Limelight Melody

(I) Music at the Mall

Felix drummed his fingers against his violin case, letting out a sigh. No one had been to the piano all day, letting it sit in the sea of shoppers that filtered by. Typically, at least three people stopped by the piano to play on Sundays, but it had been over five hours and not a single soul had even given the piano a glance.

"Need more coffee?" Sharon asked, gesturing at Felix's empty mug. With a sigh, he nodded, glancing back out the window of the small shop.

The shop was one of the cheapest stores in the mall. Malls were notoriously expensive in the days of online shopping, and it was getting increasingly harder to get anything at a reasonable price. Thankfully, the Solar Cafe kept its prices low and its service high. They were nice enough to let Felix have an entire table to himself for a whole day, if the cafe wasn't super busy.

Felix glanced down at the violin case on his lap. He was itching to play, even just a single note. It'd been a while since he'd played, with everything changing in his life. The violin, his calming activity, had been unreachable for so long, it was starting to take its toll.

"Here you go," Sharon said as she placed a steaming hot cup in front of Felix. "A horrifyingly cream and sugar filled drink that barely resembles coffee."

Felix rolled his eyes. "Black coffee is too bitter."

"There's like two drops of coffee in this. Any less and it'd be cheaper to just buy a bag of sugar and eat it."

"And that's still too bitter."

"Whatever you say, weirdo," Sharon peered out the window. "Still no one?"

"No," Felix sighed. "I might just go home at this point. Come back another time."

"You should wait a little longer. Have patience."

"It's been five hours. I've practiced quite a lot of patience today."

"Then what's one more hour?"

Felix opened his mouth to object, but Sharon's boss shouted to her from the kitchen. She quickly hurried away, off to fill more orders and deal with her boss. Felix watched her for a moment before turning to the coffee. Steam was rolling off of it in such a thick cloud that he could barely see through it. Deciding he still wanted his taste buds, Felix ignored it for a bit.

Time seemed to crawl by as Felix watched the piano, his gaze unmoving. Even still, no one seemed interested in the piano. Every person that passed by made Felix slightly more irritable, his impatience growing by the second. Half an hour in, he gave up, setting his violin beside him.

Felix grabbed the coffee and started chugging it, the liquid now cool enough to drink without burning his throat. He drained it, then set it aside. He pulled out two twenty dollar bills and placed them on the table. He was fairly certain he overpaid by a large margin, but it just meant more for Sharon.

As Felix grabbed his violin case, he heard the faint sound of a piano note. His head whipped up, scanning the piano area frantically. A young woman with long blond hair was sitting at the piano bench, staring at the piano. Gently setting her hands on the keys, she began to play a melody.

Hurriedly grabbing his things, Felix rushed out of the cafe and towards the piano. People gave him weird looks as he sped walked, but he didn't care. He'd waited all day just to play in public, and he wasn't going to let the opportunity pass. As he drew close, he slowed down, not wanting to offset the piano player. He set his stuff down and waited quietly for the piece to end.

"Hey, would you mind if I played with you?" Felix asked the woman once she was finished. She nodded slowly, looking at him warily.

"What do you want to play?" She had a thick french accent, which made it slightly hard for Felix to understand her.