This post is split into two halves firstly the draft of a creative piece and secondly a reflection. The song is included and I would recommend listening to it either whilst reading or at some point.

The fiddle sounded across the field as a small boy rode his bike down the road. Strong and clear the fiddler played and the boy turned, seemingly lost towards him. A sudden crash of metals, a rending of pieces. He was no more.  Days blurred into nights, the fiddler was silent as he stood on the green watching. His silent vigil broken only by the sound of church bells tolling and the floods of black clad people that passed by some days after the incident. Again days passsed and nights dropped away from the skies to reveal a thick bank of dark cloud floating above the town. The fiddlers face fell into troubled thought, his mind elsewhere. Once more he began to play. The keening sound of his bow against the strings echoing hauntingly through the early morning air. A small girl on her way to school heard it and turned running towards the field. Time seemed to slow and the fiddler appeared next to the child, his music playing without action. Leaning down towards her his mouth moved and her eyes darted this way, then that way until they were fixed upon his face. His lips moved and she pouted before a smile creased her face and she nodded happily. Time began to move and the fiddler returned the green, searching for the music the girl sprinted onto the road where the reaper claimed his prize. The fiddler removed his cap and held it to his chest, inclining his head towards the scene as his music faded away. Turning he saw the faint outline of two children playing together in the forests of eternity. His lip raised slightly on one side and the fiddler sat to watch, his bow beside him, unused. His promise kept.

Reflection

This piece was heavily inspired by a song, or rather the story on which the song was based. The song called The Fiddler on the Green is taken by an event that the song writer saw in which a young boy was killed on his bike by a car and almost a week later the same thing happened to a small girl. In the story as the song tells it the reaper (the figure the fiddler can represent in Europe) regretted taking the boy too young and promised him a paradise. In order to achieve this the Fiddler takes the girl to be a companion for the boy and fulfils his promise. Ever since I heard this song there has been something about it that haunted me, perhaps the unquestionable sweetness despite the morbidity of this story. There is something cute about the little girl going to join the boy and yet the story in the song focused to begin with on the grief of the father figure for the girl. This is something I intentionally left out of my own piece wishing to leave it with an air of mystery, with holding details but also to try and increase the other worldly feel that I get when I hear this story, I wanted to remove the human factor as much as possible focusing on the events as I interpret them. It is in trying to achieve this goal I made the conscious decision not to have a main character, but be an on looker. Maybe a god, maybe the leaves on the trees.

I didn’t want mind set to play a huge part in this story but I wanted to try and capture the sense of the girl being enticed into joining the boy, hence the smile and the way she runs towards the fiddler desperately. I think I feel the need to explain this story in depth because firstly it holds great meaning for me but it also exemplifies values in children that have become almost cliché. The innocence of a life cut short too soon is something which I think is talked about a lot, but rarely is it shown in an example as extreme as this in which I believe the little girl to have willingly gone to make a paradise for this boy to share with her. Here I would note that this is how I like to think of the story and not necessarily how it is told either in the song or in the explanation for the song and as such the idea of her going willingly is perhaps a little bit of writers bias slipping in as I find the story all the more bitter sweet if I can see her as going willingly.

I think I will end the reflection on the piece here, I hope you enjoyed this draft and found my explanation of the inspiration and ideas which contributed to it helpful. Any feedback and suggestions are always helpful. As always I truly hope that you are having a pleasant day.

Hugh

Link to the song by Demons and Wizards