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Post by Roy Evangeline on Dec 15, 2009 14:59:01 GMT -5
"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy," Roy said, pulling the tune out of his head. "Oh, right, from the Nutcracker..." Smoothly, he went from the slow repititous Fur Elise to Caitlin's song. There wasn't even a hesitation as he transitioned.
Roy had seen the Nutcracker, really, he SAW it, it was when he and Marina were very young, before his accident. His sister remembered the ballet, dancing around their room at home while Roy remembered the music, the fast, upbeat and quick paced tune that moved the ballerina's across the stage. The image was fresh in his mind as he played.
"I like Tchaikovsky," Roy said as he continued. "Good guy, good music..." he smiled.
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Dec 15, 2009 15:19:35 GMT -5
She hadn't been able to go see the Nutcracker in awhile, but she was hoping to go see it whenever Christmas time rolled around again. Usually there would be a show some time at the beginning of December, and maybe Caitlin would get Roy to go with her, but she had a while before it was time to really decide if she was going to go.
"The Nutcracker is my favorite," she admitted just as he started to play. Again, Caitlin watched Roy's fingers as he began to play. There was a light smile that usually remained on her face while she watched him play. She remained quiet while the music filled the room. Images of ballerina's dancing across the stage also played through her mind as she listened.
"Tchaikovsky is good," Caitlin agreed. "I like all of his stuff really." She grew quiet again as she continued to listen.
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Post by Roy Evangeline on Dec 24, 2009 1:42:19 GMT -5
Roy nodded in agreement. He had studied a lot of different types of music, a sort of outlet for him after he went blind. He could play almost anything by ear after only hearing it once. But even at 19 years old, his favorites were the classics. Tchaikovsky, Bach, Motzart... Roy liked the easy flow and how amazing they sounded.
But even he made mistakes, and at that thought, his middle finger missed a key and he paused for a minute, trying to find his place again. After a while, he got lost on the keyboard, and he wasn't entirely sure where base was. he tried to cover up his fumble with a question. "Do you play?" Roy asked Caitlin, his fingers still frozen on the keyboard.
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Dec 24, 2009 13:29:25 GMT -5
Her eyes were still closed as Roy was playing. She only opened them whenever he stopped playing. Caitlin looked to him, wondering why he stopped. She hadn't paid attention to the fact that he fumbled.
At his question, Caitlin let out a small laugh. "I can only play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," she admitted. That was the only thing that she knew how to play. She didn't know how to really play any instrument. "That's the only thing I can play on the piano, and I'm afraid that's the extent of my musical abilities."
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Post by Roy Evangeline on Dec 24, 2009 14:09:27 GMT -5
To be a little funny, Roy played "twinkle twinkle little star" on the piano. "Well it's easy to learn, lemme show you," without hesitation, he got up and stood behind Caitlin. The first song he ever learned to play was "Heart and Soul" and he thought it was fairly easy to learn.
"Here," he found the correct keys and reached for her hand. "I want to show you." He smiled.
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Dec 24, 2009 14:52:58 GMT -5
Caitlin let out a laugh. "That's all I can play," she said shrugging her shoulders. Seeing that Roy moved from the piano bench made her straighten up. "What are you," she started but she figured it out. He was teaching her and Caitlin couldn't help the smile that appeared on her face.
She let Roy take her hands and she placed them on the piano keys. "Alright,"replied Caitlin, "but I can't promise you that I'm going to be very good." She was willing to try if Roy was going to attempt to teach her.
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Post by Roy Evangeline on Dec 24, 2009 15:57:07 GMT -5
He placed Caitlin's hands on the correct keys. "Have you heard Heart and Soul?" Roy asked. He put his hands on top of hers and pressed her fingers into the keys. "So it's middle finger three times..." da da da. Roy smiled, it was a happy little tune. "And then you do this little thing where you..." he realized it was actually a little harder to explain than he thought, so he just showed her, playing the right hand part of the song.
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Dec 24, 2009 16:08:39 GMT -5
Heat rose in Caitlin's face as he showed her how to begin. "I haven't heard of it," she admitted as she pressed her middle finger down three times with the help of Roy.
Her attention was drawn to how his right hand played the song and she moved her hand over in attempt to mimic his actions. She missed a few notes and gave a sigh and tried again, but she missed it again. "How does that part go again," she asked before she had a chance to become frustrated with herself.
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Post by Roy Evangeline on Dec 24, 2009 16:26:54 GMT -5
Roy smiled and then played it slower. "It goes middle, pointer, thumb, pointer, middle, index." He showed her again. "And then you do the same thing two keys higher." He moved from C to E and did the same thing. "Now come on, your turn," He said. "Don't worry about messing up."
He smiled as he placed his hand on top of hers again, feeling himself blush slightly. To keep time, he played the left handed part at the other end of the keyboard. But he was more focused on Caitlin and their right hands.
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Dec 24, 2009 16:38:18 GMT -5
A light smile was on Caitlin's face as Roy played it slower for her. Part of her wondered if she should have purposely messed up again just so he would show her again. However, the shy part of Caitlin didn't let her do that right away. She played the keys slower and played the right notes, just as he said.
As his fingers went over top her of hers again, Caitlin took in a deep breath but pressed her fingers down when his went down. Her eyes were watching as their right hands played the notes. "What about the left part," she asked quietly after she thought she was doing alright.
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Post by Roy Evangeline on Dec 25, 2009 14:22:09 GMT -5
"See, you're getting it," Roy smiled as Caitlin played it again. "And then you go all the way down the chord like this..." He showed her how to hit the eight keys. "And thats the right hand, you just keep doing that over and over."
Then, because she asked, he moved to the left side. "Okay, now here is a little harder. Your hand kinda jumps around a lot..." He wasn't sure how to explain that one either. So he played it, his middle finger and thumb dancing back and and forth on the keys. Occasionally, his hand would brush Caitlin's, and Roy would bit his lip and smile. "Okay, your turn." He said.
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Dec 25, 2009 17:24:26 GMT -5
After she watched him carefully, Caitlin played the eight keys. The right hand wasn't that bad, it was fairly easy once she was able to get it under her fingers.
When his attention turned to the left side, Caitlin stopped playing so that she could focus on getting the other part under her fingers. Again, she watched intently and attempted to mimic his playing. She wasn't successful, needless to say. Caitlin bit her bottom lip and tried again, but for the next several attempts she continued to make mistakes. Getting slightly frustrated with herself, Caitlin stopped for a moment to take a deep breath and play the part slower.
Once her fingers hit all the right keys, she smiled. "I think I can get it as long as I play it slower." Slowly she started to play with both hands, still making a couple of mistakes as she played slowly. "Maybe eventually I can play it faster," she said with a laugh.
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Post by Roy Evangeline on Dec 25, 2009 20:03:47 GMT -5
Roy could tell Caitlin was getting frusterated with the keys, but he grinned and congratulated her when she played it with both hands. "If you practice piano, i'll practice dancing," Roy said with a chuckle. He moved to sit back down on the piano bench. "The song's a duet, so while you play that, I do this," He put his fingers back on the piano and, as Caitlin played the part he taught her, Roy played the more complicated part. Even with her occasionally missing parts and Roy occasionally stopping just to listen, it didn't sound half bad.
"See," Roy said. "Now you can say that you can play an instrument!"
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Dec 26, 2009 18:22:48 GMT -5
"I think you have yourself a deal Mr. Evangeline," Caitlin said with a laugh. She couldn't promise that she would turn out to be the best piano player, but if he was willing to teach her how to play and also willing to let her teach him to dance, she couldn't deny him.
The more she played it, the more she relaxed. She played along with him and attempted to play her part of the duet. Granted she missed a couple notes, she didn't stop.
Once they were finished, Caitlin let out another laugh. "I suppose so, thanks to you."
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Post by Roy Evangeline on Dec 27, 2009 4:12:30 GMT -5
"Yup, all thanks to me," Roy said proudly. They stopped ans Roy let the tune just float around without either of them saying anything for the moment. After a while, his fingers instinctively went back to the keys, and he played a light melody. It was Motzart;s sonata, number 16.
"When we were little, and our parents had set me up with the piano, I used to play and Marina would dance around our room like a princess," he laughed at the memory. "After I went blind, Marina made me keep playing because she said that if I quit, she would, and she really didn't want to." He stopped playing and faced Caitlin. "Sort of strange logic for a 6 year old, but it worked, I kept it up."
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Dec 27, 2009 13:23:36 GMT -5
She placed her hands in her lap after they finished playing. Sometimes they could sit for awhile and not say anything. It was never an awkward slience.
If she could, she would probably stay all the time if Roy would play all day long. It was a stress relief to listen to, and she liked to see Roy expressing himself rather than sitting around feeling sorry for himself. She did know about his bad moods and had seen a few of them, but now it almost seemed as if his bad moods didn't occur quite as often.
"It's not really strange logic," she commented. "You didn't want your sister to stop something she loved, so you continued to entertain her. It's more sweet and caring than strange logic."
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Post by Roy Evangeline on Jan 10, 2010 19:27:40 GMT -5
Caitlin would see it more as sweet and caring. That was her way. When Roy was with her, he didn't feel as grouchy as he did when he was alone, or even sometimes with his sister.
unable to think of another song, Roy's fingers simply idled on the keys, playing a key here and there. "I'm glad you came today," Roy said to Caitlin, smiling.
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Jan 10, 2010 20:11:15 GMT -5
Caitlin perferred to attempt to look for the good in people. Of course, that could be hard sometimes, but there was some people that could been seen with a good side, like Roy. It wasn't that he was ever bad, it was just he could be grouchy and feel sorry for himself because of his blindness. Of course, the way Caitlin looked at it, Roy was just a regular person. He could do pretty much anything he wanted. That was why she didn't treat him different.
She looked up from the piano keys and back up to Roy with a smile. "Me too." There was heat in her cheeks. Caitlin knew by his idle playing he didn't know of anything else to play. She took advantage of the moment. "Come on Mr. Evangeline," she said taking his hand. "We're going to dance."
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Post by Roy Evangeline on Jan 11, 2010 4:16:55 GMT -5
Caitlin took his hands off the keys. "Uh oh," he said, but he went with her, knowing a deal was a deal. She led him to the middle of the room and he stood awakwardly for a moment. "Hold on," he siad. pullin out his wand, he thought for a moment about his surroundings.
Roy usually didn't like to use magic, since aiming was a rather difficult feat for him. But in his own home, if he could orientate himself, it wasn't as difficult. See, if he just stood up from the piano and walked to the middle of the room, he would be facing the front door, which meant the kitchen and the hall were to his left, and to his right, in the corner, was a record machine Marina had given him as a Christmas gift a few years ago. He flicked his wand in the general direction of the player and smiled when music begain to play. "Ta-da," he joked, putting his wand back in his pocket.
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Post by Caitlin Milton on Jan 11, 2010 11:23:58 GMT -5
She laughed softly as she led him to the center of the room. She knew that he would be better in the middle of the room and there was more room.
"That's quite the talent you have there Mr. Evangeline," Caitlin said in a teasing way. It was good that he used magic every once in awhile. "You're going to lead this time. Don't worry about stepping on my toes or anything like that. Remember, don't hold your head completely down." Caitlin put her hand on his shoulder and her other in his other hand. "All you need to do is listen then your feet will start to move."
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