Lisa got a short melody in her mind several times that afternoon, always the same one. She decided to play it on her violin hoping for more.

It took a while... She played the short piece, and again, and again, and again, and then suddenly broke through with a vivacious melody, one in which the notes resembled dancers making high jumps as they circled and danced across a stage with their dance partner.

Lisa enjoyed it, wanted to hold it, to capture it. That felt odd, because she never actually wanted to capture anything, she wanted to discover something new every time, to play what bubbled up or spurted up like a volcano. And yet it kept coming back, that feeling that she needed to start recording it. She wondered what the reason could be, but couldn't place it yet.

She grabbed her mobile and looked for an App that would allow her to record sound. She put her mobile on the rug of her violin, and started recording. She concentrated on her original short piece of melody and started playing. Even the pithy part, the dance melody with high jumps came back with ease, allowing her to continue playing delightfully. She soon forgot about her mobile. She was totally into the dance, moving herself along and playing on, for minutes on end.

The moment she stopped, she heaved a deep sigh: "How lovely that was! Oh, damn, the recording is still on hahaha." She stopped the recording, put her violin and bow on the rug and laid down on the sofa to quietly listen to her recording.

It sounded good, really good, even though it was just such a simple recording app on her mobile. Lisa was enjoying it, feeling in her mind the dancer swaying across the stage, thrown up by a dance partner and floating around.

She did not hear, that Sjaak had come home, and did not see that he stood silently listening. For a moment the question occurred to him who was playing this, whether she had YouTube on. But somewhere he could just feel that she had recorded her own violin playing.

He burst out laughing when he heard her discover at the end in the recording that her mobile was still recording. Lisa opened her eyes and laughed along with him. "How long have you been standing there listening?" she asked happily.

"Long enough to hear that you played and recorded a great piece. Funny, your reaction at the end. That doesn't matter either, you know, when we start recording our music, we can cut such things off with ease. I have a nice programme on the computer, with which I could download such a recording. I've thought about it before. It's wonderful to hear you play, to play myself, and even nicer to play together. And sometimes it feels almost selfish to keep this to ourselves. So the idea of recording it has crossed my mind too."

"Nice! But how to proceed from there? Would you want to make a CD or offer it through a website? Spotify or YouTube or something?"

"I have no idea yet! But that doesn't really matter yet either, we can just record and make sure it becomes nicely rounded files and then keep it until we know what we want to do with it. I don't have a vision for it yet, but somewhere I feel that will come. Do you feel like playing some more together?"

"Yes, lovely! Shall I record it again on my mobile?"

"Well," said Sjaak, "let's just make a habit of recording everything, unless you don't want to for once. What we have recorded, we can always get rid of. Happy freedom! Maybe we should start considering buying equipment for it. I don't know, the sound from your mobile actually sounds really good too. It pulls a bit, official equipment should make it even better, but does it? And if it is, do we consider it necessary, or are we  content with this kind of recording via your mobile?"

"I have no idea. Maybe edit it on the computer first, make it a file, and then play it from the computer. Then we can hear soon enough if the quality is good."

"What would you prefer, right now at this moment: playing together or shall I get started with that file?" asked Sjaak.

Lisa smiled: "I think you're very much in the mood to put it on the computer. And that's fine with me, I'll just fold the laundry while you're at it."

"Really?"

"Absolutely real, go ahead!"

Lisa walked over to him, gave him a kiss and went to the drying room. She collected the laundry and folded everything on the dining table. If their family would grow, she might use the table in the laundry room for that more often, but right now it was nice to do it in the living room.

As their family would grow... just a few more weeks, their little guy would be born. She had fully enjoyed it from the first time she had felt him. After a few weeks, she had even started challenging him a little. When he was kicking his feet, she would gently push back and wait to see if he would respond. At first, he didn't, until one time she was lying on her back on the sofa reading, with one hand on her bulging belly. Little Guy, as they called him for now, because they did not want to reveal the name they had in mind yet, had suddenly pressed his head against her hand, as if he wanted to be stroked over his little head. She felt at her groin, how he pushed off for that, but sometimes shot away again. Yet he kept coming back again and again, as if it was a very conscious action of his. And as this became a daily habit, Lisa became convinced that he was actually doing it consciously.

Margreet had laughed at it, not in a negative way, but she had found it funny, and hadn't recognised it either. Gloria had never done it that way. She had invited Margreet to just sit with her, and put her hand on her belly, in that fixed spot where she herself always put her hand. Nothing had happened, insufferably! Then Lisa herself had put her hand on her belly, as she relaxed and continued talking to Margreet. Almost immediately, Little Guy had responded. Margreet had looked open-mouthed and wide-eyed and seen that Lisa's story was really true. "Your Little Guy is clearly a different child from Gloria. I felt her quite a bit, but I really don't recognise this kind of action at all. Gloria was really very quiet, well, a dreamer..."

Now, while Sjaak was at the computer trying out what best to do with the recording, Lisa thought back to that, enjoying the little head pressing against her hand again. With her other hand she pulled out a joke, tickling the spot where she felt his feet. She shot into laughter when he apparently suddenly retracted his little legs. She felt both his feet and head disappear. She waited quietly for him to come back, let him enjoy that for a moment, and then prodded against his little feet. To her surprise, he kicked back, snappy! She tickled again, and gone were his little feet and head.

"Oh Sjaak! Little Guy can't stand tickling!" she exclaimed. "Come and have a look!"

Sjaak looked up with a confused, puzzled face and came over to her.

"Do nothing, just watch!" said Lisa, feeling Little Guy stretch again. She pointed, without touching her belly, where she felt the feet. "And here under my hand he pushes with his little head, he does that more often."

Sjaak nodded, he had indeed seen that more often.

"Now I'm going to tickle under his feet," Lisa said. And as soon as she did, Sjaak saw the shape of her belly change from oval to round.

"Really, he really responds to it!" he said in amazement.

"I just poked him in his feet too, then he started kicking That has only happened once before, so I don't know if he will do it again, but we can try."

Moments later he was there again, making her tummy eggy! She prodded him against his feet, to which, as moments before, he responded immediately by kicking, only with that one foot. He seemed to balance himself with his other leg, keeping his head under Lisa's hand. Sjaak stared his eyes out, and a moment later also prodded against the little foot that he could see even through Lisa's skirt.

"Doesn't his kicking hurt you?" he asked her worriedly.

"Yes, it does a bit, I'll stop it for now too, otherwise I'll have bruises soon. Little Guy," she said, stroking his head with her hand, "we'll stop playing football, we'll continue that another time."

"Oh, poor Little Guy, now he's lying there crying..." did Sjaak dramatically.

"Well no, he is tough and strong, but also very caring for me. He realises very well, that I have to last longer!"

Sjaak roared with laughter, stood up and sat on the edge of the chair behind the PC. "Listen, I've got it ready! I created a folder, put the file in there by date and the word 'violin'. If I do that with all the files like that, the date and the instruments played in that file, we can find everything just fine."

He clicked on the Play triangle and together they listened to the music.

"Surprisingly nice for a mobile recording," Lisa said. "I doubt we'll need better equipment for it. At least not for now, I really love this! Shall we play and record some more together?"

She didn't have to ask Sjaak twice!

To chapter 27. Danielle moved on

Or to the Table of contents