Chapter 24 - Music

The last time I cried around other people was at a local retail warehouse when I heard a gorgeous, whirlwind melody on a piano placed past the books but before the produce. At first, I figured it was an automatic piece. But, while wandering for oatmeal, I glimpsed a young man with his hands dancing around the keys with comfortable ease.

An older woman stood beside him with her hands clenched and her head dipping side-to-side. Whatever plan I had for shopping, weighing bulk sizes against whether I could ever finish them, left my mind. I stood nearby to absorb the melody, alongside several other bystanders with their cellphones out. Some of the pieces I recognized as rearranged film soundtracks along with a few sections that recalled video games.

When he stopped, a light, respectful round of applause, which I contributed to, circled the area. Lingering, I watched praise shine on him. Casually listening, I soon put together that the woman beside him was his mother. Fragments about his performance on a late-night program and his YouTube channel drifted around like scattered photons. What held my attention was how his biggest fan seemed to be his mother.

Her expression was calm and accepting. She beamed with his every gesture, a small but sparkling fountain of praise. I laced my arms around the cart and felt my stomach beating against my throat. I cried without reprieve or noise. My face felt hot and blurry. Dozens of people passed me and didn't care. It was the quintessential moment of my life.

I had a random panic attack in college where I nearly vomited across the cafeteria table and everyone just went about their evening with smiles and laughter. I was broken to the core of my being. I had to be strong but was expected to be a hopeless wretch. Mother was my black pit of confinement and insults.

In junior high, I took up the piano for several weeks but my mother both withered my efforts with venomous words and scolded me to work harder. Scaly sores covered my fingertips to the point I turned the ivory keys dull-red. My hands shook in pain and trembled even decades later. Eventually, I was released from my piano lessons with only pain and fear as my education.

Seeing a mirror universe of what could've happened in another, better life left me silently sobbing without a whisper of random sympathy. I prayed and begged in the car after I secured everything in the trunk. Hands in the air, I tried to mime the melodies to myself, but my hands soon started to shake again. Not even a hint of my tears appeared by the time I was somehow ready for the internship at mother's investment firm, but she still knew. Like a shark before a wounded seal, she could sense my pain and dug even deeper.

The music in the calming rain reminded me of that random performance.

It was singing though but with something like the backing of an orchestra. At the same time, it didn't sound like any voice or instrument I could place. Parts resembled a funny video I'd seen once involving a theremin. Other bits were like a pitched up but still ethereal opera singer. No matter what it sounded like or was meant to sound like, it was a melody that crested sharply through the dregs of the storm.

Elbee leaned forward but kept clear of the remaining rainfall. I wasn't going to go exploring even if the music sounded beautiful. Fortunately, the tune and the singer found us.

Emerging from the cloak of the shower with leg and wing harmoniously vibrating, I noticed a sleek-shelled lime-green creature with antennas that nearly touched the ground in front of them. In some ways, it had the feeling of a Shashelm with a more ostentatious appearance. Elbee raised her legs but made no noise. The song was vibrant and clear.

Gather near and hear my song
It's bold and bright but never long
I hold it tight with ecstasy
Right before I set it free
All shall hear, I am not coy
I belt it out, my truest joy
Though the skies do drain above
I sing true and for my love

Approaching us, this insect spread their legs out as though they were the star in a Broadway musical with a warm light across its features instead of the dull, iron sky. I was content to leave it alone in its shower symphony but Elbee marveled and inquired, "What is that?"

With a flash of bounding, startled activity, the green crooner hopped away a safe distance then declared, "Well now, you two just came out of the haze, didn't you? Or was I so caught up that I didn't notice?"

I looked to Elbee, who still had her gaze on the puzzle of this new bug. Answering for both of us, I offered, "We've been keeping safe from the rain under here for a while."

Regarding us with a shift of its carapace, the bug declared, "Guess it's on me then. But then why would anyone want to hide from such a beautiful outpouring of inspiration from above? I find I can only make music like this when my shelter is the percussion of the world around me."

Vibrating again, it began.

There's no reason to stay inside
Embrace the beauty, don't run and hide
Feel the river in my flow
With the music that will show
What I share is all I know
And so much more is left to go
A little water sets me free
To where I truly want to be

Being randomly serenaded by an insect definitely wasn't something I expected but I'd take it over the feral swarm that laid waste to two homes so far. Rubbing my legs together as best as possible to make a thin but rough noise, I wasn't sure what might best approximate applause but I told the passerby that its music was very nice.

Brushing its natural instruments, the stranger announced, "Much obliged, especially as I notice you seem to be a Shashelm. I don't mean to speak ill of your kind, but I always save a strong jump, in case you get hungry around me."

The blunt implication made me draw back. It was the animal kingdom and I knew roaches would eat anything, but I'd not yet known an empty...belly in all my life. I certainly couldn't imagine being at the point of eating something or someone who could converse with me. I felt warm without the privilege of a blush, and announced, "I promise you have nothing to fear. I'm not like that."

The insect gave a muffled twang from its body and remarked, "Well, you seem like a young one. I do also fret about your compatriot's colors and watchful expression but you don't follow the musical persuasion without inviting a little danger to follow behind you."

Elbee jumped in, "I still don't understand what...and how?"

Drawing its parts together for a wordless, sedate melody, the stranger noted, "I emerged from my egg sleep with the notes already inside me. 'How' is in my nature, 'what' is the truest beauty I can express, 'why' because I can, and 'who' is the humble practitioner of the auditory arts you see before you, Legato Cantore."

After a pause in both the rain and the performance, it added, "Now, if that seems a whole lot of name for little old me, you're welcome to keep it simple and just call me Leg. If you need more, the Legendary Lyrical Lime-Green Gleam Grochillan who stands before you."

Starting up again, Leg sung.

I don't need an easy bed
Nor place that holds my heavy head
I can jump from branch to branch
Like the swooning colors of romance
I'm an old pro at this dance
Just give me this one chance
I have a melody that's real
Kindly don't make me your meal
A pleasure meeting both of you
But now I sadly bid...adieu

Like a gunshot, that little streak of green cut through the lines of water and was gone. Elbee lingered in silence until she finally resolved, "I still don't understand what that was about. It seemed to be trying to pass along some information, but much of it felt inscrutable."

I had to remind myself that she didn't have any sort of interest in mating rituals or artistic endeavors. Sitting on my words for a while, I eventually tried, "That thing seems to collect rhythms like you collect the stuff up above."

Nodding her head even though it was clear that hadn't done it for her, Elbee posed, "So, does it eat them?"

"It...seems to regurgitate them in a particular way."

"For what purpose, though?" Elbee continued to mull it over, but she clearly bent towards my authority. Like I had any. It had been ages since I read much about insects, let alone musical ones. I had a few possibilities for what that creature might be but Shashelm didn't perfectly match up with roaches, considering my lack of wings even though Sana's climbing skill begged me to wonder if she really could fly. But, as far as I had seen, it wasn't the case.

I had to concede that only Leg could know that purpose. While that had to suffice for Elbee's curiosity, it did nothing to whet it.

Getting Elbee to understand detours to lovely flowers and purposes that didn't begin and end with siblings and her mother was enough. Singing just because you wanted to, as Leg professed, wasn't worth fashioning a scaffold to let her understand it, especially when I was just guessing about its motivations.

The remnants of the storm receded with patches of blue threatening to blast streams of light instead of moisture. Elbee fastidiously dried herself and seemed thoroughly pleased with the redirection to a normal day. The mud beneath my legs rubbed like hard glue as I worked to comfortably stretch. Other passing insects finally flickered against the once-sullen backdrop.

I could imagine they'd all been hiding like us from the smell of death and then the inundation of petrichor. Elbee hesitantly buzzed upwards to check the route. Though the worst of the ominous smell was gone, my body could still catch a hint of it, like dousing dirty clothes in layers of air freshener.

Sifting through my thoughts for something to clear Elbee's lingering confusion about a carefree traveling singer, I noted how we shared stories before, but Elbee corrected me there, "Stories are filled with purpose and understanding about things to be resolved. What that thing did, didn't really achieve that sensible threshold. Elpis dance to convey information. We don't dance just to....dance. The closest articulation is when I get frustrated and speak of petals. I'm doing my best to stop that and be more forthwith and less w-wasteful."

Fumbling to come up with a sense that might be more positive, I reflected on the memory of the piano player. That would take far too much explanation though. How could I push a bee through Marlow's hierarchy of needs when I barely remembered them, and mom kept me clawing at the lower levels. Elbee could definitely understand physical and basic needs along with the kinship of her Elpis. What would self-actualization be to one of her kind? Was that even what Leg was on about? I could hardly visualize it for myself or remember the details of the list from some long ago, required psychology course.

Before I could articulate a tracing of such concepts, the buzz, flutter, and crinkle of the other insects rushed away like a mute button had been pressed on the entire world. Even the distant roll of thunder fell aside in the stifled, last trickles of beaded and standing water.

Something was wrong.

As soon as that notion entered my head, a rush of buzz saw noise zoomed on top of us with a blue-green, radiant monster slashing the ground like a predatory helicopter. Vesperil!

My mind flashed between what weapon to make of the stems above or the rocks at my feet. Elbee swooped in front of me with brutal fury. Her angry stinger flared even as I felt her limbs quiver around me. It was the horror which had shredded and gnawed through Flax then injected my family with some sort of tranquilizer...and more. I didn't expect this so soon. Elbee and her one strike. Me and my still-developing shell. What did my limbs have compared to Sana and Silt?

Before I could bring them around as a weapon, another flash of sound and light dropped right next to the monster. With an ear-splitting shriek to break minds and shatter glass, Leg held a painful note right beside the beast.

The Vesperil's moans devolved to pained gurgles as it tumbled and twitched around on the ground. Pausing to speak, Legato commanded, "Flee, while it's still a possibility!"