DJ was halfway out the window and up onto the roof to stare out at the lights in Victoria harbor when he saw it, the faintest glint of it, taped to the edge of the windowsill. It was a slender paper packet, white enough to blend in with the paint. When he peeled it away from the wall and turned it over, he saw it was guitar strings. Brand new guitar strings, to replace the ones he'd broken learning to play that dreadful song with the jumping chord hammers and with the chorus it was almost impossible to hear, "Go now, you are forgiven." But he ducked back inside and grabbed his guitar, levered it carefully up onto the roof, and he sat with it across his knees as he restrung it, the harbor lights dancing across the steel like a thousand wandering stars.
When Celia finally climbed the final heights of the roof - how she made it through the leafy boughs below without making a sound, he'd never know - DJ had the thing tuned and was picking out a low melody. He glanced up, saw her crouched in the shadows, and immediately he shifted into the chords of a familiar song, a little Elliot Smith.
Cellia sank down next to him and sang the chorus of Miss Misery, and he heard what she couldn't say in proper words, felt it when she ducked in for a kiss.
Thank you.
For not giving up.
When she pulled back and curled into his side, he reciprocated the only way he knew how, with skittering notes and jumping chord hammers, and he tried to accept what she'd been trying to tell him for so long.
"Go now, you are forgiven."
1 comment:
Dj as a character I feel has never been one to say thank you all that often. So to hear him say those words a was a little strange, but I really liked it. It was good to see him thankful for something. And I know the guitar strings would have meant more to him than many other things. :) Good on ya Nagi.
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