From a very early age he knew that his family was a strange one.
His home life was extremely cloistered. He lived with his family in a large mansion, set back from the road. He imagined it was because of the remoteness of it that his parents had decided on a strict course of home schooling. There were few visitors to the house. One of the occasional guests was a favourite uncle, who travelled abroad a great deal. He was regarded by most as an adequate, yet amateur, violin player. He would entertain the family with his playing in the great hall after dinner. The boy was always allowed to stay up for those occasions. It was a bright spot in the boy’s sheltered world. The old man was known to be a heavy drinker, and one that would entertain others with his instrument at the drop of a hat.
His only other really meaningful happy moments were both more regular and necessarily clandestine. At the top of the house, on the third floor, at the end of a dimly lit hall, was a large featureless door. It was made of metal, with the sides and top being visibly welded to the metal door frame. From early childhood he had been told, rather pointlessly he felt, that he was never to go into it. Most nights, when he considered it was safe to do so, he would furtively visit the ominous door. Despite it being an extremely robust structure, there were noises from beyond. More than just noises; voices. It was as though the space beyond was a large room, full of people. Not that this was at all possible, but that’s what it sounded like. The voices, whether real or imagined, where muffled, never allowing him to make out any of the actual words. Naturally, because of his being subjected to such a closeted existence, each of these nightly forays was a real adventure.
One day, the boy was deeply saddened to hear that his favourite uncle had passed away and would no longer be around to make visits. It transpired that the elderly gentleman had been giving a rendition of Paganini’s Caprice number one, an energetic little piece, in a gentlemen’s club in Madagascar. Apparently, he had just managed to finish the lively number when he toppled off the table he was standing on, instantly succumbing to a massive heart attack.
As sad as it was, this unhappy event was instrumental in the boy gaining his first inkling regarding the many mysteries that surrounded him, not least of these being the true nature of the forbidden door. It was very soon after the tragic news that he was on yet another nocturnal adventure. He was almost at the end of the hallway when he heard the violin.
