The Musicmakers

© Ayr/Gray

The Unicorn Challenge.

A magical new weekly writing opportunity from him – C. E. Ayr – and me.
The rules are
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt.
That’s it.

Click here to read other stories from the prompt: Unicorn Challenge 23/02/24

The Musicmakers

‘What’s wrong, love?’
She lifts her tear-stained face.
‘It’s the music, Gran. It’s finding the sad in me.’
I go to turn off the radio, but she says, ‘No, I want to hear.’
I take her up on my knee and we sit together until the music finishes.
This child is a mystery to me.
She touches lightly on life, laughing and dancing.
Then, with no warning, she’s seized by fits of weeping, as now, and nothing can console her.
It’s as though she’s weighed down by some secret burden of sadness that she can’t explain.
And that no child should know.
When she stops crying, I wipe her face, hug her tight and watch her pick up her pencils and start to draw.
Very soon she’s lost in what she’s doing.
I try to see the picture.
Her hand goes over the paper.’
‘No, Gran, it’s not finished.’
I leave her to it.

I’m busy rubbing in the scone mixture when she comes through.
‘It’s done, Gran.’
I wipe my hands and take the drawing.
I see it with grown-up eyes, and don’t understand; three men, each with a giant eye instead of a face.
But she’s smiling.
‘It’s people who make music,’ she says. ‘I think they must have an extra eye, a secret one that can see inside us. It saw the sad in me and the music took it away. It’s like magic, isn’t it, Gran?’
And I nod, envious of the simplicity of her world.