In a Different “Darkness”

By MAYP

 

Genre: Drama

 

Is Grace Tully’s concert a trap for Kimble?

 

* * * * * * *

 

It was late. The “Vacancy” sign lit the dark sky like a star over the roadside motel. Few parked cars in the lot in front of dark rooms showed that its occupants were asleep. Only the small cabin housing the front desk was lit.

 

The sudden pounding on a door disturbed the silence. “Open up. Police!” a voice barked. The pounding continued.

 

Awaken from a sound sleep, Richard Kimble immediately sat up in bed. Staring at the front door, he was now alert to realize that the pounding was not at his door, but from one some distance away. Slipping out of bed, he padded to the front window and peered from the side of the drapes.

 

Squad cars and the police surrounded a dark room diagonally across the parking lot. The light came on and the front door opened. The open doorway showed a silhouette of a man with raised hands. “Don’t shoot!” he screamed. The police entered the room.

 

Richard left his post and went back to sit on his bed to slip on his socks and shoes. He was already dressed in his sleeping attire of sweatshirt and sweatpants so that would have to do. Then he hurried to the small bathroom to retrieve his personal things. Returning back to the main room, he placed them in the duffel bag. He retrieved his jacket from an even tinier closet. Slipping on the jacket, he returned back to the front window.

 

Two handcuffed men were led to two different squad cars. One by one, the two cars left the motel. It seemed like forever, but then slowly, the police vacated the motel. When the last car drove off, Richard leaned against the wall and gave a sigh of relief.

 

* * * * * * *

 

The next morning, Richard was enjoying a ham-and-egg breakfast at a diner miles away. As he sipped his coffee, he read a newspaper that was left behind. The arrest of two drug dealers at a roadside motel made the front page. There was no mention of a fugitive doctor.

 

As he flipped the pages, an article caught his eye:

 

Concert Pianist Tully to Appear

 

Famed concert pianist Grace Tully will appear at Davies Symphony Hall next Friday for an evening of musical extravaganza. This will be her only appearance.

 

During her performance at a competition about a year ago, she blanked out while performing Chopin’s “Nocturne”. The audience sat with her during the twenty minutes she was on stage not performing. Afterwards, she admitted herself to a Memphis mental institution. Dr. Felice, the head of staff there, correctly diagnosed her as having a thyroid deficiency. With proper medication, her health had been restored.

 

A classically trained pianist, Tully has included both the classics and modern music to her repertoire. This concert is not to be missed.

 

* * * * * * *

 

 

It was the night of the concert. Excitement was in the air as people searched for their seats. Richard was also there, dressed in a borrowed tuxedo and fake glasses. Using a fake press pass, he entered the hall as a reporter.

 

When the curtain raised, the audience applauded. The symphony orchestra performed various selections from the opera “Carmen”. The music from the love story of the cigarette woman and the toreador filled the hall. When it finished, the audience politely applauded.

 

 

Grace Tully entered the stage. Dressed in a simple dark long-sleeved floor-length gown and her long hair in curls and her face carefully made up, she presented a different picture than when Richard had first seen her. At that first time, she sat in a hallway, with limp straight hair and lifeless eyes.

 

The audience applauded wildly. Then she sat at the piano and the orchestra played her first selection. The beginning strain of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” filled the hall. Grace was in rare form. The excitement of the music performed by the orchestra as accompanice filled the hall and her fingers moved quickly up and down the keyboard.

 

After the last note, the audience applauded wildly. Grace stood, walked to the front of the stage and curtseyed. Afterwards, she returned to the piano and lifted her left hand to perform the next piece, Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”.

 

The diamond ring on her left hand glittered as she played the piece on the piano. Engrossed in her music, she did not notice Richard walking behind her. When he kissed the side of her neck, she stopped playing to kiss him back.

 

He sat at the piano bench next to her. “What’s that you’re playing?” he asked.

 

“It’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ by Beethoven,” Helen replied. Richard looked at the piano stand. There was no sheet music. She had memorized the piece. He was impressed.

 

“I didn’t know that you are classically trained,” he commented.

 

“Yes, I used to be better when I was younger, but now I try to practice when I can,” she said. She saw admiration in his eyes. “This is the middle C,” she said as she played the note. “There are only eight notes in music – A, B, C, D, E, F, G. The C scale is the only scale with no sharps and no flats.” Seeing his puzzled look, she added, “The notes are from the white keys only.”

 

“Oh? Then what are the black keys?”

 

“They are the flats and sharps”.

 

Richard was confused. She showed him the fingering for the scale. It seemed that in no time under her tutorage, he could play simple tunes on the piano.

 

The sound of clapping interrupted Richard’s thoughts. He had missed Grace Tully’s performance. Then she walked off the stage and the orchestra played another selection.

 

The symphony orchestra’s opening night was Helen and Richard’s first public appearance since their engagement. People craned their necks to look at the couple. Dressed in a gold sheath of silk and her blonde hair coifed in an elegant roll, she shone like a beacon among the sea of black and white. Richard was resplendent in a tuxedo.

 

Seated in the Ross box, Richard felt like he was on display as he sensed eyes on him. He relaxed a bit when the light dimmed as the curtain parted. Helen took his hand in hers and he turned to look at her. He smiled at her as he lifted his hand and kissed her hand. I love you, he mouthed the words to her. I love you, she mouthed back. The concert and the featured honored soloist were forgotten as they were lost in their own world.

 

The applause interrupted his thoughts again. Grace returned to the stage and sat at the piano. She performed selections from Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin. Between the classical numbers, she performed selections such as Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”, the ragtime number used as the theme for the movie “The Sting” and “Variations on a Theme of Paganini”. Richard could see the leaves falling from the trees and drifting in the wind when she performed the haunting “Autumn Leaves.”

 

Richard marveled at her techniques and versatility. She could perform playful Mozart, somber Beethoven, and dramatic Tchaikovsky. She could also play jazz and ragtime, light classics and popular music. She had memorized them all. When he first met her at the mental institution, she had no energy to walk outside to get fresh air. Instead she played chess with him and they got to know each other. She mentioned about memory problems and dry hair. He suspected she had a thyroid condition. Frustrated at his inability to finding an escape route one night, he found the nurse station empty. Grace Tully’s medical folder was on the counter and he forged a prescription on her chart. The medication worked.

 

 

The audience was silent as she raised her hands and paused before the next number. When the beginning notes of Chopin’s “Nocturne” filled the hall, the audience applauded. They knew that was the last piece she had performed in public before her self-admittance at a mental institution. This time, she performed it entirely.

 

After her performance, the audience went wild. She had played it to perfection. A tiny girl walked on the stage to present a bouquet of flowers to Grace. The clapping continued as she took the little girl’s hand and they walked together off the stage. Then she returned without the bouquet and the volume increased. Her encore performance of Mozart’s “A Little Night Music” was well received. Richard recognized it as a selection that Mozart had performed before the emperor in the film “Amadeus”.

 

Her second encore was the simple song “I Love My Piano”. The audience sang along as she played the tune. After the song ended, the audience applauded wildly. Grace stood up and curtseyed. Someone whistled.

 

She returned to the piano. The hall slowly became silent. She then played the gay tune that Richard recognized as the happy tune at the Memphis institution. She had played at the time to the enjoyment of the inmates and the hospital staff. Richard remembered how happy he was then. He was happy now and the crowd clapped wildly.

 

 

Lying on his bed at the mental institution, Richard was frustrated at his inability to escape. The sudden tickling of a piano jostled him out of his frustration. It drew him to the recreation room, as it did to the other inmates. Grace stopped playing when she noticed an audience. After a pause, she played a joyful tune, which drew smiles from the captive audience. Richard grinned widely.

 

She made a final curtsey and then left the stage. The orchestra continued with the program. Richard did not pay attention. He left his seat and went to the back of the stage. Getting directions to Grace’s dressing room, he headed that way.

 

Hearing his knock, she opened the door. There was brief look of recognition. “Roy?” she murmured. “Roy Thompson?” It was the name she knew him as when they were at the Memphis institution.

 

“No, you must have mistaken me for someone else. I’m just an admirer”, he replied as he pushed his fake glasses against his nose. Richard handed her a huge bouquet of red roses.

 

“Thank you. They’re beautiful.”

 

Hearing a noise behind him, Richard turned his head. Policemen were close behind a wild-looking man waving a gun. “Hold it right there, Campbell!” a voice ordered. Richard quickly pulled Grace into her room and slammed the door shut. He quickly blocked the door by leaning a chair against it. There was a scuffle outside. Then silence. “Miss Tully? This is the police.” A knock on the door prompted Grace to open the door.

 

“Are you all right, Miss Tully?” asked the policeman in the doorway. “Thanks to you, we caught the stalker, Jefferson Campbell.”

 

“I’m fine. Thank you,” she replied. She turned and saw a handcuffed man being escorted by the police away from her dressing room.

 

“That was quick thinking, sir,” remarked the policeman to Richard. “You’ve saved Miss Tully’s life.”

 

Richard nodded. After the policeman was gone, she turned to Richard in the room. “They’re gone.”

 

“Thank you for a wonderful concert, Miss Tully,” Richard said to her, shaking her hand. “I really enjoy it. It was a concert to remember.”

 

“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for saving my life.”

 

It was already dark by the time Richard left the building. He knew that this time he would not see Grace Tully again. As he walked into the night, he could still hear Grace playing Chopin’s “Nocturne”.

 

 

END

 

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Screen Captures by Bobbynear