I want to tell you a story. No, that's not right, I HAVE to tell you a story. It's not a true story. Well maybe it is, at least in parts. I'll let you decide. But I do have to tell it.
The story is about Ed and Andrew, probably more Ed than Andrew.
But you know, that may not be true either. You tell me. It's not the story you are expecting, but I think it is a pretty good one anyway.
Ed, we'll start with her. Everyone called her Ed, but the name her parents blessed her with was Edwina.
She wasn't a tall girl, nor was she short. I guess she was kind of average in height. But boy was she slender. Her daddy used to joke she had to carry weights in her pockets to keep from being blown away by the next breeze. But she was a real beauty. Not your busty, blond haired, blue eyed cheerleader type.
No, not her.
Edwina, or Ed, had huge gray eyes, and lovely, soft and long light brown hair. The hair used to drive her mad. You see she was a swimmer. Not a competitive swimmer, but she swam hard laps at least an hour or more every day. She really had to, because what she really was, was a musician.
She played the cello. She was a virtuoso cellist. A cellist of stunning talent, a giant of her music in this tiny small angel body. If you have ever seen a movie starring Audrey Hepburn you have seen a woman with the same general gut wrenching, waif like, unmatchable beauty. The huge eyes speaking to you, the almost little girl body that moved with such grace and dignity. But with Ed it contained a giant spirit feeding musical genius.
Now this wasn't too surprising, because her daddy was a world renowned classical orchestra conductor. He loved her very much, but if you know the world of classical music, you know that great conductors either have their own orchestra, or do an unbelievable amount of travel.
Sometimes both.
Ed's daddy didn't have his own orchestra, but he spent up to nine months a year traveling and somehow inducing average or below average musical groups to truly world class performances. His was a truly rare gift. But like the know- nothings would have us believe about all great talents, he did suffer for it. He was a wildly passionate man and he dearly loved his family. But with all the time away, he became an intensely loved but distant man to his only child. And when he was home he had difficulty relaxing, and particularly to relate to a child's perspective.
No, she loved her father with all her soul, but he scared the bejabbers out of her.
Ed's mother was also a musician. She too was world class, playing classical piano as few have ever even conceived it possible to play. And talk about passion! She of course specialized in Mozart And some of Beethoven's works. Only complete passion could claim her. And sometimes when she was with a select few, very close friends , her husband was near and she had a few drinks, she sat down and played jazz. When she played and sometimes sang some of the great blues songs the evening was usually short. She and her husband sent everyone home so they could 'retire' to their bedroom and 'meditate' to screams and curses and sweat and juices. They never had difficulty sending their friends home after they had listened to Ed's mother's passion on the piano. They needed to go to their own bedrooms to meditate. Some never made it past the first motel.
But Ed was terrified of her father's intensity and her mother's passion. She became a world class cellist, and her specialty was the precision and perfection of Haydn. None of the wild, uncontrolled passions she saw in her parents was to be found in her music.
Oh yes, you were wondering why she had time to swim. If you are a musician you have probably already guessed it. If not you don't realize how physical making music is. Ed was a very ephemeral girl, and needed the stamina and strength swimming gave her.
So now you know just a little about Ed.
Andrew was something else, too. His parents were good old-fashioned working class all-American mom and dad. And Andrew scared the bejabbers out of them! You see, Andrew was a mathematical genius. Not the least bit interested in sports, he just wanted to take his math and play with the figures. He was a nice guy. Not tall, And certainly not short, he had a slim physique which he kept fit in the strangest way. His dad had bought him a weight set which sat in the corner of his room. He found himself lost in thought and absent-mindedly doing repetition after repetition of lifts. Never very heavy, but LOTS of them. That and absent-mindedly forgetting to eat kept him slim and very trim.
Andrew was scared of girls. Girls fascinated him, but they weren't reducible to numbers. Math didn't explain a damn thing about any girl he had ever met. Math didn't help him with boys either, but he wasn't really interested in boys.
So somehow these two near recluses found one another and married. Ed knew there was passion in Andrew, but his was inside and not loose. He didn't scare her.