...My little sister taught me that song, though I only know the melody. She said it made her feel better when she started to miss someone she couldn't see anymore.

[He sighed, pushing loose hair from his eyes and looking at the keys as though there was some kind of answer there. He knew exactly what she'd meant, but that was far from his own story to tell.]

I don't really know where my father learned to play well enough to teach me. He might have picked it up from his parents, or learned it after he left to marry my mother. Can't very well ask him now.

[Shrugging, he lifted his hands and started to pick out a very different melody, slowly.]

...It always just felt like a distraction from what I thought I wanted.