1900

Silence is the only abstract thing surrounding the gallant dance and dining hall of dukes, duchess and other royalties after the last ringing of a note beneath his firm but exhausted fingers. Amazement struck the royal audiences in a way that it made their jaws hung from their faces from the astonishment of the swift event that took their breath away, Entranced, when he stood in his piano stool and bowed with grace and nobility on his sweat-soaked coat with perspiration trickling from his face due to the vigorous body language he just used, as if he was in a circus performing a seemingly impossible feat that left the audience dumbfounded.

The audience, still in the realm of silence from the ethereal moment of inhuman representation of talent, gazed at him with focus as he tread the side of the black grand piano where an unlit cigarette waited, he picked it up and lifted it overhead, introducing it to the royal audience with profound certainty, there was a sudden feeling of uneasiness and intrigue in his deed, indeed, as he opened the hood of the grand piano and dipped the cigarette into a piano string, and what happened was not expected by many, at first, they thought it was a ridiculous act, but the presence of smoke and a bursting sound defined it all, he lifted the lighted cigarette and presented it to the royal audience in a triumphant and delightful way as to prove that something wonderful has happened.

All again was consumed by stillness and the noiselessness of that point in time, for it was quite impossible to light a cigarette with a piano string, but he did, he lighted it from his music, so sublime and so intense that it made the piano strings transform into fiery strips of almost red hot matter that lighted the cigarette, which also left his vanquished foe in the comfort of his seat break down in tears, for he was never been so humiliated in his life, until now, not believing the things that had happened.

A burst of applause just sprang out of nowhere, and the hall is suddenly an ambient of ecstasy from a crowd, so overwhelmed by the extraordinary performance that they had never seen or heard before. While holding the burning cigarette, he gained the admiration and appraisal of all, and undisputedly declared the winner of the duel against the greatest pianist of New York.

The night brought a promising memory to those who had witnessed and heard music at its best, the piano duel between New York’s best and an under-rated prodigy of the ship Virginia, All left the hall that night with jolted emotions and a happy spirit from both delicious performances of superior proportions, but this night belonged to the underdog, the ships own pianist.

Who was he? Who is this sickly looking man that defied it all and owned the show? The man who is employed as a pianist? The man they usually see in the hall, playing unheard pieces of music? The man, whom they say, has lived his entire life in this ship.

It was about three decades ago, when this ship was brought to life by a world renowned shipyard in England in 1900, with its creation was a promise of a lifetime when upon its inauguration and first transatlantic sail from Liverpool to New York as its route of commerce, was a baby left in a deck by his mother, It was a question why did his mother left him, of all the things that God has made, this poor little cradle of clean linen cloth was left in the mercy of strangers, But life suddenly found its way on him, for he was found, reared and loved by a crew of the ship who happened to be a coal worker on the ships engine compartment, He named the baby, after the turning of the century, Nineteen Hundred.

Nineteen Hundred grew in the setting of the ships working class; they treated him well and brought him up with the proper love and care that he needed. His foster father, an African ship laborer, loved him so much, despite the color of his skin. All the years that they’ve spent with each other molded the kind-heartedness and gentleness of Nineteen Hundred, but like all things, everything must come to an end, his foster father had an accident in the workplace and died. The grieving juvenile was left in the guidance and company of his foster father’s colleagues.

Nineteen hundred replaced his foster father’s job as a coal laborer; even in his child body, he endured his job’s physical demands and loved his work. Life really has its purpose on him, for every night when all the passengers are at sleep he wandered in the upper decks of the ship in the royal class’ hall and ate the left-over food and drank the left wine, but the most important thing that he saw that made him legend, was the grand piano.

Since then, his passion for the piano’s sound grew naturally, for having not studied music; he was able to play the piano every night when all was in slumber, and developed his own musicality by applying his emotions to every press of a key in the piano, thus, harnessing the strong emotions of humanity, then all became impromptu to him, all was to enjoy.

When it came to pass when he was already at the most active stage of his life and was able to get the attention of the captain by his sheer talent of music, he was then promoted as the ships pianist, playing every night on the royal dancing and dining hall.

Life was going fairly well on him, he was happy with his job and he loves what he is doing, until the day he fell in love with a passenger in the middleclass part of the ship, he found her one morning, when he played in the middleclass tavern of the ship, as if earth had been so kind to him. He approached her and talked to her, she fell in love too and they both fell in their cabin love nest and talked some more. How Nineteen hundred wished those moments never ended.

Morning came and the statue of Liberty stood colossal in the morning fog of New York. The girl left earlier but made a note for Nineteen Hundred, Choice was bitter for Nineteen Hundred, for he was torn between his love and passion onboard, He was about the follow the girl in her given address in New York City, but it was a hard decision, He was on the ships bridge to dry land, just one step and he is off the ship, he paused a bit; he turned, took his hat off and threw it in the air, he climbed back and chose to live with his passion, the ship, and family.

Every now and then he would play in the ship with pristine and original music of his own creation. He played on the royal deck, on the hall every evening and played on the middleclass during mornings and afternoon. All loved him; all cared for him, his music inspired all the people aboard, as if he was the ships most treasured investment of happiness and grandeur. He never ceased to play the kind of music he was endowed with, so prodigious and pacific. He was able to hone the different emotions of the people aboard Virginia, and with that stature, he became legend.

It was a glorious and colorful life for Nineteen Hundred, having defeated the grand pianist of New York, having induced smiles of delight of the million transatlantic voyagers of the ship Virginia, and having been heard the life in the notes beneath his hands like the waves dancing on Atlantic breeze. He now realized his purpose.

As the years grew rusts on Virginia’s maritime metal, so as the life of Nineteen Hundred. The ship is now old with barnacles growing all over her rusted parts, exposed in the coldness of the sea. She had reached the most ripened stage of her maritime service to the immigrants and voyagers and is now ready to be disposed in the bottom of the sea. Her years had now passed.

Now, in the empty hall filled with wooden boxes, boxes that seemed to be the end of everything, there lay Nineteen Hundred. He was wondering why there are so many boxes, from the captain’s bridge, to the docks, to the Mast, to the different decks, where activities are supposed to be tended, and the cabins, boxes fill them all. Nineteen Hundred reclined on one in the empty and rugged hall. He is full of soul as an Eagle gliding freely in the eastern coast, reminisced every chapter of his life, like the rolling credits of a cinema, He reminisced all of the happy moments in the once glorious ship, His Virginia. The ship that begot him, the ship where he lived his passion for music and friends that he loved, those were remembered.

And as he straighten up in his recline on the a box, he placed his fingers in front of him, imagining something, imagining the grand piano where he once made life with, pressing and feeling it, In his mind he played the tunes that defined his happiness, it produced an ample amount of teardrop on his eyes that streamed down from his pale face. Playing on his mind, the last composition, the last performance without an audience, the last notes borne of his sublime fingers, it sounded beautiful, so perfect that rung all over the ship. In his mind, it was all too fulfilling; he gave out a lasting expression, a smile, as if he was on a trance, and then at last, a sense of fulfillment.

The Dynamites sounded!

-Gerald Galindez

A feature on the movie, The Legend of 1900

08-06-08

5:19 pm