After awhile I started taking him for granted, a bit like a favourite uncle who popped in from time to time. We spent hours playing guitar and my friends commented on how much I was improving. At least that reassured me that it was not likely to be schizophrenia, I was hardly likely to be learning new skills from my alter ego!

"Have you got a new teacher?" asked Jenna.

"I guess you could say that," I smiled to myself.

"What?" she pressed.

"I found a course online," I improvised. "I play along with the video."

That seemed to satisfy her, after all there were hundreds of lessons to be found online these days.

"Your playing is really awesome, Sam. If you keep going like this, you'll be too good for us soon," she challenged, more than half serious.

I stared at her in surprise. I hadn't improved that much had I? I laughed dismissively, "Very funny!"

She smiled back, reassured. "Speeding Demons forever hey?"

One weird thing, well okay, maybe one even more weird thing, was that I could never hear Darrell's voice, only his playing. I wished we could have had a conversation, but I soon learnt I was hopeless at lip-reading. I tried to communicate by writing on a piece of cardboard and holding it up to the mirror, but it wasn't very successful as he couldn't reply. Evidently there were no pens or paper on the other side.

I don't know why it took me so long, but after a couple of months I worked out a system. I started by playing a couple of bars by No Mercy, 'Hello, How are you?' but he didn't recognise it. Duh. Written too recently. The only other song that came to mind was "Hello, is it me you're looking for?' by Lionel Ritchie. I knew he got it when a huge smile broke across his face.

After that we'd spend a few minutes at the beginning of each session, trying to come up with a few bars from a song which was both easily identifiable and at least somewhat meaningful. I wasted quite a lot of time searching the internet for songs that were about something other than love. It was a revelation how many songs actually didn't make all that much sense, especially when you were trying to have a conversation, just try it sometime.

I'll never forget the time he played the Beatles', 'Nowhere Man', it gave the song a whole new meaning. It made me realise for the first time that perhaps he didn't know why he was there either.

I don't know whether it was because of the personal turn our communication had taken or simply because there was no one else around but shortly afterwards he began to show interest in me, as a girl I mean, not as a fellow guitarist. I felt rather uncomfortable when I recognised that look in his eyes, after all he was old enough to be my father, and I just didn't fancy him that way. Mind you if he had appeared as his younger self it might have been a whole different matter, but!

He began appearing every time I entered my room and instead of Pantera songs, not exactly well known for their tender lyrics, he began playing love songs for us to practice. 'Love Walks In' by Van Halen was his favourite and I have to admit it was a great song to play, just the words were a bit too close to home. However, I threatened to walk out when he started playing Elvis, 'Love me Tender.' Awkward!

If only he'd stuck to playing guitar, treating me as his student instead of getting a crush on me. It was all getting a bit creepy, too much like having a stalker. I refused to think of his feelings as love. How could he possibly be in love with me? I knew from looking at pictures of his wife that I was not in her league. I couldn't help wondering if she was out there somewhere too, looking for him. It seemed like a cruel joke on all of us.

I remember the last time I saw him as clear as yesterday, he had just played another Elvis song, 'I can't help falling in love with you'. I had made a few admittedly clumsy attempts to tell him to stop with the love songs, that although I admired him tremendously, I just wasn't interested in him romantically, but so far they hadn't had any effect.

This time I had spent an hour hunting through Pantera songs for one to get my message across, and came up with 'This Love.' It seemed to fit rather well. I played it softly, singing along to the words.

'If ever words were spoken

Painful and untrue

I said I loved but I lied

In my life

All I wanted

Was the keeping

Of someone like you ...

... And sometimes I feel so sorry

I regret this the hurting of you

But you make me so unhappy

I'd take my life and leave love with you'

My only excuse was youth, I was young and thoughtless. I didn't mean to hurt him, I just wanted him to stop loving me, to go back to how things were. He gave me one last tragic look and disappeared.

I never saw him again.