Fourth dimension -- Fiction; Musicians -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Time travel -- Fiction
Well, I have not played the old slush pump since I escaped from the
fourth dimension, so I am careful when I pick it up, but after I have
tried a few runs I say I am all set. Ann is very curious, and she makes
me tell her how it works, as it seems they use instruments altogether
different in these concerts we are going to. I explain how the wind
goes around and all, and then I move into _I'm Getting Sentimental Over
You_. I am very mellow, and T. Dorsey couldn't have sounded any better
in the little concert I give. Ann is very overcome.
"It is beautiful," she says when I have finished. "Are there words to
it?"
I tell her there are, but that I do not know them, so she hums softly
as I take another chorus. She has a lovely voice, and I say that
tomorrow I will write down the words to some other numbers and let her
practice them with me.
When the doctor hears we are going to the concert that evening, he says
that he wishes to come along. We get to Albany in about five minutes,
so fast that I see nothing in the journey once we have left the New
York airport where the doc keeps his plane, and we enter the auditorium
in perfect time. As we go in, I am very surprised to see everyone
staring at me, since I have borrowed one of the doctor's suits for the
occasion and look just like anyone else. And then everyone stands and
begins cheering me until I am very embarrassed indeed. I look at Ann
and the doctor. They are both smiling.
"You know now that you have become a celebrity," whispers Ann. "We
didn't want to let you know right away, but the papers have been full
of your story."
So I smile and bow to the crowd, which keeps on clapping. It is very
pleasing.
Finally, however, the noise stops and the curtain raises. There on the
stage are about thirty or forty musicians, and behind them is a large
screen like in a moving picture house. Also there are a lot of electric
cords in sight, and I cannot figure what they are for until I notice
that each instrument is wired like an electric guitar.
When the conductor comes on, everybody claps a little more, and then
he turns to the orchestra. What I hear after that is something I never
expect to hear in my life. All those electric instruments begin to
vibrate, and on the screen behind them all sorts of shapes and colors
begin to flash and then disappear. This keeps up as long as the number
lasts.
"You are now seeing music as well as hearing it," the doctor tells me.
"I never saw any like that before," I say. "All the music I've ever
seen has been the regular dot variety; do the men play from those
flashes?"
"Why no," the doc smiles. "Those symbols that you see are the result
of the electric impulse as the musicians strike certain notes on their
instruments. They are never the same, and to me they are vastly
intriguing. Strictly, it was lousy."
"Oh," I say.
The following day Ann informs me that we are going on a picnic and asks
me will I please bring my trombone along and teach her a few songs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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