The Mysterious Melody (standard:adventure, 942 words)
Author: ak	Added: Jun 22 2003	Views/Reads: 3657/2158	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A persistant girl involves her devoted aunt on a dangerous search for the composer of a mysterious, haunting melody.

Kira Pirofski B.A. M.A. The mysterious melody: by Kira Pirofski
Estelle's niece Rebecca knew how to have fun.  She was an expert in 
finding interesting ways to amuse herself.  She knew how to make the 
world exciting and vividly alive. Adults have lost that ability, but 
children have it.  And every time Estelle talked to Rebecca, memories 
of her own childhood suddenly returned to her with the full force of a 
shining, swirling, sunny, spring shower. 

On one particular day, her niece called to chat.  The conversation began
as usual with Rebecca asking a question.  This was her style.  She had 
an insatiable curiosity which Rebecca reveled in. 

This innocent question about the source of a tune rebecca and her friend
had overheard someone humming. She hummed the melody for Estelle.  The 
melody was beautiful and Estelle was mesmerized by it.  Estelle had 
never heard anything so beautiful and mysterious. 

In an effort to please Rebecca, Estelle  searched for information about
the history of the tune.  The search led nowhere.  The tune, oddly 
melodic, had left no paper trail. 

Inquiries to music teacher friends of Estelle's yielded no information.
However, they too, intrigued by the mysterious melody, promised to 
pursue its origin. 

Estelle, anxious to solve the mystery phoned classical music stations,
searched sheet music stores, and questioned every music store owner she 
met. 

These efforts too led nowhere. 

The search for the story behind the tune dragged out.  Eventually,
Rebecca's active mind moved to other topics, and the mysterious tune 
was nearly forgotten and no longer a topic of discussion between aunt 
and niece. 

Six months had passed since Rebecca had asked Estelle to trace the
history of the mysterious tune, but Estelle still remembered the 
phrasing of it. 

One winter afternoon, Estelle went shopping for a gift for Rebecca's
tenth birthday.  She had spent longer looking for and purchasing a gift 
than she had intended, and when she left the store it was almost dark. 

The night air was strangely still and cold.   Shivers ran down the back
of Estelle's neck, and small sweat beats formed on her brown.  She 
hurried to cross the street to catch her bus when suddenly she heard 
the sound of the melody. 

Some one was whistling it in a low, strange pitch.  Estelle felt scared,
but elated.  If she could just see who was whistling the tune.  But the 
moon was just covered by a cloud, and the sky was starless. 

Estelle began to run blindly after the sound.  Every time it got louder,
she would cry out for the whistler to stop.  “Who are you, what is that 
tune you are whistling?” she began to scream. 

No one answered her. Instead, the tune just became more distant, and
Estelle would begin to run again after the sound again. Finally, 
exhausted, Estelle considered giving up.  Maybe someone was playing a 
cruel joke on her. But she could not stop following the sound. 

The combination of the tune's strangeness, and the change in the
intensity of the sound made her dizzy.  Estelle finally sat down on the 
nearest bench.  Exhausted and scared she began to cry. 

Scared and cold, she sobbed and sobbed uncontrollably.  The sound of her
sniffling and weeping reverberated in her head and she no longer heard 
the tune.  Her tears ceased, and she reached in her pocket for a 
Kleenex. 

When she had wiped away the tears she slowly looked up.  Before her
stood a man dressed in a black waistcoat and carrying a long ivory 
carved walking stick. His face was mustached, waxen and ghostly. 



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