#pianogiftcd

          ❝  angelica  !  ❞  it  was  nearly  time  to  leave  to  drop  them  off  at  their  father’s  ,  and  she  had  not  seen  her  eldest  daughter  for  nearly  an  hour  .  elizabeth  was  feeling  a  mix  between  annoyance  and  sympathy  for  her  children  :  it  got  out  that  while  they  spent  the  week  with  alexander  ,  their mother had  a  date  with  a  new  guy  .  she  knows  the  subject  is  not  easy  for  any  of  the  children  ,  but  she  couldn’t  keep  pretending  she  wasn’t  lonely  and  that  alexander’s  string  of  hookups  wasn’t  breaking  her  heart  .  without  the  courtesy  of  knocking  ,  elizabeth  entered  the  room  .  ❝  why  aren’t  you  ready  yet  ?  your  father  was  expecting  us  to  leave  almost  twenty  minutes  ago  ,  and  the  little  ones  are  getting  grumpy  waiting  in  the  den  .  please  ,  angie  .  can  we  not  have  this  fight  today  ?  ❞

This is how Philip’s day had gone. 

Morning tutorials, classes, after-school activities, work, home.

Henry talked at him about something he’d done wrong while he stared forward until Henry stopped talking.

Then his father called. Which was always an ordeal. Because he was definitely supposed to get over what had happened and show all the younger kids how to act. Not that he had been told that this was what he was meant to do, because why would their family ever just sit down and talk about anything major, but he always had the feeling that was what he was supposed to do.

Instead, he went to his room and sat in front of his homework with one earbud in playing music he wasn’t even listening to. He tapped his pencil on the desk but didn’t actually write with it.

Sometimes after the call was over, someone knocked on his door.

    she gives the WIDEST of smiles she can possibly muster in return before growing SERIOUS once more. 

                                          NIGHTS are spent in one another’s company, there has been an inordinacy   INFLUX   of thunderstorms. The pair of them have found that sleep    evades   them on nights like THESE – Alexander reminded of his youth, and her the loss of her dearest brother. Tries to do what he can for her, the pair of them lightly playing some melancholic tune upon piano until their attention turns to a game of chess. The death of her brother hasn’t been easy – she practically a shut in, and her father willing to do just about ANYTHING to coax a smile from her lips. THIS is how they heal, nights spent in one another’s company as she learns a little bit more about her father. 

                                               A time in which he can let down his guard, and spend time with the daughter who now houses all of her brother’s goodness. Wishes desperately that he could shoulder some of her pain, and anguish. Then again what good would he do to her dead? So, he dedicates these nights that are particularly hard on the two of them to grow closer to her, and LET her know that she is not alone. Lights flicker in the ladies parlor ( seeing as it’s the warmest, and has the BIGGEST fireplace ) as they sit opposite one another. Her as EQUALLY SKILLED to her father as they play their THIRD game of chess. Hot milk already sitting next to the both of them as he   GENTLY   teases his eldest daughter of her defeat, and for a moment he sees a SMILE play upon her lips. The offering of her next words makes him LAUGH ( a sound that fills the room as warmness lays laden in tonality ). The sound of thunder CRACKS like a whip as he then goes to lean towards daughter,

                                                           ❛❛        Would you have me feel bad for you ? … I fear it cannot be so. ❜❜ A chuckle still escaping as he shakes head, ❛❛ For you have won the LAST three nights in a row, would you deny your father a SIMPLE pleasure ? Though I confess there is nothing I like better than passing a night in this manner. A welcoming thought indeed that my daughter is MORE than my match when it comes to wit. ❜❜ Alexander going to reach for milk as he raises glass, ❛❛ A toast to my brilliant, and EQUALLY talented daughter. ❜❜ For a moment one would forget the SADNESS that lays in the heart of these two. The two of them finding   COMFORT   in the company of one another.