Whitney 117

"Yes, you might call it a date. I did not even know her name. It was a very warm day. I brought my guitar with me. To my surprise, the door was opened by a housemaid dressed in black with a white apron. She did not ask who I was. All she said was "She is asleep but you can go to her room. Follow me". The housemaid quietly opened the bedroom door for me and left. There was a chair at the foot of the bed so I sat down and looked at her. She was fast asleep. All I could see was her long blonde hair, a tip of her nose and chin, and a part of her right hand. I sat there perhaps twenty minutes. And then the inspiration came like music on the air. I heard a fragment of a new melody line. There was always a piece of paper and a pencil in my pocket. That's what singer-songwriters do. Songs never come by order. I started scribbling down the fragment of the melody line and writing a scrap of lyric. Simply describing what I saw in the room. It all went by itself. A simple melody, no variations, no bridge. It was peaceful, serene but also earthy, the present, here and now. The song wrote itself well within an hour. The final lines were "I came in here to touch you but now I draw the line.... I never knew this sleeping girl could be so fine". She was still fast asleep. I quietly took the guitar out of its sleeve and checked the chords, not by strumming but by pressing my whole hand on the strings. Very quiet. It was not hearing the chords but feeling them in my belly. The key of the melody line was C sharp. In Dutch we say Cis. She was still asleep. I started humming the melody, like a whisper, over the silent chords. Everything was in balance and in harmony. Then I started whispering the lyrics over the chords, strumming ever so softly. She slowly surfaced and opened her eyes just before the final verse. She reached out for her glasses when I was whispering the final lines"

"I can hear the emotion in your voice, after fifty years. You are a romantic. What happened next?"

"She said, that was so beautiful. Please sing the whole song. And I said, this song is for you. She sat up and said, that's so sweet. I took a finger pick from my wallet, started thrumming and said, see if this is right. Something dawned to her. It was visible in her eyes. I started singing straightaway and the song came out as if I had sung it for ages. Constant eye contact. And then the two final lines. The look in her eyes changed again. She saw me with different eyes, so to speak. She asked me the name of the composer. And I said, it's for you. She asked, when did you write it? Here, at your bedside while you were asleep. And I handed her the piece of paper with the melody line, chords and lyrics. She read it and then asked, how do you write your songs, what are they about? I explained to her that I often used code words in my lyrics for compactness and safety. She asked, is there a code in your song for me? And I said, no, there was no need for that".