Harp of the Adhene

Music, that was my life. I lived it, breathed it, and yet, every instrument I picked up and tried to play sounded worse than a howling dog. I had tried voice lessons, the drums, guitar even the banjo. My house was a museum to musical instruments that I had tried and failed to play well. I was done. NO MORE. I would not waste my time on this insanity of trying to play music. I could mix music and I would focus on that.

I had found an Ad in the paper about a shop that specialized in ‘Odds and Ends’. The shops name was a catchy one and I just could not stop thinking about it. I was at wits' end with my musical interests and thought it might give me some idea’s on a new hobby since music was definitely not panning out.

I drove down the little side street and found the shop, ‘The Curiosity Shop’. When I pulled up to the side of the building, I had my reservations. It looked like an old western store. Western had never been my style. Oh well, I sighed to myself as I got out of the car. I might as well look.

I opened the aged wooden door. The floor was old graying wood like you would find in some old time movie, and that was the only similarities the shop had with the west. The rest of the shop was as neat and clean as my mother’s dining room. I was immediately impressed. Little show rooms divided the shop. There was a child’s play room complete with a shelf of toys. The shelf contained a collection of plastic army men, dinosaurs, a jar of seashells and a box with what could only be a bird’s nest.

The next room looked like an old library. It had a desk with an old, partially filled journal, a ship in a bottle, and a small collection of butterflies under glass. Next to the collection lay a magnifying glass. A large bookshelf divided this room from the next.

The next room is where I stopped. To believe, I had come here thinking to find a different hobby. The only instrument I had yet to try. A harp stood in the middle of this little ‘room’. The harp looked battered and yet I could not take my eyes from the instrument. I felt like I knew this harp. How, I did not know. I had never once played a harp. In fact, I had never really seen one in person before, only in books and movies. This one seemed smaller, more fragile. Before I could claim the harp, a cat trotted into view and sat down next to the harp and a young woman cleared her throat.

“I’m Alice. If there is anything I can help you with just let me know.”

Only then did I realize I had been standing, staring at the harp about five minutes.

“Would you like to hold the harp?”

“I’m not sure it looks like it might break apart at the slightest touch.”

“No, I can assure you it is quite durable.”

At that, I turned and got a good look at the woman speaking to me. Her eyes were a mischievous sparkling green and I could not turn away from her. “Alice, I’m Edmund… I came in here hoping to find a new hobby, something to take my mind off of music, and I find myself drawn to this harp.”

“Ah, I see. Well, maybe I could help you find something else.”

“Well, I never really tried the harp.”

“You’ll never know if it is what you’re searching for if you don’t try it, will you?”

I pulled my eyes back to the harp. This was crazy, insane. Nothing I played ever turned out right. The cat that had been sitting next to the harp rose, its tail gently grazed the strings. It should not have been enough to cause the strings to vibrate, and yet a slight sound reverberated in the silence.

What would my parents think? I was twenty-two and attending college. I was finally doing something that they approved of. I was majoring in finance. They knew my minor was music; they had actually been relieved that it was not my major. They allowed for my fixation. Since my childhood illness, they had given me everything I wanted. Their money had allowed me to finance my failed attempts at bands and everything else including this shopping trip.

“You know, Alice, I think I will take the harp.”

“Okay, just let me wrap it up for you.”

I paid for the harp and left. Driving home, I let my mind wonder. It immediately jumped to the thoughts of my parents. I knew what my parents would think, ‘Just another instrument to add to my growing collection’. I knew they wished I would just forget the obsession I had with music, and get a ‘real life’.

I had a couple of homework assignment to do when I got back to the condo that my parents had paid for. I could not flunk out, they had given me an ultimatum pass college or I was out on the streets. They felt this was for my own good. I just never really fit in with any of the other students. I looked like a twelve year old or maybe fourteen at the tops. What they did for fun was just stupid to me. The parties, that consisted of seeing how stupid drunk you could get. I pulled pranks on them just for the fun of watching them sputter around like idiots. I could never seem to get myself to behave like they did. Learning was dull, yet I learned and my grades were above reproach.

I carefully pulled the case from the backseat. When I got in the house I gently placed the harp, case and all down on my couch and turned on my computer. I had to finish my two papers before I even looked at the harp again. Luckily, for me I could email my assignments to the teachers. I breezed through the papers within thirty minutes time and sent them off.

Next, I did a little research on harps. I could not find any that even remotely resembled mine, except in legends. The legends described a harp such as mine. It was supposed to enchant the player to the point that they would not stop playing until their heart stopped beating. The legend went on to say that the only the Adhene could play this harp without falling prey to its enchantment. The harp had originally belonged to them and had been stolen by a mortal to win his ladies heart. When the Queen of the Adhene had awoke finding the harp missing she put a curse on it. The curse said, “Should mortal’s fingers strum her cords, they will not stop till until their heart stops.” The harp's name in the legend was Kedoreath.

Wouldn’t that be just great if I were to start playing and never be able to stop? Alas, Edmund he died of a broken harp. A laugh escaped my lips at the thought. Just having the harp was lifting my spirits. I had all kinds of cleaners and polishes. I gently lifted the harp from the case that cradled it. I unstrung the harp taking special care to see how each string fit within the frame. Then I cleaned the frame as I was cleaning I found sticker across a nameplate of some sort. I removed the sticker and found a small brass like plate underneath. I polished the plate and found the name, Kedoreath. My fingers shook with excitement as I restrung the harp. This was either a huge scam or I had found the harp of legend.

Without thinking I started to play. After a few cords, I stopped dumb struck. How could I play a harp? I had never had a lesson not a single one. Sure I knew how to read music. I knew finger placement on a guitar. I looked down into the case and found a piece of paper stuck behind the edge of the lining. I pulled gently on the old piece of paper.

The musical score looked familiar to me like one I knew by heart. I started playing again the music flowed from like a river, one note leading into another. As I played, a memory surfaced of my childhood, of another childhood that had been mine. A child lay sick near death in a bed, that I knew belonged to me in my parents’ home. If I did not intervene, he would die. I sent him through the curtain to regain his health and he did not wish to return. I was stuck here and sadness swept over me as I played.

Then I glanced back at the score, to find it was not finished. I could choose the ending of the music. I knew that I would be choosing also my own ending or beginning. I paused and took a deep breath and began to play again. I gently shaped the music. Kedoreath began to glow. As I played, I gradually increased the tempo and rhythm. Until the tune was a happy breathless song and then it happened. One minute I was sitting on my couch in my humdrum human existence and the next I was playing in front of the Queen of the Adhene.

“You found Kedoreath.”

“What of the child Edmund? What of his family?” I asked as I continued to play.

“All will be as it should have been, so many years ago.” The human Edmund said stepping into my view.

My fingers faltered at the strings. Edmund was different. He looked like all the rest of the humans, like I never had. “Won’t everyone know?”

“Of course not,” stated the queen a wide smile on her face.
I could see the mischief brewing in her eyes, though before I could utter a sound, Edmund was gone. A new sheet of music was sitting on a stand in front of me.

Looking directly at me the queen spoke, “Kelton, please would you play another? I have so missed your playing.”

I had finally found my music, and music had finally taken me where I always longed to go, Home.