Kill 'Em With Kindness

A rude landlord gets a comeuppance...

Gertrude closed her eyes, smiling in rapture. The music washed over her like a maze of dazzling light, bringing tears of ecstasy to her eyes. The violin, the cello, the piano: they all sung a hymn to her heart, but the aria! Gertrude could only understand about one word in ten, but she understood how it felt to be transported, every hair standing on end with emotional overload, the—

Thump thump thump from the floor below; a muted voice: "Knock off that damn caterwaulin'! Some people in this building are trying to sleep!"

Gertrude knew Mr. Henn wasn't trying to sleep. It seemed like he never slept, like he stayed awake all hours just find new and progressively pettier reasons to bang on her floor with his broomstick and essentially tell her to stop living.

She stuck her tongue out at the corner of the room... but she turned the music down. After all, Mr. Henn was the landlord.

Gertrude had a dream that night, but in the morning, all she could remember was the dazzling feeling of the gorgeous music and what Christmas morning felt like when she was little. As she drank her morning coffee, she smiled as a plan came to her, and she spent the balance of the morning running a few special errands.

At 11:00, she knocked on Mr. Henn's door. When he opened it, he was surprised to see her.

"What—"

She handed him a vase full of fresh flowers she had picked herself and a CD with her favorite aria on it. She smiled and quickly leaned in to kiss his cheek before he could pull back. "Happy Wednesday, Mr. Henn. Just because." She walked away smiling.

That night, she heard a very familiar piece of beautiful music echoing up through the floor.

NOTES: ▼

Word Count: 300
Submitted for "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" 
Prompt: Use the words flowers, maze, and violin