LITTLE PIANIST

AJ

I got lost that evening, when I tried to find my way back home. When I took a turnover I saw a small banner besides the road, about piano competition. I felt a bit tired about the traffic so I told myself to turn my car to the cultural center building complex*1) that hold the competition.

I was a bit late, the competition has already begun, but the staff at the door snucked me in to just stand up at the corridor begind last seats row. At the stage, I saw a boy, around eight or maybe ten, playing a piece of classical music, he stopped a while after he finished, I can feel his breathing then he continue to his second piece, with faster tempo than the first one. I left that auditorium right after the boy stood up to bow to the audiences. I knew another player will perform but I thought my mind couldn’t digest much, so I ordered coffee and tried to enjoy my cigarette.

Failed to pull myself together I walked to the park at the opposite side of the auditorium just straight from the stairs. As my surprise I saw that boy dressed semi-formal playing with his Hotwheels car. His mom sat two meters away from him holding a sandwich wrapped with paper while her left hand holding a box of milk with a straw.

Desperately to entertain my self I took a seat a bit far from them but near enough to make a conversation. “Is he your son? ” She replied yes shortly. “He’s good”, I tried to be polite, “What song did he play? ” Her mom turned to her son “HJ… can you answer this man? ” The boy lifted his face to me, “Sonatina in G Major” then continue playing. “Who composed it? ” my curiuosity raised about this boy. “Ludwig van Beethoven” he quickly replied while keep ignoring my presence. I flashbacked my memories many years ago when I with a bunch of art lovers went to culture center in Jakarta*2) to “learn” listening free classical music concert. With a lot of taught caught in my mind I lost my words to say, “what about the second one? ” with he answered as quick as before, “Kleine Studie by Robert Schumann” like he knew I will also ask who is the composer.

I felt so uselessly stupid. I felt stupid so many often. I felt stupid when my proffesor at Architecture*3) said that at the last platform on Borobudur was not ellip nor circle but a super-elipsa, a round shape that can fix into a square at maximum occupation, I felt stupid in front of legend painter at his museum in Yogya*4) but this is another level of stupidity. All my life I keep trying gathering all knowledges but I still missing significant pieces to complete my jigsaw.

I didn’t know for how long I made dialogue with myself before I stood up and walked back to the auditorium. The place seemed empty, maybe it’s all over already. But then I saw that boy still playing with his car toy, moving it back and forward along the stainless railing stair. “Heyy you still here? ” “Yeah! ” he smiled, his cheeks turn a bit red. Then he gave a biggest surprise for the whole day, “do you want to hear me playing piano? I am waiting until everyone left so I can play, my teacher chose that Sonatina but I chose the Schumann’s Studies because I like it even though it’s very difficult” he talked with very good English. “Well of course I’d love to” I gasped like I’m drowning.

A few minutes after that, there were three of us, her mom sat four seats away from me, at my left while I sat a bit to the right because I want to see HJ’s face when he plays.

It looked like he played the Beethoven’s Sonatina just for opening, stopped a while, lifted his face then played his favorite piece. I felt my half bottom body nailed to the auditorium seat, I felt comfortably numb, then something magical was happening.

From his little fingers slipped a thin long ribbons, downed around his right foot that controlling the pedal then flew up enlighting the whole dark auditorium. From under his left fingers I saw primary colors, red, yellow and blue, while from under his right fingers I saw secondary colors. Those ribbons then like separated each other into pieces to collide into other pieces to make tertiary colors, it’s happening again and again following the sounds, notes, bars, rhythms or whatever elements of music I can recall. When the colors became so pale after colliding so many times, his ten little fingers keep making another set of two color groups. Like a wizard that little boy mesmerizing me, more than that his colors like filling missing pieces of jigsaw in my mind. My mind was blowing away. It’s not more than two minutes piece of music, one minute forty seven seconds If I was not mistaken, but I felt like hours, until HJ stopped, jumped down then ran to his mom. I backed to my conciousness, felt so tired.

I never meet HJ again, but I remember all his stories when I walked them to their car, about his favorite bands, Linkin Park, Oasis, Queen and Keane. About how he likes riding his bike to how he doesn’t like drinking milk. He fluently speak both English and Thai. Under the evening sun before sunset time I just notice under his jacket he wore tshirt with Elvis head with words “Elvis is Dead” and unlike other pianist he wore Tommy Hilfiger shoe. I keep make paintings and I keep listening classical music, I can never say that I understand it but everytime I listen to any piece of classical music, HJ’s magic always back to me. A lot of my paintings were insipired by him.

*footnotes

1) Thai Cultural Center, Bangkok, Thailand

2) Erasmus Huis, Jakarta, Indonesia

3) Han Awal

4) Affandi Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia