The window
Title: The window
Length: One Shot
Pairing: none
Rating: G
Genre:angst, slice of life(?)
Summary: Nino sits at his window and looks out. Just his thoughts about life and moving.
Nino looked out of the window as he was sitting on his desk and tried to write a new piece for his next album. He sighed a little and put his head in his hand as he watched the single dark window right across of him.
Nino closed his eyes and thought about the man who used to live there. The first time he got here and set up his desk at the window to look outside while he composed he saw him. The man was old - as old as his grandfather was - Nino thought with a little smile. The next few days he got used to seeing the man sitting in his big chair the whole day while he was composing in his small room. Sometimes they would share little smiles or even nod in greeting to the other. But most times they just sat on their respective chairs doing whatever they did the whole day - and more often than not the whole night.
That old man was unknowingly the person who helped him in the beginning years of his career. He didn’t know why but just looking up and see the man that had lived through so many imagined lives helped him thinking about songs to write.
The man was there each time he got into his room to work and seeing him there he instantly felt a calmness wash over him whenever he felt restless at night because the song he was working on didn’t go along as it should. The man would smile at him then and show him what he was reading and most of the times Nino got curious and looked for the book to read it, too.
And now that presence, that man was gone. This morning he watched people bringing a big coffin out of the house, and the window would stay empty and dark for most of the day. Nino got to watch many people coming and going in and from the house. It didn’t feel right not to see the old man, Nino decided and put his guitar down once more. He couldn’t write anything today. Nino sat on the windowsill and watched the people in front of the house.
He recognised the manager of the rooms across of his house - as he talked to him when Nino had looked for a flat all those years ago - as he spoke to foreign persons pointing at the house and the dark window and leaving once more.
A little while later there were more men this time with a big truck and Nino watched them getting the stuff from the man out of the flat. His eyes flickered to the window, and he could see it once more enlightened and sometimes he saw one of the movers there at the window carrying some stuff. They sure worked fast.
Nino’s eyes wandered to his work again, and he picked up papers and a pen to write down his thoughts about what happened.
It got dark early that day. Or more likely Nino didn’t realise how late it got, till he couldn’t recognise his handwriting anymore. Nino looked once more at the window across and sighed deeply. He didn’t even know why it mattered so much to him that the man was gone. Nino didn’t even know the name of the man across the street or anything about his family. He has never seen some relatives in the window across, and they never exchanged any real words. Nino heaved a heavy sigh once more and left his place on the windowsill. He put his papers down on his desk and left the room without turning on the light. If the window across his were going to be left in darkness so would his window for this day at least.
It took a few days till he saw another moving truck across the street and curious as he was Nino climbed onto the windowsill once more.
He heard the voices of a few man and watched them moving in and out of the truck. Each time they were carrying another item inside. He tried to imagine the person who would live across from him from now on. Would it be the loud laughing man? The one who huffed and puffed as he had to carry in a big box and almost letting it fall? The one that was shouting orders at them or the last one that was mostly silent and moved one box after the other and took special care when he carried a huge canvas at last.
He continued to watch as they brought in a box and furniture one after the other and the window across his was once more enlightened as the day went on and it got dark. Nino smiled a little as he watched the movers in the room and after a few more hours it went silent once more. The window was dark again as he watched all but the last man leave after hugs and loud goodbyes and watched the small man walk inside again.
A Few moments later the light would be lit again, and the man was there. This time, there wasn’t a chair in front of the window, but a canvas and Nino smiled at the new man a little when he was caught staring at him. The man nodded at him and smiled, too. Nino waved before he left his place on the windowsill and sat in front of his desk once more adding just a few more lines to the text he wrote this morning. At least his new ‘neighbour’ seemed to be a nice one to keep him company.