Kookaburra Cottage by Maya Linnell

Author:Maya Linnell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2022-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

13

The piano keys felt like they were rising up to meet his fingers, the sheet music in front of him redundant as Connor played from memory. Then the slamming of the front door and footsteps across the parquetry floor shook him out of the zone and he finished the piece abruptly.

‘Shh, Mum,’ came a hiss from beside Connor, as Archie Winklin wriggled on the end of the piano stool. ‘Connor’s playing.’

Connor blinked a few times, his mind adjusting back to the real world. He turned to his young student.

‘It’s okay, buddy. This is your house, remember?’

Felicity Winklin walked across the room, a cape of raindrops on the shoulders of her business suit.

‘It sounded like we were in a concert hall,’ she said. ‘You’ll play like that if you keep practising, Arch.’

‘He’ll play much better than that,’ said Connor, confident the small boy possessed greater discipline and talent than he’d ever shown at the same age. It was a little indulgent to play for Archie during the lessons, but Connor hoped showing him what it was like to immerse yourself in the music, to really live and breathe it, would embed his love of music even further. And, he admitted only to himself, he missed having such a fine instrument to play whenever his heart desired. The Winklins’ glossy black grand piano was a pleasure to play and he’d since discovered they had an electric one gathering dust in a spare bedroom too.

‘How about you show your mam the new piece, mate?’

Connor shuffled across, making room for Archie on the stool.

‘Oh, don’t fuss on my behalf,’ Felicity said with a wave. ‘I’ll catch my death if I stand around in these damp clothes any longer. I’ll keep the ensuite door open so I can hear it while I shower,’ she said.

Connor didn’t look up, not because he thought Felicity was trying to be suggestive—if anything she probably didn’t realise the picture she’d painted with her words—but because he knew the hurt written across Archie’s face would cut right through him. He found the score and urged Archie to start while she padded upstairs, hoping that maybe Felicity might throw a small morsel of praise in her son’s direction, and was disappointed for him when she didn’t.

‘You’re a pro at this,’ Connor said, pumping up the lad’s tyres after his first stilted rendition. ‘Perhaps we’ll run through that middle section again. Try it like this.’

After two more attempts, the piece still wasn’t gelling. He could feel the boy’s frustration grow with each error and his hopes of turning the mood around took a further nosedive when Archie’s father, Rupert, strode through the glass atrium, tailored jacket over his arm and laptop bag dangling from his fingers. Archie wilted beside him.

They’d never nail it now.

‘What’s the problem? Even from the garage, I could hear the timing was off. Start from the start.’

Connor murmured encouragement, so only his student could hear. ‘Feel the music, Arch. Block everything else out.’

The boy took a deep breath

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.