sam patterson is the sunshine on your window (onmywindow) wrote in mnhttnprjct, @ 2010-03-27 22:10:00 |
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Samantha Patterson was not the sort of girl who liked to burden other people with her problems. Not that she had any, if you asked her, but her life wasn't exactly perfect. Once a rising star in the world of classical music, she now waited tables at an Italian restaurants in Manhattan. Once she'd been engaged and planning on spending her life with the man she loved, and now she shared an apartment with five other people and barely dated. She didn't get much of a chance to practice playing either, access to a piano (or any other sort of instrument) extremely difficult in her situation.
But occasionally, she managed it. Like tonight. She'd been out with some friends, and they'd ended up a small, out of the way bar with a small stage, on which a tired old musician had been playing jazz in the background to entertain the punters. When he'd taken a break, Sam had shyly asked if they minded her playing a little, and when no one did, she took a seat at the rickety old instrument, running her fingers over the keys as if it was the finest of grand pianos, gracing the stage of the Avery Fisher Hall.
Rather than play something suitable for those halls, she instead broke out into the Maple Leaf Rag, a smile on her face. Rusty fingers flew over the keys, the cheerful, syncopated music filling the room. It wasn't long until toes started to tap around the room, people smiling despite the piano being slightly out of tune and Sam occasionally bumbling over phrasing. At the end of the song, the patrons applauded, calling for more. She attempted to demur, shaking her head and blushing, but when the man whose place she had taken requested a song, she acquiesced, playing request after request as the night wore on.
Later that night, when she curled up in bed, alone in the room for once, she let herself shed a few tears. She'd loved being on stage, playing music again, and it just reminded her of how much she had lost. She'd wake up in the morning, a smile on her face, pretending some more that everything was okay. But just for tonight, she would have her tears.