Everyday Heroes - Oticon

piercing his ears. The other boys had vaporised.
Simon had passed into some kind of dream state. His head felt
strangely heavy. The swaying leaves had suddenly gone quiet. He
could see a dog standing a short way away, barking at some doves,
but its bark sounded strangely muffl ed. Simon picked himself up.
He looked down to check his arms and hands, and found everything
intact. The lighter was on the ground a few feet away. He
picked it up and threw it into a rubbish bin as he left the park.
Out on the street, where cars were speeding by, everything looked
normal. But it did not feel that way. He felt like a spectator sitting
behind a window in another universe.
Simon ran home and slammed the front door without really understanding
what had transpired. He kept to his room all evening,
afraid to tell his mother the full story.
‘I’m going over to Grandma’s place,’ shouted Simon. ‘All right my
darling, have a good time. Remember to be home by six now!’ His
mother watched him until he disappeared around the corner.
It took Simon only a few minutes to get to his grandmother’s
house. He always dropped by on his way home from school, to
practise the piano. His grandmother was old and thin, with redblond
hair tied up in a bun. In her youth she had been a professional
pianist, but in later life she had begun teaching the children
of the neighbourhood.
Simon was met by the aroma of baking biscuits as his grandmother
opened the door. ‘Hello Simon, how’s your day been?’ His
grandmother smiled and gave him a small hug. Simon made no
reply, not wanting to admit that it had been yet another bad day. He
did not want to think about it.
He ran past her, into the living room, and sat down in front of the
keyboard. A sense of excitement always overtook him as he considered
all the great pianists that had perched on this very stool.
Sitting there, reading the music, it didn’t matter that he felt different.
He could not hear all the notes, but he could sense the strings
vibrating and feel the weight of the keys as he practised his scales.
He felt totally at one with the piano.
When his grandmother tapped him on the shoulder Simon jumped,
knocking the plate of biscuits she was carrying, out of her hands
and onto the fl oor. Simon was embarrassed.
‘Don’t worry about it Simon, we’ll just pick them up again.
19