Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris

Author:Joanne Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781407056289
Publisher: Transworld Digital

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Albertine: Nice comeback, blueeyedboy.

blueeyedboy: Glad you liked it, Albertine.

Albertine: Well, liked is maybe not the word –

blueeyedboy: Nice comeback, Albertine . . .

10

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Posted at: 23.49 on Monday, February 11

Status: public

Mood: raw

Listen to the colours. Maybe you remember the phrase. Glib coming from the mouth of an adult, it must have seemed unbearably poignant from that of a five-year-old blind girl. In any case, it did the trick. Listen to the colours. All unknowing, Emily White had opened up a box of magic words, and was drunk with their power and her own, issuing commands like a diminutive general, commands which Catherine and Feather – and later, of course, Dr Peacock – obeyed with unquestioning delight.

‘What do you see?’

Diminished chord of F minor. The magic words unfurl like wrapping-paper, every one.

‘Pink. Blue. Green. Violet. So pretty.’

Her mother claps her hands in delight. ‘More, Emily. Tell me more.’

A chord of F major.

‘Red. Orange. Ma-gen-ta. Black.’

It was like an awakening. The infernal power she had discovered in herself had blossomed in an astonishing way, and music was suddenly a part of her curriculum. The piano was brought out of the spare room and re-tuned; her father’s secret lessons became official, and Emily was allowed to practise whenever she liked, even when Catherine was working. Then came the local newspapers, and the letters and gifts came pouring in.

The story had plenty of potential. In fact, it had all the ingredients. A Christmas miracle; a photogenic blind girl; music; art; some man-in-the-street science, courtesy of Dr Peacock, and a lot of controversy from the art world that kept the papers wondering on and off for the next three years or so, caught up in speculation. The TV eventually caught on to it; so did the Press. There was even a single – a Top Ten hit – by a rock band whose name I forget. The song was later used in the Hollywood film – an adaptation of the book – starring Robert Redford as Dr Peacock and a young Natalie Portman as the blind girl who sees music.

At first Emily took it for granted. After all, she was very young, and had no basis for comparison. And she was very happy – she listened to music all day long; she studied what she loved most, and everyone was pleased with her.

Over the next twelve months or so Emily attended a number of concerts, as well as performances of The Magic Flute, the Messiah and Swan Lake. She went to her father’s school several times, so that she could get to know the instruments by feel.

Flutes, with their slender bodies and intricate keys; pot-bellied cellos and double basses; French horns and tubas like big school canteen-jugs of sound; narrow-waisted violins; icicle bells; fat drums and flat drums; splash cymbals and crash cymbals; triangles and timpani and trumpets and tambourines.

Sometimes her father would play for her. He was different when Catherine was not there: he told jokes; he was exuberant, dancing Emily round and round to the music, making her dizzy with laughter.

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