Nocturne of Memory

Every midnight, the grey rhinoceros carried an orchestra through the sleeping city. They played songs for weddings, departures and people who had been forgotten, but nobody played the lullaby he remembered from childhood. He was only the stage, they said; stages were not supposed to request music. One night the woman beneath the glass umbrella noticed his steps falling out of rhythm.

‘What do you hear?’ she asked. The rhinoceros hummed three uncertain notes. The musicians laughed, then slowly found the melody. Windows opened all along the street.

People who thought they had forgotten everything began singing. The rhinoceros stopped walking. For the first time, the concert had come to him—and the city waited until his song was finished.