Pizzicato: The Abduction of the Magic Violin by Rusalka Reh

Author:Rusalka Reh
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Published: 2011-02-08T05:00:00+00:00

Initially, Darius has to get used to the dim light inside the church. He blinks a few times. Hideously discordant notes resound from the giant organ pipes in the upper story. He clasps the handle of his duffel bag and walks slowly past the columns and arches, which are painted with earthy red and olive green stripes, like candy. Electric lightbulbs hang down from the high ceiling over the nave, and there are flames flickering from thick white candles, as if fighting against the artificial lights.

Suddenly the organ music stops. Through the loudspeaker comes the sound of someone clearing his throat, and Darius now sees a priest standing at the altar. In a bored and grating tone, he starts to read from a thick black book, and his voice whirrs down the aisle like some tired gray moth. There’s a smell of stale incense.

In one of the wooden pews at the back, a man is kneeling. Darius can hardly make him out under the black cape and hat. His head is lowered, his hands are folded, and he is murmuring something out loud. Darius slips softly into the pew behind him and sits down close to him. Then he cautiously looks around.

Fortunately, the church is empty apart from them. This doesn’t seem to bother the priest, who simply drones on. Then he makes a sign of the cross in the air and swiftly strides out of the chancel. The jangling organ music starts up again. The man is still kneeling with lowered head, and from time to time he lets out a sob. Poor fellow!

Now I can risk it, thinks Darius sympathetically, and he opens the zipper of his duffel bag with a zzzzzz. Softly he takes Pizzicato out, puts it on his lap, and gently rests his hands on its strings.

Suddenly someone seizes him from behind!

As he tries to shout for help, something damp is pressed over his mouth and nose. Helplessly he breathes in the sharp smell. For a moment, the lightbulbs, candle flames, striped columns, and organ pipes swirl before his eyes, and then everything goes black.

“All done?” asks the man in the black cape, and he turns around. On the face beneath the hat there is not the slightest sign of concern.

“Yes, help me! Hurry up!” says a woman’s voice.

Both the man and the woman quickly glance around the interior of the church. When they’re certain that no one is watching them, they grasp Darius by the hands and feet and dump him in a large cardboard box that is standing on the floor next to the confessional.

“Have you got the violin?” asks the man nervously. The woman nods and holds Pizzicato up in the air. “Then let’s go!” murmurs the man. “Now we can look at the boy’s fingers, to see how he works these miracle cures.” The woman snickers. “What would you do without me, Bunny?” she whispers.

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