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32 metal and ivory as my mother had explained. To me, this piano was alive. 44 1 teoat aot Fi a 1 I moved back around to the stool, then turned in place to look carefully at the whole room. My gaze sought the long sweep of the royal blue velvet of the draperies, then took in the marble busts set about the room upon marble columns. I rubbed my right big toe into the royal blue plush of the deep carpet. Truly a lovely room, but the real object of my adoration was the black Steinway. I sat down on the bench, smoothed the satin of my dress, and nodded as I poised my hands above the keys to crash downward and in that instant I was lost in the ecstasy of endless creation. The sounds clanged and echoed and vibrated through the large room, filling the adjoining solarium of rubber trees and other exotic plants with my untutored noise. The sometimes ugly sounds returned to beat against my ears. I loved it. Chord after chord swept from my fingers, but no one came to stop my “composing.” It wasn’t music yet, but they were wonderfully loud sounds and I knew I could learn to make real melodies here if I worked at it. Already I was beginning to learn which keys sounded best when played together. The first thing I’d learned was that playing two keys right next to each other made a really messy sound, something my ear couldn’t like. I kept on working to gain mastery of the giant Out Steinway. When my arms tired and my passion for sound was spent, I lifted the long green skirts to hold them in one hand, so I could go to each column, there to stand on tiptoe to kiss the marble lips on the busts of Mozart, Beethoven and Lizst. I felt love for each of them but Lizst was the most difficult and I was repelled because of the large mole near his mouth but I didn’t want him to feel left out so I kissed him nevertheless and simply avoided the mole as well as I could. Then I sank to the carpeted floor. From my place on the floor I could look up at the curving lines of the Barbara Bartholic as told to Peggy Fielding