Away

36. Good practice

When Brett wakes up in the morning, he finds himself wrapped in Eddy's arms. The size difference means they fit together like two puzzle pieces. Like it's meant to be by nature's design. He can't believe that a chance meeting on a flight lead to this.  That he could be so lucky to find Eddy. "Morning Bretty" Eddy says, giving Brett a small kiss on the cheek before lying down again. "I can't believe we both slept until morning. The sun wasn't even down yet when we fell asleep".

Brett sits up so he can go to the bathroom. He smiles at Eddy. "I think we both needed it after all that happened the last few days. And I think this ranks up there with the sleep we had in first class. One of the best I've ever had". With that he gets up and heads to the bathroom.

He finds Eddy in the kitchen doing dishes. He starts to boil some water for coffee and prepares the cups. "You know, my mother gifting us all these things was magic. Now I just wish some fairies would show up to unpack everything", he says as he glances at all the boxes waiting near the front door. "I know what you mean", Eddy says as he packs the things back in the cupboard. They sit on the couch to have their coffee.

"I think we should finish all the big things first", Brett says, "then we have somewhere to put stuff as we unpack. Like the computer stand, the small tables and the ironing board". "Makes sense", Eddy says. He stares at the music stand. They need to practice first. There's so many things they need to work on. And he hates going to an audition not being able to play at least some parts from memory.

With that, he gets up and unpacks his violin and bow. "I was thinking about the new violin you bought. You never even used it. I think we should call the owner of the violin shop to see if he can give you a refund. I will explain the situation to him". Brett agrees. He hasn't even opened the case after leaving the shop. And it's a lot of money just sitting there.

They get the violins in tune, and then they start from the first passage. They are playing more in unison now, even though some parts still gives them technical challenges. Eddy grabs a pencil, and decides to mark every passage they struggle with. Once they played through the entire piece, he turns the pages back to the first part they struggled with. "OK. I think we should practice these parts separately until we nail it". They played through slowly first, discussing what they did wrong and then focusing on correcting it. After replaying the passage for the sixth time they got it right.

They didn't realize they've been at it for 4 hours already. Both are hungry. Eddy prepares the remaining instant pancakes and Brett makes more coffee. "You are a genius", Brett says after a while. "I think replaying the hard parts first will work. I tend to play the easy parts over and over and ignore the difficult ones." "I also did that", Eddy says. "Instant gratification if you play something well and people like it. When I was working in the recording studio that was no longer effective. We had so many pieces coming through every week, and all of them had tight deadlines. I had to learn new ways to overcome technical difficulties, and this seems to work for me".

After breakfast they open some of the taller boxes to find the ironing board. They find the rod and curtain for the bath first. Eddy goes to sit on the couch. He opens the packet, shakes the curtain open and then winds the plastic hoops into the metal rings in the curtain. He removes the end cap from the rod and slides all the hooks onto the rod. He screws back the end cap and goes to hang it in the bathroom. When he returns, Brett assembled the ironing board already. They search for the iron, and find the 4 small tables in the process. Eddy takes one to each bedroom and puts one on each side of the couch. Brett found the iron.

"Bring me the clothes, I will iron it quickly", he says. "you can unpack some more stuff". Eddy gladly obliged. He hates ironing. As Brett positioned himself near the kitchen, he puts all the laundry on the breakfast nook. Then he starts with boxes, first he looks for all the big things. The TV. He unpacks it, then positions it on the little TV stand. Next the computer desk. He fetches the small toolset and assembles it. He puts it against the wall between the TV and the kitchen. Then he transfers the laptop and printer over.

Brett finished the ironing by now, and after switching of the iron he stretches his back, lifting his arms and twirling them around to relieve the pain in his shoulders. It's been a while since he ironed these many things in one go. "I'm taking a shower", he says, taking his bundle of ironed clothes with him to the bedroom. Eddy folds up the ironing board and puts it in the hallway closet, leaving the iron on the counter to cool down first. He takes his clothes and puts it away in his cupboard, keeping one set on the bed for wearing.

He looks up the details of the violin shop and then speaks to the shop owner for a while. He agrees to take back the violin, but as the bow was already rosined in the shop, he can't refund them for the bow. Seems fair. And a spare bow is always good. He hears Brett's bedroom door close, then goes to take a shower as well.  Once done, he tells the news to Brett, who is sitting on his bed, drying his hair. "Wow.  Thanks for arranging it", Brett says.  "We can go return it now". 

Eddy gets dressed and dries his hair.  He smiles as he puts on socks.  Brett sorted the space socks with his laundry.  He puts on shoes and then they are ready to go. Brett takes the bow and rosin out of the case and zips it up again.