"Oh my god, why is it so cold in here?!" 

Tata's head whipped up from the bar, where it had been laying for the past fifteen minutes. Our bartender for the evening, Io, was in the back already struggling with the problem. Tata's hand was in his messy hair immediately. 

"Ahh, Cham," he sighed. "Guess why it's so cold." He gestured to the air tiredly.

My freezing hands were hovering over my piano keys, trying to think of something soothing to play. If anything, playing would keep me warm. What could possibly help this?

"Is the damn heater broken?" Cham came over, pulling the collar of his gray jacket tighter around his neck. "What's next, is the sky going to fall? We just opened up to full capacity."

This received a terrible noise from Tata. My hands itched to play something. He shook his head violently then it fell back down to his arms on the bar. 

"My event is tonight. It better be fixed by then. What can we do, cancel-"

"Don't say it, don't say it."

"-If we cancel then it's not just my paycheck involved, it's my audience-"

"Chammmm..."

I wanted to say that it was for the safety of that audience. No need for them to freeze their limbs off just to come see a show. But, I wisely kept my mouth shut. Because, this wasn't the only problem we were having today.

Earlier, Tata had let out a long muffled scream from the kitchen of our apartment, and I'd rushed out of the bathroom with my toothbrush still in my mouth to find him clacking rapidly at his computer keys as it stood as frozen as we were now at the bar. We still didn't know what was wrong with his computer. All we knew was that it was suddenly lagging, but why?

Cham stood there, his hand over his mouth, a deep crease between his eyes in contemplation that would no doubt turn into another complaint. As was his nature. I often found it to be unpleasant, but that wasn't my place to say. 

"Ohh, I'm cursed," Tata said harshly into his arms. "Cursed! I swear what's ne-"

A loud buzzing interrupted him and suddenly...

"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!" Somewhere, his familiar nasally voice in the darkness. 

"Oh fuck, it's dark." Cham, presumably where he'd been just standing. 

Quick pounding beats on the walls, a flurry of now familiar combat boots on the cement floor in the back. "I think I pressed the wrong- I think I broke the-" Io's breathless voice as he came running as fast he could in the black. 

My fingers found my keys, able to identify them even in this. It was like playing with my eyes closed. I closed my eyes anyway as my finger pads descended to their familiar marks. 

"I'm going to vomit, what are we going to-" Tata started hurriedly, a small rumble in his throat like when our cat began to hiss. 

"I thought maybe it was the electric, so I went to fiddle with the box," Io was trying to explain, now his voice much closer. 

"Smart. Very smart," Cham said accusingly. 

"I thought it was. Our heating is electric, anyway."

"Who made you an electrician?! You can barely make a margarita! My show! Now I can't have my show at all! I wouldn't even be able to get ready for it, because I can't see!"

"Now, that's not nice," Tata's more serious voice came up. "Don't say he can't make a margarita. His margaritas are very good."

Oh, wow. He was never one to reply like that. It almost sounded insulting. I had to do something, but it was quickly going out of control. 

"Well, then what are we going to-!"

The twirling color of a string of melody in the dark in front of my eyes. A glittering swirl of rainbow flame like a vision between my ears, going from ear to ear. Ah, this one. 

"I'll make everyone a drink! Where's my cellphone, I'll put my flashlight on the bar and then we can see!" 

"I have to call someone. No, several people. Oh, how much is this going to cost? How much? Oh no, I can't-"

"My show is in three hours! THREE HOURS! We can't cancel, it's three hours away! People are probably already on their way! They'll slam me all over my social media!"

"I'll take the blame. It won't be your fault."

"But I can't just cancel! I've been promoting this for weeks-"

Friendly tones on my keys. Something I'd played here before many times. Memories of days gone by, when I used to like to play it with my window open in the spring. The green trees smelling good and that pleasant scent coming in, the shrring of the leaves a wonderful undertone to the music. 

I paused, patting my fedora to my head in thought. Then continued on into the real meat and potatoes of the tune, a faster clip. In a matter of moments, the whole room was silent except for my piano and Io making a clinking drink. 

Quietly, as I hoped for, there came the words in response. Finding them in my waves of sound, discovering the rhythm and like the perfect fit to a glove.

Worried at first, but then calming as it went on. Tata's voice answered my music in the complex manner of lyrics. He'd sang this before many times, so I knew he would. Unable to resist, as was his easy nature, compared to the beast behind him. No doubt Cham was not finished, but would he dare interrupt?

As I played "The Way You Look to Night" from the Fred Astaire movie Swing Time, then went into the old favorite "Cheek to Cheek" from the movie Top Hat, then "They Can't Take That Away From Me" from the movie Shall We Dance, all seemed right in the world for a few minutes. Trying to cheer them up, but I had to come up with another song soon. Thinking as I played, desperately searching. And then when I found another song, I'd have to come up with another. And another. And another. Until we all felt better, because the true solution would be long and expensive. But, for now we had this music. We had a few drinks, until they discovered that no electricity meant the ice cubes were melting, too. But, that crisis was for later.

As I listened to my beautiful love sing with my piano keys, knowing he would soon be calm even if I couldn't fix all of his problems, my head started to move from side to side in a personal joy.