Banjo of Destiny by Cary Fagan

Author:Cary Fagan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd.
Published: 2011-04-26T04:00:00+00:00

6

Putting It Together

“SO TELL ME,” said Dr. Barncastle. “Why do you think you performed so dismally at the talent night?”

Jeremiah sat on a sofa in the doctor’s office. Across from the sofa was a large fish tank with gravel and waving plants and a shell that opened and closed, letting out bubbles. He watched the guppies and angel fish and kissing gouramis swimming round and round.

He had a lot of sympathy for those fish.

“Because I’m a lousy piano player?”

“Perhaps you can think of another reason.”

“Because I don’t want to play the piano?”

“Try again, Jeremiah.”

Jeremiah tried not to sigh out loud. He looked at Dr. Barncastle, who was leaning back in his chair, a finger pressed to his high forehead. Dr. Barncastle looked as if he had the patience to wait forever if Jeremiah didn’t come up with anything more interesting.

“Okay,” Jeremiah said. “How about the piano reminds me of my mortality? You know, it’s black and shiny — like a coffin! Every time I play I think of death. It freaks me out.”

Dr. Barncastle smiled and nodded. “At last we’re getting somewhere.”

•••

THE NECK OF the banjo needed to be extended with a “dowel stick” that would pierce through one side of the cookie tin and go out the other.

In shop, it was easy enough to cut another length of wood from the chair and glue it against the end of the neck. The tricky part was cutting the holes into the sides of the cookie tin for the dowel stick to slide through.

Jeremiah used a sharp X-acto knife. He had to be careful. The thin metal of the cookie tin wanted to bend or even collapse as he pressed on it. Also, he was a little afraid of the pointed knife. He was afraid he might slip and cut off his own finger. But Ms. Threap showed him how to hold the knife properly, and how to cut away from himself, and slowly he gained confidence.

But his progress was interrupted again by after-school lessons and three more sessions with Dr. Barncastle. Jeremiah felt crazy with impatience. At night he dreamed that Maestro Boris was riding a giant banjo across the black sky, cackling like a witch and waving a bottle of wine.

Finally Jeremiah finished cutting the metal. Holding his breath, he slipped the dowel stick through so that the two pieces of the instrument were together.

It looked like…a banjo.

Jeremiah felt his heart leap. But there was still more work to do. He had to attach the two parts together with screws. He had to make the nut, the bridge and the tailpiece.

The nut was a little bitty thing that went at the top of the neck. It had slots in it for the strings to go through so they would be spaced properly on the fingerboard. The strings would travel down the neck and over the bridge, which would sit on top of the tin.

The bridge, which he also made out of wood, was important. It sent the vibrations of the strings into the pot, where they would be amplified.

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