Melody

The first time I met you, you had already been introduced to who I was almost everyday.

I was going into my third year and had taken a peculiar step backwards in terms of college social interactions. Friends joked that my life was not filled with the sweet caress of a gentler touch nor the companionship of alcohol and bros, but by the haunting melody of my record player and the click-klack of worn stones repeatedly hitting the Go Board.

It had been during the summer that I was first introduced to the record player. It was small, subtle, a hidden marvel of my first home. I spent the majority of that summer walking to and from Vinyl Vintage, experimenting with records and tunes that I was already familiar with but had never truly experienced. With it, I became something of an addict, preferring the melody over the enjoyable chatter of friends upstairs. For Go, it had been many years since I had grown fond of it, and it was and is the only atmosphere that collects who I am. Today, although my hands cannot quite collect the stones that in my early years had become familiar in my nimble fingertips, their feel lingers just like the memory of when I first met you sitting under our tree.

Sitting under that tree, holding a book in one hand and a black stone in the other, I did not hear the soft steps over the melody of the Beatles so it was not to my surprise that I dropped both stone and book when you said hi.

It took a dozen or so years later, going home to a garage sale that I began to replay our memories. The intertwining of hands beneath our sapling tree. The vivid eyes, the remembering smile. I bought the record and brought it to my own home, drowning myself in the haunting melody of Norwegian Wood.

Of course, it now seems ironic that you first met me through my music, since I was neither then or now an avid music listener nor knowledgeable about music. You told me that, back when you lived near the same metro stop that I used, the scratching buzz of the record player and the often haunting melody of the melodies that accompanied me in my early age also became a peculiar presence in your walk home. Curious what music brings you.