Day #4 - It started with plunking (not music)
Summary: A concert pianist loses the ability to play.
Written for Story A Day and Runaway Tales
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Permanently debilitating injury
Universe: Standalone
Prompts: SAD: Passions/Obsessions (what happens when they're unattainable); RaTs: Ribbon; My dreams ran like sand through the fist that I made;
Notes: Told entirely in six word memoirs.
"Amazing," she breathed, four and fascinated.
It started with plunking (not music).
Shame, she never tired of Chopsticks.
The first recital was a nightmare.
But the second one was better.
And the third one was great.
Fingers quick and light, dancing, signing.
The music swells, swallows her whole.
They're inseparable now, only complete together.
Two halves of the same coin: music.
The first ribbon was beginner's luck.
The second ribbon? Practice, practice, practice.
The third? She knows she's good.
Her TV debute is at 15.
A national trophy bestowed at 17.
Her European tour starts in September.
The car crash happens in August.
Nerve damage, they tell her, operable.
She thinks of music going under.
The tremors don't stop, probably permanent.
Fingers no longer nimble; clumsy, stilted.
Her wretched sobbing lasts for hours.
Watches as her dreams slip away.
Doesn't stop her from longing, hurting.
She can't stand the sound anymore.
Black and white keys haunt her.
Twinkle, Twinkle makes her cry now.
She can't drown it, can't forget.
And she doesn't have a chance.
Nothing but shaky fingers, crushed dreams; and a lifetime to regret it.
What is she supposed to do?
This story is copyright to Saya Dix (me) and cannot be republished/posted with my permission.