I mentioned in the forward to Pattern Opus that I owed a debt of gratitude to Bar Bar for her suggestions. She actually sent me a 500 or so word example of how I might describe Tina's gift.
There actually is a Chaos universe. In SOL parlance that is a place for stories that exist in the same place/time/circumstances of another story, but not necessarily affecting the main stories and written by other authors. I did this because someone (hint: one of my editors) expressed an interest in writing a story based entirely on, wait for it, Sparkles the Cat. So far, no takers, not even for Sparkles. I attributed this, once again, to my characters. I mean no one, but me, could really understand them, right? Heh, Bar Bar understands Tina very well, thank you very much.
I decided to incorporate her ideas into chapter 3. After editing it to fit my vision of Tina's synesthesia and some mild de-Aussification (spanner becomes wrench etc.) this is the result.
Tina sat in one of her favorite spots on Kali. It was at the bow with her legs dangling over the side and the wind blowing in her face. This put the safety rail firmly across her stomach and a single strand of wire running above her head. The wire ran from the bow up to the top of the cabin. Tina was quite sure it did some important job on the boat, but quite honestly, she didn't know what that important job was, only that it had something to do with the radios. What was important to Tina, however, was that when the wind was just right, like it was today, the wind raced across the wire and made it hum a perfect low C.
She loved to sit there and let the C provide a steady and continuous bass line while she improvised music in her head around it. When she'd been young it had been mostly classical music using violins or flutes. When Tammy had gotten sick and the music had changed from bright, frisky major keys into more sombre minor key melodies.
When Tony had developed an interest in rock music and that had expanded her repertoire of musical styles and the music in her head had expanded in equal measure. The recent refit had caused a temporary problem because after the refit the note had changed to a C sharp. While Tina had no philosophical objection to music in C sharp, it jarred with her tradition of composing music around that low C while sitting in that particular spot.
An adjustable wrench and a little bit of experimentation had fixed that. It was the same principle as tuning a violin but on a rather larger scale. She hoped it didn't affect whatever that wire was doing. Tony hadn't seemed to notice anyway.
Today the wind was blowing perfectly so the low C note was playing clear and strong. It appeared as a long, thick green bar in her mind. Tina's hands twitched as she fingered an imaginary violin, sending its red and pink diamond notes soaring in intricate patterns around the green bar in her mind. In the background, she imagined the distinctive and unique sound of Tony backing her on his guitar and added his sharp, red octagons to the pattern.
She shook her head and introduced some drums with their solid black circles and vertical lines into the musical pattern to even out the irregular percussive slap of the water against the hull. The music in her today was joyous and bright and Tina revelled in it. She added and subtracted instruments and played with tempo and volume. She danced through a variety of keys and styles but her music was always supported underneath by that wonderful low C.
Tina sensed, rather than heard, the engines change. She felt Kalli start to turn under her as it changed headings. She twisted in her spot and looked back up to the cockpit where she could see Tony behind the wheel. He saw her looking and waved. Then he pointed toward the shore, indicating that it was time to head into the intercoastal towards BJ's. She laughed and waved back. Then, satisfied that all was right with the world, she turned her face back into the wind.
She'd held a long drawn out chord in her head while she was distracted. Now she let the chord fade as the turning boat took the wind away from the wire and therefore took the power out of her low C.
Not for the first time, Tina wished she could create such a note with her own hands. The only instrument that came close to it was the double bass. She'd had a little play on one after an orchestra rehearsal at Gilchrist. That had been fun. The bowing had been easy - it was just like bowing for a violin but with larger, exaggerated movements. The fingering was also like fingering for a violin but with slower and larger - too large for her small hands to do comfortably. But the feel of the deep notes rumbling through her as she leaned her body against the big double bass - ah, that had been wonderful.
For the curious the wire is an HF radio antenna. And "tuning" it would have had no effect on it as an antenna.
But damn Bar Bar, that was awesome.
Ezzy