Read Online Love in Lowercase by Francesc Miralles - Free Book Online Page B

music I like a lot. Do you know anything about music?”
    â€œA fair bit,” I confessed.
    â€œGood,” he said, brightening up. “Then perhaps you can help me. I was watching a film yesterday on TV. It was about two vampires locked in an apartment in New York.”
    â€œWere the vampires Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie?”
    â€œI think so. Sometimes you could hear some very sad music played on the piano. I’d like to know who wrote it. I couldn’t see it in the credits.”
    â€œI think it’s a piece by Ravel—‘Le Gibet,’ or something like that. The gibbet. Not a very cheerful title.”
    â€œIndeed. But thanks for the information.”
    He stood up, left a coin on the table, and tipped his hat.
    â€œValdemar’s leaving.”
    And he headed off in the direction he’d come from, with his manuscript under his arm.

Venetian Boat Song
    I finished my vermouth and sat there pensively until the freezing wind persuaded me to leave.
    Ravel’s languid chords were echoing in my head, and I now wanted to hear the piece again. I checked my watch. If I hurried I could get to the music shop before it closed.
    This was a small establishment in Carrer Tallers specializing in classical music. I hadn’t been there for over a month. If there was anywhere one could find a recording of Ravel’s “Le Gibet,” this was the place.
    I recklessly dashed across Carrer Pelai, took a shortcut down Carrer Jovellanos, and reached the shop five minutes before it closed for lunch. I walked past the drowsy cashier and was greeted by a delightful melody. I hadn’t heard it for ages. It was one of Mendelssohn’s
Songs without Words
titled “Venetian Boat Song,” a piece for the piano, like Ravel’s, but full of lyricism.
    I decided to leave “Le Gibet” for the time being and went automatically from the Contemporary Music section to the Romantics. Before looking for the recording I intended to take home with me, I closed my eyes and waited for the last notes of “Venetian Boat Song” to fade out. When I opened my eyes, my heartbegan to thump so hard I nearly fainted. There, on the other side of the display, was Gabriela.
    Although we were only a few inches apart—I could even smell the fragrance of her long wavy hair—she hadn’t seen me. She was blinking as she was looking for something on one of the shelves.
    Fighting off the panic attack that was pushing me to run away, I held my breath, waiting for Gabriela to look up.
    When she did, my heart began pounding like a war drum. I had a few instants to admire the constellation of freckles on her cheeks before she shot me an inquisitive glance.
    My first move was not the most imaginative.
    â€œHello.”
    A look of perplexity passed across her face. That was hardly surprising. I, too, felt as if I was in a daze, and I’d just broken the ice in the clumsiest way.
    â€œDo you remember me?”
    She stared at me with her almond-shaped eyes and said, “No. What do you want?”
    I was so thrown by her response that I hesitated before I continued. If the whole thing was just an illusion and I’d recognized her but she didn’t remember me, I’d be making a complete fool of myself. Yet I forged ahead. “I think we used to play hide-and-seek together many years ago in a neoclassical mansion on the right side of La Rambla and—”
    â€œI have no idea what you’re talking about.” She seemed alarmed. “You must have the wrong person.”
    With that, she turned around and took refuge in another part of the shop.
    Blushing with shame, I left the shop with no music apart from the jangling fragments of my broken heart.

A Magic Lantern
    Trying to find something to distract me, I began to mull over what I now considered to have been the weirdest afternoon of my life. After
The Castle
and my chat with Valdemar, I’d chanced upon