The last sentence on his mind triggered a thought; a memory – an invitation perhaps… for Friday – this Friday – he was sure… but he wasn’t quite at that last sentence just yet.
The raindrops fell heavy, competing with the crashes of thunder and flashes of lightning; with double doors wide open the pianist looked out into the misty, waterlogged scene in the garden before him, and played constantly in time with nature’s rhythm.
Thunder provided percussion, and lightning gave dramatic special effects as the rain provided the sound of a distant and strangely whispered extended round of applause – the applause which pushed the pianist on to play. No sheet music or books of any kind were required by the pianist, he drew inspiration from the elements outside and his fingers flowed across the keys as though nature’s rhythm had taken control of him.
Suddenly he stopped playing.
He thought he heard the wind whisper gently “six sentence café” through the swish of the bare branches as they brushed together in the trees, followed by a thunderous “and bistro” which gave the simultaneous sharp crackles of lightning a strangely familiar “krizzle” sound – and he launched once again, no book or sheet music, into the harmonious flow he channelled from the Universe; he was right – it was an invitation.
This is for Six Sentence Stories, where the prompt word is ‘Book’. It’s a reworking in part of Dance of the Pianist, from way back in 2014 (which in itself was a reworking of an earlier shorter version of the same poem, and has been reposted on this blog umpteen times). And the invitation? Well, Chris Hall’s book launch of The Spirit of the Shell Man is on Friday 4th March at the Six Sentence Café and Bistro; further details can be found here.
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