Excerpt from Novel

        He found James in the piano room, playing. He was playing beautifully—soulfully, even—very unlike how he would have imagined a drummer would play. It was a somber and sweet tune, vaguely familiar. James looked up at David as he played and nodded. David sat down in a comfortable arm chair in the corner and listened to him play. He let himself forget what had happened with Lucy and sank into the music. It brought lurid memories to the surface of his mind. All of the girls and women he had ever loved appeared before him—their figures seemed to dance in a ring of fire in front of him. Some of them glared at him coldly, others had tears in their eyes and looked at him longingly. All of them danced through the fire that was his own soulful desire. And it was Lucy who played the most prominent role. Her eyes were so dark, so full of mystery, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t gage what was going on behind them. There were other memories, too—vague memories of his parents when he was young. Their faces were so fresh and expressive, and full of vitality. They looked upon him with tenderness and awe. It was as if he was a newborn child again, and everything was vibrant and new, and the world seemed boundless and so did the possibilities of life. Colors bounded off one another in an ecstatic, rapturous dance. It was all in the music—the memories, the colors, the impassioned feelings that culminated in euphoria. David listened, but he had the sense that it wasn’t really him listening at all. Whatever “he” was had gone, and the collective soul of existence had taken its place. James finished playing, and, in a moment of pensiveness, stared at the keys, as if completely bewildered and amazed by what had just occurred.