Who: Adam Kim and Myer Grayson What: An after school chat Where: The music room of North Harbor High When: October 27, 1998 Rating: PG-13 Status: Complete
The upright piano is shit compared to the grand he has at home, but Myer sits in the quiet of the music room and plays anyway. He's not certain why, but the quality of stillness in the mostly-abandoned school--who stays after hours at school, for Christ's sake--is different than at home. More contemplative? Maybe. Or maybe it's just that he doesn't have to listen to Emmerson's squalling. That's more the truth, he thinks. His mother had wasted no time producing another child after he'd recovered--he's read enough history to know that Emmerson is the "spare" in the whole "heir and a spare" scenario, produced later rather than sooner. Really, his parents should have been better prepared for that eventuality.
Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, and he hates the banality of that clichéd statement.
His fingers move over the keys, coaxing out the music. He likes this piece, the stately solemnity of it. It seems to suit the day, which has been cloudy and dark and cold. The first snow is not that far away. A week, possibly. He'll be glad when it's further into winter and he can go skiing with his dad. He's learned to appreciate those times; for a long time, he thought he'd never have them again.
Stop being so fucking maudlin, he thinks derisively, and switches to a brighter, airier piece.