Barry has a beautiful family and lives on a farm in the countryside. He has a devoted wife, three children, and his elderly mother. The truth is, on this farm, far from everything, Barry needs nothing more, because he feels fulfilled and complete. And his family is happy because it's a very peaceful place, far removed from the problems of the city. But within all this positivity, there are also some sad things, especially for Barry and his mother. In the quietest moments, they both felt a strange emptiness, as if something were missing from the farm.
And no wonder. A few years ago this farm did not belong to Barry, but rather to his father who had actually founded it. Barry wasn't even born when his father Julian moved from the city of Peru to the countryside. Here he lived all his life, he married Barry's mother Roxana who was a local woman from the village. If this were a fairy tale you would expect me to tell you that and they lived happily ever after, but it was not. For when the family was at its happiest their father contracted a strange disease which is a variant of lupus. He lived bitter years in bed with that disease while Barry, still a young man, began to take over the farm to help the family get ahead. But nothing, in the end Julian, who was the pillar of the house and the joy of the family, passed away.
Those days were terrible for Barry's mother who lost her most faithful companion in life and of course for Barry this was a hard blow. Julian was the soul of the farm in many ways. First because he was a great friend and companion, he was kind to everyone and was a person that everyone wanted to be with because of his personality. He was also the joy of the house, as he was very talented at playing the Peruvian cajon. This is an instrument similar to the drum. Julian used to gather everyone in the house to listen to them play. For everyone it was a very beautiful moment. They had a great time together. They would make meals and drink good wine while they spent the night singing together. In fact, before his father's death Barry got married and together with his wife he also participated in the activities that his father did.
But later when his father died all that happiness diminished a lot. In fact the sadness was so great that once her father died no one in the house could hear the sound of the Peruvian cajón. This immediately reminded them of Julian and Roxana became very sad. It is for this reason that the instrument was forgotten over the months and years. In fact, no one ever mentioned it since. But one rainy afternoon, Barry took refuge in the barn because he didn't have time to get to the house due to the intense water. While he was waiting for the rain to clear, he started to look at the things in the barn. The truth was that he didn't even go into the barn anymore because a few years ago they built a new one. And this one was left to store things.
Then, while he was going through the forgotten tools, he saw what he had not expected to see at all. Behind a pile of sacks was his father's Peruvian drawer, full of dust and spider webs. As you can imagine, at first he didn't even want to touch it because it almost immediately brought back sad memories of Julian. Because while he was in bed he also touched it. So Barry remembered him in that desperate situation. But it was not all negative thoughts and memories. Barry sat down on an old tractor tire that was there in the barn and looked at the drawer. He started to think and recognized that everyone at home had exaggerated things. For the Cajon was not all negative memories. For with it it was that the parties his father threw had life in them. And of course he also remembered at that moment how much fun everyone had singing with that instrument. Besides that he pondered what Julian would think of them for following his legacy.
In the end that setback of being trapped in the barn by the heavy rains served to make him recognize that it wasn't all as bad as everyone thought. He broke the ice, so to speak. So he decided that he now had the responsibility to play it again for everyone back home. That's why that night, during dinner, Barry spoke to his family. And he told them in these words, “I found Dad's drawer. I think I'm going to try to learn to play it.” The table was silent. Clara, his wife, said to him. “Why now?” he asked cautiously. His children, looked at each other, confused. And Roxana their mother didn't know what to say, for that crate she had put there herself in the barn so that no one else would touch it. But Barry explained to all of them that they could not go on like that. And he told them that dad would not have wanted us to forget his legacy, he also mentioned that if they had forgotten the good times they had spent together with that crate.
In the end everyone recognized that he was right. So over the next few weeks, Barry began to practice. You know he had never played an instrument before, so as you might expect the first few attempts were disastrous. Every stroke was clumsy and uncoordinated. But that's how you start with everything. So he didn't throw in the towel. It helped him a lot to remember how his father used to improvise, born more from the heart than from technique. So he decided to stop following rules and started playing by ear, allowing memories to guide him. And that along with some lessons he saw in a book his father had helped him learn fast.
A few weeks later he felt it was time to share what he had learned. That's why, with no big plans, he arranged a slightly more special dinner with his family. After eating, he took the cajon to the porch and sat down. And obviously everyone went with him to hear him play. The truth is that he played very well, of course not as well as his father but quite well. Everybody liked him very much. And they saw that they had been repressed and bitter about the Peruvian cajon without needing to be. When Barry finished, there was applause from the family members, and some of them even cried because they knew what it meant. Then his youngest daughter sheepishly approached. “Can I try?” she asked. And his other 2 children later asked the same thing. Barry smiled, and let them try one by one. That night was great. Everyone the next day felt happier and ready for the new day's work on the farm. So to speak, they now had what they were missing and didn't feel empty. The truth is that everyone understood something important, the crate itself was not about reliving the past, it was more about building a bridge between what was and what could be.
