ADJUSTING
Chapter Nine
Music
April 10, 1913
Rose sat at the piano with Hope on her lap.
The baby seemed to be pleased with Rose’s music as she watched her mother’s
fingers move across the ivory keys.
After Rose’s stomach had gotten to the point
where it was hard for her to sit down--and get back up again--she had all but
given up playing the piano. She was glad that she was once again able to play.
And that Hope enjoyed it, too. Perhaps when she got older, Rose would teach her
to play.
Rose played a soft melody that created a
pleasant atmosphere all throughout the house. Her mind had been too busy for
the past two weeks. She needed an emotional escape, and music was the perfect
cure.
John stood at the top of the staircase. He
heard music, but it wasn’t something that he had ever heard playing on the
phonograph. It sounded like it was coming from...the dining room.
John wandered into the dining room with
feeling of contentment. Never had he heard such lovely sounds come from the
piano. He didn’t even think that anyone in the house knew how to play the
piano.
As reality sank in, he saw that it was Rose
who was playing the piano. Rose--his Rose. Only she wasn’t his Rose anymore. He
wondered if she ever really was. She had said that she loved him, hadn’t she?
Things were all too complicated for him to think about at the moment.
He walked out the door that he had entered
from, leading him into the cool, marble-floored hallway. He leaned against the
wall, and slowly sank to the floor. He pulled his knees up to his chest and
began to cry. He sobbed quietly into his knees, thinking of how he could have
done things differently. Maybe then Rose would still be a part of his life. The
world as he knew it was gone--sorrow was put in its place.
John Calvert became a new person that day. He
let the grief overtake him; the walls around his heart were sealed. Never would
he have guessed how much it would take to destroy those walls.
All was quiet, but the music played on.