He worked next door to her... the girl with the auburn curls and rosy cheeks. She lived in the big white house with the navy shutters while he cleaned the grease off the stove and took out the trash next door. Her maid, Bee, had raised her since she was born. Her dresses were always crisp and bright. His trousers were slightly wrinkled and covered in soot. He would often sit out on the back porch and he would hear her music... it would come from the front room in the big house. He gradually would make his way to sit under the big oak tree and sit by the hydrangeas beneath the window and listen as her fingers glided up and down the piano... it was so peaceful. Sometimes, he would glance up without her noticing. When she played, she would tighten her lips and squint her eyes, almost as if they were closed. He saw a joy and a serenity in her as she played... he could tell it was her escape. Often she would look out into the distance as if seeing something far away, but then she would start right back playing again. She would repeat this for hours... sometimes he wondered if she even had a family inside that big house. He would almost be asleep under the oak tree when he would hear Ms. Wilkins whistling for him in the kitchen- another load of garbage waiting for him.... at night, sometimes he wouldn't even go home to his empty house full of soda cans and old magazines. Sitting under the big oak, knowing she was somewhere in that house- that was where he wanted to be.
Sometimes they would see each other at school. She would usually have four or five girls decked in plaid skirts and twin braids hovering around her to soak in the radiance.. she would always do the same thing she did at the piano- glance into the distance, as if searching for something... except here at school, she didn't snap back into the moment... the girls crowding around were almost a buzzing in her ears.
Little did she know that he was always there. Always in the background, always there to catch her if she'd fall. Around him, she wouldn't need to stare into the distance- all she had been searching and grasping for had always been right there under the big oak with the dirty hair and the greasy jeans...
Little did she know...
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