People do weird things, sometimes touching and sweet, and
sometimes they do things that are evil, careless, or beyond my understanding.
But whatever they do, if I encounter something that results from their actions,
you can be sure I’ll write about it in my writer’s journal. Sometimes the
situation is such that I can’t get it off my mind. It will haunt me and make we
wonder why a person would do such a thing. Such was the case with a baby grand
piano that was left out in the front yard of someone’s house which I noticed on
my way to work.
The scene was odd enough when I first noticed it, but I
thought the owner was trying to figure out a way to get it into the house and
the piano would soon be safely ensconced in the house and played by someone who
would enjoy it and care for it. But as the days marched by and the weather
turned stormy, the piano remained outside. In the beginning it had not occurred
to me that someone intended to leave the piano out there on purpose until I saw
it standing there in the pouring rain. Then I finally got it—whoever owned that
piano intended to destroy it by allowing it to slowly deteriorate in its
exposure to the elements. Such a diabolical plan for the destruction of
something that, in itself, was a thing of beauty, but also brought delightful
music into the world, just seemed too dark for my understanding. In the end,
the piano fell into pieces and ended up on the side of the road for trash
pickup. I found its demise in in this strange way dark, sad, and disturbing.
What led a person to do such a thing? Did they throw puppies and kittens in the
trash, too?
Of course, I wrote about it in my journal. I wasn’t sure how
I would ever use it for a romance story, but I couldn’t let go of it. I wrote a
paranormal short about it in which the piano was possessed by an evil spirit,
and then another story in which it was cursed, but that didn’t satisfy me. That
piano still crept into my subconscious and haunted me. The piano wasn’t evil,
it was sad and broken. Finally, I realized it was a representation of how many
of us feel when we are rejected or abandoned by those we love. No one who has
lived a life fully has managed to escape heartbreak in one form or another. But
it isn’t the heartbreak that’s important, it’s how we respond to it that
counts. There are those who get back up, and don’t let the hurt destroy their
search for true, forever love. Some people are so devastated by it, they guard
their hearts against falling into love and allowing themselves to be vulnerable
that they choose “safe” love, not too exciting or deep to hurt them. And then
there are those who decide to harden their hearts and even become the people
who hurt others before they can be hurt themselves.
Eventually, I was able to use this little chunk of real life
into a story titled, CAST AWAY HEART.
It is one of my rare contemporary stories without even a dot of paranormal in
it.
An abandoned piano, rejected love, and hope
Blurb:
After her fiancé breaks her heart and humiliates her on what
was to be their wedding day, Ella Dubois has vowed never to open her heart
again.
Nickoli Vesa, a Romanian pianist, has loved Ella for years,
but she only sees him as her longtime friend.
How can a deserted piano heal a shattered spirit and inspire
it to sing again?
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