Be With You Page 2
One step..two steps…eight steps..
She had reached. She felt a tinge of fear to open her eyes. She took a deep breath.
But he wasn’t there.
She stood by the old wooden piano and sat by it. She played by the same melody which she had always known..
She noticed a wooden cupboard by the corner of her eyes. For some reason, it had compelled her to move towards it..
Adelie walked towards the cupboard and she gently opened it. There was dust …cobwebs hanging over…
A small faded manuscript lay there. It had a yellowish tint to it and a layer of dust had formed all over it. It seemed as if no one had opened it for ages. Forgotten and cast aside..
She opened it. It was a handwritten manuscript. Entitled
Autumn Concerto
Danny Alonzo
Had that been Danny’s manuscript? Was the composer the Danny that she knew? She held onto the manuscript and left the piano room, with more questions than answers.
“Love is a fire.
But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.”
? Joan Crawford
Chapter 5
Memories
It was January 2011. Adelie was now in university. She had moved away and had now lived in Chicago.
Danny was a part of her memories that had been fading away..placed side..forgotten..
She was a beautiful, young lady who had many suitors. She had been looking forward to visiting her old home once again.
She had walked along the path that led to her high school.. It all seemed very nostalgic for a moment She lay on the soft grass around the meadow and took in the crisp air..
She felt an urge to explore the meadows. She followed her heart and she saw something under an old oak tree.
She went towards it and it was a wooden box.
It was as if her memories had been jolted back..
She took it, placed it before her, and opened it.
The manuscript had still been there.
She had buried it some years ago. Wanting to forget about Danny..
She had stood by her window ledge everyday..waiting for him to arrive..but he had never came..
Those years had been a hard time for her.. She had grieved over her loss of Danny…
She had never had the chance to tell him that she had always loved him. Over time, he had become just a memory which had faded away as she grew older…
She kept the manuscript back into the wooden box and carried the wooden box with her.
She would search for Danny. Wherever he was, she would find him.
II.
DANNY
Chapter 6
Leaves
The day had been somewhere in Spring. The flowers were blooming. One could almost feel that romance was in the air..
He had always been observing her from afar.. observing the way she smiled.. the way she laughed.. the way she played with her hair.. the way she tied her hair into plaits..
Danny was so shy. He would never have the courage to tell her in her face that he did like her..
He had first seen her in the library..
She had told him that his books were overdue at the counter..
That was the first time Danny felt his heart swell.
Day by day, Danny would go to the library. He would sit, read a book and steal glances at her.. He would borrow his books, just so that he could steal a longer glance at her..
Soon, Danny felt that he could not overcome his passion any longer..
He decided. He had decided to express his affection for her..
He would place a little leaf into the book, returned it via the book drop and hope that Adelie would see it..
He wrote little love poems in them.. hoping that she would see them..
He didn’t need her to feel the same way about him.. He was so ordinary.. He knew that if he had confessed, she probably wouldn’t have felt the same way about him..He just wanted to look at her from afar and love her from afar.
On that fateful day, Danny had been early. He left the book into the bookdrop.
Just as when he was about to leave, he saw her.
Standing right before him.
She looked shocked.
Adelie asked him if he had been the one placing all those little poems into the book.
He nodded. Feeling so bashful. He just stood there. Not knowing what to say or do.
Adelie walked away.. without saying anything..
He was crestfallen…
Danny had stopped going to the library… He had stopped writing to her..
There was an empty gaping hole in his heart.
He would stare blankly during lessons..thinking about her.. thinking about the way she laughed… thinking about the way she smiled.. thinking about the way she had walked away..
Autumn was soon arriving… the leaves had formed into a heap outside of his classroom…
He felt melancholic. All he could think about was her.
“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”
? Plato
Chapter 7
A Window Apart
Danny had arrived in class to see a small envelope on his table..
He wondered who had written to him.
He opened it and nearly fell out of his chair when he found out that it was from Adelie..
It had all seemed like a whirl to him now.
Right after class, he had followed the address on the envelope and walked there. He felt a sense of urgency, a sense of immediacy, a sense of panic.. He had to know why she had wanted to see him..
There were rows and rows of houses there. He got lost for a moment, and then he followed his heart. He had found the place.
He looked around for an opened window ledge and that was when he saw Adelie.
She was sitting on her bed, appearing to be deep in her thoughts.
He walked towards the window and he called out to her gently.
“Adelie…..”
His voice trembled.
She stood up and she walked towards the window.
Then, she broke into a smile.
They stood a window apart.
For the first time, he had made a long eye contact with her. A genuine eye contact where she was not preoccupied with anything else.
Time had seemed to come to a stop. The world was a whirl. Nothing seemed real anymore. The feeling was just indescribable. It was so easy for Danny to feel mesmerized by her. He waited for Adelie to speak. There must had been a reason why she had wanted to see him.
“ Let’s try it out, Danny”
His mind went blank. She had given him a chance! He would do anything to make her happy. He beamed.
Danny reached out his hand to Adelie from the window ledge and she touched his hand gently.
Hand in hand, just a window ledge apart…so far and yet so near…
“And, in the end
The love you take
is equal to the love you make.”
? Paul McCartney
Chapter 8
Meadows
The days went by. Danny would ride his bicycle to see her, once he had ended class.
That day, he had decided to do something special for her. He had made a sandwich, packed it into a neat box, and paddled away to find her..
Adelie would wait for him in her room..popping her head often to see if he had arrived yet..
He rang his bicycle bell when he was fast approaching….to inform her that he was arriving..
Ring…Ring..
Adelie got up and she went over to her window ledge.
He placed his bicycle against the tree outside her house, and went over to the ledge to help her over.
It was a very windy day. He pedaled hard. It was so exhilarating as the wind gushed past them. There was the beautiful scenery.. the off-b
eaten track and the meadows. She wrapped her hands around his waist. Feeling so secure.. as if it were the only thing that mattered in the world..
They reached the most beautiful meadow in the area. He placed a picnic mat over the soft grass and handed his sandwich to her.
She beamed so excitedly and gave him a hug so tight that he found it hard to breathe. He was happy when she was happy.
They watched as their kite flew in the sky.. high above the air..
It was near sunset when he plucked the courage to give her their first kiss..
“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.”
? James Baldwin
Chapter 9
The Little Musical Store
Danny had always loved music. He could play the piano, drums and the flute. His father owned a small store selling second-hand musical instruments and it was from his father, that Danny had begun to like music.
One day, after lessons had ended, Danny took Adelie to visit his father’s shop. She stared at the array of musical instruments. She caught sight of a wooden toy piano by the corner and fell in love with it at first sight.
“You like that?”
Danny asked.
She nodded.
He led her to toy piano and begun playing a simple melody for her. She clapped her hands in joy.
#C Major, #E Minor
He then began introducing some chords to her. She slowly followed his hands as he patiently guided her.
“That will be the first melody you learnt. I will be performing at the graduation concert. I hope that you can be there.”
He said.
“I will.”
Adelie replied.
“Okay now, close your eyes”
Danny said.
She did so.
He wrapped the toy piano up in a pink box, placed a red ribbon over it, and presented it to her.
Unknown to Danny, Adelie felt a trickle of blood running from her nose and she quickly wiped it away with the tissue in her hands. Adelie loved that toy piano so much that she would spend some time after school practicing on the melody that Danny had taught her.
“Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.”
? David Byrne
Chapter 10
The Graduation Concert
Save that day.
31st September 2007.
It had been the last day of school.
The performance had started. Danny Alonzo took the stage. He took a deep breath and began visualizing that nothing would go wrong. He was having the jitters and some mild stage fright. There were a thousand eyes looking at him in anticipation from the audience. He had to play it well.
He began playing the first arrangement in his performance-Johann Strauss II The Blue Danube Waltz. He lifted his head up and did a quick scan at the crowd for Adelie. There she was. Sitting at the second row from the front right, with a triumphant look in her eyes. He smiled. He felt his confidence surging.
It was time for his final piece of the day. He started playing a piece which sounded so familiar to Adelie. That was when she realized that it had been the song he had taught her to play back at his father’s musical store.
“ I would need you as my partner for this duet.”
He spoke into the microphone and pointed at Adelie.
She blushed.
He jumped down from the stage and gently held her hand. He led her onto the stage and they sat on the piano bench.
“ 1..2..3.. ready?”
He asked.
She nodded her head.
“Danny, I don’t think I can do this…I am scared...”
She said.
“ Don’t worry. You can do it. I will cover it up for you. Just relax”
Their duet gave a soul to the universe, wings to the mind and flight to the imagination. Just like what Plato would have said. The audience were enthralled. For Danny and Adelie, they felt that the world had caved in just for them. They belonged to each other.
The night had seemed so enchanting until Fate had been misnamed. It was no accident. It was simply fate
It was no accident. It was Fate misnamed.
Music expresses what cannot be put into the words. For them, it was a loud clash. Adelie had collapsed and hit right onto the piano keys.
What happened next was a blur. The paramedics arrived. She was placed onto the stretcher. Gasps were in the air. Her name was repetitively called. She was unconscious.
“We loved with a love that was more than love.”
? Edgar Allan Poe
III.
ADELIE
Chapter 11
Distance
March 2013-Adelie had to find Danny. No matter where he was, she would search for him. Years had passed by. It was as if he had dropped off the Earth.
She was now an aspiring young actress. She knew that the only way to find Danny was to make herself visible to him. She had worked hard to land herself a lead role. If she was famous, she would have the resources to search for him.
She was working on her very first film. The film had been titled ‘The Flower Palace’. They would have to travel to Kyoto for the filming. Adelie would be starring as a young princess who had travelled to Japan in search for love.
As she was still new, she had to learn the ropes from a senior director, Peter Kingsburg. Peter had promised her that if the film was a success, he would use his resources to help him find Danny.
Danny had almost become an obsession for her. 3 months into the filming, she asked Peter if he knew how to find Danny at all. Peter sneered and asked him if she questioned his abilities. Adelie fell silent.
The film was first broadcasted in America and received a resounding success. Adelie had transformed into a famous actress.
Peter Kingsburg had located where Danny Alonzo’s last known residence. When Adelie was informed, she packed her bags immediately and booked for the air tickets that evening.
She was filled with all sorts of emotions- joy, anxiety and anticipation. She was finally meeting Danny after a prolonged search for him.
She reached the doorsteps of his residence. The door opened. There was a man standing before her who looked like he could be Danny. She had not seen him in ages and could barely picture how he would look like when he got older. The man had a look of shock on his face
“You should leave. You shouldn’t come here”
He said.
“Danny?”
She burst into tears. She recognized his voice. It had been Danny. He had ruffled-hair and a mature look. He looked as if he had been through a lot.
“I want to know why you left that day. Why did you leave without a word?”
She asked, choking on her tears. She had taken so much effort to find him and it hurt her that he did not want to see her at all. Anguish was written all over her face.
He pulled her in and slammed the door shut.
“You want to know why?”
He asked while holding her tightly on the wrist.
“Yes! I have been searching for you for ages. I want to know why. So tell me why now!”
She demanded.
He gazed into her eyes and cornered her to the wall.
“I have been protecting you for the past years! Ever since you knew you came into existence, I have been protecting you. Adelie, you don’t have to know about anything else. Just know that I will always protect you. Do you understand me?”
He lashed out at her with such ferocity that she took a step backwards and hit the wall.
She was confused. She didn’t know why he had reacted so badly. What did he mean when he said that he would protect her? Why did she need protection?
IIII.
DANNY
Chapter 12
The Truth
May 2007-Adelie had remained unconscious. Her life was still in danger un
til they removed the tumour from her head. Danny didn’t know what he could do for her except to pray. He was informed that there may have been complications from the surgery.
He had kept the manuscript he had written for the Graduation Concert into the cupboard in the piano room. What point was there in the arrangement he had composed for her, when she was still in a comatose state?
She had been an orphan ever since she was a child. She was raised by her foster parents. Danny had received a call that her foster parents would not be paying for her hospitalization bills any longer. He felt a surge of pain through him.
Danny started to perform as a freelance pianist at outdoor concerts or for gigs, earning cash to support for her finances. He never complained that it was hard on him. He was barely earning enough to pay for her bills.
It was discovered one day that Adelie’s tumour had been induced by a medicine that she had been taking. Her foster parents had wanted her dead. They had given her a tumour-inducing drug, such they will get their hands on her inheritance when she left. Adelie’s biological parents had perished in a car accident when she was merely a young child and they had left her an inheritance of $3 million dollars which Adelie did not know of. Their death had been dubious and it was always suspected as foul play. By the time it was discovered that Adelie had been taking that substance, a portion of her inheritance had been transferred to her foster parents and they had left for good, without a trace. There was also a lack of evidence that her foster parents had been the culprits. They could virtually go away scot free.