6th
The piano arrived yesterday while I was at work. By 7:00 PM, Julie had given all three boys introductory instruction on the proper treatment of such a gem. For close to two hours thereafter, she sat with Alex, teaching him the layout of the keyboard, fingering, 5-note scales, octaves, and a few simple songs.
I got up at 5:30 this morning, made and drank coffee, and then went upstairs to wake up Conner, whose bus comes an hour and a half earlier than Alex’s or Jack’s. Alex was waiting, awake and dressed in his bed, when I came in the room. He got up and went downstairs before I could even get Conner out of his bed. When I caught up with him, he was at the piano, back perfectly straight, hands positioned like a tutorial, whispering the notes to himself as he moved his hands over each. His eyes were half closed, as if frozen by an invisible rapture- glorious, but audible only in the great hall of his imagination.
And maybe, I thought for a second, in mine.
