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Sometimes, the days were still slow and filled with ache. Sometimes, they were better. What Pepa did know though, was that each day was as new and unpredictable as the last, and that time was still moving on regardless of what had happened. Everything kept growing and changing around her, and life moved on even after the most horrible of disasters.
She has recovered since the tragedy she had felt a few months prior, yet the ache was still sometimes there in her chest. She had done her very best to keep living though, not letting one terrible experience dictate the rest of her life. And so, she slowly began to feel better, she’d began to leave the house again when accompanied by Félix, and now the days where she truly felt joy had returned without the lingering feeling of guilt over her own happiness.
Some days were much better than others, where she didn’t even have to think twice about clear skies, only happy emotions in the air as she spent time with her husband and her family. Other days were worse, filled with complicated emotions beyond words that made the rain fall in unison with her cries. She blamed those days on her hormones, trying to find a cause for those feelings.
Today was a day somewhere in between those two moods. She wasn’t feeling especially happy, but not especially sad either. She was just there, feeling something and did her best to get through it, even if it felt tough from time to time. So, after a strained lunch where she didn’t feel like she had the energy to be around the rest of her family for just a little while, she excused herself to her room.
Félix asked if she wanted him to follow, and she nodded. She gets up from her chair and tiptoes up the stairs with Félix in tow. She runs her hands through her hair the entire time, trying to feel calm by touching the familiar texture. It wasn’t like she was stressed , she just was not calm in a way she couldn’t explain and wanted to distract herself for a while. Playing with her hair did calm down her anxieties, thankfully.
As they arrive at their room, Pepa sits down on the couch in one of the corners and lets out a sigh of relief, letting her fingers run over the fabric of it as Félix sits down beside her and presses a kiss onto her forehead.
“How are you feeling?” he asks, and Pepa sighs once more.
“It’s just a lot right now. I can’t really put it into words, everything is just there as this weird itch and I just need to relax. Too many people out there,” she says, and Félix nods understandingly.
“Is there something I can do to help, mi vida? Or do you just want me to sit here and keep me company?”
Pepa thinks for a moment, putting her mouth over her face as she hums. Her eyes move around the room as she tries to find something to focus on, and they land on Félix’s tiple which is propped up against the wall. It had been a few months since he had played it for her. He hadn’t had the time when he had spent most of their days taking care of her and making sure she recovered, but as she saw the instrument, she realized how much she missed it. His wonderful skills, the beautiful songs he composed himself, mixed together with his voice as he sang about his love for her. All the praise always made her cheeks blush red with rainbows appearing overhead.
She points at the instrument.
“Could you play me a song? It’s been so long. I miss it.”
“Of course mi vida,” he replies and kisses her forehead once more as he gets up from the couch. “Any requests?”
She shakes her head.
“I’m fine with anything, as long as I hear you play.”
Félix nods as he gets the tiple, and then sits back down on the couch. Pepa watches him with interest as he slowly begins to tune the instrument. She wasn’t a musician herself, but she knew the twelve strings were divided into four groups, with three strings each sharing the same note. She’s impressed by his ability to tune by ear, he’d previously joked that he had perfect pitch, but that didn’t make Pepa less impressed. Especially when the outer two strings of each divided group were also always tuned an octave above the string in the center, giving the instrument a very unique sound she adored.
She sees how Félix takes a deep breath, and then begins. The moment the first sound leaves the instrument, she’s caught in a spell. The music is wonderful to her ears and makes her flap her arms as she watches how her husband plays with the strings with pure precision, something that clearly took years of practice.
Then the singing begins, and Pepa’s heart melts as Félix sings about his love for her. The cloud that had previously hovered over her head is gone, replaced by a rainbow and bright sunshine from outside the window. For a little while, she’s lost in her own little world, all sorrow temporarily shoved aside as Félix is all she can think about. All she sees, all she can hear.
It’s wonderful.
The song is over all too soon, and she lets out a groan of disappointment to make that known. Félix laughs and kisses her lips, making Pepa melt at his touch as a smile appears on her face afterwards.
“Did you like the song, mi cielo?”
Pepa nods as she lets out a giggle, enjoying the sudden change in terms of endearment. As much as she adored being called his vida, there was always a soft spot in her heart for being called his cielo. She even had a fondness for querida, something he had called her often in the beginning of their relationship, and even before they had started dating. All those names held so many memories that she treasured.
“I loved it.”
“Do you want me to teach you?”
Pepa laughs at his question, thinking that it’s simply a joke at first. But as she sees the slight confusion on his face over her reaction, she stops in the middle of her tracks, curious.
“You’re serious?”
“Of course I’m serious.”
“You know I’m not a musician. I can barely play a scale on the piano, and last time I tried to play a tiple I broke a string. Well, I was twelve, but still. I don’t want to ruin your tiple, it’s one of the few things you could salvage from… before you moved here ,” she says, not wanting to say the words “salvage from the wreckage of your burnt down childhood home”, and bring up the death of his family unprompted.
Félix simply gives him an understanding kind smile as he places the tiple in Pepa’s hands. She takes it with a visible nervousness, feeling like she’s holding Félix's entire life in her hands.
“I will teach you. Don’t worry, strings can easily be replaced.”
She nods, carefully letting her fingers run over the strings in order to feel them. The texture is strange, but not unpleasant, and the single stray tones each string lets out harmonizes in a way that makes Pepa need to repeat the sound with her mouth. It was a fun sound, and she immediately feels just a little calmer after repeating it.
Afterwards, she looks over at Félix.
“What do I do?”
“Let’s start with something simple, like a scale to warm up and for you to learn the names of the notes. We’ll do C major,” he says and then puts one of his hands over Pepa’s, guiding her hands over the strings. “Pluck those three strings at the same time, don’t use your other hand. C is the default sound the string makes, it’s not tuned the same way as a guitar,” he instructs, and Pepa follows. The room is blessed with two C4s and one C3 at the same time, a whole octave range.
“That’s very good,” Félix praises her as he guides her fingers over the strings, pressing them down. “This note is a D.”
She plays the note and is once again met with praise from her husband. There’s a pride growing in her chest, and they move through the entire scale, bottom to top, and then top to bottom, several times. After a while, Pepa manages to pick up speed without Félix guidance, and she squeals in delight when she manages her first whole scale without a mistake after Félix had let go of her hands.
“I did it!”
Félix chuckles and kisses her on the lips, clear pride in his face. Pepa can’t help but smile back at him.
“That you did. Do you want me to teach you some chords? Don’t worry, I won’t show you the hard ones straight away.”
She nods, imagining the warm fuzzy feeling of feeling Félix’s hands over her own once more as he gently guides her over the tiple. She receives another kiss for good measure, and then Félix begins to teach her how a C major chord looks like. She must admit, it is much harder to hold a whole chord in place than a single note, with her fingers spread out everywhere and having to be held down at the right precise angle.
She still tries her best though, and Félix tells her she’s doing really well for a beginner. Joy spreads across her.
They continue like that for another thirty minute, until Pepa suddenly has to stop because the pain in her fingertips becomes too much. She curses in annoyance as she looks at them, blisters already about to form. Félix simply chuckles, saying that blisters will stop to be a problem after a while, fingertips hardening with practice.
She hits him in the face with a pillow, and laughter from the married couple fills their room.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you an arepa,” he reassures her, and Pepa rolls her eyes with amusement.
“You better, or else you’re sleeping on the floor tonight.”
It is a joke, of course. Pepa enjoyed having him beside her too much for something like that. He was her comfort, and would always be.
“So, I guess that’s a no to another tiple lesson?”
“Well, I didn’t say no , it was actually really fun,” she says as she kisses him. ”I just don’t like blisters.”