A Piano in The Pyrenees by Tony Hawks

Author:Tony Hawks [Hawks, T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: [2010.01.06]
Publisher: [Côte d’Azur]
Published: 2005-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

∨ A Piano in The Pyrenees ∧

11

Trees, Holes and Pilgrims

I awoke to the sound of cowbells. Not a bad way to start the day, especially for a city boy. When I looked out of the window I could see that the shy farmer’s cows were not far from the boundaries of my land.

“They’ll be in my garden soon!” I said, even though there was nobody else with me.↓

≡ Talking to yourself is said to be the first sign of madness. I’m sorry, but I have to question this. What if, before you’ve done any talking to yourself, you start foaming at the mouth, shouting at passing cars and hopping round Sainsbury’s? Do these not count as preliminary signs?

Ron was toiling in the garage and Kevin and Nic were having a lie-in when Mary, the widowed Irish lady I’d met at the village dinner, called round. I’d seen her several times since then, but usually just for a brief neighbourly exchange. Now she had some interesting news.

“You’ll probably hear Miles playing the piano at my place in the next few days,” she said. “He’s over for the music night. The other boys will be over soon, too.”

“Mary,” I replied, “why don’t you have a cup of coffee and tell me what on earth you’re talking about?”

Mary soon had me up to speed. Miles and the ‘boys’ were her sons, and they were all musicians. They combined coming over to see their mum with visits to the Marciac jazz festival, and last year Malcolm and Anne had seized on the opportunity to exploit their talents by putting on a music night in the village. Local French musicians had joined forces with these Irish guests to create ‘une soiree musicale Franco-Irlandaise. By all accounts it had been a great success.

“The boys are looking forward to it this year,” said Mary. “You play piano—will you do a little turn yourself? I know that Malcolm and Anne want you to. They’re organising it.”

“Well, I could do,” I replied, “but I don’t want to muscle in on someone else’s gig.”

“Heavens, you won’t be doing that,” said Mary, sipping on her coffee, sitting back on the settee and relaxing into full ‘chatty’ mode. “I’ll tell Malcolm and Anne that you’ll do it, then. They got me to play last year and no doubt they will this year, too. I don’t like doing it because I’m best when I’m just playing to accompany others. That’s what I do up at the hotel in Lourdes. Actually you must come up and listen one night very soon—there’s a priest who is with the present party of pilgrims who says he wants to meet you. He’s read your fridge book, you see.”↓

≡ Round Ireland With A Fridge. Available from all good bookshops.

“I’d love to come, Mary,” I said. “We haven’t made any plans for tonight actually. I’ll suggest it to the others when they get up.”

“Well, it would be lovely to see you up there, and you must come round for a beer when the boys arrive.

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