without further ado

ii. come sail away

love is like playing the piano. first you must learn to play by the rules then you must forget the rules and play from your heart.

-unknown

♫

chapter two

his sky blue watch seemed to have stopped, the second hand ticking continuously between the seven and the eight. he didn't need to worry though. two other watches adorned his left wrist, one a digital made of silver plastic and the other an eco-friendly bamboo watch. his hands were wringing together in a ball of nerves as his head replayed the notes and words in his head.

"clyde...swerdloff?"

"here, miss."

she took the pencil behind her ear and used it to tick off something on her professional looking black clipboard before placing it back.

"follow me."

with that she started to speed-walk out the door. hastily he stood from the hard plastic chair only to accidentally trip over his other foot and land on the carpeted floor with a muffled oomph! quickly, he brought himself back up to follow the lady and towards the gymnasium. his elbow still slightly ached as he jogged to catch up with the lady, now only ten or so metres away. a minute of awkward silence lead them to an originally red door, now brown with bits of paint peeling and marker graffiti-ed.

"wait here until they tell you to come in."

with that the lady abruptly left. suddenly the waves of nervous hit him once again as he began fiddling with the three watches on his wrist. he looked at the polished screens of his watch as he counted the seconds. the second hand of the eco-friendly watch ticked in time with the cheap plastic digital, the blue sports watch sat with the screen blank. it was weird how time could past so fast yet so slow, weird how time was technically the same anyway as well as everywhere, and not only earth. actually, except black holes... or was there time in timelessness? he thought. like infinite, infinite was so large, so big, so...forever, yet there was a word for it. infinite. infinite. infinity, infinite.

"next!"

like pi, infinite numbers. pi. like time. infinite numbers. time. but what was before time?

"NEXT!"

clyde was jolted from his wondering as the harsh, screeching voice brought him back to earth. he cautiously opened the now-brown door with his watch-coated wrist and peered into the gymnasium.

"sorry, it was hard to hear through the door."

he was lying, the voice had echoed enough for the people in the westfield next door to hear.

"don't worry 'bout it, son."

"enough with the chit chat. name?"

"clyde swerdloff."

he was still fiddling with his watches, at the moment it was the dead, blue one.

"age?"

"seventeen and a bit."

"a bit?" her face seemed bored yet stern.

"yes, a bit."

the lady looked slightly taken aback...did he say something wrong? or was he suppose to say 'three months'? oh, maybe he was...

"i mean, seventeen and three months."

"'kay, son, you've asked for the piano, 'm i right?"

"yes."

the male judge gestured at the upright piano placed randomly in the room. "you can take a seat."

he took his time as he dawdled over to his seat. he wasn't ready yet. he needed time to concentrate.