The Fairy

　　Being a famous court musician in Vienna, Salieri was often asked about the reason of him being obsessed with music.
　　Many of the nobles were curious about this ever since the first time when Monsieur Salieri attended a party.
　　Most of them remembered the time when a baron came up to Salieri and asked about it.
　　And they saw the most gentle and the most beautiful smile which they would have missed for ages!
　　We can imagine the nobles must have tried their best to guess about it and soon changing to another subject and being no longer interested in Salieri at all.
　　Back to the subject.
　　The reason that Salieri did not tell the nobles what had happened is very simple. This story is too bizzare for most of us.
　　If he chose to tell the nobles, they'll just think he's talking nuts.
　　It's just like that one of your friends tell you that he has seen a real leprechuan and had caught it but it slipped away. When he claims it being true, you'll just think he is either making up a story or being mad.
　　However, what happened to Salieri really was something worth remembering. To be exact, it would be hard to forget for his whole life.
　　Salieri still dreams of that afternoon when it all happened. It was late spring and Salieri's teacher Gassmann had asked him to get some sweets from the store.
　　So Salieri wasn't staying in his room and playing his piano or writing his music as usual (though there's no doubt that he would love to do that!). Instead, he was enjoying the warmth from the sun and the coolness of a breeze.
　　The green leaves on the trees were dancing in the wind and making swishing sounds. The birds were singing a lovely tune.
　　But Salieri was in no mood to enjoy all this. He's going to the candy store! And Antonio Salieri's favourite thing in the world is sugar.
　　He was warmly welcomed by the owner of the store the moment he stepped in. Then the owner showed him all sorts of colourful and delicious candy. Salieri could hardly take his eyes off them. But he was able to maintain his last bit of reason and took a few of the most common kind of candy canes, just what Gassmann had asked him to get.
　　When Salieri came out of the candy store, he saw that the sun was setting in the western sky. It seemed like a king pulling down all his curtains to rest after a whole day of work. Salieri hurried back since he had to get back to Gassmann's house before sundown when the day turned into night. It's not safe for an adolescent like him to wander around this place at night.
　　He was just about running back the way he had come when he discovered a shortcut which lead into the woods. Without hesitation, he rushed into it.
　　Apparently, Salieri had completely forgotten that it is also dangerous for an adolescent to wander alone in the woods.
　　He soon found himself lost, not knowing where he was nor which direction he should go.
　　All he can see were the trees and their long, dark shadows on the ground. The clouds were turning purple in the western sky.
　　He had no way to go back to the way he came either.
　　Then he heard something.
　　There was music coming from a place not far away. Salieri stunned. He shook his head. The music was still there. It was real!
　　Salieri darted toward the direction which the music came from. If there's music, then there must be human beings! Probably that person would know how to get out of the woods.
　　Closer…Even closer…The sound of the music was getting louder and clearer. So was the sloshing of water.
　　Salieri came across the last tree and saw a creek. He also saw the person who was playing music.
　　It was no human being. Salieri stood in shock as he looked at that figure with long golden hair and wings. His eyes were closed as he played the violin. He looked like a young adult, about 20 or so, but his face expression was full of pure joy, like the kind which you often see on a child's face.
　　The fairy, that's what Salieri decided to call him, opened his eyes. He looked at Salieri and showed a dazzling smile.
　　Then Salieri heard the fairy inviting him to stay for dinner and for some music which the fairy had just composed. His reasons told him not to, but Salieri heard himself answering'Yes.' without any hesitation. He did wanted dinner and he did liked the fairy's music. It was a kind of music which was so special that he had never heard anything like that before. All he knew was that the music of this fairy in front of him got lots of notes in it, but every one of those notes was in its right place.
　　The fairy soon returned with a few fruits. He put them in front of Salieri.
　　Even though Salieri wasn't really interested in fruits, he still took one and bit into it. What seemed strange was that the fruits the fairy gave him tasted much more delicious than the fruits he usually have. But it was hard to tell if the reason was that the fairy found it, or it was simply just him being hungry. Hunger can make all kinds of food a person ate tastes delicious.
　　At last, Salieri finished all the fruits. The fairy seemed happy about that. He played the music he had composed with his violin. Salieri nearly forgot about that he need to return to Gassmann's house until the fairy mentioned it to him.
　　He took Salieri by the hand and led him out of the woods. They walked in silence. The music which the fairy had played were playing again and again in Salieri's head.
　　Neither of them knew how long they had walked. The fairy stopped at a place. He said that this place was as far as he could go and Salieri will get outside as long as he kept walking straight forward.
　　'And don't worry about the time', the fairy said, 'it's not late yet.'
　　Salieri told him goodbye and he walked straight forward. The fairy looked at him in silence until Salieri completely disappeared behind a tree. Then the fairy himself disappeared, too.
　　Salieri came out from the woods. He saw Gassmann's house not far in front of him. The sun was still the western sky and the clouds had just turned purple. No time had passed since he met the fairy. He ran quickly and returned to Gassmann's house. The delicious smell of dinner filled the room.
　　What had just happened seemed like a dream.
　　Salieri looked at himself in the mirror, and on his shoulder, he discovered a long, golden hair, which clearly belonged to the fairy.
　　Salieri is very satisfied now.
　　
　　What happened later (Salieri version):
　　Salieri told no one about what he saw in the woods. He had tried to tell others something like that when he was even younger. And everyone else thought he was just mixing dream with reality.
　　So he kept everything to himself this time.
　　He wrote down the music which the fairy had played for him. It was clear in his mind. This piece of music was soon known as <The Song of a Fairy> (since Salieri can't think of any other names for it) and the composer was anonymous.
　　He had tried going back to the woods, but he never saw that fairy again. He couldn't even find the creek where he first met the fairy.
　　Even he himself started to believe that it was an illusion. Since he noticed the fairy looked a lot like him but just seemed to be older and having a different hair colour and eye colour.
　　Until twenty years later, when he saw Mozart for the first time. Strangely, Mozart looked a lot like him. But he knew Mozart ressembled that fairy more than he did. They had the same golden hair, the same blue eyes, the same dazzling smile, and the same style of music.
　　But that fairy can't be Mozart, and Mozart can't be the fairy.
　　Salieri enjoyed Mozart's music anyway, not only because that it was similar to the fairy's.
　　He watched every one of Mozart's operas and liked it. He was happy for the success Mozart had that Rosenberg once thought that he was nuts.
　　Later on, Rosenberg got used to it.
　　He was still worried about that Salieri had lost his wits, but he didn't dare to talk about it in front of Salieri.
　　
　　What happened later (Mozart version):
　　'Wolfgang! Wake up! It's dinner time!'
　　The young boy lying in the grass jumped up at once. He followed his older sister Nannerl into the house.
　　He had slept for a whole afternoon in the frontyard and had a long dream.
　　He was really excited about it and he was talking about it the whole time of becoming a fairy with wings and playing the violin by the creek. He claimed that he had even composed music in his dream, but he had forgotten about the details of the dream since dreams always become a blur after we wake up. So Mozart wasn't able to remember the music.
　　He talked about meeting Salieri (A teenage boy with brown hair and brown eyes and looked a lot like himself) and kept on babbling until he was told to stay quiet and enjoy his dinner.
　　Twenty years later, he met Salieri. He recognised him as the boy in his dream almost at first sight. And that was the reason of him being interested in Salieri.
　　'Monsieur Salieri!'