The Resistance

Deep within the abandoned New York City subway system, Kurt Marshall stood in front of an old rusted steel door and dug in his pockets for the key.  “You can’t tell anyone about this.” He said to Melody Asher, who was waiting nervously beside him.  “You have my word.” She replied.  Finding the key, Kurt jammed it into the lock and turned it.  “We’ll both be dead if you do.”  He said as he pushed the door open, both of them stepping quickly inside.  The heavy door slammed behind them and Kurt turned on the lights, revealing a grandiose room filled with tattered boxes, ancient ragged couches and, in its center, a small table holding a strange robotic looking device.  “This is what I’ve been wanting to show you.” He said with a mischievous smile.  Melody reached into one of the boxes and pulled out a large black plastic disk.  She ran her fingers over its finely engraved concentric rings from the edges to the hole in the center, reading the label out loud… “Dark Side of the Moon…”  She looked up at him confused.  “It’s a record,” He said quietly, “It holds music.”  Her eyes grew wide with fear.  “This is so illegal.”  She said, her voice trembling.  “I’ve never even heard music before.”  Kurt took the record from her shaking hands and walked over to the strange device in the center of the room, placing it gently down and lowering its robotic arm.  Suddenly, the room bellowed with the most beautiful ensemble of sounds she had ever heard, her bones filling with low vibrational waves, her heart beating with the high ones.  Tears formed in her eyes as the chromatic music danced around her, filling a hole in her that she had felt all her life.  Kurt let the record play all the way through and as it rotated slowly to a stop, he looked into Melody Asher’s ocean filled eyes and quietly said, “There’s one more thing I’ve brought you here to show you…”  He walked to another heavy metal door in the back of the room and pushed it open.  Inside, two-dozen people sat scattered around, holding curious devices of metal, wood and string, and from them were coming the same awe-inspiring sounds from the record.  Kurt’s eyes were sparkling as he said, but almost sang, “Welcome to the resistance.”