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As annoying as it was to admit she was right, Darcy definitely had a point about Mike's love life. He knew it was time to get back out there. Surely he could actually find a smart, sweet girl with no patience for drama or mind games. Shaking his head, he pushed those thoughts out of his mind. Focus Braxton, he thought. Audition of a lifetime in one week.
Flipping the TV on to his favorite cable news network, Mike was about to crawl into bed when he glanced at his trumpet case in the corner. Instantly remembering the strange locket from earlier today, he went to dig it and the brown box it came in out of his case. He was about to examine the locket, when he noticed the corner of a small piece of paper sticking out of the box. Opening it up, he discovered a hand written note.
Hello, Mike. I do not know if you have attempted to open the locket yet, but please know that it will only open if you are truly the kind of person I suspect you are. For a man who knows God, as I can tell you do, the solution to this puzzle should come very easily. I wish you luck and happiness in all of your life's endeavors. Sincerely, Selena.
Holy crap, he thought. He hadn't imagined it. Somehow, that entire encounter today was real. Now fully invested in uncovering the meaning of Selena's note, Mike placed the box on his nightstand, switched off the TV so he could focus, and reached for the locket, sitting up comfortably in his bed.
"Let's see if we can't figure out what you are, my little friend..." Mike said, in his best Obi-Wan Kenobi voice. As he held it in his hand, the blue stone in the center started glowing, just as it had that afternoon. And yet, even with the stone glowing brightly, Mike still could not open the locket. It was as if it was welded shut from the inside.
Mike turned the locket over, inspecting the smooth, plain back piece. He began running his index finger over the surface and edges, slowly feeling for any sort of switch or clasp that might allow it to open. At this point, he didn't care if the locket contained anything or not. His gut told him that it would be worth it just to find the solution to this puzzle.
As his finger moved around to the front side of the locket, Mike began to notice a faint outline of some sort on the back piece. After a few attempts to replicate it, he quickly discovered that placing his finger on the blue stone was the trigger to those outlines. Pressing down gently, he was slowly able to make out a series of letters appearing on the back of the locket.
I Cor
XV LII
Curiouser and curiouser, Mike thought. He made a note of the letters in his phone, trying to think what they could mean. Reading Selena's note again, he took notice of her mention of knowing God.
"That's it!"
Mike reached into his nightstand for his King James Bible. Though he preferred his Common English Bible, there just was something that felt right about having this version by his bedside. Mike flipped through the pages until he found his target: 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 52.
Maybe I just need to read it out loud? Could it be that simple?
Clearing his throat, Mike read, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
Nothing. No movement or glowing from the locket.
Mike tried reading the passage again, this time with his finger pressed on the stone, but still no results. He pondered endlessly. Why would the locket direct him to this passage if reading the passage itself does nothing? There had to be some additional significance.
Glancing again at his trumpet case, Mike had one idea so farfetched that it just might work. The text of this verse was used in Handel's Messiah during an extended trumpet solo entitled The Trumpet Shall Sound. Additionally, Mike was very familiar with this piece, having just played it this past Easter at his local church. Picking up his trumpet, Mike placed a practice mute in the bell, muffling the sound to barely a whisper. No need to piss off the neighbors.
After playing a few warm-up notes, Mike focused for a moment, remembering the opening to the song before beginning the extended fanfare that started the piece. As he approached the segment where the vocalist would have entered, he noticed the locket was glowing again, this time extending from the stone and into the vine-like inlays. Startled, he stopped playing, causing the glow to instantly disappear.
Smiling to himself, he knew he was close to the answer. As he began again from the beginning, the locket, sure enough, started glowing again. Losing himself in the music, and clearly hearing the vocalist in his head as he played, he had almost forgotten about the locket completely by the time he finished the final bars. Laying his trumpet back in the case, the locket was now shining brighter than ever before, almost as if it was fully charged with energy. Climbing back into bed, he again took the locket in his hand, and immediately felt it's warmth engulf his entire body. He placed his finger once more on the center stone, causing the glow to vanish. He then heard an audible click, signaling that he had finally solved the puzzle.
His hands trembled as he began to pry open the locket. As he looked inside, there at first did not appear to be anything inside. Upon further inspection, however, he could see that the stone on the front was, in fact, a complete sphere, with the back half extending into the locket. Touching the backside of the stone, it suddenly released a puff of blue smoke directly into his face!
He coughed and hacked as his vision became blurry, dropping the locket onto the floor. Trying to keep his wits about him, he reached to shut the locket before anything else happened, but to no avail. The last thing he remembered before passing out was the cloud of smoke appearing to form into something solid...
- COMMENTS
Anonymousover 2 years agoI can relate to the character's feelings about performing a Mangioné tune in front of a high school audience.
I felt the same way just being able to see 'Chuck' perform live in the '70's. I was a jazz fan before being a jazz fan became cool... and was a jazz fan after being a jazz fan was no LONGER cool.
Seeing him perform around 76-77 was transformative; he was at his talent/performance peak. There was no way to be the same person after having the chance to see him play.
I started playing horn when my group of friends starting in 3rd or 4th grade. Unlike my friends, I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, wheelbarrow or a dump truck. I still remember the embarrassment of having our music/chorus teacher saying, "Let's hear that again, without George, this time."
As I transitioned from trumpet to a less difficult horn, (can't remember what it was), to an E flat Alto horn, (I was too small to play a tube), I doggedly kept trying to learn, because I desperately wanted to play in stage band and the marching band, my parts diminished until a part a remember well: I played the 'oomp', only, in the Oomp, Pah, Pah song!
Nothing else, just 'oomp' every so many stanzas. I had the desire and drive, I could read music like a comic book, (in the 4th grade), that was something, there was just this 'minor' problem with tune transportation.
I finally took pity on my music teacher, my mom and friends, and quit playing before junior high. Years later, I wondered why the teacher didn't push me towards the piano, where my inability to approximate any close to lousy pitch, let alone being 'blessed with perfect pitch', as one of my friend's report cards immortalized, one quarter.
There was no student piano player in the 3-4 cluster I knew through all 12 grades. Knowing everyone was a benefit of growing up in a town of 7,000; (10,000+ when the rural school districts were added).
Years later, when I easily learned to play piano in college, I wondered why the music teacher didn't channel my enthusiasm for music and performing into the piano. The one really talented piano player in our age cohort, hated to perform, and refused to.
He went so far as to completely quit playing in high school, to avoid having to perform. It was a shame; he loved playing, and would play for us all the time. He was extremely gifted, and could have readily played professionally, by high school age. Last time I talked with him, he was still playing for himself, (and his kids), and was starting his 4th decade as a school custodian.
I figure the reason I was channeled towards the piano had to do with me being the only child of a working poor, single mom. I'm sure she thought we'd never be able to afford a piano or private lessons; plus I didn't fit her perception of a piano player. I was a bit too wild to be cultured; something I got relative to my academic skills, which led to no career counseling, at all.
We funneled to a single, massive high school, after two years in one city and one rural/suburban junior high, (several of my friend's parents taught at the suburban jr high). Our small group of boys ended up getting to know the suburban & farm kids, through sports and social activities; especially the girls, since one of the 'rents was the girls PE teacher, and she making sure we 'mingled' with those hot sub girls, (not THAT kinda 'sub girls'...), as often as possible.
The height of her pre-adolescent social alchemy was when she facilitated a winter ballroom dancing taught privately, during 8th. This mom was really in our corner; she promoted the class heavily with girls from both jr highs, but did little to no promoting to boys from either school. One night a week, we had a passle of 8th grade girls as our dance partners.
To really make me agonize over my tune transportation weakness, the same group of 5 boys I started playing horns with formed a Herb Alpert 'cover band', (it was the '60's, the height of Alpert's popular fame), and performed all over the NW through out high school. They were very good.
Several of them made a huge dent in their college expenses with the money they earned. All the while, I had to sit and watch, because for me, those dots and five lines were just too damn heavy.
GeoD
Anonymousover 6 years agoA genie?
You write clearly ch 00 is coherent and well planned
It will need a twist beyond a genie to hold my interest for long
rightbankover 7 years agoYou chose to feature one of the most beautiful and difficult to play trumpet solos written. It kept playing in my head as I was reading.
