His anxiety level was at boiling point as he raced across town to catch the last ferry. It had been a rotten day dealing with some of the company's most important clients trying to negotiate their way to a more acceptable resolution to their dastardly deeds. Well, that's what high paid defense lawyers did, and his head was pounding thinking about how the team had to defend their clients, and offer some mitigations without stepping outside the law.
The last of the passengers were making their way up the boarding ramp, and he just had time to text in his drink order to the bar before the announcement came for 'all aboard' as he joined the last handful of commuters. The bartender had his double martini ready and he made his way down to the lower level where the techies seated at small tables were already working on their various devices, smartphones, tablets, laptops and the like. He found a table, opened his laptop and pulled up the brief he was working on. This job was killing him, as his physician had reminded him every time he saw him. “You've got to find some way to reduce your stress levels, Aaron....look at these lab results. You're off the charts in all the critical areas”.
The ferry horn rang out and the ‘all aboard’ message came over the address system as a final call. Aaron looked up as the boarding ramp was beginning to retract and saw an unshaven man, limping with what looked like a prosthetic limb coming towards the ramp. He had long, dark hair, a full beard, a large backpack, and was carrying what looked like an instrument case. The employee lowered the ramp again and went to assist the last passenger, then the ferry closed the doors and started moving on out. Shortly the limping man made his way down to the lower deck and eased into a corner across from Aaron, taking time to move the stiff left leg into place before he settled into the chair.
Aaron was surprised at how the man looked and caught the man’s mirror image in the ferry’s corner window. His face looked fierce, dark and foreboding, almost evil. From the sunken cheeks, to the steel-blue eyes, long dark hair tied back with a clip of sorts. He was too polite to stare, but in his profession he’d developed a sure sense of a person’s character from what was offered in a first impression and this one boded ill. The stranger sat with closed eyes for some time while the ferry plowed across the Bay. He seemed to go deep within himself. Aaron texted the bar for a second martini and got up to climb the stairs to the upper deck.
On returning he saw the stranger undo the hair clip, bend down, open the instrument case and take out a classical guitar then clamp his hair clip on the upper frets. He ran beautifully manicured hands over the instrument and softly touched each string for tuning. He lifted the guitar and started to play one of the most romantic guitar pieces known, Romance d’Amour. Every head in the room lifted from devices, and turned toward the stranger. The low sound of the ferry engines did not deter from the beauty of the music. Time seemed to stop. Aaron’s realization of his judgment of the stranger came to smack him right in the gut. How unimportant his job of stress and anxiety seemed when he could be transformed by beautiful sounds.
When the last note was played, he got up and walked to the stranger and introduced himself. “My name is Aaron Metzner, and I am an asshole lawyer. The gift of your music today has awoken in me a renewed promise to myself that I will open my heart and listen to the world before seeing it with judgmental eyes and mind”. The stranger nodded as if he knew what he was doing before putting his guitar in the case.
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