"mother doesn't like me playing beethoven"

It's probably the most overplayed piece of piano music in the world... and yet it gets me every time. A moonlit like tonight was made for Beethoven. I cherish the sad little antique instrument in my living room, wishing I could afford to have it tuned... but the sagging pitch seems to add to the music somehow. One touch of the ivories and I'm a little girl again, dreaming of reaching that moon, of romantic walks in its afterglow, of silent reveries under the most amazing not-quite-black skies....

The moon has always been my friend. Beethoven has always been my friend. But I play it tonight and I can barely breathe for all the hope and longing and despair it stirs up in me... I try to escape but it follows me everywhere. It's too bright. There's nowhere I can hide.