I raced my bicycle home after school. As usual, a few metres from home the familiar sound of an off-tune piano greeted me. The 30 year-old grand piano was outrageously off-tuned but the piece was adapted to it. It created a unique tune, which exudes both the piano and the performer’s personality. Charming and beautiful in its own way.
I wheeled my bicycle into the open gates and propped it against the wall near the steps on the threshold of the main door. I dropped my school bag and hurried in, not bothering to knock. I refrained from smiling when the music became louder as I entered the mansion.
It was an exquisite mansion occupied by only one man. The white marble floor and stairs reflect the mahogany furniture like water. I walked up the marble stairs with my eyes closed. I loved the feeling of the cold marble. Halfway up the stairs I stopped. The white double doors were wide open, welcoming. I could see him. As quietly as I could, I tiptoed into the room.
“Elise, it’s rude to sneak in.” I could hear his smile.
“Dammit, how’d you do that?” I said indignantly.
“Apple.” With his back to me he continued playing the piece.
“Apple?”
“Yeah, I can smell it.” It dawned on me. Apple, the scent of my perfume.
“I see…that’s your little trick eh?”
I walked into the circular room. The white grand piano matched the white marble of the floor. Half of the walls of the room was made of glass windows that went right up to the high ceiling. Zach was dressed in a black turtleneck and grey slacks. His flaming red hair contrasted with the whole room. I sat next to him on the piano bench. He composed the piece he was playing, called “Apple Scented”. I did not why it was titled so until then.
“I’m going to compose a duet.” Zach stopped playing and turned to me.
“For real? Cool. I’ll look forward to it!” I said enthusiastically. A duet! I would be able to play a duet with him.
I spent the rest of the evening with him in the piano room. Mostly, I watched him play but I also played a few of his pieces. I was exceedingly good at the piano. A child prodigy as people say. I went to Zach’s mansion daily after school. Mother used to worry. The idea of me spending hours alone in a room with a 25 year-old man did not appeal to her.
It had been 3 years since my first visit to Zach’s mansion. I was 11, racing my new bicycle up and down the lane. Then, I heard it. I heard the piano and went straight in. Zach thought I was lost, he sent me back but I was so persistent. I really wanted to hear him play the piano.
I did not know why Zach did not go to college. He was the sole heir of the Beechman family. Surely he has more than enough money for college. His housekeepers clean and cook for him daily but he would not let them enter the piano room or sleep at the mansion. This too was a mystery to me. Whenever I question him about his peculiar behaviour he would say, “I have my own mysterious ways, princess.” Yeah. Princess. He used to call me that. I was anything but a princess. No. I was the tomboy, my deceased twin, Amy was the princess.
“Zach, you don’t look so good…”
“Hm? No, no I’m fine.”
“Just look! You call these emaciated twigs arms?” I grabbed his wrists forcing him to stop playing. I was sitting with him at the piano. He was playing “Hole in my heart.” A sad piece that sounded quite eerie in its out-of-tune simplicity.
“It’s your 14th birthday tomorrow isn’t it?” Zach took his hands away from mine, folded them across his chest and smiled.
“Y-yeah…how’d you know that?”
“Linda told me. She has night shift tomorrow at the hospital, she asked me to baby-sit you.” I kept quiet. I turned my head away from him and looked at my feet. I was annoyed.
“Well, we can celebrate together. Come over at 8. I’ll have Roger bake a cake for you.” Zach twisted his torso facing me, leaned sideways and tilted his head, meeting my eyes. He had whiskey eyes…like apple juice. My heart soared. Dinner with Zach on my birthday…
“…Tell Roger I want a Black Forest cake.” I said quietly.
“As you wish, princess.” Zach placed his right hand on his heart and lowered his left arm into a bow.
“Don’t call me that.” I snapped and punched him in the shoulder.
“That hurts you know!” he exclaimed and laughed.
“Serves you right. I gotta go now. See you tomorrow.” I walked to the white double doors and halted.
“You’d better get me a present, Zach.”
“Of course. What do you want?”
I wanted him but of course I could not possibly say that.
“The mansion and a dance, with you.” I said and walked out. I pretty much asked for the impossible. The mansion, of course is his. The dance? Too intimate he might say.
I decided to wear a dress for once, Amy’s dress and not to spike my hair up. No Goth makeup either. It was a flowing white dress with silver embroidery at the hems of the sleeves and around the waist. A little bit of pastel makeup and apple scented perfume I was all set. “Fall in love with me, Zach” I whispered before I went up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs stood Zach, he was immaculately dressed in a grey suit. The suit hung beautifully on his tall frame. He left a couple of the buttons of his white shirt undone, baring his collarbones. His red hair was slicked back with a few locks falling into his face. His whiskey eyes glowed in the dim yellow light. He was thinner, almost gaunt but beautiful as ever. Zach offered me his hand as I reached the top of the stairs.
“You look beautiful, princess.” My heart fluttered in my chest. He looked really surprised.
“Thanks.”
“My pleasure.”
The chandelier sparkled in all its glory in the circular room. There was a little white round table beside the piano with two chairs. A Black Forest cake complete with candles sat on a glass cake stand. There was a bottle of apple juice beside it and the daintiest glasses and silverware that seemed like they might break if I were to use them. Beside the cake there was no other food. Two plates lay empty. Typical of Zach and his “mysterious ways”. I was not hungry anyway so it did not matter.
Zach pulled a chair out for me before he sat. The candles made his eyes sparkle. I waited but he said nothing. He simply stared at me as if he had never seen me before.
“Well?” I said
“Hm? You’re not expecting me to sing happy birthday are you?”
“No, I want you to play it for me.”
“Yes, but the candles first. It’ll melt on the cake. Roger wouldn’t like that.” Zach laughed.
“Okay.” I closed my eyes and made a wish. I wished that we could stay like that forever. I smiled and blew the candles.
“Happy 14th Birthday, princess.” Zach smiled and went over to the grand piano. I watched him. As his fingers brushed the keys I knew that I loved him. The simple tune of Happy Birthday sounded different on the off-tuned piano but I loved it all the same.
“Come.” Zach beckoned me to the piano.
“Look, it’s for you,” he said. There was some sheet music on the piano. A duet titled, “The Princess and I.” Zach composed it especially for me, for us. Without words, we started playing. It was beautiful, as if we sang to each other through the piece. My fingers danced with Zach's on the off-tuned piano. The piece filled the room, we smiled and laughed together. No words were needed. I got my dance. It was more intimate than a waltz could ever be. After we finished playing the duet I asked Zach to play a few more nocturnes for me. I savoured the moment. I wanted to remember that night forever.
“Would you like the other present now, princess?” Zach’s eyes sparkled.
“There’s another one?”
“You asked for the mansion and a dance. The mansion, is already yours.”
“I see.” I laughed. It was true. I came and went as I pleased. It was as good as mine.
“Zach?” I said after I stood up. It was almost 10.
“Yes?”
“I love you.” I touched his cheek with my right hand and looked at him. Zach tensed at the contact but did not recoil. His eyes that were smiling turned sad instantly. The few seconds that he kept quiet seemed like forever to me.
“Elise…” he whispered. My name foreign on his lips. I was undeterred; I did not remove my hand.
“My heart…it’s broken. I can’t love you.” He said. Exquisite. Even when in pain, Zach was beautiful to me. I knew it.
“With enough love and time, it’ll heal.” I said. His eyes seemed to tell me that I do not understand. Zach took my hand from his face and kissed my wrist. I swore he could feel my heart beating madly when his lips met my vein.
“So young and strong…” he breathed. Zach stood up and embraced me. I went hot and cold at the same time. He twisted a lock of my hair in his fingers and inhaled its scent. His right hand crushed me against his chest. Then almost instantly he let me go. As if the desperate act of embracing me were shameful. He looked bitter as he smirked at the floor. Zach covered his eyes with his hand. His fingers trembled.
“Zach?” I was very shocked.
“I’m sorry princess,” he removed his hand and smiled sadly. I kept quiet. I was confused, could it be that he loved me too?
“It’s 10 already. You should go home now. Linda’ll kill me!” Zach laughed. I was not fooled. I could see guilt, even disgust in his eyes.
“…G’nite Zach. Thanks.” Zach’s bitter expression haunted my mind. I did not know what it meant.
“Good night, princess.”
If I were to know that it would be our last time together I would not have left him. Zach died that night. Alone, in the circular room, on the hard cold floor. He had a heart attack. Mother knew he had heart problems. I found him the next morning. The agony of his death was inconceivable. I kissed him. I kissed the cold lips of his soulless body. I never set foot in the mansion ever again. I sealed memories of my time with Zach in it.
My name was in his will. He called his lawyer the night before he died. Zach left me a book, a compilation of his music pieces. It was a white hard covered book with “Pieces From A Broken Heart” stamped in gold on the cover. Cello taped to the inside of the cover was a set of keys. Zach had meant it literally when he said that the mansion was mine. I flipped through the book. All the pieces he composed starting from “Apple Scented” right to “The Princess and I”. More memories. At the end of the book, there was a note:
I love you too
I could hear it…in every single note of The Princess and I…”I love you too”…In the very walls of the piano room…”I love you too”…I could taste it on my wrist…”I love you too”…all over me…”I love you too.”
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