Waking up from the loud ringing of her alarm, Melody gets up, and without hesitation, leaves her house in almost record time. Afraid of being late, Melody takes the first subway to her college campus, and while waiting there, Melody takes the time to look outside the window to her city. In the newly established city that Melody resides in, she can only see a dull, grey color coming from the view of the city. She stares at the endless amount of buildings that appear at every corner, and the thousands of people lining up at every entrance, like zombies, mindlessly walking without a true purpose. But as Melody enters the doors of her college, she can instantly feel the intense expectations that stand in front of her. She glances at the people around her, the new generation of society, all being taught to live a future working day and night for the millions of companies that run the city. The societal pressure that Melody feels every day has carved a hole in her mind, making Melody unable to recognize the feelings within her.
Looking down to the edges of her feet, Melody reminisces about a past conversation she had with her grandfather when she was around seven years old.
“Grandpa, Grandpa!” Melody gleefully calls out.
“What is it, Melody?” Her grandfather answers
“Why does everyone look the same as Mommy and Daddy?”
“Well, it’s because they don’t know what individuality is.” Grandpa murmurs, sighing under his breath. Her Grandfather would then go on a huge rant, telling her that society never used to be this way. He would tell her that society had once reflected the bright colored minds of the people, who were able to show their creativity to the world. He would go on to tell the story of his job as a musician, and how he used to play songs that touched the hearts of the people. But Melody never understood her grandfather’s words or even the meaning of her own name. All Melody has ever grown up with were the unoriginal auto-produced songs of today, that all lack the real human involvement that brings each song to life.
After Melody finishes up studying late into the night, she walks back home on the path she always takes. The view of the perfectly arranged apartments are familiar to Melody, and she continues to walk until a sudden light could be seen by the beachside near her dorm. The passion of light comes up again, now closer to Melody as she hears the soft, soothing sound of notes playing. Huh? Melody thinks as she walks past the same area again, and hears the sound coming louder. As the curiosity of a new thing is stuck in Melody’s head, she approaches the sound and can see the silhouette of a person playing the piano, an instrument that she’s only seen in books. As Melody gets closer, she can clearly hear the melodic sound of every note, every sound, and every whisper that comes from the sea. In an almost euphoric moment, Melody can feel a new flash of colors surrounding the sound of the piano, and a waterfall of new feelings come across her. A bright yellow wave of lights, combined with the alluring blue and pinks with every new note has put Melody in a dreamlike state. As Melody is stuck in the world of her own emotions, she can hear every pulse from her heart as it beats to the tune of the piano. But as quickly as the lights appeared, they were gone the moment the last note was played. At that same moment, the grand piano that had lit the beachside near the city was gone, and a single tear can be seen falling from Melody’s eyes.
The soft-spoken words that gently lured Melody away from reality, have been lost in what felt like a few mere seconds. The once bright and colorful city became a void, and an empty realm of faded color and lost emotion. After coming back to her senses, Melody was left feeling empty inside.
“What just happened to me?” she whispers underneath her breath. Melody tries to desperately look for the piano again, but staring at the sea the only thing she can find is her own reflection. She can see that her once dull, brown eyes were now sparkling against the moonlight, and tears were trickling down her face. In confusion, Melody puts her hands up towards her face and feels the soft, cold touch of her own cheeks. She feels a wet drop dripping from the tips of her fingers, and realizes that she’s crying. Even from a young age, Melody has never cried, so the weird and unfamiliar emotions that Melody was experiencing had frightened her. Melody quickly ran back home, but as she went to bed, she couldn’t stop thinking about the piano, the lights, and her own tears. Melody stayed awake the entire night, trying to put reasoning into her newly discovered emotions.
The next morning, Melody groggily woke up to the sound of her alarm ringing in her ears. She woke up in a disastrous state, and dark shadows surrounded her puffy eyes. But Melody didn’t have the time to look after her appearance, because she still had to attend her early classes. Running to the door with a coffee in hand, Melody quickly arrives at the subway just in time. After taking a small breath of relief, Melody scans at the surroundings around her and sees her uneven hair and disheveled clothes through the windows of the subway.
“Man, I look awful,” Melody says to herself as she looks through the windows again. But this time, Melody doesn’t look at the empty buildings that make up the city. Instead, she was unconsciously looking for the shadow of a piano lurking in the streets below. Her mysterious encounter with the piano has left her curious, and Melody’s urge to feel that same moment again increases with every second. But the sound of the subway stop puts Melody back in her mind, and she realizes that even if her world has changed, the rest of society hasn’t.
Melody arrives late to her class, and quietly takes a seat at the back of the lecture hall. From her angle, she can see the backs of all of her fellow students working and writing without any thoughts of stopping. But Melody isn’t able to focus, and her mind starts to wander to last night again. Melody can never forget the feeling of freedom within her body, and that has made her class environment feel even more suffocating than ever. Why am I even doing this? Melody thought to herself, dropping the pen in her hand. In the very same moment of the loud thunk of the pen hitting the desk, Melody hears it again. The faint sound of a note playing.
Melody suddenly stops what she was doing, and desperately looks around her. Another mellow note can be heard from outside, and Melody desperately runs out of the room. She starts to run past the never-ending buildings and away from the school that has brought her down to being a lifeless person without individuality, just like the people roaming the streets every day.
After a lifetime of running, Melody finally arrives at the ocean pier and takes multiple gasps for air. Right next to the ocean was the foggy resemblance of a piano, and Melody quickly runs over to it. At that moment, Melody can see the same silhouette of a person playing every delicate note and closes her eyes to feel the soothing melody of the piano. Melody is finally able to realize the warm feeling inside of her heart.
It’s happiness, Melody thought to herself. Finally being able to recognize this feeling, the world around Melody starts to shift. The grey color that once consumed her turned into a gradient of yellows and pinks, that all invited her to a new world. Her thoughts finally gained clarity, and she can see the silhouette walking over to her with a smile on her face. The glowing persona of a person then goes towards the deep sea, and floats across, leaving the piano behind. Melody now knows that she has the chance to show this feeling with everyone else, and finally places her own delicate fingers onto the tip of each key.
