Magical Music Box
A number of years ago my fiancee was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. While many women may have run away, I bravely stayed by his side and cared for him through surgeries and experimental treatments, learned to sleep in uncomfortable hospital chairs, and comforted him through his last days. He died at his home one night in April. I waited late into the night with his parents for the funeral company to arrive. When they arrived, I had some trouble moving his cat, Miss Kitty, from the bed. She had curled up on his withered legs and refused to move. When they had finally removed his body from the house, I lingered for a few moments with Mom and Dad before heading home exhausted.

I don't remember the drive home. It was well after midnight and I hadn't slept for more than an hour at a time for the past several weeks.

I walked into my dark house and closed the door behind me just as the music box played. He had given it to me years before for my birthday. It's not really a box at all, but a ceramic figurine of Belle and the Beast. As the music plays the theme song from the film, Belle spins, dancing. The music box played a full round and stopped. This may not seem unusual, the jarring of the door could have triggered the music mechanism to turn. However, I have always made a point to keep it unwound with the switch turned off. I moved to inspect the figurine after it played and it was as I'd left it, unwound and turned off.

The music box (that isn't really a box) played on a few other occasions after that April night: my birthday and an evening in August. I learned several days after the August event that his sister had died the day it played.

I still have that music box. I still keep it unwound and turned off wondering if it will every play on its own again.
(Boxer_Babee, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 19:26, Reply)