Chapter 24: THE FLUTE
God's Little Drop of Water
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Later that day, Taliya decided that she wanted to learn to play the flute. The piano lessons had largely fizzled, mostly due to the fact that Yair had at last refused to return to the meat-stench infested apartment where the large Russian piano teacher lived. He was convinced that if they did return, they would now find only one dog instead of two, and that the woman would try to serve them a plate of meat, the origin of which was clear.
The prospect of being forced to eat a plate of meat was enough to convince Taliya that perhaps Yair had a point.
Besides, there were plenty of other ways to learn music.
And a flute seemed a perfectly lovely instrument. A flute was also much easier to carry around than a piano was. It would even fit inside Taliya’s backpack. She could therefore take it anyplace she liked, and could play it at the beach or while sitting under a tree.
Or in a cave.
Because, most of all, Taliya had seen the nice man playing a flute in her dream. He had long black hair and kind eyes that sparkled in the firelight. She wanted very much to hear the lovely flute music once more. She would therefore play it herself.
Ima visited the one-and-only music store in town, The Sound of Music, and brought home a flute for Taliya. It was black and white and very shiny. Taliya thanked Ima immensely. She took the flute into her bedroom and commenced playing it.
She tried, anyway.
Playing the flute was not as easy as Taliya had expected. It was nothing like the piano, which had keys. Press the key and music comes out. With the flute, one was required to blow air through the instrument in a very specific way while placing one’s fingers over the many tiny holes.
And the sound produced was…horrendous. It was hardly the lovely, lilting music Taliya had hoped for, like the delicate melody created by the man in the cave.
No matter. Tomorrow she would join the after-school music class, where she would learn to play the flute.
♦♦♦
Dracula.
Music teacher or not, he looked like Count Dracula. His name was Mr. Rafa and he was from Romania. Taliya had read Dracula by Bram Stoker and she was confident this was the same guy.
Mr. Rafa placed all of the students in a half-circle, facing him. He proceeded to tell them all about the flute before playing one himself. He was quite good.
Taliya watched him carefully, studying how he blew air into the mouthpiece and where he placed his fingers.
That afternoon, Taliya walked home and went straight to her bedroom, where she practiced playing her flute. There was little improvement.
The next day, Taliya once more joined Mr. Rafa’s class. But rather than playing the flute as he had yesterday, Mr. Rafa began talking about a movie which had just been released. He went on and on about how wonderful the film’s musical score was. He even had an LP of the film’s soundtrack. He held it up for everyone to see. But the cover depicted dark and depressing things, things Taliya did not want to look at or think about.
Eventually, Mr. Rafa got down to teaching them how to play the flute, and Taliya hoped that would be the last of the LP with the horrid cover.
That night, Taliya awoke from a terrible nightmare, screaming. A nightmare about that LP. Ima and Abba rushed into her bedroom, frightened over hearing Taliya’s screams. They assured her it was just a dream, and Abba stroked Taliya’s hair until she was able to fall asleep once more.
The next day, Mr. Rafa opened the class with more discussion of the LP, which he held up prominently for them all to look at while he played the record on a record player. The music was scary.
Taliya got up from her chair and began walking towards the door.
“Where are you going?” Mr. Rafa asked.
“I’m leaving. I don’t want to look at that! I don’t like this music. I’m going someplace where life is good and people are happy.”
Taliya walked out of the room.
♦♦♦
By the time Taliya arrived home and was sitting on her bed, she had decided she did not want to play the flute.
But after Ima had made a special trip to buy the flute, Taliya knew that simply refusing to play it would not be acceptable.
If the flute were to break somehow, or to be damaged in some manner, and become unplayable, perhaps that was the answer. She then would not have to look at Mr. Rafa or listen to his dreadful music ever again.
Taliya hurled the flute out of her bedroom window. The flute twirled against the blue sky and fell out of sight.
Taliya approached the window and looked down.
There was the flute, four stories down, lying on the sidewalk below.
Taliya hurried from her bedroom, through the apartment, and made her way down all four flights of stairs to the lobby (the elevator had not yet been repaired), and at last out to the sidewalk where the flute lie.
Taliya picked it up.
The flute was fine.
She had expected it to be shattered, or bent, or broken, and generally unplayable.
But it wasn’t.
It had nary a scratch upon its gleaming black exterior. The shiny white mouthpiece was intact.
Taliya made her way up to the fourth floor and returned to her bedroom. She hurled the flute through the window a second time.
When she looked down, it was once more lying on the sidewalk some forty feet below.
Taliya descended the many stairs hurriedly, her shoes clicking upon the stairs like a tap dancer. She went outside and retrieved the flute, only to find it whole.
Taliya returned to her bedroom.
She tossed the flute out the window again.
And then again.
Surely the fourth time would do it.
But when she picked it up from where it had once again landed on the sidewalk, the flute was whole. How it could have survived was astonishing.
Taliya at once recognized this as a sign, a miracle. Clearly she was meant to play this flute. She immediately apologized to the flute and promised to keep it safe and whole and not to throw it out the window any more. And she promised God that she would treat the flute with respect and she would learn to play it well, so the flute could fulfill its purpose.
Taliya returned to music class the next day and was like a different student, playing the flute beautifully.
She went on to play the flute for another two years, learning to play it masterfully, until gradually progressing to piano and to learning to dance ballet.
Even after she no longer attended flute lessons at school, Taliya kept the flute tucked away in a special place in her bedroom, hidden in a drawer, where it would remain safe and whole.
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