1. Matsumoto’s Musical Academy for the Arts________________________

The door creaked open, a little pair of brown eyes peeped through the creak of the open door Beethoven sounded in the distance. “Come on Hiroshi-kun, nothing to be scared about.” The mother gingerly pushed her son into the waiting room; seats lined the walls, everything looking horribly big for the six year old. She bent down to his eye level, fixing his hair and smoothing out his shirt, “Okay big boy, go play over there while mama talks to the lady in the desk. Don’t go anywhere without mama, okay?” The boy peeped up at his mother; he was being forced to play the violin. Hiroshi’s mother kissed his forehead before she walked away to the front desk. The boy started taking baby steps towards the play area.  

An elderly woman began setting up blocks, her hair was cropped shirt and gray, she had big framed glasses. The woman looked towards the little boy and smiled, her smile lines moved along with her mouth, “Hello, little boy. What’s your name?” Her voice was old, but comforting. The boy gulped, “K-Komatsu H-Hiroshi.” He stuttered, the woman stroked one of his ruddy cheeks, “You can call me Obaa-San.  If you need anything or hungry come to me, I’ll bring you some juice and cookies.” The woman patted his head as she slowly disappeared behind one of the doors. The boy watched the door for a couple of seconds before sitting on the ground and playing with a red car.  He raced it back and forth, having an Indiana 500 all by himself. CLACK! The boy jumped at the noise, he looked around the room, and everyone looked completely oblivious to the startling noise.

The boy slowly turned his head towards the pile of stuffed animals, Rhinos, Cats, monkeys, Porcelain Doll, everything looked normal. Wait! The boy whipped his head back around to the Porcelain Doll, it was the most beautiful thing he has ever seen, prettier than Minnie Mouse herself! He quickly crawled towards the doll; she was smiling up at him. She was so beautiful! And her dress was yellow, his secret favorite color. She had long silky wavy blonde hair; her eyes were a sapphire blue. Her dress was like a princess, it was golden yellow color, and she had a corset that was tied with black strings, her dress split through the middle, showing the petticoat as the main skirt. She had Puffy round sleeves that were disconnected from the dress; she wore a ruby red bonnet.

He was so in trance with the doll, so pretty…
“Do you want cookies?” he jumped at the voice, he whipped his head around and saw Obaa-San towering over him with a plate of animal crackers, he silently nodded his head, Obaa-San smiled one of her old smiles and handed him the plate. She peered at the doll in his hands and chuckled, “My, that’s a pretty doll, I found her there this morning. Do you want her?” the boy looked up at the woman with his opalescent eyes, “really?!” he rejoiced, the woman nodded her head. The boy gently hugged the doll to his chest, not wanting to re-arrange a hair because she was as perfect as it is.  “What are you going to name her?” the woman said as she peeked over his shoulder, the boy paused….

Valencia.

….

My name is Valencia.

The boy’s eyes couldn’t be taken off the doll, he was in trance with the doll, “…Valencia. Her name is Valencia.” The elder woman gave the boy a weird look, “Valencia? Isn’t that French? Maybe you should use a traditional Japanese name?” the woman was surprised that the boy knew a European name, she didn’t really know any European names till she watched that one movie on the TV. The boy gingerly ran his fingers through her hair, “No, she’s Valencia.” The woman patted his head before heading out, what an odd little boy.  “Hiroshi! We’re leaving!” his mother hollered across the waiting room, mommy was always spontaneous and loud. The boy crawled to his feet, Valencia snug under hid arm. He came t o his mother’s command, “Hiroshi, you made it into the music academy! You’ll be starting violin tomorrow.” She pushed open the glass door before returning her gaze to her son, “Where did you get that doll? Put it back, its not yours, it’s  the academy’s” the  mother made an attempt to grab the doll, but the young boy jumped back and held the doll to his chest, “The old lady said I could keep her! She’s mine!” he nearly screamed it. The scanty amount of people in the waiting room turned their heads to the young boy then to his mother, all with disapproving looks.  The mother gave them all an embarrassed smile before bending down eye level with her son, “Don’t ever scream like that in public ever again! And if you’re going to keep her, take good care of her. She’s pretty.” The boy beamed.

How weird though? Hiroshi was always quiet and kept to himself, this is one of the few times he had ever raised his voice in his life. On the way to the house, she looked in the rearview mirror, Hiroshi was strapped to his car seat, and playing with the doll he called Valencia. He stroked her hair and smoothed her dress if there were any wrinkles. They pulled into the drive way of their suburban home; Hiroshi waited patiently for his mother to un-bind him from his car seat. His mother opened the car door and slowly unbuckled him; he jumped out of the seat and peeled it towards the door. He pried the door open and kicked his shoes off neatly onto a white mat before continuing upstairs into his room.


His mother slowly made it into the room; at least he had put his shoes neatly onto the mat before disappearing off into his room. It was 6: 57, the sun was setting. The boy put Valencia on a chair; he turned around to get dressed for bed time. He pulled his shirt over his head, but caught, this always happened…

…7:00….

He struggled with it till he felt a pair of hand grab the hem of the shirt, mommy always helps me with my shirt. The shirt finally was pried away from his head, “thanks, mommy”, the boy turned around to wrap his arms around his mother’s waist, something was different. The legs he clung to were covered by a silken dress; he looked up and saw Sapphire eyes staring down at him.  His skin color changed a few shades as he slumped to the floor, staring at the beautiful woman towering over him. “Hiroshi? Are you ok, sweet heart?” she bent down towards him and put her hand on his forehead, her hand was nothing that he expected. It wasn’t warm or soft; it was cold and smooth, but still comforting.                          


“who are you?” he asked as he was sprawled on the floor from shock, the woman giggled, “I am Valencia, the Angelic Violinist”. The boy was so glad that he had used the bathroom before this whole incident, or he would have for sure of peed himself.