Once there was a grand piano that sat in a piano store for its entire life. Then one day it was put on a moving truck, and it thought it might finally have an owner. It longed for a musician to play sonatas on its beautiful black and white keys. As the piano mover headed down the highway, the piano bounced every time the truck hit a pothole.
When the driver slammed on the breaks at a stoplight, the truck’s back door flew open, and the grand piano was thrust onto a major highway with moving cars and trucks.
“Watch out! Piano on the loose!” the driver yelled, running down the street after the instrument. At full speed, the piano on wheels blazed down the interstate, fearing its life was finished. The piano’s strings tensed up, and the lid clanged and banged against the instrument’s body. The keys on the piano hit their hammers as the body rolled down the highway.
Not even the piano pedals could stop the rolling motion of the instrument. It seemed like the piano’s wheels had taken over and had no intentions of stopping. After running for at least a mile, the truck driver gave up, yelling: “Goodbye, my friend!”
Down one hill and up another, the piano rolled for more than an hour. It passed by homes, stores, and factories, eventually slowing in a small neighborhood. The piano rolled right up the driveway of 345 Penny Note Lane and didn’t move an inch.
“Hannah, I think the mailman is here,” Mr. Henderson called to his daughter, mowing the lawn. As Mr. Henderson turned around, the grand piano in the driveway startled him.
He turned off the lawn mower and said: “Hannah, what is this piano doing in the front yard?” Hannah ran out the door and gasped in delight: a piano on wheels had arrived just for her.
“I’d been praying every day for a piano!” she said. “I knew I was supposed to play music.” Somehow, the piano had known Hannah would cherish the beloved instrument.
For the rest of its time, the grand piano sat graciously in Hannah’s bedroom.
She slept under its shiny black body, because she had no room for a bed, only melodies.
Copyright 2015 Jennifer Waters
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