1.2 Sofia (The Beginning)

LEO

I bought only what I could afford- a small, uncomfortable bed and a violin, and placed both under the sky. I was to play music for a well-off family across the town, and for that I needed a fiddle. I must have looked a sorry sight, mournfully playing what was, at best, out of practice tunes next to a bed among empty foundations.

The next day I trudged wearily to the home of my new employer. Their house was a grandiose sight to behold, but it was nothing compared to the face that greeted me when I knocked on the door.

The girl at the door was like no other I had seen before. Had I, in my entire life, known eyes so blue that I felt like drowning in their depths? Or hair so bright it framed her heart-shaped face like flaxen gold?

“Are you the new violinist?” she asked.

I nodded mutely.

“Please come in,” she said. She led me through a hall into a spacious dining room. “Our new violinist, father,” she said to a man who was sitting there, eating with his wife and younger daughter.

“Thank you, Sofia,” said the man, who I took to be Bjorn Bjorgsen, my employer. “Sit in that chair there, if you would, and play for us please,” he said to me.

I positioned myself at the corner of the dining room and began to play. To be honest, I don’t remember how I did at all. All I remember is that, while I played, I could not stop staring at the back of Sofia’s head.

Only when the day was over did I reflect on my performance. It can’t have been too good, but it can’t have been too bad either, since I was not thrown out on the spot. Perhaps my employer had thought I had room for improvement, or that it was not too much of a loss since my salary was small. Either way, I returned to the house day after day.

I offered to work longer shifts for the same pay. It meant I didn’t have to go back home where my one bed and no walls awaited me. I played for long hours in the corner, ate when the family slept, and napped in my chair. Perhaps I had made it unnecessarily hard for myself, but it was all worth it. Because I could see Sofia, when she left her room to walk down the hall, or when she would pass me on the way to the door. It was all worth it to me.

Then one day, she talked to me.