Rosal Llano Esteban, War Of Art

WAR OF ART

Written By Esteban Rosal Llano

Here I am, in a particular place where finally the heat of the sun is essential for me. It is quite funny how time passes, how people change, and how everything in a nanosecond starts to lose its importance, obviously without counting the music. Because music for me is everything, it’s the only way I can connect with society, and with nature, and also how I can run away from hypocrisy. Two facts that are connected so directly that sometimes I realize my way of thinking is very strange. Society is bathed in hypocrisy and on the other hand society is part of nature. The only fact I can assure is that music is the essence of the world. Without music, every aspect would be different in a negative way. Music is the best way of escaping reality and is the antidote of boredness and despair. The melody is what had kept me sane all these years in this huge and lonely place. I’ve been here for ten years and due to my blindness condition, I only knew almost a quarter of it. Since I was born half-blind, people like me are isolated from others, not only for thinking differently but for being different. These years I had experienced many things. I had felt how my neighbors turn crazy, how the phrase “help me” turned into a creepy and at the same time incredible scream. It’s a sound of desperation for sure. I’ve never felt lonely, because in my childhood I never had friends, and making some was difficult work. My classmates bothered me every day, but it never really affected me; because no matter what horrible day I had, the end of the day was always beside my best friend, my piano. It wasn’t a huge piano or beautiful to the eyes of everyone, but the sentimental connection I had with it was impossible to describe.

I remember vividly, the first time I sat on my chair and start playing, and in a matter of seconds my soul was in another dimension, a world where music was everything, and blind people were seen to other as normal people. I can assure

you that no moment in my life was and would be better than those. The way I had to describe my past could sound as if it was sad at all, but despite the horrible moments, it was quite good. My family loved me for sure, and they gave me the best gift someone could ever ask for, my piano. Also, they gave me my lovely name, Geralt of Rose, which I love, and makes me sound like an interesting guy or so I thought.

The kids of my school tried hard to make me sick about them, calling me a female, because my last name was Rose, which is insane. After all, a flower cannot determine your gender, and no one should be judged for his name. This school situation happened really when I was small in all terms. I didn’t have self- esteem at all, and my physique did not radiate respect. This was a very important fact of my life, and because of these, I found my other passion, the other activity that makes me felt happy, secure, motivated, that no matter my blindness I was able to do everything like the others.

Time passed and I started to develop physically, I grew up a lot, I reached a height of 1,85 cm which is more than the average, my muscles began to look good and I even thought I had become a little bit attractive. The school situation stopped for good. I never really was an angry man, which means to respond in a violent way towards the ones that bothered me. The way I earned my respect was thanks to the results of the gym and my testosterone. I know I am an impulsive person, and I could turn violent but only if people mess with music. No one should mess with music. It is like to be disrespectful with nature because obviously music is everything.

People had a perception of me that I was a little bit weird because of my eyes, but I could assure you that everyone accepted that I had an incredible talent, which is playing the piano. I participated in all theater activities in school, or music activities and that was how others knew my skill.

One day at school, something funny and yet incredible happened, which was that in the last year, when I was already developing and becoming very muscular, the girls started to show interest in me, talking to me and most of them wanted to hang out with me, based on my history at school, I didn’t understand why girls would be interested in a half-blind guy, with no friends, and no social life, because at the time, all I used to do was two things, play the piano, and fit training. Nevertheless; those girls said that my talent was matchless, and also that my sensibility with music made me an interesting guy, which made me feel good in a society for the first time in my life.

Days went by, I devoted my time to practicing piano since I was inspired to become a memorable pianist, a master of music. The rest of social life wasn’t amongst my core interest in life, my only goal and objective were to become a better musician. That’s why some people thought that I was an unusual teenager because I lived in Rome, which is the best city for párting and hanging out with some friends, now, you might be wondering what happened next, if I was able to achieve my dream? or maybe If I was distracted by the fun life of Rome, Well, bear with me, I will tell you what happened next.

Everything started in Rome, Italy, when after a normal day at school, at the moment I arrived at my house I realized the table dinner was very beautiful and very organized. This only means one thing, that something good happened and is worthy of celebrating it. My parents were never very special, so when this kind of thing happened was for sure something big. The three of us sat on the table and they had a happy face. They went directly to the point. We know that you had worked and practice a lot for your dreams, and rewards start arriving. They told me that I had been invited to perform in

a very important concert of classical music in the city, and I couldn’t be happier.

The truth is that I always had clear that hard work brings always rewards so I never felt stressed for not being recompense with good opportunities. The concert was directed by an important musician which I don’t remember the name at this moment, but what I remembered is that he was known as an excellent person. He invited me personally the next day. He went to my house and we chatted a little bit, and he accepted to me that he saw my incredible talent with his own eyes.

Those words meant the world to me, he also added that he thought that my talent was unique and that with hard work I was going to be a star. To summarize what happened, the concert was amazing and it opened a lot of doors for me, and I was able to let my name be known in the industry of music, although; I was lucky enough because of the concert and also because the main invitees cataloged for the concert were living legends in the music industry. A few days after the concert, my life started to change and I was invited by one of the iconic figures, who headlined that concert, he invited me to an exposition of the most expensive grand piano in the world.

This event was in the south of Rome, far away from my house, but there was no possibility of missing it. On the day of the event, the sky was very grey, it seemed that a storm was coming, but I never associated that with a tragedy. When I arrived the event was in a big living room, full of paintings, and in the middle, there was the grand piano. It was amazing, I could barely see it because of the lights but I could touch it and feel it, and it was amazing, and the better way to describe how I exactly I felt at that moment, I would rather use one word, “perfect”. The event finished, and when I went out of the place as I predicted it there was a horrible storm happening. I had to

wait for like 3 hours in the place until it finished for me to be safe on the trip to my house.

Fortunately, I arrived home, safe but super tired so I went to sleep immediately, the next day my parents woke me up at 6 am. I couldn’t believe it because it was Saturday and those days I woke up pretty late. They were frightened, they told me that the police were downstairs waiting for me to answer some questions. I went down and I realized that a catastrophe happened. The most expensive and important piano in the world was stolen last night, and they thought the responsible thief was me. Even my parents were thinking that the police hypothesis was true, only because I loved the pianos. I answered the questions and they left. I received a call about 8 am, and it was the director that invited me to the event. He sounded very angry and he accused me of being responsible for the robbery. It saddened me a lot because I wasn’t. I swore to him that I wasn’t responsible for the robbery but he didn’t believe me because I was the last man who left the place, and also because I was the least known artist in that event.

I told him on the phone, “there’s nothing I hate more than people messing with music” and that I wasn’t capable of doing that, and that it was impossible to move that huge thing on my own in only one night and with my disability.

At the end of the call, I also said to him “I would do justice with my own hands and I don’t mind being violent”, and he hung up the phone. It was at that moment, I decided to do justice to clear my name by finding the real thief of the piano, the most important piano in the world, which to me, was like robbing the Monalisa painting, I concluded by saying, this is; “war of art”

I decided to start my investigation, I knew that I could turn violent with someone that attacks music because whoever attacks this irrefutable art is attacking me directly.

By following many clues, I was able to find the thief, He was hiding in a horrible place, I could assure you this because the smell was unbearable. I confronted him, and he started to laugh at me because I was half-blind, and he started saying to me that I wasn’t going to do anything to him.

The real fact about this situation is that my biggest weapon was my sense of hearing, I had developed for so many years while playing the piano, so I knew that if he moved to the right I would know exactly where he was. additionally, I also had a gun just in case, he tries to attack me with any deadly weapon; I raised the gun on him and asked him to say the truth and he finally showed me the piano and he ran.

I didn’t try to catch him, as I felt like my mission had been accomplished by finding the piano, I felt like Justice had been served that day, I called the director of the event and explained everything that had happened, when they all came, I showed them all the evidence that It hadn’t been me and they all believed me and they apologized for having doubted me. My heart felt relieved but little did I know that it was the actual beginning of my misery.

The police came by and arrested me for homicide because they had found the body of the thief, just a few blocks away. Apparently; the thief had been shot by his boss, because he hadn’t been able to protect the robbed piano and that he had been covered, but they all made it seem as If the thief was shot by me.

The police didn’t believe my innocense since all the proof pointed at me, And here I am now, in a jail, condemned to life imprisonment, although, my truth may never come to light and people might never believe me, I will be proud that I was able to get the grand piano back. The Piano gave me life, acknowledgment, respect, even girls but it also gave me Jail.