The Choir of Rudolph Messner By Bayne MacGregor
	Good sirs, I carry this message to you by way of a writer of far too great a curiosity who has given his word that it will be published at the earliest convenience upon his safe passage to parts within the control of the British Empire. These words are in the most part directly my own with only the minimum required alteration to render them fit for publication. It is only fair to mention that this was a required condition to obtain safe passage for said writer from the predicament into which he had stumbled. While I choose to withhold my name from this account, it is imperative to begin with the peculiarity of my birth. I was born into wretched poverty in the Indian portion of Her Majesties Empire, a state shared by the many peoples in that Empire. By some natural freak of circumstance I was born with a distinct peculiarity of anatomy, namely that the coloured portion of my eyes are pale. So pale in fact that it resembles to an uncanny degree that state that signifies blindness. This was a great boon to my family and its exploitation began from my earliest days. At first it was my older brother that carried me to a place of great pedestrian traffic, the pair of us young, dirty and disheveled he holding me up with the greatest of difficulty and imploring of every passer by to contribute to the support of my blind existence. This might seem a terrible thing to those born into comfort and assurity yet it is frequently the way of life in the empire. When those who have accrued resources do not allow those resources to distribute fairly than men of desperation will find any means unfairly to gain some of them. I hold no malice towards my family for imposing this imposture upon me, they were in ignorance of my ability to see for some time and it came as quite a shock to them. Swiftly upon the discovery of this I learnt to disguise the movements of my head and eyes so as not to attract suspicion. An empty belly makes one a fast learner and while a swift blow from my father would add to the pain of my hunger at any noted failure I would always count myself as fortunate, many other beggars I would share the streets with were made cripple by their families specifically to enter that profession. When I was old enough it became evident that I was more successful in a solitary role and soon I became the greater earner of my extended family. At the age of twelve having helped my family rise significantly in standing with the coin of those who found pity upon my apparent situation I found the comfortable regularity of my daily existence shattered. Disease, the ever-stalking reaper that is a perpetual companion in the gutter and alley had become for a season a glutton. He feasted on all around, much of my family falling onto his plate. Those who did survive, not so closely connected and being now of higher wealth and station were not pleased to have much inheritance fall into the hands of a blind street beggar and so I was cheated and cast out. It was a time of great suffering and little riches; those who I normally came to depend on had little store left of coin or compassion. With little savings and no shelter and with street entertainers much more successful than beggars at this time, I found in desperation an untapped resource. It transpired that I had a fine singing voice for songs of foreign tongues. Again here my seeming blindness proved a true blessing for the unusual combination of a blind man mimicking songs in their own languages endeared me to many a foreigner and I endeavored with every passing day to perfect each song. I finally settled down on a street were plenty of foreigners passed by and while much of my takings went to fill the pockets of ruffians I was able to survive. Decades passed yet even though pure begging was swiftly again more profitable to entertaining I found myself unable to replace my singing with simple moaning and staring to fill in the day. At last I understood the nature of tedium and the craving for some kind of endeavor. I did not give up the pretence of my condition however, it still put food in my belly and by this point had long become second nature to me. While I saw I made as little use of my sight as I could, relying on those other senses that would alone be my guide if I really were without that capacity. I do not know my age but I suppose that I must be heading towards my elder years by the responses of those around me when a particular gentleman came to my attention. Every day at the same hour he would walk up to me, place three times the usual amount of money in my hand and ask for another song. He never asked for any in particular, he always only asked for something that he had not already heard from me. At last my repertoire was exhausted and the next day the characteristic martial step of his was absent. Much of a year must have passed before I heard those steps again and saw the same face pass briefly by my eyes. This time however he did not request a song but instead made an offer that was confusing absurd and fantastic. I confess that with my small understanding at the time of the language that he spoke and with many of the things he said well beyond my imaginings that I consented to his request without remotely understanding what I was doing. I think that I did this out of gratitude for his earlier patronage, that and to be polite. I found myself lifted up into an automobile, a shock for my senses that almost overwhelmed me, a state in which I would remain for some length of time. From thence I was conveyed to a ship at anchor. If the images whirling by my eyes in the automobile were giddying then the sight of that great monster and the waters upon which it rested were almost horrific. I had lived within short distance of those waters all my life, I knew their sounds, their smells but I had never seen them, had no concept of that magnitude. I squinted my eyes to hide the amazement within them and was most thankful when tears