Guitar with Broken string

My first guitar. My amazing perfect, deep blue amazing sounding guitar. I had waited for ten years for this guitar ever since I was four I had admired my dad’s guitar, and then my mom got into violin and suddenly they were recording country tracks. I grew up with songs like ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ and Dixie Chicks. I had watched my mom and dad entertain parties with their own songs as well as some old favorites. Their duet of ‘its five o-clock somewhere’ was actually put on a cd and played whenever there was a special event at our house. Today was no exception. It was my fourteenth birthday and my mom and dad had huge smiles on their faces as I came down the stairs into the living room .The music to “It’s five o-clock somewhere” was on in the background along with  a loop of Dixie chicks “ready to run” and “where the green grass grows” along with my dad and my favorite “farmers daughter”.   There were a few small packages and cards on the table, I tried to hide my disappointment that there was no guitar shaped parcel among them. Apparently I did an alright job because my parents broke into a round of “Happy Birthday” and handed me my cup of coffee. “Happy Birthday Remora!” toasted my dad as we chugged coffee to a round of “here here!”  And I started to reach for the pile of cards. “Hold on there Ram. We have to tell you the best part!” my dad’s eyes glimmered mysteriously when he had, A: a secret or B: too much Indian food. I was really hoping for the first one. “Yes daddy?” I asked, trying not to sound too exited. This was it. This was the moment dad said “We got you your dream Taylor guitar!” and mom would pull it out from behind her back and suddenly we’d all be on tour opening for Taylor swift and Tim McGraw. I knew this would happen! This is the best day of my life! I’m going to start practicing right….I heard the jingle of keys and the scraping of boots and snapped back to reality. My dad had his coat on and was getting his car keys. Mom was getting her purse. What’s going on? “You coming ram? It’s pointless if we go without you.” Joked dad. I was confused but I never turned down an adventure with mom and dad. I pulled on my canvas jacket and my favorite boots. I was confused, where were we going? I climbed in the back of our rusty blue pickup and lurched forward as dad hit the gas. The gravel crunched and we turned onto the main road. Ok I see now, their taking me to the music store! They have a huge selection of guitars! Oh I’m so glad I didn’t ask! Now I could act all surprised when they give me the selection and dad will say “pick your weapon” and I’d pick the blue one with the white specks and I’d play it every day until my fingers bled. Wait we just turned, this isn’t the way to the music store!! I was panicking. I could not find a way that I would get a guitar out of this. So, trying to keep my cool, I gently tapped mom on the shoulder and asked “mom, where are we going?” as nonchalantly as I could mange . my mom’s bright blue eyes glowed and she said “that’s classified madam” and she would tell me nothing no matter how much I pestered her. I sulked in the backseat as we drove for miles with mom and dad whispering and pretending to think I could hear them over the roar of the engine, with grins on their faces.

After about an hour of driving we came to a farm house in the middle of a pasture, with a forest to the east and a field to the west. I sat a little straighter, maybe this was a place from Ebay where you could pick up your daughters guitar! How could I not have thought of that? I plastered a smile on my face as we drove up the long gravel drive and I waited until dad motioned for me to get out, I carefully hid my excitement when I slowly stepped from the truck when I really wanted to jump from it screaming “Guitar! Guitar!” I pretended to admire the large black door with a silver lion knocker as dad helped mom from the truck. I smartly grabbed the knocker and pounded it three times on the door. My dad chuckled and said “I have a key.” I stopped dead. Why did dad have a key to a house that wasn’t ours? I watched him produce a long black skeleton key from his pocket, slide it into the key hole and turn. I found myself praying it wouldn’t fit. Hoping this was just a ruse my parents came up with. But my wishes were denied as the door swung open with a click. Dad gestured and said, his voice booming off the wooden floors “Welcome Home!”  

I could have been happy if I wasn’t so mad. I really could have, the house was amazing! The floors were oak and the stairway led up to a hallway upstairs with a banister. But I didn’t see a guitar. And my parents didn’t look like they were joking. OK OK I can handle this. I turn to dad “so where is everything?” 

My dad was leading me up the stairs, a blindfold over my eyes. My mom’s camera binged as it started recording. I heard a door creak open, I was herded into a room. “OK, open your eyes” my mom whispered. I opened my eyes and stepped back as I was attacked by green. Lime green walls and  brown sheets with green polka dots. A large book shelf was to my right. And there, leaning against the wall was a light blue guitar with white specks around it. I picked it up, I strummed it, one of the strings needed tuning. I turned the tuner and for a second the world was perfect….

Then the string snapped.