The Old Piano

I turned the radio dial frantically searching through the static to find some way of stifling the tense silence in the car. Failing to find anything but Death Metal and sensual R&B, I clicked off the radio and let my foot sink heavily on the gas pedal hoping the purr of the engine would loosen my grip on the wheel. My girlfriend and I did not fight much, but when we did the carnage took weeks and sometimes months to clean up and recover from. However, I knew that this time there would be no recovery, because this time I pulled out the atom bomb, the last straw. I ended it. Nostrils flaring, I counted the minutes until I could usher her out of my car and onto a bus, sending her home to New York. In my head, I told my self repeatedly that I couldn’t stand her, that her nagging, her neediness drove me crazy, that I needed new people in my life and she needed to go. I never knew my girlfriend to be silent for this long, so I broke staring contest with the road to glance at her. Tears ran silently down her cheeks; like me, her head pointed intently forward, but the glossy nothingness in her eyes told me that she was staring not at the road, but into the past. I let my lips part, taking in a deep breath that transported me back to that night.

The tune of an old piano floating along in the summer air charted our movements through the garden, note by note, step by step. The moon, aided by the charming, kind light from the reception hall illuminated our untried, youthful smiles. “Dance with me” I whispered, turning to her, tugging gently on her dress. She stepped towards me resting her cheek on my shoulder, clasping her tentative, unsullied hands in mine. The sent of vanilla and flowers met my nose and closing my eyes, I filled my lungs with perfect summer air. When I exhaled, I saw her looking up at me, a breeze had brushed the hair away from her face and her dark, vulnerable eyes met mine. Our lips inched closer, my eyes closing again and…Slam!

The passenger car door closed violently bringing me back to my dirty old car. I watched helplessly as she hurried with her face buried in her sleeve, towards the waiting bus. Scrambling out of the car as fast as I could, I called out to her, but she had already taken a seat. As the bus began to pull away she looked back and our eyes met. My heart recoiled in my chest, like it had just been punched and I realized. I loved her.