Novel 4

 

Chapter 4

Piano Lessons 2

Sometimes the bigger fella, or the slightly older fella – the other boy - wasn't at piano lessons on the days of Finbar's lesson. Those were the days when there were no thumps, no slight strangulation - in fact peace and tranquillity, even though Finbar had probably never heard the word tranquillity, let alone spell it. The bullying had kind of tapered off, in any case, maybe because Finbar was getting bigger.

It was a fine day, a day in the summer, when Finbar turned up for his lesson. The trouble with the piano playing was not that his hands were too small, but some of the bass chords, and even the melody line, were made of too many notes. It might have been easy, for Mr. Ferris to play, for that was the piano teacher's name, but not for Finbar.

In fact the very first lesson had sent Finbar home with a little exercise piece that was very easy on the ear and it gave his parents great pleasure to hear. It made them think that the half- a-crown they paid per lesson, was money well spent. His mother was quite an accomplished pianist and played stride piano, like Fats Waller.

The piece Finbar played, on that first day, was just a simple exercise piece which comprised of a one finger note 'C' followed by a two fingered chord: you can hear it, it goes bum ta ta, bum ta ta, and the 'C' note the bum.

But as time went on the music for The Blue Danube, which is what he had graduated to, in the mind of Mr. Ferris, looked like a load of spiders which had been found in a nest and thrown at a white wall.

On this day, Finbar had been sitting in the garden, playing his harmonica, delighting the neighbours, for it was soft and sweet with a nice melody; Galway Bay, it was called, known to people, from the first line of the lyric as 'If you ever go across the sea to Ireland, then maybe at the closing of the day.'

Sometimes he could hear his parents humming along, or even whistling it, long after he had finished.

“What does that button do?' his father said that day.

“It lifts the tone' said Finbar.

“Like the black notes?'

Finbar thought for a moment: The Blue Danube with its load of sharps, four actually, which made it E Major, but Finbar didn't know that. He just knew he had to find the black notes each time the note wanted was F, C, G and E.

'I suppose it is' he said, answering his father.

He still played Genevieve, on the harmonica, and he loved the second bit of the tune but 'Galway' which he was playing that day, needed a lot of sucking, and he wondered if he used the button he could stick to blowing; bringing it up half a tone might make it a sharp, he thought. Or he could play the whole thng with the button in, and let it out when he wanted to go down half a tone. They were flats?

He was about to try this, when his mother told him it was time for his piano lesson. She gave him the half-a-crown for the lesson and off he went.

It was a day when there was no car outside so when he knocked the door, Mr. Ferris answered it.

“Hello, Finbar.' he said “come on in'

Finbar paid him and went into the front room: Mr. Ferris went to the other room – to give the money to his sister, Finbar thought.

He took the music from his little case and propped it up into its place on the piano rest as the teacher came in.

“Now where were we?' he said, sitting down.

They found the place and Finbar began to play slowly. In fact so slowly there was no sign of the tune.

Mr. Ferris moved his little stick from note to note around the treble line and Finbar played the treble notes and the bass chord, but not necessarily at the same time!

Then he was time to go to the right hand page and before he played the first chord, Mr. Ferris was there first, but his stick kind of wobbled. Then it moved down the page to where the bass line, then lower, then it came back up and started to go around in circles.

Finbar looked at Mr. Ferris, and he was leaning forward, then his head went very near the piano keyboard and Finbar stood up.

Mr. Ferris was having a fit.

Finbar didn't know the name of Mr. Ferris' sister so he went to the door and made some kind of noise “er . .er' and the sister came in, went up to Mr. Ferris and cradled his head in her hands. 'There now, Leonard, she said 'there – there - that's it.'

She looked at Finbar, who was standing there, glued to the floor, not being able to move.

“Time to pop off home' she said.

Finbar went straight to the door and ran home.

He didn't know what to tell his parents, he just said 'something happened to him, he was falling forward.'

'Don't worry, Finbar, said his mother 'he has fits.'

“What?'

“It's a seizure – it'll pass?' she said.

“I don't know what you mean?' said Finbar who had been frightened by the whole episode.

He went into the garden and stood there looking at the chair where he had been sitting and settled into it. He was there for a few minutes, looking to the bottom of the garden. Not much there, just a spade where his dad had been digging. They used to keep hens and there had been a complaint from the old lady, Irene, who lived next door, who said it would bring rats. The spade was where the hens used to be as his dad had removed the hen house and was trying to flatten the earth. He said he he'd buy some grass seeds for that bit.

The fright at the piano lesson had put him in mind of another time he was frightened: it was when his dad killed a hen, or a chicken, and it had run around the garden with no head.

It took him a long time to get over it. He wasn't a timid child at all but he likened the two incidents together. Another time he found a fox, who had been trying to get onto the hen house, snared on the chicken wire, and was trying to pull itself out. Finbar could see that if he cut one shred of the fox's tail from the chicken wire it would release the fox.

He knew where Patrick kept his tools so fetched the wire cutter. He wasn't sure how friendly the fox would be and as he got close to it the fox stopped struggling. Finbar made sure he wasn't going to get bit, like a dog might do with a nasty turn. The thick tail was caught between two wires so Finbar felt the tail, to see if there was any gland or muscle where he wanted to cut, held it in his fingers – snip – and the fox was free. Free to run off, but it didn't go straight away. It looked at the piece of tail in the chicken wire, and so did Finbar, looked up and ran over to the fence and disappeared. Finbar looked for the hole and there was nothing to see. A mouse got under his bedroom door, one day and he never figure that out either.

He looked at the very spot, where the fox had disappeared, as he picked up the harmonica and started play – this time The Dam Busters March. It was from the other film released and it became as famous as Genevieve. Quite easy, he thought, but he couldn't play the middle bit – the middle eight. Papar ap pap pap pap pap pap pap ra pap pap pap pap pa!

As he played he saw Mr. Ferris walking to the garden gate. He was wearing a fedora hat and was carrying Finbar's little music case.

Finbar stopped playing 'You play that very well' said Mr. Ferris.

Finbar wondered if he was upset about him playing the harmonica instead of the piano.

Mr. Ferris went in to the house to see Finbar's parents, then came out, saying good bye as he left.

There were quite a few occasions in the future when Mr. Ferris had fits, but in future episodes Finbar picked up his music from the piano rest, put it into his little case and told Mr. Ferris' sister. The poor man eventually retired from piano lessons when his sister died. It was the last time he had music lessons but, at least, he could read music from then on.

The bit of the fox's tail stayed on the chicken wire till Patrick took the hen house down, and the family bought their eggs from the co-op near the Moseley Picture House which some people called 'bug house' of a cinema, and where Finbar saw The Glenn Miller Story a few years later. For years after that film Finbar carried a pair of drum sticks, as he was obsessed with one of the drummers in the film, Gene Krupa, which prompted him to go and see the film again on the following day.

Chapter 5

Loneliness.