Melissa's Honor

Chapter 7

Chapter 7


Retail therapy was the call of the day. Melissa had been in her new house and her new job for three months and there was a need for a good treat. Victoria’s Secret was the first stop of the day. She passed a man jingling a bell spelling out Peace To All Nations while he sucked down on an earthy bong. Melissa almost laughed at something familiar from her old life.


There was something so nice but ironic about the new life though. She was away from gang wars but moved to a country where guns were more normal than regular dental checkups. There were no more drive by shootings, but in the fall, all the schools and public agencies and local shops closed on the first day of hunting season, where all men and some women got together for a concerted effort to rid the plains of wild game. There were no more clubs to hang out and get wasted at all hours of the day, but there was a nice selection of bars downtown across from a coffee shop that made bagels  until two in the morning.


The one thing that Melissa didn’t have, and found she really needed, was the name of the song from her crystal globe. As she shopped the mall, she thought about it, wondering if she could have heard it randomly on the radio and might get the name that way. Rounding a corner, she found herself in front of a musical shop. Cocking her head, Melissa thought that if anyone might know a tune, it would be someone who worked in the shop.


The name of the place was ”Global Unity through Music”. Looking around and over the gleaming pianos she searched for a human being who might be able to help her.


“Hello? Anyone here?”


Someone tapped her shoulder. Jumping, she whirled around, hand on the pepper spray she still kept in her purse. A tall man with a bald head and amber colored eyes looked kindly down on her. “Oh, sorry, you startled me. Um, I was wondering if you knew the name of a song?”


The man didn’t say anything but he cocked his head, showing his interest.


“Um, well, could-could I play it on the piano? Maybe you could name it for me?”


Sweeping his long arm in front of him, the man gestured to the nearest piano. Melissa cleared her throat. Why didn’t man speak? Didn’t all sales people have diarrhea of the mouth, especially during a recession?


“Well, here goes.” Carefully sitting on the gleaming ebony piano bench, she softly picked out a simple, haunting lullaby on the gleaming ivory keys. The tune ended, but she didn’t take her hand off the piano. It felt so nice under her fingers. Melissa looked up at the man beside her, a few pages of sheet music already in his hand.


Melissa’s eyes lit up. “Do you know it? Really?”


The man nodded, grinning at her excitement. He handed the music to her. She looked at the sheets dutifully, but the title was the only thing she was interested in. It was called, “Ode to an Angel”. Smiling softly, Melissa handed the music back to the man. “Thank you, you made my day.”


The man gestured to the piano, silently asking why she didn’t keep playing. “Oh,” Melissa shrugged, “I don’t know how to read music. But that was fine, thank you, um, sorry I didn’t catch your name.”


The man hesitated. Then he wrote on a notebook he kept in his suit jacket pocket. He handed the pad to her, a guarded expression on his face. The note said “I am Tyler.”


Melissa, looked up at him from the notebook. “Are you mute?”


He nodded.


“Cool, my ex-mother in law was too. She got her point across though.”


Tyler smiled and Melissa smiled back at him. Turning, Tyler picked up a book, it was pink with a picture of a piano on it. He handed it to her. It was a Primer, the first book in a series to teach someone to learn the piano. He pointed to himself, then to her. “You want to, uh, teach me the piano?” Melissa asked tentatively, nervously. Tyler smiled again and nodded. He gestured to her to sit on the bench again, this time sitting next to her. Feeling unaccountably special, Melissa sat next to him, put her hands on the keys that she already ached to touch again, and they began the lesson.








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