The Story of the Violin

“Honey I thought I told you to pack up your father’s violin ten minutes ago? What are you doing still sitting there?” Ryan’s mother Kate called over her shoulder from the hallway mirror as she put on her bright red lipstick that made her teeth look abnormally white.



“I don’t want you to sell it…I was dad’s.” Ryan responded never taking his eyes off of the old instrument.



“We already have been over this a hundred times Ryan! It was your father’s but he died six years ago, you took lessons and tried to learn to play for two years and quit. It is just taking up space. Now please pack it up so I can take it with the rest of the stuff we’ve cleaned out.” Kate exclaimed as she dashed around gathering papers and her keys, the sound of her high heels clicking on the hard wood floors added a sense of urgency to the situation.



“But it’s all I have left of him; I need it to still feel him. Sometimes when I leave it open in my room I can still hear him playing it.” Ryan whispered on the verge of tears.



“Darling, that’s exactly what you said two years ago when I tried to sell it, and last year when I tried to sell it, I’m not doing this again. It’s going and that’s that.” She said as she walked over and began to pack the ancient instrument herself.



“Why do you have such a problem with me keeping this little piece of him? It doesn’t take up so much space that it would get in the way, and it’s not like it’s worth a ton of money! Why do you want his memory gone so much that you would hurt me to take it away?!” Ryan sobbed as he yelled at his mother, and she froze with her hands on the violin.



“It hurts me to keep it here. It haunts this house. I can’t move on with him here, but I can’t just live in the past forever Ryan, and I can’t let you either. Your dad died six years ago, and neither of us have been able to move past it.” Kate explained, “And I think it’s because of that old violin. I was hesitant to get rid of it earlier because I wasn’t sure, but when we got rid of everything else and this dark cloud didn’t pass I knew.” She began to cry, messing up her freshly applied mascara.



“But why do things have to change, why do we have to move on? I like things the way they are, just you, and me, and dad’s violin, I don’t want anything else!” Ryan’s cries were muffled in his mother’s black and white polka dot dress as he clung to her and wept.



“Things have to change because that’s just the way life is; we weren’t made to hold on the things like this. People all over the world die everyday and the world keeps turning, and going on, so we have to as well. Ryan I don’t want to be alone anymore. I loved your father, and no one will ever take his place but I have so much love left to give someone.” Kate explained running her well manicured fingers through her son’s sandy blonde hair.



“You aren’t alone you have me, you can love me! Dad would have never done this to you! This violin is everything!” Ryan screamed now angry that his mother could say anything about loving anyone else.



“This violin isn’t your father Ryan!” Kate yelled back grabbing him by his shoulders and looking him in the eyes, “Keeping it around won’t bring him back. It won’t change things! It’s just a piece of wood and some strings…and I have to take it away before you waste your life holding onto it.” Kate said firmly as she grabbed the case and walked out the front door.



“NO!” Ryan screamed as the door closed with a final click behind her. He fell to the floor and cried, for himself, for the violin, but mostly for his father, and the fact that Ryan finally recognized that he won’t ever come home.