The music store looked like shit from the outside, but it was the only one in Nerva. Byron and Gev stepped inside. As soon as they came in, the lights came on, shining on assorted guitars and violins, saxophones and clarinets, all sorts of instruments.
A man came out of a back room, stooped and old. He had a long gray beard, was balding, and dressed in a rumpled dark suit that looked like he had just put on. “May I help you, gentlemen?”
Byron stepped forward. “I’m looking for an electric piano, maybe some music to go along with it?”
He shook his head. “As you can see, gentlemen, I sell nothing electric here.”
Byron went over to look at the violins. “Julia studied the violin,” he said wistfully.
“Ah, this is a 1987 Kennedy,” he said, pulling down one. “One of better ones of that class.”
Byron waved his hand, a “no” motion. “I was never good at the violin.”
Gev said, “Do you have any pianos?”
The old man put the violin back, and said, “I doubt you can afford them gentlemen.”
Gev grinned. “Try us.”
The man came around the corner, looking sideways at the two men. “I have only two pianos, and neither of them are cheap.” He wove his way deftly through a couple of sets of drums, past more guitars, past a wall of sheet music for guitar, piano, violin, and other instruments crammed in.
Gev touched one of the cymbals of the drum set, his finger coming away full of dust. At the end of the path were two upright pianos, both covered over with cotton blankets. The old man stepped onto a small dias, and lifted up the blanket on one. There was dust on the blanket, but none on the piano, a black wood affair. Byron leaned closer to it.
“You may try it, young man,” said the old man.
He played “Chopsticks” on it, and frowned.
“It is muffled because of the blanket, but I assure you the sound quality is good.”
“We don’t want good,” said Gev. “We want excellent.”
Byron looked back at his lover and smiled. Then he turned back to the old man. “How much is it?”
“Twenty five hundred dollars.”
Byron bit his lip. Gev said, “What about the other one?”
The old man put the blanket over the black piano, then turned to the other piano. He lifted the blanket again for him. Byron leaned forward and gasped. “A Steinway!”
Gev came over closer to him. “Is this good?”
“It’s one of the best,” he said, as his hands hovered lovingly over the keys.
Gev made a motion with his hand to remove the blanket entirely from the piano. The old man sighed and started removing the blanket. “You can’t afford this one, young man, but I would like to hear some music again in this store.”
Byron didn’t even play “Chopsticks”, his usual warming up to a piano. Instead, he began with “Ode to Joy.”
The old man listened, frowned at some spots. “It needs some tuning. It hasn’t been played in many years.”
When he finished, Byron looked up at Gev, his eyes imploring. Gev merely smiled, and pulled out a checkbook. “How much?”
“Twenty thousand dollars, and that is a deal.”
Gev merely nodded and started writing.
“Gev, that’s crazy -”
“You want it? And some sheet music, don’t forget.”
“But Gev I – ”
Gev looked up, tearing off the check and handing it to him. “Here is twenty-two thousand, the two thousand to include tuning and delivery, and extra sheet music.”
The old man stared at Gev. Byron stared at Gev. Gev only had eyes for his lover.
Byron got up from the piano and hugged his lover tightly, kissing him. “Thank you, thank you so much!”
“You will want for nothing, my love, I promise you that.”
The old man looked a bit uncomfortable, but took the check anyway. “I, ah, have more music in the back. I take it you are a classical pianist?”
Byron turned around in his lover’s arms. “Huh, oh, yeah.”
“I have some Lintz…” he muttered, moving to the front of the room, leaving the two men to hug each other tightly, murmuring their eternal devotion to each other.