Evening (ota)

[goldilockaubrey]

Jack wasn't  very good at protracted thinking, but he had much to think about.  He felt like some music, but he might disturb someone by playing in the hotel, so he took his violin to the park.  He started with the lively"Spring"  portion of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, then meditative and complex sonata by papa Bach, As he played he felt the absence of

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[applesfalling]

Georg hid behind a tree to listen.

Oh, lovely, glorious music, music he wanted so much to join in on but he just stood very still, listened very hard.

Finally he couldn't help it, and he had finished a song and broke out into applause.

[goldilockaubrey]

A slight startle, a blush, and a laugh.

"You're most kind, Master Georg."

[applesfalling]

"That was wonderful," he said with a bit of a grin. "Surely you're a master of strings."

As for Georg, well, he was never taught strings, which was a pity because he loved the violin. And the viola! And, oh yes, the cello.

But Georg was a pianist (and a vocalist, really...) through and through.

[goldilockaubrey]

"Do you have a piano-forte that you can play here in the village? I do not know what I would do without I had some music now and then."

[applesfalling]

"Oh, yes. Theres a grand piano in the ballroom. I don't believe its ever used, so I've sneaked in there nearly every day after school...its not the same without Fraulein Grossenbustenhalter but surely its something."

[goldilockaubrey]

"So, there is a ballroom, but nobody ever seems to dance here. Well, I must see what I can do about that. I am no great teacher, and definitely less pleasant for a young man to look upon than some Fraulein, but it would give me great pleasure to indulge in some duets. Is there a music store in the village?"

[applesfalling]

Ah, Fraulein Grossenbustenhalter was certainly something to look at, Georg thought wistfully for a moment, but he managed to steer clear of that subject of conversation as he went on.

"Ah, A duet! That would be wonderful. I don't know about any music store but I'm afraid I haven't looked."

There was indeed a music store, the Apocalypse, but Georg was less than observant, sometimes, particularly lately. There were....other things on his mind.

[goldilockaubrey]

Jack laughed sympathetically "I daresay I may have learned my trigonometry a great deal better if I had a pretty young lady instead of a grizzled old sailing master trying to teach me. I will look around for a music store in the village and leave a note for you at the front desk of the hotel, if I find one. Do you know of any other musical people in the village? Perhaps we could try to arrange a musical evening."

[applesfalling]

"I'm not sure - oh, theres Diwata! She has a lovely singing voice."

And she danced.

Georg wasn't sure exactly what sort of terms they were on at the moment, however...

[goldilockaubrey]

"I rumble out a tune myself every now and again. I have an idea! If I can find a music store, I will look for music for a few different instruments and voices, we will ask the lovely lady at the desk, for some extra chairs and set them out, then if anyone else comes while we are playing, then we can invite them to join. What do you think? Will it answer?"

[applesfalling]

Georg had quite an extraordinary sort of singing voice himself actually - but it was piano that he normally let people see. Singing, for him, was private, for God or for himself, and the piano was his performance.

"Oh, that sounds like a grand idea. The ballroom is so lonely as it is. Once I taught Diwata the Weiner Waltzen, but of course it was lonely and quiet with only the two of us and her 'speakers'..."

[goldilockaubrey]

"Well, that is our plan then. We can't be having a lonely ballroom. Perhaps, we might even have a ball there some day. How are young men such as yourself supposed to get any practice making yourself agreeable to young ladies without there are balls?"

[applesfalling]

"Oh, yes."

That was the question of the day.

"Most certainly."

[goldilockaubrey]

Jack smiled at the young man in sympathy, oh how well he could remember being that age. If one was not starving or exhausted, (which, granted, at sea, he often was,) there was only ONE thing he wanted to think about. (Perhaps that was WHY he was so often kept starving and exhausted he thought with an even wider grin.)

[applesfalling]

Ah, yes. 16 was certainly the age for that sort of thinking.

It made entirely difficult to do anything else at all, because of said distractions.

"What of your wife, Herr Aubrey? When were you married?"

[goldilockaubrey]

"I was married nearly 17 years ago, just before I turned 30. This is Sophie." Jack showed the miniature portrait he carried in his pocket to the young man.

He felt he had to be honest with the boy however. This boy seemed to having to feel his way through mire of adolescence without a father, an older brother, an older friend, or anything.

"She wasn't the first young woman I had ever been with, though, you know." He added in a confidential voice.