The Deadly Song
by Iris Davies
In a world with a famous and legendary song which no-one dares listen to and is known to cause the listener to commit suicide. Antonio, a pianist in New York City, is forced to contemplate the laws of reality.
It is known throughout all cultures that the song is deadly. The Greeks called it the siren’s song; the Irish called it the Banshee’s Wail. It is a fact as far ingrained in our heads as one plus one equals two, the sun is warm and water is wet. The tale goes that anyone who listens to it goes instantly mad and kills themselves. Antonio’s parents called the song “La canción del diablo.” His uncle tells everyone at every family event about how horrified he was when he saw his friend Miguel swinging from his bedroom ceiling after playing the song on his guitar.
Antonio was a pianist in the big city, he would play at the clubs, speakeasies and soirees until his fingers bled. Then, in the early hours of the morning, he would take the metro home to his little, dark, cramped apartment. One night while playing for a singer at The Blind Tiger Antonio noticed a tattoo on the bassist’s wrist: it was the first bar of a song, treble clef, three crotchets, D4 then A5 then E5 etched in black ink on her white skin. He instantly noticed it as the first few notes of La canción del diablo. Those notes were iconic imagery used in flags, album covers, religious texts and political banners to symbolise nature, defiance and the devil. After the show, he gingerly tried out the notes on his piano changing the pitch, volume and rhythm each time, just to test the waters. He arrived at his stop and started walking to his apartment block. Suddenly, six shadowy men in dark clothing stopped him underneath a blinking streetlight. One of the men was brandishing a knife and all of them had their mouths covered by a red cloth. After Antonio coughed up his cash and gave them his old watch, they kicked his knees and ran off out of the blinking streetlight’s glow.
That morning, Antonio got dressed, skipped breakfast, paid his meter and went to meet his older brother, Luis, a lawyer who recently lost “the biggest case of his life,” for lunch. Luis complained over and over about how he was so “desolate” and “utterly poor” he repeatedly whined about how he might be forced into living in rented accommodation. Antonio knew that losing lots of money is hard no matter how rich someone is but he couldn’t help that inside he was overflowing with a fiery rage directed towards his brother’s naivete, he exploded and spat “idiot” at Luis. With a pale face, Luis dictated that Antonio should no longer expect his financial assistance anymore.
That night after a lively set of improvisations at a jazz club and a dreary journey home, Antonio came across someone lying on the damp ground with blood blotting their shirt, crying out for someone to help them. Antonio rushed over to the dying man. He was halfway through dialling for an ambulance when he noticed a red bandana around the injured man’s neck. Antonio recognised the man as one of his assailants from the night before and let spite drive his decisions. After kicking the bleeding man in the ribs, Antonio took the man’s wallet from him in an act of blind vengeance. Antonio didn’t change his expression for the whole ordeal. He slept badly that night.
The next day, before work, Antonio got a call from his father. At first Antonio couldn’t make out what his father was saying, but as he slowed down Antonio could hear his father sobbing. “Tu madre, Imelda está muerta,” he cried.
That weekend the police were around the blocks asking about a dead gang member stabbed by a rival member. Antonio didn’t tell them anything and they let him go. It got him thinking: life isn’t fair. He did a forbidden deed and suffered no consequences, his mother died prematurely due to random chance, his brother is oblivious to poverty because his passions are more lucrative than his own. He also started to think about his ponderings he had a few days ago on how much of La canción del diablo do you need to listen to in order to go mad. He pondered and pondered until he could take it no more he had an itch to learn and a yearning for answers. He crept towards his piano and dug among his mountain of papers. He found it, an old, yellowed sheet of music titled: La canción del diablo that he inherited from his uncle. Shakenly, he put the sheet on the music shelf. He played.
After the first line, he felt no madness. After the second line, he felt no madness. After the third, fourth and final line, he felt no madness. His hands landed on the last cord and nothing happened, he had no wish to shoot himself or fall on a blade. He didn’t feel happy, he felt betrayed and confused, this was a part of his reality, as true as the sky is blue. Confused, he went outside and wandered into the bright street. What else had he been lied to about? His sweet mother always told him that the second you look at the sun you go blind so Antonio peeked at the sun and although it hurt his eyes, his vision persisted. His mind was racing, he would be famous, he had discovered a fault in the truth of the universe, he might well have proved that gravity goes up, grass is purple and one plus one equals seven. He started to wonder why this lie was spread. He began to hypothesize that perhaps humans can’t be damaged and these lies were spread to contain the population. He needed to tell the public about his new enlightenment but how? He couldn’t call the papers, they wouldn’t believe him, the police would do nothing, they work for the government and probably already know. He couldn’t tell the church as they were most likely the ones that started this lie. He was going to have to make a public demonstration. He walked down to the main road and he had an idea: he would throw himself in front of the next bus and walk away unscathed. As luck would have it, a bus was just coming around the corner. He jumped in front of the vehicle. The deadly song claimed another victim.