Music for marbles
In spring, Eric discovered that she was actually living across the street from him, two houses distance. It was when Stella’s father bought her a synthesizer that Eric found out she was actually closer to him than he had thought.
Eric was doing his homework and his window was open; the spring warmth came in with noises of birds and cars passing by, when he heard the magical voice and the surreal singing above everything.
He stood up, threw away the notebook and ran in the street. He was determined to find the source of the melody.
The voice was accompanied this time by electric sounds, from her new toy.
Eric stopped under the window and listened. When the song was over, he clapped his hands enthusiastically in applause, not realizing what he was doing. She probably heard it because her fuzzy hair appeared in the window. And then, her sharp bright eyes sent shivers through Eric’s skin. Her eyes were intimidating and fascinating at the same time. He was smiling ecstatic in total surrender when she looked at him a bit surprised. He hoped she wasn’t upset because he had clapped his hands.
She wasn’t.
“That’s like a pirate’s applause”, she laughed. “I wasn’t aware someone was listening. Did you like my song?”
Eric was exhilarated she was really talking to him, after many months of his secret adoration from a distance. He wasn’t going to miss the chance of having a conversation with the girl of his dreams.
“I did, very much. Is it yours?”
“Yes, I invented it.”
She leaned her elbows on the windowpane and looked to the end of the street.
“I hope I’ll sing it on stage one day.”
“I’m sure you will”, he said without a doubt.
She glanced at him more attentively. His enthusiasm pleased her.
“That’s nice of you to say. I think I’ve seen you around… did you come to my classroom once?”
So she remembers, he thought, feeling a sting of warmth traveling up from his toes to his ears.
“I brought you your coat one day…” he mentioned.
It was a day he cherished as a bright dream.
“Possibly…” she accepted and there was a glimmer of amusement in her eyes.
“I’m Rick”, he said boldly.
“Nice to meet you, Rick.”
He smiled, light filling his eyes.
“Nice to meet you too, Stella.”
“So you know my name?”
“I do.”
The whole school and neighborhood knew it, but she was still surprised.
Eric decided to take a risk.
“Can I come again under this window to listen while you’re singing?” he asked.
“Of course”, she agreed.
And then she went inside. He remained there for a few seconds, his mind enlightened by another miraculous day.
He thought he was walking in the highest sky when he returned home.
On the following days he went in the street as soon as he heard her through the window. He sat on the sidewalk and applauded after each song. Sometimes she came to the window to ask for his opinion. She confessed she was recording her songs on tapes, hoping to send them to some recording studio someday.
Eric’s under-the-window adventure didn’t go unnoticed in the neighborhood. The other boys started coming too, making much noise, playing with a ball and soon Stella’s father had to close the window and shoo them off.
Eric had another idea.
He thought of something.
He was addicted to her music, so he needed to listen to it.
On a Sunday afternoon he came under the window again and whistled. He was afraid to throw pebbles: he didn’t want to cause damage and get in trouble. He had to whistle a few times until she heard.
“Why are you whistling?” she inquired after she opened the window.
He spoke very fast, trying to overcome his fears of her answer not being yes.
“I want to ask you something. It’s a business proposition: I’m inviting you to have ice cream at the coffee shop on the corner. I want to discuss something with you.”
“What kind of business?”
“About your music.”
“When?”
“Now?”
She was silent. He hoped for the best and clutched his fists in his pockets.
Seconds seemed like years. Minutes felt like centuries. She was considering it, stubbornly taking her time and evaluating the situation. And then she finally decided.
“Fine, I’ll come. Give me half an hour.”
He breathed deeply.
“I’ll wait for you here.”
He rushed home, suddenly happy to have a date with Stella and knowing he didn’t even have too much time to be blissful about it before he had to get ready. He grabbed his cardboard box where he kept his marble collection, then looked around again. He saw some change on the table and snatched it without a second thought. He knew his parents might notice it, but he needed it more than he feared being punished.
He waited for Stella wearing his jockey costume that he had gotten for a school festivity. She came in a summer dress, wearing her mother’s perfume and eyeliner. He didn’t know enough of makeup to wonder about it. She looked stunning to him anyway.
Her electrifying hair had a sparkling sticky spray over, which made it even more surreal. He stared at her, amazed. She was absolutely beautiful. Her clear eyes met his for a second and he felt his heart melt away like the ice cream they were about to get.
“What’s in there?” she asked him a bit curious, as he was clinging to the box under his arm.
“I’ll show you later. You’ll see.”
They walked to the coffee shop. He couldn’t believe she was really there by his side, taking each step with him. Her warm presence made the asphalt of the sidewalk turn into a bright meadow. He saw colors and magic around her. She seemed more delicate and kinder seen from a closer look. He sensed she was a bit nervous and insecure about going out with him. He realized, with surprise, that she needed reassurance and safety, just like any other girl. Her diamond eyes had made her seem so invincible and determined – and there she was, walking by his side, a real person, with a delicate soul and a kind smile… she was also a warm girl, besides being a magical impressive ideal in his mind; he discovered she was sweetly human too, and it made him love her even more.
They sat at a table and he bought a tall glass of ice cream with the change he had taken from his home. It had strawberry and whipped cream flavor. They tasted the ice cream with teaspoons, in the beginning taking awkward turns at it. In the end, they seemed to feel a lot more comfortable eating together. When their teaspoons touched one another, making a clinking sound, they started laughing.
He let her finish the ice cream.
“You can have it. I don’t like ice cream very much anyway. But this was good.”
He placed his marble box on the table. He took off the lid.
She stared at the colorful pieces of glass, looking interested.
“What are these?”
“It’s my marble collection. They are portals to another universe.”
“Really?”
She looked at him seriously. Her deep eyes seemed to believe him.
“That’s wonderful! Can you travel anywhere with those?”
“You can travel in your mind… you can see through them to the other world. It’s a parallel universe and it’s very beautiful.”
She picked a yellowish one and stared through it. Then she picked another red one. And another green. Then blue. She was trying each one, attentively. He was watching her, delighted. His marbles in her hands seemed even more magical.
“You know what? You’re right”, she said after a while. “You can see a different world with these… radiant and bright… it’s really beautiful.”
He smiled. She was enchanted.
“Here’s my proposition”, he decided to reveal to her his idea. “I’ll give you my collection of doors to the other universe, and in exchange you give me one of your recorded tapes, so I can listen to it at home. I’ve got a stereo. I can listen to tapes.”
She was hesitant at first.
“I don’t know… what if my father doesn’t want to?”
“You don’t need to ask him. It’s just one tape… and you’re the star, right? You should do whatever you want with your music.”
She looked at him and smiled. Something about his idea made her content – the thought of him listening, the vision of the colorful glass… and the perspective of being a star and doing whatever she wanted.
“Okay. I’ll give you a tape. But don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t.”
“It’s a deal?”
“Deal.”
She extended a hand over the table, to seal their agreement. He held it and as their fingers touched he felt they were better together than apart. The energy they shared doubled and amplified. It was magical, like the glass marbles.
They returned home. He gave her the cardboard box and she went in the house. Rick waited under her window as she came quickly with a tape.
“Catch!” she said.
He caught the tape into his hand. Then they separated.
He didn’t want to see the day end, but it was getting dark and he was sure he was expected at home.
His parents had noticed the missing money and confronted him about it.
He saw no reason to lie or hide it.
“I took it”, he said. “I bought ice cream with it.”
“That wasn’t a good thing you did, Ricky. Taking money without asking is not good. You’re going to cut those logs in the back yard for the rest of the week, to make up for it.”
He was too happy to have spent the afternoon with Stella to be worried about the work ahead of him.
As it turned out, the boys in the neighborhood heard about his date with Stella and they weren’t pleased.
Rick was playing soccer in the street when older boys came to interrupt it. One of them that he recognized as being in Stella’s class pushed him to the sidewalk.
“So, the little immigrant thinks he can have a girl in our class?”
the boy grinned menacingly.
They were angry because he had already done it. And it made every boy envious of him.
“What do you mean?” Rick asked.
“You were seen together… you and Stella, of course.”
The way he said her name made Rick furious.
“So what?” he replied and the other boy shoved him into the wall of one of the houses.
“So what? I’ll tell you so what! Because you’re just a gypsy, you and your immigrant family, that’s why!”
Rick pushed back with both his hands on the boy’s chest, destabilizing him.
“We’re not gypsies! You take that back!”
The other grabbed Rick’s cap and threw it to the ground.
“You see? This leather cap you’re wearing all the time is probably your grandfather’s, from the war. And this jacket – don’t you have another jacket? It’s worn out and it was probably your brother’s before you got it for your birthday! How much did your parents pay for it? Worth a bottle of milk?”
“Shut up!”
Rick struggled to break free from the other’s fist that finally tore one of his buttons.
“And you think Stella wants you?” the other continued. “She wants the boys from the whole school to worship her! She wants real men, not you!”
Rick felt the need to defend her.
“She’s popular because she’s a singer and she’ll be a star someday!”
“She’s no singer and no star! She’s just a conceited little girl!”
“Don’t speak that way about her!”
Rick jumped and punched the boy in the nose. He wanted so bad to punch his enemy in the face, he felt so angry that temperature was boiling in his temples. He didn’t see the fist that sent him to the wall again, and he fell on the asphalt. He jumped up again and rushed head on into the other, knocking him down, even though his enemy was taller and bulkier. He wanted to erase the words that hurt more than the hit. None of them had realized that Stella’s window was open and she was staring down at them the whole time.
“Stop it!” she suddenly shouted at them. “Stop it, all of you!”
Rick didn’t stop. He held his enemy down, keeping a knee on his chest and he punched his nose again.
“Take it back!” he shouted. “Take your words back!”
And then her voice resounded in the street.
“Rick, stop it right now!” Stella told him severely from her window.
He looked up, bewildered. He didn’t understand. He was fighting for her honor. Why was she upset with him?
“Why?” he asked confused.
“Just stop it. Stop this fighting! Please.”
And then she left, closing the window.
The boys spread out, walking back to their homes.
Rick was desolate, not really grasping Stella’s view on the situation. He didn’t consider himself guilty of what had happened.
He had tried to defend himself – and defend her, more than anything. And yet she had scolded him for it. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. In any way he thought about it, it still seemed unfair. He understood only one thing that was very clear to him: she was embarrassed by his presence. And that made him sad.
He didn’t play under her window anymore. He listened to her tape endlessly, while doing his homework or just hanging around the house. For the rest of the week he worked in the backyard, cutting the logs, until she appeared one day, still upset and angry about something. He saw her behind the wooden fence. She had been there for a while. He stopped and placed the axe down.
“Hi Stella”.
“You’re making so much noise with these logs. I can’t concentrate on my music anymore”.
Her voice had the same tone as the last time she had spoken to him: she was still upset and distant. And yet hearing her so close made him melt in delight. She was brightening the backyard just by being there.
He explained:
“I have to do this work. It’s my duty.”
“Yes but you’re cutting these logs too roughly. I think the whole town hears you. Can’t you do it in a smoother way so I can sing?”
“I’ll try to use the saw instead”, he shrugged.
She was silent for a minute.
“I don’t like you fighting”, she said.
“They started it.”
“It doesn’t matter who started it. I don’t like it.”
“What should I do? Nothing? Just let them say stupid things?”
“Don’t answer arguments. Don’t fight about me again. Please.”
“I’ll try…”
She sighed.
“It was wrong of them to label people like that. And it wasn’t true – what they said about me. Thank you for defending me though”.
And then she left.
Rick smiled. At least she was speaking to him again.
He had been ashamed at the thought of her hearing what they had said about him. He knew he wasn’t good enough for her from many perspectives. But he knew it wasn’t his fault that people were closed minded and envious of him loving starry magical Estelle. She was his miracle and they couldn’t deprive him of that.
Only she could.
But she didn’t.
The next day she came to his classroom after classes were over.
He just saw her in the doorway, waiting casually. He blinked, not sure she meant it – being there for him.
“Are you waiting for me?”
“Yes, you. Who else?”
And she smiled. He felt the spring meadows brighten his mind and the summer sun warm his heart instantly. Her blue jeans jacket was diffuse in the rays of light, the aura expanding like pastel blue sky over the horizon. He grabbed his school bag.
“I’m coming!”
As they went out of the school building together, walking side by side, he could feel eyes watching them in silence. And then something miraculous happened: Stella took his hand in front of the entire “audience”. He just felt her fingers reach to his, the warm holding touch enclosing firmly and undoubtedly like an embrace.
She held his hand steadily, walking with her chin up in front of all the boys and girls staring at them in disbelief. Rick felt his heart beating faster and faster. He couldn’t even feel the ground he was walking on. It was as if they were flying together – or so it seemed to him, despite the fixed eyes that made the silence tense and uncertain. He walked adjusting to her rhythm, not looking back. He was only looking at her, happy and grateful she had decided to choose him to go home with – and to show it to everyone, admitting his presence openly. She was looking ahead, steadily determined, apparently unaffected by the multitude of glances. He admired her courage at that moment. He wondered if she was proving something with it. He wondered if she did it because she felt something for him too. He could only hope she felt as intensely as he did – it was like a dream come true. He didn’t want to ask her anything, as long as she continued by his side.
They walked home together, holding hands. He felt it was right: being with her was in harmony with the world – and with the other world of colorful marbles too. It was meant to be, he thought. It was written in the book of life.