People of all ages stopped to listen—old men, young men, girls with torn jeans, older women with wrinkled faces and rouged cheeks. Many people snapped their fingers, bopped their heads when he played more bluesy music, but there would be silence when he played Vivaldi, or his version of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, or music that Paganini wrote for the lute.
A newspaper story was written about him which brought even more people to the park to listen and he often made forty or fifty dollars playing for the crowds that gathered around his bench. He liked to think that this beautiful spot by the pond where he and Emily first kissed was his theater and he didn’t want more.
Emily’s parents were furious with her for breaking up with Allen because they knew he had a promising career as a lawyer and her father wanted them to get married and to groom Allen to become a partner in his firm, but they were even more upset when they met Orrin by accident after stopping by uninvited on a Saturday morning and saw his long hair, his worn jeans and found out he was a street musician, a guitar player, and to their eyes, a bum. They shouted at Emily, questioning her sanity and threatening to take away her apartment if she continued this ridiculous relationship.
Orrin didn’t know what to say or do to comfort Emily when she had the huge blowup with her parents. He didn’t want her to lose her apartment or to be so pressured by her parents, but she reassured Orrin that she didn’t give a damn about the apartment, she wanted him in her life and nothing but her love for him mattered.
Orrin’s music became even more beautiful, happier, and lighter, and listeners smiled when they listened, but sometimes when the thought of losing her came over him like a dark cloud, his music was filled with sadness, and he could see by the look on peoples’ faces as he played that they were moved by the sad melancholy his music expressed. With Emily in his life, he had never been happier, or more creative, and their days together—taking walks, cooking, bike riding, making love—sometime with wild abandon and other times, slow, sweet and tender—was beyond anything he could have expected.
One day, after playing music in the park, he decided to surprise Emily and go to her office with flowers. He hadn’t been there for at least six months because it reminded him of his days as a janitor, but on an impulse, he walked into her office and saw she wasn’t at her desk. He saw Gloria crying.
“What’s wrong? Where’s Emily?”
“It’s horrible,” Gloria said, wiping tears from her eyes. “Emily’s in the hospital. She was hit by a car when she was at lunch. The guy was drunk. She’s in a coma at Jefferson Hospital. It’s pretty serious.”
Orrin was stunned. He dropped the flowers and dashed out of the office and ran the five blocks to Jefferson Hospital. He ran, carrying his guitar case, as quickly as he could. He found out what room she was in and felt panic as he waited for the elevator. When he got off at the eleventh floor and found her room, he saw her on the bed with tubes in her nose. Her eyes were closed and the nurse was taking her pulse. He ran to her bedside. Just then, the doctor came in and Orrin asked how she was, what was going on, would she live?
He was told it was very serious—her leg and her pelvis had severe fractures, plus she had a collapsed lung and serious head injuries. She would be in intensive care for quite a while.
“Will she live?” Orrin asked.
“I don’t know,” the doctor said. “It’s very serious. She’s in a deep coma. She won’t even know you're here.”
Orrin went to her bedside and leaned over to kiss her and felt her dry, cold lips. He held the hand that did not have a needle in its vein. He could tell she was hardly breathing and he just looked at her closed eyes, her pale face, her dark hair draped on the white pillow.
He couldn’t take his eyes away from her. Seeing his beautiful Emily in a coma and hoping she wasn’t fading, he didn’t know what he would do if she died and was no longer in his life. He remembered Apollo telling him how he felt when his wife died, how he’d mourned and never stopped loving her. He remembered the story of Orpheus and how his pleading music inspired Persephone and Hades to release Eurydice from the Underworld.
Orrin glanced down at his guitar case and suddenly wanted to play his music for her, hoping somehow she would hear his longing for her, his wanting her to be well. He took his guitar from his case and stood by her bed. He closed his eyes and started to play softly. His heart sent music to his fingers and, as he touched the strings, his music was like a prayer he hoped could bring Emily out of her coma and back to his life. Somehow he felt the coma was like Eurydice being in the Underworld, and he was Orpheus playing to the gods to give him one more chance to have his love with him where she belonged.
He looked down at her closed eyes as he played. The music was gentle, delicate, each note filled with his pleading for her to hear and see him standing there. His fingers moved gently, then with more passion, more intensity, wanting to reach her, he closed his eyes as he played, and then opened them and saw her eyelashes flicker, a slight movement, and then she slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him. Their gazes met and lingered. He thought he saw a small smile on her lips and his playing grew louder. His fingers moved faster. He played chords he had never played before. His fingers struck the strings louder. Discordant chords rang out and expressed his rage at the drunk driver. His music filled the room and could be heard in the halls as he played fiercely.
He was terrified he would lose her and just before he started to play softly and tenderly, he struck two thunderous chords. At first, he didn't hear the shouting behind him, or feel his arms being grabbed by a nurse and two orderlies who shouted at him to stop playing. Orrin continued playing the discordant chords and looked at Emily’s eyes fluttering open. He ignored the nurse shouting at him to stop playing, but the two orderlies grabbed him and roughly pulled him from the room and yelled, “This is a hospital. You can’t make noise here.”
Orrin struggled to break loose. “Leave me alone. My music is helping her.” But it was too late. They pushed him against the wall across from her room and said he had to leave or they would call the police. One of the orderlies went into the room, grabbed his guitar case and gave it to him before shoving him down the hall. He still gripped his guitar.
Before he left, he looked back in the room and saw her eyes were closed. He wished he could play for her and knew his music could bring her back, but now he was being forced to leave. He felt helpless.
When he went back to see her the next day, she wasn’t there. He was told that she had died. They were sorry, but there was nothing they could do. Orrin was devastated. He didn’t know what to do. He walked around the city unable to believe that the love of his life was gone. He continued to play at Mama’s Café, but his music was now so sad and mournful that people stopped listening. The owner, Julie, knew what had happened to Emily, but told Orrin he had to play lighter music or she could no longer have him play. He understood and knew he had to find a way to play music that touched people and made them feel better, not sad, not the music of loneliness and death. He knew Emily would not want him to be so sad.
While walking home from the cafe one night, he remembered the music his old teacher, Apollo had played for his wife, Elena, after she died, and how happy he looked as his fingers played so delicately. Apollo had said he believed she was listening and it made him play with all of his heart.
That memory of Apollo inspired Orrin to compose music that expressed his love for Emily. When he played and closed his eyes he could see her face and the lovely smile that came to her lips as she listened. The new music poured out of him more and more, and this was the music he played at Mama's Cafe and in the park.
One day he realized that something strange had begun happening. It started slowly, but every few weeks a man would tell him that he had brought his sweetheart to the cafe to hear Orrin’s music and propose marriage. Orrin would smile up at the happy faces of the man and woman standing next to him. That happened several times and it always mystified and delighted him.
/>
He also noticed as he played in the park that many couples started holding hands. Some told him they’d met while listening to his music. He looked forward to seeing an old couple who came to listen almost every afternoon. They brought folding chairs and eventually told him they had been married for fifty-two years. Orrin loved the way they held hands and closed their eyes when he played and he knew they were remembering their life together.
A month later, Julie told Orrin that a couple wanted to get married in the cafe and wanted him to play his music at their wedding. Other weddings took place at the cafe after that and Orrin was always asked to play. It thrilled Orrin to know that his music could reach into people's hearts and bring love to their lives.
Though he knew he would never forget Emily, as time passed, Orrin wondered if he would ever meet another woman who made him feel like Emily had. Then one night, a woman he had never seen before came in by herself and sat at the same table where Emily had always sat. She had darker hair but there was something in the way she listened and smiled that warmed his heart and reminded him of Emily. He found himself looking over at her and playing a new melody that was inspired by the way she smiled and listened.
Before she left that night, the woman came over to him and told him his music was not only beautiful, it was magical. She said she'd be back and smiled again. Orrin watched her leave, then glanced down at his blue guitar and felt certain his music was bringing a new love to his life.
*The End*
About the Author
J.E. Wiseman is a prolific author of erotica and romance who has lived an adventurous life as a merchant seaman, teacher, farmer and baker. He started writing poetry and stories when he was nine and is now widely published. His many books are filled with keen observations and provocative ideas that explore the hidden needs and desires of intriguing characters that readers can relate to. After living in the woods in an off-the grid cabin, he now lives on the coast of Maine in a farmhouse built in 1777 where he grows most of his own food. His books are also published by Sweet Cravings Publishing.
Secret Cravings Publishing
www.secretcravingspublishing.com
The Blue Guitar Page 4