"We are looking for his... What did you lose again?", Alan struggled to look for a proper answer in a short time so he sought help from his partner.
"My wedding band, I am looking for my wedding band. I was carrying the things to the stage and I took it off so it won't get scratched and now I can't remember where I have put it."
"Those cabinets are for performers to put their personal belongings, I don't think you could have put it there. Did you search on the stage or the seats? If you can't find it, you should leave your contact information in case we find it. You are one from the temporary workers right?", then the employee reached to his pocket to get his phone.
"No need, wait until I finish searching or I can remember where I have put.", Razel thought about teleportation of a ring from his house but he remembered he didn't have one!
Alan interfered trying to help, "What about your pockets? Did you look in your pockets?"
Razel directly started pretending patting his clothes then put on a surprised expression and took out a simple silver ring, "Thank God!! Silly me, I looked everywhere and forgot my pockets. Sorry for disturbing you sir."
The employee didn't believe someone could be that negligent, or maybe he was afraid his wife was going to get angry, he didn't think and just started looking anxiously.
"Be more careful next time, you should go back to work now. "
"We are going right away.", they tried to quickly slip away but the employee stopped them.
"Wait" Alan froze and thought that he is going to ask about their names or he had already noticed they are not from the temporary workers he talked about. If you think about it, how many temporary workers they could have? Not much since it is just a small center; and the employee had never seen them before... They were done for sure!! So what to do? They pretend they didn't hear him and run out or what?
While Alan was trying to figure out how to avoid the trouble, Razel stayed calm, turned and asked: "Yes sir?"
"Put the ring back on your finger, you don't want to lose it again."
"Thank you for the advice. I almost got kicked out of the house today! I will never take it off again."
Alan waited until they went back to the car before asking Razel for clarification, "From where did you get it? And why did you choose a wedding band anyway? And i mentioned contact information without thinking and almost got us in trouble."
"Stop stop stop, you were the one who said it is a small thing. And what could be a small thing that is so important we left the work behind and started looking in personal cabinets other than a wedding ring? I didn't have one but I noticed one in one of the cabinets and quickly teleported it to my pocket. What did you learn from this?", then he took off the ring and teleported back to its original place.
"I don't know, maybe I should not say a word in similar situations?"
"That will be more suspicious, you should not give details and if asked for it give the bare minimum."
"I will keep it in mind. By the way what clues did you find?"
" I will let you tell me based on what the employee said. You think about it before we arrive to the next destination."
Alan started arranging what he heard earlier, the cabinets are for performers, and Charlie performed there from time to time. They leave their personal belongings there while performing, and he had noticed some cases maybe for personal instruments.
So Charlie who is a performer went directly to the corner of cabinets and stayed there for a while before leaving, his former teacher said he was a violinist and the violin is small enough to be put in one of the cabinets..... So was he looking for his violin?
After graduating from high school, Charlie had to move out to get closer to the university. He rented a room in an old residential complex near the university the and the performing arts center; he lived there until he died in the summer of his second year. There he met a young girl who is also interested in violin but didn't have a chance to learn it properly. Later he found out she is a prodigy and convinced her parents to let him continue teaching her, he was afraid that if she continued learning at the same level with her peers in primary school it would result in boredom and frustration that will lead her to underachievement and despondency. So he kept nourishing her musical talents and often challenged her, their last challenge was to compose a mirror duet; one score they can both play at the same time while reading it the normal way and backwards. The one who writes the better one will get to chose the next piece they learn.
It is true he wasn't a prodigy, but he worked hard from the first day he started going to the personal teacher, his hard work allowed him to create a flame that should have burned for a long time if his death didn't come as wind that blew it away.
But for some reason he struggled this time to write anything, the time they agreed upon was almost over and he haven't even started. He stayed awake all night but all he wrote was a few notes, he felt that the melody is close but far, the moment he writes a note the others slip away from his mind in an instant while he tries to hold on to them. He gave up and went to bed before the sunrise but he woke up in the afternoon panting, he felt like he had seen a nightmare but he only remembered a blinding light hurt his eyes, he looked at the sun ray coming from the window and that falls directly on his face and thought it was just the sun disturbed his sleep suddenly that is why he is surprised? But the sound of his heartbeat blending with the tinnitus in his ears and his intermittent breathing caught his attention, they blended too beautifully that he felt a melody was being played so he quickly got up and started arranging the independent notes that are complete once they are joined excitingly on his laptop. Once he finished, he programmed it to be sent to the email of the girl's parents; they use to contact, on the agreed upon day of reviewing each other's arrangements. He didn't have a chance to play it since he left his violin in the luthier (violin repair person ) workshop. Lately he was playing extensively so the little girl won't leave him behind because of her natural talent, as a result the tuning pegs became worn and the pitch of the strings dropped so he had to take it to get repaired. He then remembered he didn't name the mirror duet and started thinking for a name for it, in the middle of thinking he smelled something burning, "It should be the old man living downstairs burning the garbage outside again, at least he chose to do it on working hours this time or the neighbors must have started complaining again."
He wanted to set an alarm for tomorrow to remind him to get his violin, but he fell deep in though when he saw the date; doesn't the old man visits his daughter on the other side of the city at this time every week? Then from where does this burning smell comes from? He got up and went out of the room, but it was too late. In front of him was a sea of fire with flowing waves reaching the ceiling, the corridors were full of combustible things since the rooms are small and tenants are used to put some belongings such as tables, chairs, plants.. outside to save some space inside. It was a dead end, he couldn't walk through fire and couldn't jump from the window since it had iron bars. He went back to his room coughing to call the emergencies, it's true that adults may be working but children are still there. He was able to say the address on the phone then call the last number called before the emergencies muttered some words difficultly before he slowly lost consciousness, "my violin...tomorrow the luthier..."
The voice on the other side of the phone got anxious: "Charlie what happened? Can you hear me? What's wrong with your voice? Charlie, Charlie!"
Charlie didn't know what happened, his mind was empty while he lay on the bed, he felt the time passing but didn't know who he was, why he is in a burned room or why he felt something lacking. He continued looking at the ceiling and thinking, slowly an image of a violin came to his mind and he sat suddenly. Yes, a violin! He had a violin he remembered vaguely that he promised to take care of, but when he looked around the room he didn't find it. He has to look for it, he can't break the promise!