The Flat · The Long Way Down to Morning · Pulse Beat
She left the conservatory in June. There was a form and a signature and a kind woman at a desk who did not look surprised. Professor Lindqvist came to the door of her room on the last afternoon and…
She left the conservatory in June.
There was a form and a signature and a kind woman at a desk who did not look surprised. Professor Lindqvist came to the door of her room on the last afternoon and stood for a long time, saying nothing, and then put one dry hand on Anika's head, like a blessing or a measurement, and went away.
She found a room in a cheap flat in Wedding, over a kebab shop, with a window that looked onto a wall. The landlord asked no questions. She paid cash from what was left of her scholarship and the last of the weddings money, and she put the violin case on top of the wardrobe, where she would not have to see it.
For a month she did nothing. She slept ten hours and woke exhausted. She walked the streets at night. She ate, when she ate, standing at the counter, whatever was cheapest. On the radio in the shop below, someone was always playing a violin concerto, and she learned to turn up the volume of the television upstairs until it drowned it out.