. I bet he felt as if he had been dethroned.”

 

“So what happened next?”

 

“He came to me and said: ‘ Lady, I think you’re in the wrong place here’. So I stopped playing and looked at him. Man was he cute. He looked annoyed, but he was cute. And I could not resist looking at him. I think he was a bit taken aback by me staring at him, he got a bit panicky.”

 

“Bullshit. I don’t believe you actually looked at him that way. I mean, if you were a guy and she was the annoyed gal,  that probably might have been the case. It doesn’t sound right at all.”

 

“You can choose to believe it if you want to. Do you want me to continue or not?”

 

“Yeah sure.”

 

“I apologized to him and took the opportunity to introduce myself. Of course he took it rather coldly.. I would probably have done the same if my hot seat was taken over by some freaky stranger. I tried to strike up a conversation with him. But it didn’t work until a few weeks later.”

 

“Boy did he give you the cold shoulder.”

 

Freda smiled. Clicking on the laptop, a picture of a young handsome man appeared.

 

“Oh my God. Is that him?” asked Lynette, clearly smitten by the picture.

 

“Yeah. That’s him. He’s really good looking isn’t he?”

 

“Drop dead gorgeous man! Wow! Ok ok.. continue your story. So what happened? For goodness sake I wish you’d go faster with your story you know. No offence Fred but at this speed we’re moving, I’d be making a date with Dreamland very soon.”

 

“Right. So it happened on a rainy night…”

“Ah. That’s better.”

 

“I was supposed to go out with a few friends that night. You have absolutely no idea how its like to stay in the school hostel girl. It is literally a prison in there. Forms have to be filled a week in advance before you can get it approved for you to leave the school compound. So yeah, it was my night out in weeks.”

 

“So, did you go out with him?”

 

“Nope. Let me finish my story first yeah?”

 

“So I went out with a few friends for some food and we were having a good time.. when I saw him. He was with a group of friends as well. At this stage of our friendship, it was considered pretty civil… nothing happening yet, but at least he was not as hostile in comparison to the first time we met.”

 

“Well I was with my group of friends and so was he. So the most we did was to exchange a few glances. I was having my favourite duck noodles but honestly, I wasn’t really paying attention to my food. Guess my friends kinda knew how I felt then. They were elbowing each other like mad and suddenly decided to leave me one by one.”

 

“Hahahahahahahha. So they left you in the lurch now did they?”

 

“Well that was not the worst part. It was as if Jason’s friends could read my mind as well. They attacked their food as if there was no tomorrow and quickly left the table. Then it was just him on one table and me on the other. How strange.”

 

“Oh cut the crap Fred. What did he do?”

 

“Coming to it already. Will you be patient?” Freda smiled. “So he came over to my table with his half eaten noodles and sat next to me. I didn’t think much about it, guess he just wasn’t the type who liked eating alone.”

 

“My arse. I bet he was already smitten with you. I mean, surely all guys do things for a purpose?”

 

“Perhaps.”

 

“We started chatting. Evidently, the noodles wasn’t the main thing that was on my mind… I was more interested in what he was going to talk to me about.”

 

I can still remember that conversation.

“You know, I am still a bit surprised at how well you played William Sinding’s Rustle of Spring. I have been practising for ages and I can’t seem to grasp the song right. It is really frustrating at times. Maybe that’s why I was a bit hostile to you when I saw you in that music room. I mean, you were a new kid on the block and there you are, playing my favourite song. I know I shouldn’t have snapped at you, but that song really means a lot to me.

 

So I kept quiet, nodding my head and nibbling at my noodles. Clearly, he really had something to say. And it wasn’t just a few grunts of displeasure.

 

He sighed.

“My mom taught me how to play this song. It was kind of like a family thing.. her mother taught her to play the song, and because I was an only child and I was a boy, she didn’t have a choice but to teach me how to play it. I still remembered her words… play this song, boy, and master it. In time, when you find your one true love and have children of your own, teach them again this beautiful song. It brings us hope, it teaches us how wonderful life is. With the first signs of spring, comes eternal hope. Every new bud that comes to life… is a miracle.”

 

“Wow… you must be really close to her Jason.”

 

Then as if he had a lump in his throat, his voice started to change.

 

“She’s been gone for almost 6 months now. I miss her so much.”

 

I felt a bit taken aback. No wonder he was so upset and cold when I first played that song. It was his mother’s song and probably.. that song kept him going.

 

“How… how did she…”

 

“Die, you mean? She was killed in a freak accident.”

 

“I’m so sorry Jason. I never knew.”

 

“Well, nobody knows except a few guys in class. I just couldn’t repeat the same story over and over and over again. Its absolutely crazy. I well, I really can’t take it.

 

For some weird reason, I actually gave him a pat on his back, telling him that it was ok and I understood how it was like to lost someone close.

 

“I remembered when she was lying on the bed, barely surviving, with tubes and all… I played Rustle of Spring and recorded it down. Then I went to the hospital and played it on a walkman for her to listen.”

 

Freda paused for a moment..

 

“And I whispered softly into her ear: “Mommy, can you hear this song? Its our song. You must be strong.. you must try to overcome the pain and suffering. I need you. Daddy needs you. We all need you. I know I can’t play this song as well as you do, mommy… please give me a chance to practice and play it better for you.”

 

“But she could not pull through.”

 

‘And then the sky started to drizzle. It was as if the heavens above were mourning for him, albeit a few months later. So we both took cover inside the interior of a shop. What started off as a drizzle turned out to be a torrential downpour.. and there we were standing in front of the shop, at a lost as to what to do. We both had curfews and it was exactly half an hour before our time was up. The moment time’s up, school gates would close. The hostel warden, Mrs. “Adam’s family” as we call her (she had an uncanny resemblance with Angelica Houston), would be standing out there in her black and white spotted shower cap, thick glasses and hideous pyjamas.’

 

At this point Lynette burst into peals of laughter.

 

Freda laughed and continued.

 

‘Anyway, the shopowner was kind enough to borrow us an umbrella. Guess he must have read my mind as well! Getting an earful from Mrs “Adam’s family” is really bad on a clear day, let alone when its raining cats and dogs.’

 

‘So we shared the umbrella and walked home. Honestly, it was one of the best walks I ever had in my life. There he was, next to me, holding the umbrella as we walked back slowly to the school. I did not know what to say at that moment in time, as I did not want to agitate him further on the recent demise of his mother. Hundreds of thoughts raced in my mind as we walked back. It made sense at that point, why he was so sensitive and hostile when I played his song. This was the one and only way he could be constantly reminded of his mother. And I had taken it away from him that day.’

 

‘So I apologized.’

 

“I am sorry that I played your song. I really did not know how much this song means to you.

“No… please don’t apologize. The only reason I felt so strongly about it, was because, well…”

“Yeah?”

“You played it just like my mother did. And I was shocked when I first heard it. Perhaps you were not aware… I was standing at the door while you were playing.. and I had mixed emotions at that point. You don’t know how long it has been since I heard my mom playing the piano… and I suddenly thought it was her sitting there, playing our family song. The song which is so familiar to me.., at the same time, I was jealous… jealous that someone could play so well, someone who could play better than I did.

 

I saw another side of Jason which I never knew I would that night. As much as his good looks intrigued me, this was one side of him which I never knew existed. The sadness in his eyes was indeed, heartbreaking so to say the least. Evidently he was still very much in grief over the passing of his mother and he could only seek solace in the song which she always played to him.

 

Before we knew it we had reached the entrance to the girl’s hostel.

 

“Oooh… this is the juicy part!” screamed Lynette.

 

So I thanked him for sending me back and reminded him to return the umbrella to the kind shopkeeper.

I was about to turn away and walk into the hostel when I felt a grip on my arm. So I turned back to look at him and he gave me a quick peck on my cheek.

That really took me off guard because never would I have ever expected that he would do something as drastic as that.

 

“So, so..what happened after that then?”

 

“I dashed back into the hostel, dropped my keys in the process, picked them up again and rushed back into the hostel before I could do or say anything stupid. Man. What a night.”

 

“My goodness. You are telling me that the guy of your dreams pecked you on the cheek and all you could do was to run back into the hostel like a headless chicken? What’s wrong with you Fred?”

 

“Nah… I guess at that age, no matter how calm and cool you usually are, you would still be at a lost for words when something like that happens to you. Seriously.

 

“Oh well. So much for a rainy night experience man. You must have freaked the poor boy out. I bet he never talked to you again.”

 

“Well, we did not talk a lot after that. Maybe it was because both of us were confused as to what actually happened that night. I didn’t want to bring the topic up lest he thought I was interested in him (which I was) and he didn’t want to bring up the topic either for fear of causing even more embarrassment to himself. But we did see each other once a week in the practice room. I needed to practice for my piano exams as well, so I had a good reason to be there. But I never did play the Rustle of Spring again. I was worried that it would trigger yet another series of eerie events.

“So did anything happen or not?”

 

“I would have hoped for something to happen I guess, but unfortunately, you have to believe in the power of fate. Whatever is destined for you, will be for you. Whatever is not, will never be yours. Guess the both of us were too headstrong and proud to admit that we actually did have some kind of feeling for each other, and since neither one of us took the initiative to say it out aloud, the thoughts remained only in our hearts and heads.

 

Soon thereafter, the pilot program which I and my other classmates were involved in proved to be a failure. The school board decided to withdraw funds and that meant that if we wanted to continue studying at the school, we had to pay our own way. In fact, we were even required to repay the allowances we had used up during our first 6 months of classes, but the headmaster, who was the head of the program managed to convince the school board not to recover the amount from us.

 

We were in a state of distress as you could imagine, all 7 of us not knowing what to do next. We had tried our best to adjust to the stringent requirements of the program, working hard to achieve the targeted results… but it is a bilateral problem. There were insufficient teachers, and those who taught, were either very new, or part timers or those who could not be bothered. Therefore I had to train myself to self study at an age when students were expected to be spoon fed with information.

 

Jason was not one of the students involved in the pilot program so he was unaffected. By the end of the 9^th month I knew that our class was going to be dissolved and we would have to either join the normal stream classes or return to our respective schools. The pilot program was declared unsuccessful.

 

Sad as I was, and after much discussion, I knew that I could not go back to my old school. I was a very headstrong girl then and I could not swallow my pride to go back to the place which I had so eagerly left. I had two more years of high school to finish and I was not about to spend it at a place where I would be used as a promotional tool for the school, participating in debates and stuff. I already had enough of that.

 

I was lucky to be recommended to another school which was about 2 hours’ drive from the school which I was studying in, and proceeded to arrange for a transfer. It was very very sad. The 7 of us were deeply distraught over what had happened… and some of us felt as if we had been cheated into this program. I did not think of it that way simply because I knew that I had made a choice. And where you make a choice, there are consequences to bear, both good and bad. Now the time has come and we have to leave.

 

Things happened so fast that I did not even have the opportunity to say goodbye to Jason. I knew he must be pretty confused about it, although I did ask one of the guys in his class to tell him that I had to leave the school because the pilot program was closed and I had no other choice. I was not ready to switch to other streams at that time because I naively and honestly believed that I had the ability to be one of the best. It is rather ironic because I ended up doing something else unrelated anyway.

 

“So basically nothing happened between you and Jason?”

 

“There just wasn’t time for anything to happen at all.”

 

“Where is he now?”

 

“Last I heard, he got a PHD and got married. Good for him then.”

 

“Awww, that sucks. Never mind…” Lynette looked at her watch. “Oh holy smokes! I gotta get some sleep man. See you around Fred. Maybe we can continue your story sometime this week?”

 

“That is, if I feel like sharing when the time comes,” smiled Fred with an evil glint in her eye.