“You come here a lot, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I like the music.” Erin Laing’s Sound, in the fiction section, opens with Molly entering her usual table in her favorite café only to find it taken. Her particular table, by the window, shines upon her- warming her face as she listening to the music. “It lets her forget the bread is dry, and wipes away thoughts of that waitress that treats her like a child. She doesn’t have to remember how bitter the coffee is… the music bleeds from his fingers, passion in every note, and floats through the café, wrapping around her like a comforting hug.” Eventually, she occupies a table closer to the piano, where she is soon joined by Christopher, the pianist. He figures out that she is blind and has a mutual conversation with her before going on to teach her how to make her own music.

The one thing I loved about Laing’s piece was that she created a faulty main character that had a love of music. In the end, music guides her- “She closes her eyes and lets memories of color and light flow through her as the note continues to sing in her mind.” The author described music as an escape from the real world, where Molly feels she could see again.