In Love With the Keys

Submitted by Brooklyn Munguia.

The same red stilettos cackled across the marble flooring as she ambled into the elegant space once more. The room was dim and quiet per usual, only the low murmurs from the people around her as she made her way through the bar, taking a seat in front of the stage as she always did. This jazz club had been her favorite place ever since she was eighteen. She swirled her finger around the small flame in the middle of the table as the stage light grew brighter in front of her.

“Up next, our nightly performer, Arlow Williams!” The unknown announcer welcomed him the same as he did every night.

She studied the all black suit tailored to the man’s body as he rambled across the stage settling onto the bench in front of the beautiful dark piano without making a sound. He ever so gently placed his hands on the keys of the piano barely grazing them as though he wasn’t touching them at all. He started the same way every night at eight o’clock on the dot at the famous Birdland Jazz Club. The place gets flooded at this time of night. They want to hear his elegant tunes, others come to see how charming he is, but for her it was something more special than that.

The dim lights gave his pale skin a warm gold glow enhancing his sharp features. His eyes were closed and a light scowl took over his face as he quickly inhaled and let the magic begin. The rich soulful melody echoed through the room while his fingers effortlessly danced across the keys. The lighting only emphasized his graceful yet intense performance as his posture remained poised while his arms flowed like the ocean at night. With every new key hit, was a new emotion unlocked, you couldn’t help but be moved by his angelic song. Some watched him, not with any intent, just not knowing where else to look while others quietly chatted under the music, but her eyes never left his hands. She watched his lengthy fingers land on each key without missing a beat. Anyone looking at her could tell how memorized by him she was.

She caught his glance for a split second as he arose from his bench while she brought her hands together for a soft clap, her eyes full of admiration as she fell out of her hypnosis. He flashed his charming smile and thanked the crowd with a wave and a bow. Her lips parted into a soft smile looking down as he departed from the stage, gathering her things together. The nightly performances weren’t over, but the returning guest knew she came for this hour and this hour only. When he was there so was she and when he wasn’t, neither was she. She uncrossed her legs letting her stiletto clink against the floor as she stood tall. She brushed any wrinkles out of her dress, took one last sip of her champagne, and like a cat in the night she was gone in seconds.

It was a cold winter night of Christmas eve, Arlow barged in through the back entrance of the club, the icy air disappearing behind him as the door shut. He took a deep breath letting the warmth engulf him for a moment as he mumbled a curse against the cold under his frozen breath. The warm ambiance of his dressing room soothed him before his show, with a whiff of bourbon and cinnamon filling the air around him. He could feel the tension ease off his shoulders as he took off his dress coat laying it down on a leather lounge chair listening to the distinct clinks of glass and chatter from the people waiting for him to perform. There were now Christmas lights dangling from his dressing room walls, he admired them as he slumped down into his chair. A Hot Buttered Rum sat on the side table waiting for him as it had every day this month. He picked up the glass swirling it in his hand as he stared at the blank wall remembering his first performance.

Arlow, freshly sixteen stepped foot into this dressing room for the first time twelve years ago, on December twenty second. John Valenti had admired how he used the piano and would go to insist that he play at his club, the Birdland Jazz Club. As a boy Arlow dreamed of playing there; he just never thought the day would come so soon. Not many people came to see him that first night, but each day he returned there would be more and more people coming to watch the young soul play so perfectly. Every time he stepped on that stage, when the spotlight was on him, it was like there was nothing else in the world, just him and that piano. There was nothing that could get between him and that piano and the magic they created together. From the amount of nights he spent with that piano his music career was bound to grow and it did. Every night he comes to perform it was like he was sixteen again playing there for the first time. His music career has skyrocketed since then, but every night he pays tribute to the place that started it all.

With one final sip of his drink, he gently laid the glass back down as he got up, adjusting his suit. He could hear the crowd go quiet signaling that his spotlight had brightened, waiting for him to appear and bring the Christmas spirit for the twelfth year in a row. He let out a sigh before stepping out of the room quietly, adjusting his posture, his energy lower than normal. He crept closer to the stage studying it like he did everytime before he went on. Lilith wasn’t there. After the past ten years of her being there, she wasn’t. He always sold out, no empty tables, but the table in front of the stage was completely empty besides a rose, a drink menu, and a dim lit candle. He entered the stage the same way he always has, but there was something different. Not physically, but you could feel it. His fingers moved as they wanted, letting the dark rich notes linger through the air. The show must go on, he kept repeating to himself in his head, but her lingering eyes weren’t on him and he could tell.

The black Cadillac pulled into the horseshoe driveway slowly. Arlow watched the black Mercedes pull in head on from the back seat, rum in hand and tie loosened. The driver opened his door once they reached the front entrance and he got out, adjusted his suit, and made his way to the door in a swift yet steady rhythm. He fumbled for keys in his pocket getting ever so slightly irritated not being able to get a grasp on them. He mumbled to himself looking down at his pockets in search of the keys when he was greeted with red stilettos barely behind him. He wanted the sight of those shoes to work him up even more, but he couldn’t help but feel at ease. She ever so gently rested her hand on his tricep as she stepped forward unlocking the door gracefully, unlike how he had previously been. She let her hand graze off him as she stepped inside of their home, her heels making the same clink as they do everynight in the jazz club. He followed behind her, neither of them saying a word, before he turned around to close the door behind him. When he turned back around he was greeted with not only Lilith, but the grand piano in the middle of the fourier she was leaning on with one hand.

“Play for me.” She demanded calmly.

They had gotten into their worst fight yet for their seventh anniversary of marriage, but without a second thought in the world he made his way to the piano. He took off his dress coat draping it on top of the piano, stretching his arms in preparation for the keys. He let out a sigh staring up at her. She knew he was giving in to the tension between them, she was watching the anger disappear from his eyes while her lips curved into a delicate smile. He couldn’t help but return the same smile as he looked back down at the keys like a kid receiving a compliment, forgetting his previous emotions. She listened to the piano begin slowly and quietly remembering why she has returned to the jazz club every night for the past eight years. It was to recall the same feelings they shared the first day they met, to relight the same young love spark over and over again.

Christmas eve, Lilith stepped inside of the Birdland with her father on her arm. Her new red stilettos that she was gifted for her eighteenth birthday clicked against the cold marble floor. The widest smile was plastered upon her face as the smell of wood, leather, and whiskey filled her senses. She had fallen in love with music at a young age and all she had wanted to do since then was to visit the Birdland Jazz Club. She was finally gifted with a tickets to New York where she’d finally receive her biggest wish. Her and her father sat at the table directly in front of the stage right as the lights began to go dim. The Christmas jazz filled her heart with warmness, a feeling like no other, causing her smile not to disappear for a second the whole night. The spotlight seemed to shine brighter as a young poised young man made his way onto the stage, Arlow Williams. She was utterly fascinated by him, her stomach filled with butterflies while it began to feel as though it was only the two of them in the whole building. He caught her eyes as he prepared himself to share his talents to the crowd. That’s when the world stopped. This was truly love at first sight, you could almost feel their souls gravitating towards each other, but he had to pull himself out of this love trance like state to begin the show. The beautiful sounds he could create with his hands and spirit, only drew her closer to him causing her to fall harder and harder as each measure went by.

She slipped off her red stilettos sitting on the bench beside him the same way she did after the jazz club had closed the day they had met. She watched his hands dance gracefully across the piano as she ran her hand through his hair.

“I’m sorry for missing your show tonight.” She said softly, placing a kiss on his cheek.

He proceeded to play with his eyes closed, but she knew he had accepted her apology. The smell of cinnamon and evergreen wafted through the air while the melody of the rich keys echoed through the foyer. There was no more and no less love in the air as there was the night they had met. The beautiful couple that had found each other through music sat at the piano, her head rested on his shoulder and snowflakes fluttered from the sky while the moon light perfectly lit them and only them, her red stilettos sat beside her as the couple continued to fall in love over and over again over the keys.

Brooklyn Munguia is a student at Spanaway Lake High School, with a goal to be an author after college.