Chapter 1

Curse of the Flute Key

　　　　　　　　　　　 Gerald took a deep breath, tilted his head down and started to play his favourite piece. The music put him into a trance, his fingers pressing on the keys, almost mechanically. Then suddenly, the flute sound stopped. Gerald opened his eyes in surprise. What had happened? He was just about to get to the exciting part! He played the chromatic scale. B flat, C… Wait, C sharp did not play! “You again?” he asked, as if talking to the flute key. He played C sharp again and with a sigh, said to himself, “I’ve got to fix it this time…”

　　　　　　　　　　　 He knew he had to fix this problem. Recently, the size of his wallet had been very small and thus he had been procrastinating on this flute key problem. However, he needed to fix it this time. If not, he would not be able to play at his next performance! Rather reluctantly, he rushed to his computer and went online to search for good deals to repair his flute key.

　　　　　　　　　　　 His eyes scanned through the webpages on a local online forum when something caught his eyes. FREE FLUTE KEY REPLACEMENT! GO TO WAREHOUSE ON 5 AMBER STREET! As his motto went, “When something’s free, don’t forget me!” he placed his flute in its case and headed for the subway immediately.　 Gerald had a humble background.　 Since young, his parents trained him to be thrifty.　 Learning to play the flute was not cheap.　 It came with all sorts of tuition and maintenance cost.　 Gerald had passed the age of asking for allowance from his parents.　 He felt lucky that he could chance upon this ad online.　 　He was off towards Amber Street at the very next moment.　 He walked down Amber Street, reading to himself the addresses, “11 Amber Street, 9 Amber Street, 7…there it is! 5 Amber Street!”. He held his flute case and trotted into the old warehouse. An old man came up to him and said “You must be here for replacement of a flute key.”

　　　　　　　　　　　 “Yes! And it’s free right?” Gerald exclaimed as he opened his flute case.

　　　　　　　　　　　 The man nodded plainly as if he did not possess any emotion. Somehow, he already knew which key was not working. He took a brown key from one of the wooden boxes in the corner and replaced the flawed one on the flute right away. Something about it did not seem right. Oh well, Gerald thought, it is just a free flute key replacement. What can I expect? That was probably the worst decision he had made. He had no idea what he was in for…

　　　　　　　　　　　 Dean had been Gerald’s flute tutor for three years. He knew Gerald very well and knew that he had a disciplined and rigid personality. However, Dean thought Gerald had reached a plateau in his musical ability as Gerald was not able to express any feeling in his playing. As Dean thought about it, he realised in a way Gerald was stubborn as he loved playing certain types of music but not others.

　　　　　　　　　　　 Dean found himself walking toward Gerald’s house the next day and hearing beautiful music from Gerald’s dormitory, it melted his heart! He thought it can’t be Gerald playing it as the music was too expressive. Moreover, this piece was one that he had never been able to play before despite weeks of practice!

　　　　　　　　　　　 Dean walked into Gerald’s dormitory and when he saw Gerald playing the romantic piece, he exclaimed, “Wow! I can’t believe it’s you…”. Before he could finish, he noticed the wooden flute key on Gerald’s flute.

　　　　　　　　　　　 “What is that? How did you get it?” Dean asked Gerald as he pointed to the key.

　　　　　　　　　　　 Gerald told him everything from how he found the ad for the free replacement flute key to how after changing the flute key, his playing skill had increased by a tenfold!

　　　　　　　　　　　 The moment Dean heard this, his heart sank and the light in his eyes drained away. This was not a miracle; it was disaster! Immediately after the lesson, he travelled into the musical dimension and reported to the flute King about the unrealistic miracle.

　　　　　　　　　　　 “Oh no, this is very, very, very bad! The double basses have their names written all over this whole scheme. This must be one of their curses. Hurry, make him stop playing the flute, before it is too late!” The King exclaimed.

　　　　　　　　　　　 “Yes, my lord, I will make sure the student stops playing that flute,” Dean said as he bowed down.

　　　　　　　　　　　 But it was too late. Gerald was amazed by how well he could master the flute after he had changed the key. He played it day and night, even forgetting to eat and sleep sometimes! Dean charged through Gerald’s front door just as he was about to start playing another piece.

　　　　　　　　　　　 “Why did you interrupt me? I was just about to play another Beethoven!” Gerald complained.

　　　　　　　　　　　 “Gerald, you have to listen to me. Stop playing on this flute, please. I would do anything for you as long as you promise me not to play this flute anymore. Pass the flute to me!” Dean said, while trying to catch his breath.

　　　　　　　　　　　 Gerald threw a scowl at Dean, “You are just jealous, aren’t you? Now that I can play way better than you, you ARE jealous! You want this amazing flute all to yourself. Well, that’s too bad; I am not giving it to you!”

　　　　　　　　　　　 Seeing that arguing on any further would worsen the situation, Dean decided to bring Gerald into the Musical Dimension.