The Piano Player

As a piano player he was good not great, as a person he was bad but not evil.

“I was having my piano lesson, I think I was about ten. My teacher was this old man with skeleton fingers. He was pretty good but boring as hell.  He didn’t know how to teach so he gave me the book and we went over a section and then he sent me home and told me to go over and over and over the same section.

“That day he was really sweating, but it was Florida so I never thought about it, plus I was ten. He said to keep practicing he was going to lie down for a little bit. So, I practiced for about fifteen more minutes then went and played some video games. A half hour goes by and my mom shows up and tells me to keep playing video games everything is fine. But, I could tell something had happened.

“So, here I am playing Nintendo and then I see some ambulance people go down the hallway. My mom told me to stay put so I didn’t move. About fifteen minutes later the ambulance people come back through and there’s Mr. Santelli in a body bag with just his face showing. He was pale and his mouth was wide open but his eyes closed.

“After they left mom took me to get some ice cream and the next week I had a different piano teacher, a much younger woman. She said I was pretty good and I don’t think she really wanted to teach piano, so I would play a little while and then do whatever I wanted for the rest of the hour. But when mom showed up, I was sitting at the piano.”