and then she was gone ... part one

It was a lovely Spring afternoon, a long long time ago. How long ago? Let's see ... I had recently turned 16, and I am now so totally old, my childhood toys are listed on eBay under "Antiquities," my favorite elementary school lunchbox is a collector's item, and my husband and I recently set up an estate plan. That's how long ago it was.

My sisters and I were all home from school, hiding away upstairs while Mom gave piano lessons. Argh. Excruciating half-hour segments, with hopeless little musical hacks playing "The Bear Dance" and "Soaring" and "Pretty Ballerinas" over and over and over.

~~~

Mom: "That should be a G-sharp, dear."

Hopeless Little Hack: "G-sharp? What's a G-sharp?"

Mom: "Right here, sweetheart."

HLH: "Are we done yet? Mummy says we can go get ice cream when we're done."

Mom: "Not yet. Twenty-nine and a half minutes to go. Let's try it again!"

~~~

God. We all rolled our eyes and slammed our doors and swore we would do ANYthing to avoid EVER becoming a piano teacher.

When the last lesson was over, Mom went out to talk with Little Hack's mother. The usual conversation would go something like this:

LHMom: "How is she doing?"

Mom: "Oh, just fine! A little more practice, and she'll be on her way!"

LHMom: "Well, good! We're off to get ice cream!"

Mom: "Toodle-oo!"

But on this strange Spring morning, the conversation was more like this:

LHMom: "How is she doing?"

Mom: "I'm a little concerned. Children in general just are not realizing the full potential of the global vision of the artistic generalization that should be fully blossoming in their lives if they only had the potentialization of the globality of that artistic visionalization. Don't you agree? Don't you? Don't you?"

It was right around the third "don't you" when dad sent Sister # 1 out to get her.

... and then she was gone

(to be continued) ...

~~~