Symphony in E# (The Final Note, Part 4 of 4)

They both looked at Passion Bloom.

“Do ya think she knows too much, boss?”

Walter thought for a moment. “Oh, dear. Does this make me a super villain? I suppose it does. Yes, Anthony, she does know too much. Prepare the Victrola!”

“I’m sitting right here,” Passion Bloom complained.

“My dear. My dear dear dear… dear. Soon there will be no ‘right here’ to worry about.”

“You don’t seem too concerned by all this,” Walter told her.

“I knew you were a bit eccentric.” she explained. “No, I don’t believe you are about to destroy the universe with a Victrola. I came to talk to you about your ‘Symphony in E#’.”

“The Victrola isn’t the instrument. It is only the medium. And you will get to hear my Symphony in E#,” he said, removing an unmarked brown cardboard envelope from the top drawer of his desk, and from that he withdrew a long-playing vinyl record. Rainbows skittered across its black surface. He bent the great horn and arm back and placed the record carefully.

“Digital isn’t real sound,” he explained. “For true analogue reproduction you need grooves, and a physical transfer.” He put his hand on the case besides him. “It’s all about vibrations in space.”

She looked fascinated. Whether she believed him or not she seemed interested… in him. It made him want to stay for just a little while longer.

“You see,” he said excitedly as he scrambled for his case and started opening it, “everything vibrates. Everything oscillates. Everything moves.” He flipped the latch and threw the case open. Within was a tuning fork. “In this universe it’s the speed of light. In mine it’s the tone.” She could hardly look at it. It was a two-pronged fork but seemed twisted into strange shapes, seemed to be existing in two places at one time.

“Of course,” he babbled on, frantic now. He was going home. “Of course this universe needs to be primed.” He flicked the switch on the Victrola, like a madman in the movies might pull a lever and the lightning would come down and the monster would awaken. Strange music, like a John Cage symphony, variations on a single note, complementary and harmonic notes. Dissonance rose and fell back. He lifted the tuning fork out of the case.

“In my universe I was a great scientist. I discovered the Great Constant, the Key of E#, and it opened the door for me, and it brought me here.” He lifted the fork high in one hand and the hammer high in the other. “And now I’m going home!”

“Hey, wait a second, boss,” Anthony said. It took Anthony a while, but he got there eventually. “What do ya mean ‘Soon there will be no right here’?”

Walter Mint’s eyes were glazed with madness. The hammer moved. Anthony moved.

The End