A cool breeze came in with the tide forcing Ander to draw the wool cloak in. He stood on the dock leaning up against a mooring pillar, playing the trumpet's notes over in his head. Bendino, the musician, explained that it was made by someone named Farandias. From his explanation, it sounded like one of the golden circle shadows, but this was merely speculation. Ander replayed the notes in his head. What was it about this trumpet that struck him? The musician, talented as he was, had been sharp twice, not noticibly so, but it wasn't the musician. The tone quality was excellent, but Ander had heard its equivalent. The music was reasonably simple (but expressive), especially when he blocked out all the other parts. Was this some strange fixation with the trumpet?
Not even a week ago, he had played with an orchestral jazz group that was performing in Ash Ridge. Their piano player fell violently ill three days before their performances began. Ander volunteered to be the back up and actually performed on opening night. The trumpet hadn't caught his ear then, any more than it should have. He remembered the man who came to tune the piano; Cuthbert, or something like that was how he introduced himself, but Ander suspected that wasn't his real name. They tuned the piano together, sort of. Ander actually tuned the whole thing 1/8th of a flat lower to match the way the musician had been plyaing the alto flute. Everyone else tuned to the piano and the show was a smash.
In that show the oboe had a solo. Katarina played oboe. Ander remembered her audition. Now some things made some sense. She had walked in without references, some how gotten Diedier to grant her the time. She wasn't as talented as the orchestra's first oboe player, but she had promise. "Technical skill can be learned; she plays with enough heart for me. What say you Karl?" Ander agreed and their affair was born a month later.
Deidre said 'plays with enough heart'. Ander considered how much heart he was playing with. Technically, a listener would hear emotion in his notes, but would they be as inspired as Ander knew they could be? He helped a dock worker load a bin of potatoes aboard the vessel and lost himself with the crew doing menial preparations, but he kept thinking about the music that was taken from him.
Sometime later, as they set off, Ander crossed to where Katherine was standing. She wore a green travelling cloak and a small cap tied below her chin. He took her hand, perhaps a bit to hard and walked toward the starboard side of the boat. When they got to the railing they stopped and stiffly looked out into the sea night. "You changed your hair", Ander finally said. Katherine let out a short burst of air. It might have sounded like a laugh, but it was more of a release.