The Museum and the Music Box by Noah KellerA neglected museum gradually succumbs to the elements. A music box rusts beneath a bell of glass. Fragmented texts are pieced together which tell the history of a lost love, the destruction of a civilization, and the origin of the museum.
I have been a big fan of Tor.com's short fiction supply as many who read my Short Fiction Friday feature. I actually just visited the site on a whim, felt like reading something and I was presented with a new story. Let me say this story gave me goosebumps and put a smile on my face at the same time. Yes this story falls in the category of "hauntingly beautiful".
The story never mentions a name of the character that you follow also in the narration you don't glimpse any name which only adds to great something of a more mythical feeling to the it. So the story picks up with the mentioning of the protagonist walking through a museum, not any museum but a abandoned museum where it is the only surviving thing. The protagonist mentions that it misses a certain someone and that one day it will find out just what the history of the it's friend was. They had a close relation as you will also undoubtley make out of the text itself. After this introduction you get an utterly detailed tour of the dilapidated museum that is slowly succumbing on itself. Each time though the protagonist finds memories in objects that reminds it of the past friend and each time you get a very detailed and emotional story behind it, like the dairy and lets not forget the music box named in the title of the story. Until you finally come to the ending of it all and you will be finding yourself rereading the story once again.
The Museum and the Music Box is a short story with I think it was 7k words, but as any good short story it should be provocative and evocative and this is precisely what Noah Keller managed to achieve in these few words. As I said you will be finding yourself rushing to the beginning of the story to read it once, twice or even more times in the hope of discovering more and more. I do also have to be honest and say that I don't think this story is for everyone. But that you should give it a definite try.
Read the full story here
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