The organ’s paper roll

Original fiction extract.

Behind the fairground organ, a man opened a narrow panel to show me the moving paper. From the front, the music seemed to come from the painted mouths of wooden figures. Here it passed through a roll full of holes. The man pointed without touching it, then stood aside so I could watch.

A white road travelled steadily between the rollers. Across it, dark perforations arrived in small processions, each gap carrying a sound I could not hear until the organ answered. The paper looked wounded by all those missing pieces, yet the tune depended on what had been taken away. As the chorus swelled, a crowded city of holes crossed the little opening. Then the marks thinned, and one clear note stepped out of the noise. The empty spaces were keeping a conversation with the painted figures beyond the panel.

The roll continued at the same measured pace while the music hurried and rested around it. I tried to follow one hole from its arrival to the instant it disappeared. By then, another part of the tune had begun. Outside, children were dancing in front of the organ, watching the wooden mouths as if those were the mouths which knew the song.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to describe the relationship between the paper roll and the music.

Write about 200 to 250 words.