The crystal Flute

     So, I went to the flower shop he had given me directions to and made my purchase. I had chosen three roses. I made my way into the cemetery. The one here on terror mountain was vastly different from the ones back home in the haunted woods. There were no roving zombies or ghosts here for the most part. At least none that I could see off hand.

     I began searching for Grampy’s grave. I had to read each headstone carefully. It turns out there were at least eight other Ceol’s buried in this particular cemetery. I eventually found his grave. It was tucked in a very cosy corner of the cemetery. I put the roses down on it and examined it. Maybe hoping for a hint as to where he had hid his flute. I walked around to the back of the headstone and brushed the snow off it and found words.

     Among the lights and in the cold, I proposed to my love, with whom I’ll grow old. Among the stars I now do sleep. My passion buried in winter light’s festive keep.

     I took this poem as a possible hint and scribbled it down on a notepad I kept in my purse. Perhaps Mr Willems or even Mrs Allans might know something about this. They were both there when Grampy proposed to Grammy! I thanked my Grampy quietly as I quickly exited the cemetery.

     ***

     “Whoa! Where’s the fire?” Came the voice of an Elderly Shoyru. “Are you just coming from the cemetery?”

     I nodded and told the gentleman I had been visiting my Grandpa Ceol. Hoping this might give me more to go on. Everyone seemed to know him.

     “Ceol, eh?” He said, “The flute playing Ceol right? You have the same mischievous spark he did.”

     I nodded and confirmed that the flute playing Ceol was indeed the one I had visited and was in fact my grandpa. This man evidently had heard of Ceol, so I hastily took my notepad out of my purse and showed him what I had copied from the back of his headstone.

     “Ah, always was a bit romantic!” The old Shoyru said. “My name is Cohen Ambersgat. Please to meet you young lady”

     “Did you know Grampy well?” I asked.

     “Sure did! He, Zakarius and I used to cause all sorts of mischief!” He crowed happily. “Even when I built the gazebo in the park, he had some mischief going there!”

     Perplexed and insanely curious, I asked him to tell me more about my late grandpa. To which he wholly obliged.

     “Well, back in the day,” he began. “The orchestra conductor had a very strict rule about food and drink. You were only allowed water. It was the reason I never joined the Orchestra outside of high school!”

     I nodded and asked him to continue with the story. The wheels in my head were beginning to turn.

     “Ceol, clever Krawk he was,” Mr Ambersgat said, “He caught wind of me working on the gazebo blueprints and asked to have a secret compartment built under one of the benches for hiding warm drinks and snacks!”

     Ah ha! The final piece to the mystery…..possibly.

     “Was this compartment big enough for…..for let’s say an instrument?” I asked genuinely curious.

     “My dear, that was the second reason he asked me for it,” He replied. “He proposed to Niamh in that Gazebo sixty-five years ago tomorrow night.”

     I was shocked that my Grandpa had hidden a ring in that space. I couldn’t help but ask, because I had never heard the story of how Grammy and Grampy got engaged.

     “Not a ring, dear,” he said smiling. “He hid a custom order piccolo with emeralds encrusted into it. He proposed to her with that. He had hidden it there before rehearsal that evening. Took him two full years to save up for it.”

     The shock of that thunderstruck me. Growing up, Jordan, Clarissa, Oisin and I had never been allowed to touch the pretty instrument. Grammy only played it on special occasions and holidays, much like my special flute and Clarissa’s special piccolo. I had never thought it had been her engagement item. I had all the information I wanted. I also made the conscious choice to tell him of the fix I was in.

     He agreed to show me exactly where the secret compartment was. He was the only living being left who knew of its exact location. Around three in the afternoon, we arrived at the gazebo and he pointed out exactly which bench it was under and how to move the tile.

     There it was….an old and familiar-looking flute case. When I opened it, I was struck by a memory. On my third birthday, I had been given my first flute by Grampy. He had begun teaching me how to play.

     The crystal flute glittered in the late afternoon sun. There were gold and silver trims around the buttons and along the body. Curious, I turned to Mr Ambersgat and asked him why the cold hadn’t shattered the instrument.

     “Faerie magic!” He said, swiping a tear from his eye. “A long, long time ago, there was a Light Faerie. She loved watching your grandpa play here every year. When she realized the flute was crystal, she enchanted it so that it may last generations. For you see, faeries outlive us.”

     I silently thanked the faeries. I knew the Light Faerie that he was talking about. She came to our concerts every year. And the last time we had performed here with Grampy, she had given Jordan, Clarissa and me, candy canes. I had only been five. Clarissa had been ten and Jordan had been twelve. Grampy passed away not long after. Just one day shy of the new year.

      At that moment. I knew what I needed to do. I turned to the Elderly Shoyru and asked him what he had played in high school and if he still played. He nodded and said he quit orchestra, but he had never given up playing the Oboe. His own grandchildren loved the instrument. I told him about the sheet music and the location it had been hidden in and he burst out laughing. No one knew why it had been hidden there. Perhaps it was just Grampy’s way of making mischief.

     I asked him to meet me here tomorrow night around six and he agreed to do it. I had no time to waste. I had to find a photocopier and copy the sheet music!

     ***

     It turns out the staff at the lodge were very willing to accommodate a teenager looking for a photocopier…..under certain situations of course. The lady at the front desk believed it was a piece for the orchestra and not a family pet project. I wasn’t going to correct her. Not when all the shops were closing for the evening. After I got my rather large stack of sheet music, I began to set my plan into action. I took the stack and the flute to Clarissa’s room.

     Garret wasn’t there, but Clarissa was. I told her about my day and then showed her the flute. She suddenly remembered the song! It had been sung first by a group of amazing and super-talented women a little over sixteen years ago. She had listened to it as a small child and had asked Grammy to teach her to play it when she began playing the piccolo and in choir. It had become a tradition to play and sing in the park after that.

     Clarissa dived over to me and caught me in a tight hug. When she let me go she was crying and smiling. She remembered so much. She had to find Jordan. Her brother was here to watch the concert this year, (I knew an entirely different reason for his being present.). Normally Jordan was busy with business ideas. Architecture and planning never sleep apparently. He only caught the concerts every other year. She dashed from the room in search of her older brother, while I went to find my younger one.

     ***

     “Wow!” Oisin said amazed. His eyes were the size of baseballs.

     I recounted everything I had learned about our grandpa to him in the last few days and everything I had remembered about him. He still marvelled at the crystal flute. He briskly looked over to his Viola and eyed the flute again. He had this look on his face of wishing he knew how to play and be the spectacle of everyone in the junior orchestra. Maybe even taking the spotlight off of Mordred the child prodigy.

     I gave him a copy of the sheet music. I had already given two sheets to Clarissa. One for her and one for Jordan. Tomorrow I would hunt down Mr Willems, Mrs Allans and Mr Renaud and ask them all to play with me and Mr Ambersgat. Clarissa loved the idea.

     ***

     It was early in the morning when Grammy came strolling through the doors of the lodge. Behind her, an attendant was hauling a heavy trunk. One of which I knew contained one of my personal flutes. She had the young Kyrii send the large trunk to her room and I invited her to the room Aoife and I were sharing. Aoife had been too busy arranging set pieces yesterday to come to the cemetery with me after rehearsal, so I had told her about everything and she had at once demanded to see this mythical flute. It made her envious that she couldn’t play an instrument.

     Now it was Grammy’s turn. I had fully intended on returning the flute to her. When she saw it she smiled so brightly and told me she was very proud I had finally come into my inheritance. That was when I told her my plan for this evening.

     “I love that,” she said. “I did bring my good piccolo. I also brought your mother’s violin and your Uncle Kirk’s. I also brought Jordan’s hurdy-gurdy.”

     “Wait….you brought all that?!” I said shocked.

     “Eleven years is a long time, Aria,” Grammy said. “I think it’s time we picked up where we left off and introduce our newest family members to it.”

      Newest members being Oisin and Garret. I had explained the idea to my little brother and he loved it. I don’t know how Garret felt. I did, however, see Clarissa and Garret signing something besides the fire in the lodge’s sitting room last night.

     I told Grammy I needed to round up the rest of her and Grampy’s friends. The ones who had helped me on this entire journey. She agreed that I had to do it. She also agreed she had to come too. She had some friends to catch up with after being away for so long. We set off on our adventure to round up everyone!

     ***

     Aoife and I were the first ones there. It was almost six o’clock. Among the lights, I saw people walking here and there. Eventually, I saw people coming towards me. I heard the disembodied voice of the little girl singing again.

     Call us from far, call us from near!

     The elders emerged first. Grammy, Mr. Renaud, Mrs. Allans, Mr. Willems and Mr. Ambersgat. They were closely followed by my mom and dad and Oisin. After them came Jordan and his mom and dad. We were just waiting on Clarissa and Garret. They were taking a romantic walk through the lights. As we assembled in our places, a small crowd began to gather. Some of the older folks knew exactly what was about to commence. The younger ones looked on in awe.

     Eventually Clarissa and Garret emerged from the lights and were caught by surprise by our elderly guests and their instruments. Clarissa immediately knew she would be singing. I saw Garret mentally preparing to pop the question. He was a bit too slow!

     In the blink of an eye, Clarissa placed a box into his hand and dropped to one knee.

     “Will you marry me?” She signed. “ will you marry me and be part of this new chapter?”

     He absolutely said yes! He even produced his own box with the ring he had been about to propose to her with. They exchanged rings and as we began to play and Garret to sign-Sing alongside his new Fiancée, I noticed a Light Faerie among our audience. She was smiling. Suddenly a gentle burst of light appeared beside me. The faerie’s magic was producing an image of Grampy playing his flute.

     It wasn’t really Grampy, but it made me grateful to her. I got to play with Grampy one last time. We all did.

     The song Christmas pipes filled the park. The lilting and beautiful tones of Clarissa and the orchestral musical provided by the rest of the family filled the fantasy of lights with a great number of people.

     All in all it was a happy ending, to what had started out as a bad situation.

     The End.