Close view of a small black fine line treble clef tattoo on the back of a hand, resting on ripped denim.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small treble clef on the back of a hand

Fine line · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

A small black tattoo of a treble clef style symbol with a curled loop sits on the back of a hand, between the thumb and index finger. The linework is thin and even, with solid black ink and no shading. The hand rests on ripped pale denim, with white painted nails and a silver ring on the middle finger, and the tattoo is the only point of dark colour in the frame.

Fine line Hand Treble clef Hand

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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It is gone two and I still can't sleep, so I am writing this at the kitchen table with the radio off. The upright from St Clement's came in on Tuesday, the one nobody wanted to claim after Mrs Pryce died. Its lid was swollen shut with damp. When I eased the fallboard up there was a pencil note taped to the underside of the hammers, folded small: 'For whoever tunes me next. Mind the middle C, it sticks in August.' Beneath it, in ink, someone had drawn a clef, very neat, the tail curled tight like a fern.

I spent four hours on the A above middle C alone. Every time I thought it was true, the room hummed back at me a hair flat, and I had to start again. You'd have laughed. Around eleven I gave up and played a scale in the dark, just to hear the wood breathe, and the bass note under my thumb rang out like someone clearing their throat in another room.

I rang the number on the card the solicitor gave me. A man answered on the sixth ring, sounding as if he'd been dozing in a chair. He said his father had written that note in 1961 and never once came back to the instrument after the funeral. He asked whether I'd keep the clef. I said I'd think about it.

I think I'll keep it. Tuning is mostly listening for what someone has put away. Come home at Easter and you can play it while I fix the damp.

Love, Ruth