Knighted Again – Ch.1 | KT OLLA

THE sovereign ruler of the nation of Cape Islands—he cried like a boy.

He jolted up at a high pitch tone that bounced off the theatre walls and returned to pound his chest.

It was a shrill falsetto that ushered in the night’s final act. And it was all sound and darkness and no one seen.

King Maqwela’s demons returned, as he’d been able to hide a dark monster that had been feeding off his brain for years.

So when the sudden cry came with nightmares, he suddenly got on his feet to flee the public. It was going to be a crisis and it didn’t come well.

It was a night to remember in the capital islet region of Basini (the biggest of five islet regions that formed Cape Islands) – as so many people gathered for the 50th Founder’s Day Orchestra of its premier university...

The University of Cape Islands.

Now the event was also the musical night in the institution’s convocation ceremonies. So the kings and mayor of neighbouring peoples were invited to the grand thing.

Resplendent in the high seats were the sovereign ruler of Lesotho, the sovereign ruler of Swaziland (now Eswatini), and the Mayor of Cape Town in South Africa.

And so, the 40-year-old king of the Cape Islands realized in that moment of shame, that he must race to hide or go down a mess.

But Maqwela got up and couldn’t move. He stood rooted to the same spot and only trembled...

As that instant when he stood to leave, some good music was beginning to pour in. And it poured in like dewdrops pouring from the sky.

If one should try to tell it, they may say a full toned piano went with the accompaniment of double bass, as a low background orchestra harmonized them.

But that was the beginning.

So the islander king went down on his seat, then in his tensed nerve…

He went all lame with abandon as lights came on the acts of that night leading on keys and strings.

Now these leads... they were two kids, two souls born in Venus and Mars – or wherever darlings were formed.

And their names were Vickie and Nile. But they went by this... Sand and Muse.

So that evening when the concert turned on the artists, the fanciest lights turned onstage as their title line appeared over the screens.

It said: When You Seized Me, Peace.

The 19-year-old composers played their piece from opposite ends of stage, each playing in the hallow of a glowing spotlight.

It was the girl who led the entry on an upright piano, as the dude backed her on double bass.

That instant when the lights revealed the two, the whole theatre went up in a thundering applause.

Nile and Vickie were performers of strange classical. They played a hybrid style of old classics and new performance. Then they’d toured the five islets of Cape Islands doing their thing.

So within the big audience attending the concert, there were reporters who followed their life.

They sniffed through their music to find the two souls, and they retold their compositions as them.

But right there on the left side of stage was Vickie, racing her lead keys in a pace that made her partner race and chase.

Then both players bowed over their instruments and they played closing their eyes.

Sounds climbed and fell, picked up again, then climbed on the fallen one. A high piano lead on bass, pitch over pitch, chords then low depths...

Up till Vickie couldn’t hold in more and cried a pitch. She gazed right up when she pitched that treble.

In that instance everything stopped. Just then the reporters picked up their pen to do battle as their camera shutters, too, clipped the moment.

A loud ovation went up from the audience. And in that instant the duo got up from the keys and bass strings then strode toward each other.

The big cheer doubled.

Now in the centre of the stage sat a cello and grand piano. They settled unmanned, the shiny mass of classic.

But this divided the duo and their paths didn’t meet at the middle…

They went in front and behind it, each towards the opposite end.

Everything turned silent. And in that silence the lady settled down in Nile’s spot as the latter also took her place.

But Vickie simply picked up a lead guitar when she got by Nile’s, then the boy reached for the bass keys on the piano.

The lady started to work her fingers on the loudest tunes it could whine, as a constant hum went from Nile’s keys to accompany her.

There was no accompaniment from the orchestra band behind. Still the duo crafted sounds that flied, and roared, and stirred up emotions.

At this point half the audience were on fire and the other half in tears.

The lights went out and the music played in darkness. Then it stopped, and there was silence.

King Maqwela couldn’t take it anymore, the powerful chill that ran through him.

He sighed with relief as neither darkness nor sound haunted him now. This was the first time... the first time his crisis would come, then flee.

Just then the spotlight came back on stage and its focus was centre stage.

Sand and Muse were then on the cello and grand piano, as the two closed their eyes and played their last movement. They called that part of their story, “Peace”.

It was pure harmony of the classiest type, filling up everywhere with the surround... as Vickie leaned down over her cello and played the strings in real symphony.

It was in the same way as the leader of the island country now bowed and moaned…

It was a piece of his sad story.

So King Maqwela cried, as the inward wreck of a man felt company. He hadn’t felt that way in 15 years.

But this was Nile’s story. And Vickie’s, too.