Cello
The man in the charcoal gray suit stepped off the train to the sound of cello music. He was dressed conservatively in his business attire. He was very proper for a man of his position.
As he walked up the stairs from the train the music grew louder. He stopped and listened to the mournful tune float over the sounds of the city. It floated through the city on the wind.
He set off for his office for he had a very important business meeting to attend to. As he walked he started humming the tune that he still heard above the din of the city. It was like a tune that he knew from his childhood but yet he couldn't remember ever hearing it before.
As he drew closer to his building he became aware that it wasn't just one cello playing but two cellos playing. Each was complementing the other in perfect harmony. The tune was so mournful that the man felt the loss that the players were conveying over their music. At each light he just stood in a daze and listened on as the cellos played, never questioning why he was still hearing their music so far from where he started.
As the man drew closer to his building the music became more prominent. Instead of hearing the bus's engines, the taxi's honking, or the people yelling. He only heard the music of the cellos. When he rounded the corner to his building he came upon a crowd gathered around the steps of his building. And from the middle of the crowd came the music of the cellos. He walked up to the group and listened with the others. From the edge of the crowd he was unable to see who the players were. As people realized who was standing near them they departed the crowd and went their own way. So eventually the man came to the front of the crowd.
When he made it to the front his eyes fell upon two homeless women sitting on the steps of his building playing their cellos with such feeling and passion that not a single person was left untouched by their music. Their music and clothing were such a contrast of one another. Rags hardly able to keep them warm. And music that could fill the soul until it burst. As the women played on, their eyes fell upon the man in the charcoal gray suit. It seemed that the music was being directed solely to him and his soul. The mourning of a thousand lives a thousand times over. It wore on the man's soul and broke him. He fell to his knees with tears in his eyes unable to move. The music held him as tightly as any chains could have.
The two homeless women came to the end of their mournful tune. As the last note fade over the city the older of the two looked upon the man in the gray charcoal suit and said, "We have reminded you that you yet still have a soul. Don’t waste this gift that has been given to you, for you will not be given another chance to redeem it! Mourn for what has passed, live for what you still have today!"
With her final words they too faded with the winds never to be remembered, except for the man wearing the gray charcoal suit. For he would never forget the vision of his lost wife and daughter on the steps of his building.