Free Interrupted Romance by Topsy Baxter Page B

big cannons.

    The symphony orchestra was an absolute delight for Adam.   He loved the very making of music and could distinguish the various instruments throughout the performances.   Often, he would lean forward in his seat to concentrate on a particular passage of music and to listen to the instruments playing it.   Some of the programme was familiar to him and he would tap his fingers on his leg in time with the beat.   At other times he simply sat back and allowed the music to flow over him.   His appreciation was evident from the smile on his face.   Dafna felt that more visits to the venue would help in his recovery.   It was as though he was 'living the music'.

    During the trip home from these concerts, Dafna learnt of Adam's childhood - his love of music.   He had begun music lessons when he was eight years old.   After realising that Adam had an aptitude for music, his mother had insisted that he learn piano.   She had hoped he would be a child prodigy - another great Jewish musician of note, like Daniel Barenboim or Yehudi Menuhin.   This hadn't happened.   However, Adam had developed into a classical pianist worth listening to.   He was, at the same time, making a name for himself on the soccer field.   That is, until he finished high school.   The army then claimed him for the next three years of his life.   Along with all the other eighteen year old boys.   It was the practice of the army to have two intakes a year with the boys serving for three years, girls for two years.   Dafna knew that some of the girls could avoid military service if they applied for special leave to continue studies at a university, or if they married.   She had been one of the girls to apply for leave to study.
    Army life hadn't left a lot of time for Adam to practise his piano technique.   In the Israel Defence Force, you trained all week, for weeks at a time.   Then, when leave was granted for a weekend, it was a mad scramble to get home, the best way possible.   That usually meant standing on the side of a road, hitching a ride.   There was never enough money paid to the recruits to cover travel costs.   Barely enough for cigarettes for those who smoked.   Fortunately, in Israel, many people were prepared to give a lift to these soldiers.  

    Throughout this time, Adam told Dafna, he had maintained a reasonable standard of proficiency with his music.   But he always longed for more.   After the army service, during which time he'd seen his best friend killed in a skirmish on the northern border, he spent less and less time actually playing the piano and more time travelling about Europe.   He'd returned to Tel Aviv after about a year away to attend the university, where he again studied music for a further four years.   While studying, he earned a living by playing in hotels, at weddings and parties.   As an aid to earning extra money, he had become a part-time security guard.   It was a job arranged for him by a friend.   It was this friend who had been sick and couldn't go to work on the day of the bombing at the airport.   Adam had taken his place.   The rest Dafna knew.

    She was pleased to learn more about him.   About his life.

    With each passing day Adam was able to see a little better.   He could watch a movie and make out what was happening, but it tired his eyes.   He usually preferred to listen to music, or go for a walk with Dafna.   On their walks, they crossed the road from her mother's house and strolled through the park, where he could see some of the bird life pecking food from the grass, until their approach frightened the birds away.  

    The walks were good for both of them, as it got them out of the house so that Adam could have some exercise.   It also meant time alone together.   They strolled arm in arm along the winding pathways, through the flowering trees and shrubs, with Dafna identifying some of the plants for him.

    On one of these walks, after a short, sharp