Fate's Instrument

She ran her fingers along the black body of the violin. She had wanted it for years, but that didn’t mean anything. There was honestly the chance that she would never get it just as much if not more than the chance that she might get it. Her father had talked of selling it since she was five. Her mother had expressly forbidden it. Her parents had argued about it over and over again. Night after night, day after day. On her the night of her sixth birthday she had fallen asleep praying that her father wouldn’t sell the beautiful violin. The next day, she had come home from school and it had been gone.

Her dreams had been crushed that day.

No one in the house had spoken of the violin since that day. Not until she had come to celebrate her nineteenth birthday with her parents. She had walked in the door and there it had sat. Now she stood over it at the circular table in the foyer and rand her fingers along the black body. Her fingers trembled slightly as the brushed the wood. This violin was a symbol of her dreams. It always had been. And now she had it back again. It was as if all her dreams had come back to her in that moment.

“Welcome home Clarissa,” her mother’s soft voice drifted towards her. Clarissa looked up at her mother with awed eyes.

“I always thought daddy sold it,” she said in a hushed whisper.

“I would never let him. This has been in our family for generations. And now it’s yours just as it was once mine,” her mother explained. She could see her mother’s fingers twitch as if aching to touch the violin as her own fingers rested on it. “I am going to tell you a story Clarissa. My grandmother told it to me when I turned nineteen. Your grandmother would have told you if she hadn’t passed away two years ago.”

Clarissa felt a lump settle in her throat. She missed her grandmother so badly. Two years wasn’t enough to get rid of the ache she felt at the loss. “You see Claire, years ago, on your grandmother’s side: our family was Roma, gypsies. The women especially were very powerful in their families. They were all so beautiful, strong, and talented, much like you. There was one in particular who was very special. Her name was Lina. She danced and sang so that every man who saw her fell under and enchantment it seemed. Married men asked her for her hand. Young men begged for a lock of her hair. She would have none of them. Until the day that a young man came by. He said that he was apprenticed to a violin maker and gave her a beautiful black violin. He begged her play it. It was all that he wanted. He promised it would give her what she most wanted and desired. Lina took it and felt honored by the beauty of the violin. It was a work of art, a masterpiece. So the next day, she got dressed in her best things and went to the cliffs of the beach near their camp. There she played a most beautiful tune. The violin was perfect. Then she heard someone call her name. She turned to see a man there she had never seen before, but she knew that it was her one beloved. He had been summoned to her when she played the violin. They married eventually and had many children. On the night before her eldest daughter’s nineteenth birthday, the young man who had given her the violin came to her. He hadn’t aged a day. He told her that she was to give the black violin he had given her to her eldest daughter the next day and tell her the story. Apparently he was a fey who had fallen in love with her. He had hoped that the violin would summon him; instead it had summoned the man she had married. And ever since, every eldest daughter of Lina’s line has played this violin on her nineteenth birthday and found what her heart most desires. Now…it is your turn.”

“M-me?” Clarissa asked, her voice trembling. “B-but I can’t even play the violin,” she urged.

Her mother smiled and moved forward. She took her daughter’s shoulders and kissed her forehead. “When you get to where you need to be darling, you’ll know what to do,” she promised.

Clarissa looked down at the violin. Her mother was right. She had to be. She looked up at her mother and nodded. She could do this. She would do this. This was what she had been waiting for all her life. She picked up the violin and turned to leave. “Um…Clarissa darling,” her mother said clearing her throat.

Clarissa looked back at her mother confused. “What?” she asked blinking.

“You’re forgetting a few things,” her mother took the violin and laid it in its case before taking her daughter’s hand and guiding her upstairs and into the attic. She unburied a trunk from the back of the room and pulled out a dress from it. It looked new. “This was Lina’s. Like the violin, it hasn’t been touched by time. We don’t know why, we just trust it,” her mother explained. “It’s yours now too. You’re supposed to wear it to play.”

Clarissa’s tongue flicked across her lips and she nodded. She had been waiting for this for so long. It was easy to take the dress and run down to the bathroom. She wasn’t certain that the things would fit, but as soon as everything slid onto her body, they seemed to adjust. They fell in the right places. This was made for her. She looked at herself in the mirror. Yes, this was what she was supposed to do. She ran back downstairs and saw car keys waiting next to the closed violin case. She took a deep breath and her heart fluttered as she grabbed the case and keys and ran out to the car. She started the car and began driving.

She seemed to know exactly where to go. Her mother had told her in the story. The cliffs. There were cliffs near a beach in this little town too. It all seemed so perfect, so right. It was probably absolutely ridiculous, but she couldn’t help it. There was a childish thrill, like a fairy tale. This was where she was supposed to be and what she was supposed to do. She shut off the car and looked at the cliffs, her heart pounding. She got out of the car and took only the violin with her, leaving the case sitting open on the passenger seat.

She stood at the edge of the cliffs and began to play. Slowly at first and then with confidence. She had never before touched a violin or attempted to play one. She knew that she was probably doing it entirely wrong, but the notes that came form it were so beautiful that it was beyond belief. It was as if she couldn’t do anything wrong with this sweet instrument.

“Clarissa,” a man’s voice called to her softly. Clarissa spun around in shock. The man was handsome. Tall and graceful with dark hair and bright eyes. He was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen before in her life and something told her that she was his, and he hers. “I was wondering when the violin would finally summon me. I was hoping Lina…but I see now. All along, it wasn’t Lina who was supposed to be mine. I met Lina so I could have you.”

She nodded. He was the Fey and he was hers. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes you are my love.”