I wanted to know more about this magical person who had suddenly sprung into my life. What was she doing here? Why was she eating all my toothpaste? I felt that somehow she could help me understand my own world better. "So Zephyr, tell me why you chose the saxophone."
"Well, I couldn't really sing like the other angels," she said blushing a little, "I have a terrible voice, and my father realized that he would have to get me an instrument in order for me to do my job correctly."
"But why not play the oboe or the flute," I asked, thinking about all the girls in my orchestra. "Those are more girlie sounding."
"That's true, but the saxophone is special. Of all the instruments, it's the one that really sounds like you are singing. The sound comes straight from your heart. So instead of having to sing to the birds with my terrible voice, I played them beautiful songs on the saxophone."
"Wow, that's neat!" I said. "But how did your saxophone get all the way to me?" I thought about the music store, and the dusty old case.
"That's a strange and sad story," she sighed, "Do you want to hear a strange and sad story?"
"I suppose so. My life is pretty strange and sad too," I said.
"A long long time ago, I was in the sky over France teaching crows how to sing a new song. We were tired of hearing their "kaaaaaa, kaaaaaa" all the time. It was driving us crazy. I was showing them a new melody, and while I was playing, one of those silly crows just swooped down out of the sky, and grabbed the saxophone right out of my hands!
"No!" I said.
"That's right. You know how crows just love shiny things. It drives them crazy. Then that silly crow tried to fly away with it, but the saxophone was too heavy for him, and he dropped it. It fell through the clouds, all the way down to Earth. I was so heartbroken, I had lost the only saxophone in the world."
"What do you mean, the only saxophone?"
"Don't you know, at that time there was no such thing as a "saxophone." It was a heavenly instrument given to me by my father. It was not an earthly instrument. It wasn't even called a saxophone yet. That happened much later in history."
"So what did you do?" I asked. "Did you go down and get it back?"
"As an angel, I wasn't allowed to go to Earth, so I had to wait for something to happen. I talked to my good friend Chance and asked her to help me."
"So then what happened," I asked, "Did Chance help you find it?"
"Well, sort of," she said, "But Chance does things in a strange way, so things don't always turn out how you want them to."
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that a few days later, a farmer found my saxophone lying in his corn field. He couldn't believe his eyes. He thought it was a golden pipe. Remember, before then, man had never seen a saxophone before. How was he supposed to know what it was? So the man took it to the market to try to sell it."
"And did he sell it?"
"Actually, he traded it for a goat!"
"You're kidding," I said.
"No, it's all true. He traded it for a goat. Then the goat man took the golden pipe home, and in the evening tried to smoke it by the fire. When he found out that it wouldn't smoke, he was outraged. He had been tricked! He thought all night long of a way to sell the useless pipe to another fool. The next day, the goat man went back to the market, and put a sign on the pipe saying, "Chinese Army Rifle." Can you believe that?"
"That's ridiculous," I agreed.
"Well, you see how people are. So a young Belgium soldier who was passing by, sees the sign and is intrigued. He gives the man £50 for the "rifle."
"So what happened next?" I asked, trying to follow along.
"The Belgium soldier travels all the way back to his village, and he takes the rifle home with him. He gives it to his old uncle as a souvenir from his world travels. He tells the uncle all about how he bought the rifle from an old Chinese sailor in India, and that it had once belonged to a famous prince."
"But that wasn't true!" I protested.
"See, you find out that a lot of things in life are not always true," she said frowning. "People often forget how to tell the truth. You tell the truth don't you, Junior?" she asked.
"Of course I do," I said proudly. "Grandpa made me promise to always tell the truth no matter what."
"Well, that's a good boy. You see, Junior, that's why I am here," she smiled.
"So tell me what happened next," I pressed, anxious to hear more.
"This is where it gets interesting. The old uncle was a shoemaker, and he was very proud of his Chinese rifle. He made a beautiful leather case for the rifle, and displayed it proudly in his window. That's the case you are using now, by the way. One day, a man riding a horse and carriage comes into the shoe store, and asks the old man about the rifle. He says he is a duke, and that he is collecting items for his museum. The Chinese rifle would be an excellent addition to his collection. "Would you consider selling it?" the duke asks. The old man naturally doesn't want to part with his treasured rifle, but he also doesn't want to lose out on his chance to make some money from the duke. He thinks about it for a while, and says that he'll trade the rifle for the man's horse and carriage. The duke laughs and says, "Why of course, it is only a horse." They trade, and the duke carries the Chinese rifle back to his museum. He displays it magnificently it in a glass case with a sign that says "Unique Marvel From the Orient: Ancient Chinese Army Rifle." And for years and years, the saxophone sits in the museum, collecting dust.
"So what did you do during all this time?" I asked her.
"I couldn't do a thing ," she said. "I just watched all this happening from above, wondering when someone would figure out it was an instrument, and play the magic melody that would bring me back to my beloved saxophone."
"Then what happened?" I pressed on.
"The duke had two nephews, and they were very naughty boys just like you. They would play games with their uncle's collection. They put on the ancient armor, clanged swords, and ran around the castle, driving everyone mad. One day, while playing around with the Chinese army rifle, one of the boys blows into the gun to get rid of the dust. Out comes a tremendous sound that scares the daylights out of the boys, who run away in horror. The duke, hearing the noise, asks, "What's going on! What was that dreadful noise?" He catches the boys red-handed with his cherished Chinese Army Rifle, and is very angry. But the duke, who was a very clever man, realizes that the Chinese must not have fought their wars with bullets. Instead, they blew air into their rifles, making a fearful sound which scared away the enemy. So rather than scolding the nephews, the duke takes delight in his discovery."
"But why couldn't he just figure out it was a saxophone?" I asked, perplexed.
"Well, people usually make things more complicated than they need to be," Zephyr explained. "But listen, you'll like what happens next. The duke has a birthday party, and he invites all his neighbors and family, and other dukes and duchesses over to his castle for a ball. He also hires a group of musical performers, and arranges for an extravagant dinner. The group plays their music, everyone starts to dance, and the duke has a most enjoyable birthday. He is so happy that he tells his nephew to run and fetch the rifle for him. He will present it to the musicians, thanking them for bringing such happiness into his home. He explains to the musicians in great detail that he is presenting them with an ancient artifact from China. This rifle, he explains, does not need bullets, but instead creates a horrifying sound which will frighten the enemy away. The duke asks his nephew to demonstrate, and the boy proudly obliges, making a horrible sound which scares everyone away at the party."
"Sounds like fun," I giggled, "So then what happened?"
"The leader of the musical group was a very talented and skilled man who could play many different instruments. His name was Adolphe Sax, and he had a small workshop where he built instruments during his free time. Very curious about this strange rifle, he took it home and examined it, and came to the conclusion that this was not a weapon at all, but some kind of new musical instrument. It was a musical instrument that he had never seen before."
"He finally figured it out!" I said.
"Yes, but that's not the end of the story," said Zephyr. "Chance would never let anything be so simple. Mr. Sax asks many different people to examine this instrument and give their opinion of how it should be played. People from all over Europe travel to his shop, and during one of the visits, a jealous musician from another country steals the instrument. The instrument is never seen again, and the master musician is heartbroken, having had this rare chance taken from him. Mr. Sax spends the rest of his life trying to duplicate the mysterious instrument. He eventually succeeds, and names it after himself, the Sax-o-phone. He is an old man now, and wants nothing more than to be remembered as creating something unique for the world. Before he dies, Mr. Sax gives the saxophone to his son to present to the Queen of France. The son, dutifully takes the saxophone to the Queen, and the Queen exclaims, "Oh my! The duke's Chinese Army Rifle! Where did you find it? What's it called? A saxophone? How wonderful!" Apparently she had been at the duke's birthday party, and remembered how terrifying the ordeal was. The young man tries to explain that it is not a gun, but a musical instrument, and the Queen not wanting to hear such nonsense, has the son beheaded. She is struck with a brilliant idea, and orders her workmen to make thousands of these rifles so that she can invade Spain. After a bloody war where thousands of lives are lost, the Queen realizes that her Chinese Army rifles are no match for an army of Spanish cannons, and she orders all the saxophones destroyed."
"But what about your saxophone?" I asked, eager to hear more. "You never mentioned what happened to it."
"Oh yes, that's right. After my saxophone was stolen from Mr. Sax, the thief ran away to Germany and tried to sell it on the black market, but no one would buy it. No one had seen anything like it, and they didn't believe that this strange object was of any value. Dejected, the thief carries it around with him for a while, later abandoning it on a ship. He has decided to change his ways and become a sailor. Many years go by, and the saxophone is passed from one ship to another as loose baggage. It spans the entire globe, and eventually ends up on a boat sailing for America. The boat lands in New Orleans, and the saxophone is discovered by black slaves unloading the cargo. The slaves, having no prior knowledge of European history, know immediately that it is something to make music with, and they take the instrument home with them. They find that it has a sad and lovely sound, and the slaves learn to express their most personal feelings through it. Of course they had a little help from me," winked Zephyr. "I helped teach them how to play it, and over time the saxophone became a part of their own music. Their music was called jazz."
"Oh I like jazz music!" I said, "But I still don't understand how Cleo got to me."
"Remember what I told you about Chance," she said. "Cleo was passed from one jazz master to another just like words are passed down from generation to generation. I was so thrilled watching this new music develop from my instrument, and I waited and waited for someone to play the secret melody so that I could come to Earth and get her back. But no one ever did. Cleo's last voyage was from Kansas City to Denver. She was traveling with an unlucky jazz musician on a train. The man had gambled away all his money on the trip, and lost Cleo in a poker game. The name of the train was the California Zephyr. Isn't Chance funny? Anyway, Cleo finally ends up on that shelf in the music store where you and your grandpa went. She had been sitting there a long time collecting dust."
"And you knew all along?" I asked.
"Of course I did," she smiled. "I was hoping you would be the one to find her. When you touched her that day, I could feel the loneliness in your heart, and I knew right away that you needed a friend. I showed you a part of my world up in the clouds. Do you remember?"
"Yeah, I thought I was having a dream."
"Sometimes life is like a dream," she laughed. "So are we friends?"
"You bet," I said.
Zephyr and I talked late into the night. She told me all about her family, and I told her all about mine. I told her how I came to Colorado on an airplane, and how I missed my mother, and that I didn't know where my father was. I told her my life was all messed up. She said in heaven it was about the same. Just read about the Greek gods, and I would know. As we were cleaning up the mess in the bathroom together, I asked her, "Do you ever get lonely up there in the sky?"
She paused for a moment, thinking, and said, "Well now that you mention it, yes I do."
"So what do you do when you feel lonely?" I continued.
"I stop and think about all the places I've been, and all the people I've met, and how lucky I am to play music for the birds. Then I forget all about being lonely."
"I guess I'll have to try that next time," I told her. Then I remembered the saxophone. "Oh, I almost forgot. You should take Cleo back now. I know you've been waiting for her for a long time."
"Are you crazy?" she scoffed. "Cleo's your saxophone now Junior. Like the man in the music store said, I think she likes you."
"I can't," I said feeling embarrassed. "She's belongs to you."
"Oh stop it, silly!" she scolded. "That's the way Chance works. Things just happen! Haven't you figured that out by now? Anyway, I've learned how to play the harp like the other angels. It's much easier to carry around. Cleo is all yours."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. But remember, you have a responsibility to keep. You must always improve yourself, and you must always try to spread more joy and love in this world. Playing music is one way to do both."
"So will you help me?" I asked.
"A.A. Grundman Corporation, Bakersfield, CA," she winked, and was gone.
That night, I slept like a prince, wrapped up in my new secret.
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