Nadya turned out to be a short, cheerful woman whose grasp of the English language was tentative at best. She bustled through the entire apartment, sorting the sheets of music into folders, making an enormous pot of tea and doing the dishes, all the while humming snatches of Russian folklore under her breath.
Ivan twitched at the sling around his arm irritably.
“I mustn't move my arm at all, so my last doctor forced me to keep it in a sling. Of course I want it to get better, but it's so irritating.”
Being a general practitioner with a specialisation in orthopedics, Alfred was used to complaints like that. Being immobilized was something no patient took kindly to.
“Must be tough, not being able to do what you like. But you can write with your right hand, so if you get inspired, you can pen it down, right?”
Ivan sighed again, taking a sip from his black tea he had – to Alfred's horror – sweetened with a few spoonfuls of blackcurrant jam.
“If I was able to compose, I could. But inspiration won't come to me.”
Alfred refrained from asking what exactly was on the sheets of music , then. The minds of artists worked in a way quite different from most people, he knew. It was an odd to be treating someone whose career – and, if he'd read the Russian right, his happiness – depended on his recovery.
It was a huge responsibilty, but Alfred wouldn't have had it any other way.
Suddenly the violinist's pale face was lit by a smile again.
“But maybe I will be a little more inspired with you around. You seem a very interesting person, Doctor Jones.”
The odd compliment took Alfred by surprise, but he figured it must have been a cultural difference. He wanted to reply that Ivan could call him by his first name if he liked, as he usually did, but strangely, he didn't mind being called “Doctor Jones” by the Russian. It must have had something to do with most people not taking him seriously because of his optimistic and truthfully rather tactless nature.
“I can say the same for you...can I call you Ivan? I saw you in concert once, and I was really stunned – I'm not so into classical music normally, but you made it sound really alive.” he said. That was true, too. The performance had really blown him away.
From this close, Alfred could see that Ivan's eyes were actually of a bright violet shade, something he'd never seen before. They lit up as Ivan took in the compliment.
“Thank you, I'm very glad you enjoyed my performance. I only hope that I will be able to perform again soon. And may you call me whatever you like.”
Alfred took a sip of his own tea, and immediately regretted having done so. The beverage was bitter as well as sickly sweet, and he supposed it was at least as potent as coffee. Speaking of coffee, he would have to get some. Tea had never really been a favorite of his.
He would have to talk about Ivan's condition and treatment later, but for now he decide to stick to a more pleasant subject.
“Would you mind telling me what you're working on? Maybe it'll help your inspiration if you tell someone about your ideas.”
Alfred wasn't a master of tact, or poise for that matter, but that didn't mean he knew nothing about psychology. Most of the time, he just preferred to be honest instead of considerate. But he knew a fair bit about how people worked.
The Russian's expression grew a bit darker, most likely because he worried that either inspiration or use of his arm wouldn't return. But he was still glad to talk about his newest project with someone who was interested.
“I'm working on composing a few more modern pieces. They are inspired by some old diary entries of mine, from..” here he hesitated a litttle, his voice cracking the faintest bit,”..when I still lived in Moscow.” He selected a sheet from the folder Nadya had put them in. It was covered with sheet music in the same shaky hand Alfred had seen before on the contract.
“This one...it's called Noyabr – November. It's almost finished, but something, something's still missing...”
He hummed a few bars of a soft melancholic melody, something that sounded familiar and alien all at once.