The Crystal Piano

The rain was incessant that day and the two of them, still in bed, could hear where the water pooled up in the gutter and splashed over onto the aluminum garbage can instead of flowing down as it should.

“We really need to clean the gutters sweetie,” she said, which meant, “You need to clean the gutters.”

“If it wasn’t for that gutter overflowing you’d still be asleep, and it’s past noon. I’m doing you a favor by not cleaning them.”

She smiled and said, “You really can twist anything can’t you?”

“So dreary out. We’ve gotta do something today. I’ll go crazy if we spend all day in bed.”

“I love lazy days like this,” she said, and after a few seconds, “Oh! We can go to the mall and wander around!”

“I’ve never heard someone so excited about something so stupid. You wanna just wander around like kids whose parents dropped them off for the day?”

“Yeah we can just walk around and pretend we’re rich and look at all the stuff we’d buy,” she said. “And we can get coffee.”

“That sounds absolutely thrilling!” he said with lighthearted sarcasm.

They showered together and he washed her back as he always did then gave her a kiss and held her tight as the steaming hot water flowed over them. His love for her was an intense one.

And she loved him back even more than he loved her, as women often do, and always felt proud and lucky when the other girls would try to flirt with him and he would barely even smile for them. He felt proud when his friends would ask if she’d be coming out also, hoping that she would be, and then tell him he’d better not let this one get away.

They walked into the mall wet with the rain, she a half pace ahead.

“Ok sexy girl, now that our parents are gone we just need to find a bathroom where we can do it,” he said, catching up to her and pinching her rear.

“Is that what your childhood was like?” she asked, laughing.

“Nunya.”

“Hmm?”

“Nunya business,” he said, pinching her again.

“Ok, coffee. Coffee coffee coffee!” she sang as she skipped ahead.

“That would be annoying if it wasn’t so adorable,” he thought to himself with a paternal smile. He kept his walking pace, lagging behind.

She became distracted with a gown in the high-end clothing store they had to walk through to get to the heart of the mall. “You think I would look good in this?” she asked.

“You’d look good in that, and that, and that and all of these things,” he said, pointing at different dresses. “It’s like  asking me if I care what color Lamborghini you’d like to give me. But hey, we’re not looking at clothes today. No way.”

“Fiiiiinnneeee. Oh yeah, coffee.”

“Atta girl.”

She nuzzled up to him and slid her arm into his and the old couple they walked past smiled to each other, invigorated by the young couple’s youth, reminding them of days long past. They sat on the mall bench just watching people go by. This is what they did for entertainment now in their old age, which was not all that different from what the young couple was doing.

Coffees in hand, they stood by the mall map deciding where to go. He wanted to go to the gadget store and she wanted to go to the culinary store. He said, “Ok, rock paper scissor, best of one.”

“K.”

“Before we do this, I feel obligated to tell you that I know you’re gonna throw paper. Just an FYI,” he said, trying to get into her head.

“Oh, shut up,” she said, trying to imagine what he was thinking so she could throw the opposite. She figured he would think she would throw paper in spite of his comment, meaning he would throw scissors, so she decided on rock. But he threw paper and said, “Knew it. Still batting a thousand against you,” although throwing paper was just a guess on his part.

“You’re such a liar! I beat you the last two times!”

“Whatever you’ve gotta tell yourself toots,” and they walked to the gadget store.

He became bored quickly with the useless gadgets. “What kind of person spends three grand on a massage chair? Shit, I could get thirty sessions at the massage parlor downtown for that,” he said, adding quickly, “Least that’s what I’ve heard.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Disgustingly awesome.”

“Whatever you’ve gotta tell yourself,” she said mockingly.

After browsing the neck travel pillows and vibrating foot purifier and the ultrasonic jewelry cleaner and the ten different high tech alarm clocks and all the rest of the gadgets, he’d had enough and they left.

On the way to the culinary store she was distracted by the little shop selling crystal figurines. Without saying anything she led him in and they looked at the different little crystals. Parrots, elephants and all sorts of animals, hearts, jewelry, tables and houses and chairs and hotels.

“Oh my God look at this piano!” she said.

“It’s a mini piano made of glass.”

“Yeah but look – it’s open and you can see inside of it. It even has a stool!” She was mesmerized and asked the clerk to see it up close.

The clerk placed it on a silk pad on the counter and they all looked at it closely. “It is kind of pretty,” he thought to himself, but would never openly admit it.

“How much?” she asked.

“Two ninety-nine ninety-nine,” the clerk said.

“Why don’t you guys just make it three hundred?” he asked without attempting to hide his contempt.

“I dunno. I don’t really set the prices. Everything everywhere ends in ninety-nine cents though,” the clerk said indifferently.

Finally snapping out of her trance, she said cheerily but with the slightest hint of sadness, “Well, maybe one day. Thanks!” And they walked out.

“I don’t get why people spend so much money on useless shit like that,” he said as they walked out of the store, loud enough for the indifferent clerk to hear.

“Well it’s nice to have pretty things to look at. That’s why you have me, right?”

“Well that’s one of three reasons.”

“What are the other two?”

“Well you cook for me and…”

She interrupted, “Ok, ok. I don’t need to hear the last one. You know, you’re not so hard on the eyes either,” and she kissed his shoulder. “And I like how we can go anywhere. I mean, I don’t have to worry about stuff when I’m with you.”

He figured she meant girl stuff like feeling protected but didn’t care to ask her to clarify.

His bank account had just over four hundred dollars. He thought to himself that it would be crazy to spend so much on such a stupid thing, especially considering how little money he had. Still, he felt a strong pull to get it for her. She never asked for anything and rarely showed as much interest as she showed for that little piano. He knew some of her friends were dating or married to wealthy guys who constantly showered them with gifts. She’d never had the opportunity to brag about any gifts except the hand-me-down pearl earrings he’d given her which were his grandmother’s. They were beautiful, but when something has belonged to someone else it doesn’t have the same effect. Especially when the previous owner is dead. And he knew girls were always subtly competing with their friends.

They entered the culinary store and after a minute he excused himself to go to the bathroom to leave her to marvel at all of the overpriced cooking wares, but instead of the bathroom, he went back to the crystal shop.

“I’m back. I’ll take that piano and try to make it quick. Please.”

“Three nineteen fifty with tax,” the clerk said. “Where’s your wife?”

“Girlfriend. She’s in the place with all the cooking shit,” he said as he handed over his credit card, feeling a bit sick to his stomach from the transaction.

He slid the silk case containing the mini piano into his pocket and walked back to the cooking store, and she suspected nothing. As painful as it was to pay so much for the stupid piano, he couldn’t wait to get home and to see her reaction when he sprang the surprise on her. He mused that it might be worth the three-hundred if she liked it enough, and considered that we don’t pay for things as much as we pay for feelings and experiences. The sick feeling left him with that thought.

“You seen enough?” he asked her.

“I guess so. Wouldn’t it be nice to just have like a million dollars and we could buy anything we wanted?”

“We have everything we need. We’d just end up with a bunch of shit we’d never use.”

She said nothing and looked a bit dejected so he humored her. “What would you buy if we had a million bucks?”

“I’d…” she stopped herself. “I dunno. I’d buy some pretty things.”

He hoped she was talking about the piano which was now warm in his pocket against his leg. “You’re the only pretty thing I need, Princess,” he said.

“You’re so corny.”

Outside the sun had come out through the clouds and the rain was misting up with the smell of hot pavement, a smell not so pleasant in itself, but one that elicited good feelings in the pair, remnants of childhood memories long forgotten.

“Now that it’s so nice out maybe we can do something fun,” she said.

“Didn’t you have fun in there?”

“It was ok. Better than bed I guess.”

“True.”

When they returned home he mentioned that he’d love an omelette. She happily obliged and prepared one for herself as well along with a fresh pot of coffee and some toast while he went to the bedroom and inspected the crystal piano. The sunlight shone through the window and hit the piano and scattered in a million directions in a million colors. The florescent lights in the little crystal shop didn’t do it justice. It was a beautiful little thing. Useless, though. He put it in his sock drawer and decided to give it to her after they ate.

Back at the table he said, “Hey I have a little surprise for you when we’re done eating.”

“Oh yeah, Big Boy?” she asked seductively.

He laughed, “No, not that. Well yes that, but something else too.”

“Tell me!”

“You’ll like it. Let’s see how well you clean the dishes and I’ll decide whether you deserve it or not,” he joked. “Don’t get your hopes up. It’s not a huge deal, just something I think you’ll like.”

“Oh I’m all excited now,” she said, and she wondered what it could be.

They finished eating and she cleared the table and he went to his sock drawer, a bit nervous. He came out of the room with his hands behind his back just as she had put the last plate in the drying rack. He said, “Close your eyes and don’t open them ’til I tell you.” She closed her eyes.

He placed the piano and the little stool on the kitchen table, right in the ray of sunlight that had appeared there in perfect time.

“Ok, open them.”

She looked at his face then his hands, which were now at his sides, then confused, back to his face, and he tilted his head toward the table and she saw it. Her eyes opened wide and she lifted her hands toward her face although they never made it there, and without moving she said, “What! How did you!? When…”

“I never went to the bathroom at the mall.”

“But baby, it’s so expensive,” she said, still not moving toward it although her eyes wouldn’t leave it.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not worried. I just wanted you to have it. Here, come look at it, it looks amazing in the sunlight.”

Sensing his enthusiasm, she no longer contained her excitement and hopped up and down a few times then quickly moved in close to have a look. They both marveled at all of the colors and the sharp angles and the detail with which it was crafted and she thanked him over and over and told him how much she loved it, and what a surprise it was. He picked up the piano and held it close to her face and moved it around under the sunlight so she could get every possible view, and as he watched her he was truly glad he’d spent the money on the experience. Without putting it down, he rose and said, “It’s my pleasure sweetie. It was selfish, really. I just wanted to see your reaction,” and hugged her.

As his arms began to engulf her, a leg of the piano caught her shirt and it slipped out of his hand and shattered on the kitchen floor into a million pieces, and the sunlight no longer came through the windows.

Neither of them moved except for her eyes filling with tears. He had that sinking feeling in his chest that comes when there’s nothing you can do to fix something bad that’s happened. They looked down at the mess, then each other, and when he saw her tears he wanted to cry but couldn’t. It was just a stupid, useless thing.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m gonna get you another one as soon as I can. Maybe in a couple months.” He knew he couldn’t afford another one for quite a while, and he wasn’t sure he’d want to ever buy one again anyway, not after this. And he didn’t think she would want another one either.

She smiled through her tears and said, “Sweetie, it was beautiful while it lasted. Thank you.” Then she kissed him deeply and led him to their bedroom.