Light From Uncommon Stars(27)

How long had it been since she had felt able to laugh?

“Like a brand-new cake of rosin. You know, the kind the hair has never touched,” she said.

“Good one! Good one!”

And now Miss Satomi was laughing, too.

“But, Miss Satomi, my violin is not the sort that they normally repair,” Katrina finally was able to say.

Shizuka rolled her eyes.

But Katrina was right. In part, this was Shizuka’s fault. She had brought what she thought was a normal violin to a normal violin shop.

But this violin was not normal, was it?

“Finish your crêpe, and let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” asked Katrina.

“Somewhere not normal,” Shizuka replied.





10


Matía & Sons Fine Woodworking and Violins

The shop was located next to the railroad tracks, across from Sanchez Liquor, which was now Chun-Li’s Driving School. It had never expanded, never advertised. It had never needed to.

To Lucy Matía, coming to work every morning was like stepping into church.

A portrait of her grandfather, Catalin Matía, proudly watched over the workshop.

Throughout the store, other images were displayed. Catalin as a young corporal, in Italy. And there, on a bicycle in front of the Battistero di Cremona, with violist Primrose, young and still able to hear. And there, in Montbovon, enjoying Gruyère and Gruyères with the teenage Shizuka Satomi.

The newer photographs were of Catalin’s son Franco, Lucía’s father, a bit rougher and coarser, but still a Matía. There he was, in Prague with Sabrina Eisen. In Latvia with Kremer. And there, with Yifeng Brian Zheng, as beautiful and tortured as ever.

But now? No new pictures were being added to the wall. There were no impromptu visitations, no passionate lunchtime conversations about Vuillaume.

Instead, a local musician might need peg dope, a community orchestra might order sheet music. And of course, many customers spoke Spanish and could not go to a place like Grunfeld’s.

Very occasionally, someone might hear about this shop from an old professor or senior colleague. They would come in, look around, ask a few questions. But once they realized that neither Catalin nor Franco Matía was still alive, their expressions would change, and they would quickly leave.

She didn’t blame them. Who was she, anyway?

Suddenly, the old brass doorbell jingled. Lucy stepped backward and almost bumped into a cello.

“Mom! You okay?”

“Y-yes. I just got a little startled, that’s all.”

“I brought you lunch,” her son said.

“Lunch? It’s lunchtime already?” She opened the paper bag. “You know, this stuff will kill you.”

“I hear that Caldera’s has a veggie burrito with kale in it.” Andrew quickly offered.

Lucy watched her son fidget nervously. He really did not like being in the shop, did he?

“No, no! Just kidding! It’s a joke your grandfather used to say.”

Lucy held the greasy burrito in her hands. Carne asada, all meat. It was still warm, wrapped in white paper, then in the yellow paper, with two napkins, in a brown paper bag. She had brought this exact lunch to her father and grandfather before. This lunch had always made them smile. The next master should be smiling, too.

But she was no master. She thought of all the evenings that she’d been asked to leave the shop, evenings her brothers had been asked to stay behind—to learn secrets passed only from father to son.

But now Lucy’s younger brother was in jail. And her older brother had fled the violin shop as soon as her father fell ill, saying the old man deserved to burn.

Lucy glanced beyond the burrito to the disheveled violin before her. Mr. Zacatecas said he dropped it while playing at a wedding. He said it was an accident.

An accident? The poor thing was still damp with beer. A life of increasing neglect had steadily degraded the instrument, causing parts to warp and misalign. Soon it would be beyond saving.

“Just keep it together,” he had said.

Keep it together.

“Andrew, if you have time, why not stay after lunch? It’s been a while since you’ve spent any time in the shop. We still have two weeks before Mr. Zacatecas returns. And it’s very basic work.” She tried not to sound nervous.

“What if I mess up?”

“You won’t. You’re a Matía.”

At the sound of the name, his face turned red.

“I can’t,” he mumbled. Then he dashed out of the store.

He’ll come around, Lucy told herself. He had to. Somehow he’d find a way to continue the store. Maybe he could coax his uncles back when the store was properly his. Or maybe he’d be a genius who could rediscover the family secrets himself.

For a son of the Matías, all things were possible.

Until then?

Just keep it together.

Lucy took a deep breath and loosened the strings on the tired violin.

For now, keeping it together was in her hands. Her woman’s hands. Yet how could the hands of a daughter possibly preserve the legacy of this family, this name?

The doorbell jingled again.

“Did you forget your phone, Andrew? I told you not to—”

She froze midsentence.