Last Ones

Chapter 8

He walked over to the place he parked his car at after he retrieved his cello. He saw a group of teens sitting on his car taking pictures. He did not mind pictures but he did mind them sitting on his baby.

The teenagers were startled when they saw him and retreated in the blink of an eye. Alain sighed in annoyance. He made his baby purr and went for his destination, which was a rather popular park and quite a few people were roaming around.

Despite that it was not at all crowded and gave off a peaceful feeling. Alain chose one of the least crowded places and sat down. He took out his cello, bow, the sound amplifier and started playing.

He decided to play Bach's Cello suite N 1 G minor. The sounds started drifting into the surroundings creating strangely peaceful and calming atmosphere. Slowly people started gathering around him. There were not much but still enough.

They were listening with smiles on their faces, especially elderly. As for children their eyes were filled with admiration and curiosity.

Alain loved playing like this. With no one trying to judge or find flaws but not alone either. It was marvelous feeling that made him feel content and happy. He did not care about past nor future or present. There was only sound, sound that was healing his soul, sound that was spilling all his emotions that he tended to bottle up.

It was his salvation, his oasis in the endless tormenting dessert.

He loved how his fingers caressed the strings, how his bow moved. He marveled at how many sounds can a single instrument create.

Unknowingly one of the smaller viewers, 5~6 year old blond boy was approaching him more and more until he was a hand’s distance from the cello. Alain looked at the curious boy smilingly. That look in his eyes, that mischievous sparkle was all too familiar to him. Suddenly, Alain was overcome with a strong feeling of melancholy, he missed them so much.

He felt as if his soul was teared apart by the unbearable feeling. Pain and grief was so strong that it was difficult to breath. Yet, this was a feeling he was already used to, feeling - that he knew would never go away.

Finally the performance came to the end. There was a small applause from the listeners. He thanked them and they slowly dispersed. He looked at the boy who was still standing right in front of him with sparkling blue eyes and asked: “wanna try?”

The boy eagerly nodded his head.

“Oh, what's your name little man?”

“Max and yours?” The boy asked happily.

“Alain, come here then,” Alain patted his knee and the boy excitedly jumped over and made himself all comfy.

“Max are you here alone?”

“Nah, with uncle”

“Oh, and where's your uncle?”

“Dunno, we were playing hide and seek, and then I heard you play so I ran over here.”

“Oh, we should find your uncle a bit later and you should not have ran away too far from him.”

“ ‘K”

Alain took the bow and gave it to the boy. Adjusting his fingers so that he held it correctly he took hold of his little hand and guided him for a few simple sounds. After a little while he let go, the boy did impressive job and did not mess up immediately. Rather he managed to repeat the sound once or twice before making a mistake. Once he erred Alain corrected him and the boy continued to play.

Alain thought that Max would quickly get bored of repeating the same sound over and over. Alas he was gravely mistaken, Max was getting more and more engrossed as the sparkle in his eyes got brighter and smile wider. He erred once in a while but Alain corrected him.

He was impressed by the boy's talent as it was not easy to do what he managed to do in a few tries. He checked the time and was shocked to realize that it was already more than half an hour. He was about to stop the boy and go to search for his uncle when he saw a man running over anxiously.

He recognised him. It was the man who was playing the cello in the music class. Alain was flabbergasted, meanwhile Max looked up distracted by Alain’s slight movement. Seeing the man he called out cheerfully, “uncle!”

The poor man was out of breath. He looked at the boy with relief and after he verified that he was not hurt in any way he finally paid attention to the one his nephew was spending his time with. He was stunned when he saw the familiar gorgeous red eyes that seemed to look through one's soul. It was the boy who he had met earlier in that school.

He was invited there as a school psychologist, but he had to refuse as he realized that his emotional state was not quite stable. He decided to recuperate instead. So he thought that it was last time he saw the mysterious boy, but seems fate decided otherwise.

What followed next was a brief introductions, as well as Max’s stubborn proclamation that he wanted Alain to be his cello teacher. Both Alain and Andrew were speechless.

Alain grew to like the boy, so he agreed on the condition that it was them coming to his place and not vice versa. Andrew agreed and they exchanged their numbers to contact later.

Andrew mentally fist pumped and thanked his nephew n times. Alain was attracting him in the most unfathomable ways ever, and Andrew always got what he desired. He felt that this boy was somehow different from all the others that he had interest to, but he was not able to pinpoint how. Than again it felt that his interest lacked that special sparkle. But maybe it would appear layer. Thinking of his ex lovers his look hardened as his heart clenched, this betrayal he Andrew Anderson would not easily forget.

As for Alain he was definitely curious about the man, but for some reason his sixth sense was telling him to keep his distance and be planned to do as such until the man proved him otherwise. He knew that his instincts were rarely wrong.

Several months passed since then. Alain spent his days rather peacefully. No one dared to bother him in school thanks to Jeremy's overprotective antics. He became like a brother to Alain. They spent huge amount of time together. Max was coming over to his place regularly and they spent their time playing on the cello. The boy was genius. He picked everything up extremely quickly.

Speaking of which those days were still a bit boring. Nothing fun or exiting has happened, as he was pondering about how to entertain himself his phone buzzed. When he read his message his expression sunk. Alain quickly dialed Josh and told him to buy the tickets to France, giving him short story of the message he received from subordinate about his older twin.