Lonely Duet

Katy had her headphones on, canceling out the noise as the soft padding cupped her ears. She walked down the middle of the school hallway and heard no one. The only sound in her head was the upbeat rhythm of a saxophone blaring a playful melody. The other students stared at Katy as she strut through the hallway. She smiled contently; undisturbed by the world around her, nodding her head to the beat.

The students found Katy weird; they didn’t understand her connection to music. There was something melodic in everything, she would tell them. Katy once spent an entire lunch detailing the magic of music to her peers, using the table and silverware as instruments. There was little she could do to help them relate; but Katy knew someone out there would understand her.

Not only did Katy soothe her soul with old records of saxophonists but she also played nightly. She sat in her bedroom and played by the window, breathing into the saxophone and confessing sweet nothings into the night. The low brass notes charmed the neighborhood; like a rooster that wakes a farm, so Katy sang the saxophone to wish them goodnight.

One night, Katy played the neighborhood goodnight when suddenly her music echoed. The saxophone notes returned to her direction, repeating the melody. Katy leaned closer to the window and played a three note tune. A three note tune came back in the distance. Someone was playing a saxophone with Katy somewhere in the neighborhood. Katy played another tune, pausing to let the mysterious musician return the melody – but before she could try another tune, the mysterious musician challenged Katy. It played its own tune; so Katy repeated those notes. It played another measure, and Katy copied it perfectly. Then the mysterious saxophone began singing its own song. Katy was encouraged to play hers and form a duet. From opposite ends of the neighborhood, Katy and a distant saxophone played together an improvised melody that sparkled the night sky, harmonizing beautifully and partnering like old friends. The saxophone in the distance died down and went to sleep. Katy finally felt understood; there was someone out there after all.

Each night after school at 9pm, Katy was sure to prop herself beside her window at the same time and play along with the mysterious saxophone. Together they challenged each other with complicated melodies and jammed triumphantly as a duo. Night after night after night at 9pm, Katy breathed effortlessly with the companionship of someone she had never met; but like any musician could say: once musicians play together, they’re bonded for life.

Katy passed by the students roaming the halls with her noise canceling headphones on, avoiding those she could never click with, as cliques avoided her odd personality. The days were easier to get through now that Katy could hold out for something. No matter how lonely she might feel or how outcast she was, Katy would watch the clock and count the hours until 9pm when she would serenade the neighborhood with the distant saxophone player.

Katy came home, had her dinner, finished her homework, and read a book until it was exactly 9pm. She smiled and opened her bedroom window. She played a cheerful toot from her saxophone, like a happy brass greeting. She waited to hear what melodic greeting the mysterious musician would reply with. She waited. There was no response. Katy checked the clock on her wall and saw it was definitely 9pm, no matter how she looked at it. She tried again, blowing a quirky toot into the saxophone and attempted once more to greet the mysterious musician. But there was still no reply. Katy sat by her window and waited ten minutes before she decided she’d try it one last time. A quirky toot, and she waited. After her third try and no reply, Katy did her best to cast out doubts about their musical bond; she denied the lies that she was unwanted by the mysterious musician, but it was much harder than she thought. She finally came to the conclusion that perhaps the mysterious musician might be out of town or is with another friend at the moment. Katy theorized a plethora of excuses in an effort to ease her anxieties that this stranger, so dear to her heart, had outcast her too.

Another day passed and Katy mustered through the school day, dodging her peers until the final bell rang. Katy finished her dinner, studied for a test, and then sat by the window at 9pm. She played a few notes, but for second night in a row Katy was met with silence. The most difficult sound anyone must come to grips with is silence, particularly for a musician, and especially from a friend. Katy battled the difficulty of silence while her musical companion left her alone in the night.

For a week Katy tried greeting her mysterious musician, but she never heard the reply of a distant saxophone.

A month had passed and Katy had given up on playing for the neighborhood. In fact, she had given up on saxophone. She hadn’t played it since the last week she tried calling out to the mysterious musician. School worsened for her as there was now nothing to hold out for. She had a harder time avoiding cliques that went out of their ways to exclude her, and she continued to sit alone at lunch.

One afternoon on a weekend, Katy’s mother dragged her to a garage sale down the street. She had no interest in going but she couldn’t think of an excuse quick enough to get out of her mother’s errand. Katy walked on the front lawn of an elderly woman’s house, who smiled kindly at Katy. Katy smiled back but tried bothering the elderly woman by rummaging noisily through the boxes and stepping loudly, just to spite her mother.

Then Katy found something that made her stop in her tracks. Against the frame of the house on a stand was a saxophone.

“Excuse me,” Katy asked the elderly woman. “Is this yours?”

The elderly woman stared at Katy and then smiled fondly. “Ohhh. So you’re the one.”

“You played saxophone with me?” Katy asked excitedly.

“No, dear,” the elderly woman informed regrettably. “That was my husband.”

“Where is he?”

“He passed away about a month ago.”

Katy held back tears. She realized the mysterious musician she had bonded with never abandoned her intentionally. In fact, he had given his dying breath into his saxophone to duet with her.

“I’m sorry,” Katy said.

“Don’t you be sorry,” the elderly woman replied proudly. “You have nothing to feel but joy. My husband, Judson, hadn’t played sax in quite some time. But when he heard you, he couldn’t help but break out his old instrument and play along.”

“He was remarkable,” Katy reminisced warmly.

“Yes. Yes, he was. And he thought the same of you. What’s your name, dear?”

“I’m Katy.”

“Katy, my Judson would want you to have it.”

Katy looked carefully at the saxophone. “Really?”

“Absolutely. The way you two played together was very special, and he would want it in good hands. Hands that know how to play it just right.” The elderly woman bent down and handed Katy the saxophone.

Katy held it like a priceless artifact. An overwhelming sensation overtook her; the companionship she had bonded for nights came from this simple instrument, and yet she would never meet the man behind it. He is now just a memory, but the most precious to Katy. The man behind that saxophone encouraged her to push through her days and look forward to something better. Yet she couldn’t ever look forward to playing with him again.

“I know I never met him,” Katy confessed, “but I’m going to miss him. A lot.”

“You’re not alone in that, dear,” the elderly woman agreed. “In fact, you don’t ever have to be alone again. I know he’s watching from above, and if you want to play for him, I’m sure he’s already found a saxophone in heaven to duet with you.” Katy smiled and hugged her tightly.

That night, Katy took her new saxophone and sat by the window. She breathed passionately into the brass instrument, playing a beautiful melody of melancholy and hope. In the night, Katy new Judson was playing with her, somewhere out there, bonded for life and into eternity.