by Iris Davies<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a world with a famous and legendary\u00a0song 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. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is known throughout all cultures that the song is deadly.\nThe Greeks called it the siren\u2019s song; the Irish called it the Banshee\u2019s Wail. It\nis a fact as far ingrained in our heads as one plus one equals two, the sun is\nwarm and water is wet. The tale goes that anyone who listens to it goes\ninstantly mad and kills themselves. Antonio\u2019s parents called the song \u201cLa\ncanci\u00f3n del diablo.\u201d His uncle tells everyone at every family event about how\nhorrified he was when he saw his friend Miguel swinging from his bedroom\nceiling after playing the song on his guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Antonio\nwas a pianist in the big city, he would play at the clubs, speakeasies and\nsoirees until his fingers bled. Then, in the early hours of the morning, he\nwould take the metro home to his little, dark, cramped apartment. One night\nwhile playing for a singer at The Blind\nTiger<\/em> Antonio noticed a tattoo on the\nbassist\u2019s wrist: it was the first bar of a song, treble clef, three crotchets,\nD4 then A5 then E5 etched in black ink on her white skin. He instantly noticed\nit as the first few notes of La canci\u00f3n del diablo. Those notes were iconic imagery used in flags, album covers, religious\ntexts and political banners to symbolise nature, defiance and the devil. After\nthe show, he gingerly tried out the notes on his piano changing the pitch,\nvolume and rhythm each time, just to test the waters.\n He arrived at\nhis stop and started walking to his apartment\nblock. Suddenly, six shadowy men in dark clothing stopped him underneath a\nblinking streetlight. One of the men was brandishing a knife and all of them\nhad their mouths covered by a red cloth. After Antonio coughed up his cash and\ngave them his old watch, they kicked his knees and ran off out of the blinking\nstreetlight\u2019s glow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\nmorning, Antonio got dressed, skipped breakfast, paid his meter and went to\nmeet his older brother, Luis, a lawyer who recently lost \u201cthe biggest case of\nhis life,\u201d for lunch. Luis complained over and over about how he was so\n\u201cdesolate\u201d and \u201cutterly poor\u201d he repeatedly whined about how he might be forced\ninto living in rented accommodation. Antonio knew that losing lots of money is\nhard no matter how rich someone is but he couldn\u2019t help that inside he was\noverflowing with a fiery rage directed towards his brother\u2019s naivete, he\nexploded and spat \u201cidiot\u201d at Luis. With a pale face, Luis dictated that Antonio\nshould no longer expect his financial assistance anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\nnight after a lively set of improvisations at a jazz club and a dreary journey\nhome, Antonio came across someone lying on the damp ground with blood blotting their shirt,\ncrying out for someone to help them. Antonio rushed over to the dying man. He\nwas halfway through dialling for an ambulance\nwhen he noticed a red bandana around the injured\nman’s neck. Antonio recognised the man as one of his assailants from the night\nbefore and let spite drive his decisions. After kicking the bleeding man\nin the ribs, Antonio took the man\u2019s wallet from him\nin an act of blind vengeance. Antonio\ndidn\u2019t change his expression for the whole ordeal. He\nslept badly that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nnext day, before work, Antonio got a call from his father. At first Antonio\ncouldn\u2019t make out what his father was saying, but as he slowed down Antonio\ncould hear his father sobbing. \u201cTu madre, Imelda est\u00e1 muerta,\u201d he cried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\nweekend the police were around the blocks asking about a dead gang member\nstabbed by a rival member. Antonio didn\u2019t tell them anything and they let him\ngo. It got him thinking: life isn’t fair. He did a forbidden\ndeed and suffered no consequences, his mother died prematurely due to random\nchance, his brother is oblivious to poverty because his passions are more\nlucrative than his own. He also started to think about his ponderings he had a\nfew days ago on how much of La canci\u00f3n del diablo do you need to listen to in\norder to go mad. He pondered and pondered until he could take it no more he had\nan itch to learn and a yearning for answers. He\ncrept towards his piano and dug among his mountain of papers. He found it, an\nold, yellowed sheet of music titled: La canci\u00f3n del diablo that he\ninherited from his uncle. Shakenly, he put the sheet\non the music shelf. He played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019t 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\u2019t 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\u2019t call the papers, they wouldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[401],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5460","project","type-project","status-publish","hentry","category-sixth-form-stories"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/5460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}