“FULFILLING A DREAM”
by
Elliot Richard Dorfman
Russell Garner woke up. Still groggy, he looked outside his Manhattan apartment window. Lincoln Center’s Fisher Hall was only a few streets away. Tonight, he would give his seventh thousand piano performance there. With all of his huge success, he still had the jitters before every performance. What happened if he should go blank in the middle of a piece, or his fingers slip during a difficult passage? Imagine the humiliation!
Oh sure, he had lots of money, fame and adulation, but what price glory? His musical career had always consumed his entire life. Already thirty-eight, he had no personal life to call his own. In truth, he was basically alone. No wife or children to love or be loved; No one to share the good times or the bad. And to make matters worse, with all of his anxiety, he still wasn’t positive that he liked being a professional pianist.
He looked at his clock on the night table. It was only 6:00 A.M., and many hours before the concert, so he closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Somewhere in the darkness, there was the distant clanking of a train passing by. Russell hadn’t heard that noise since the West End line passed on the elevated tracks near his Brooklyn home many years ago. Then he heard a familiar voice loudly calling him.
“Russell, it’s time to get up. Don’t be lax. You’ve got to go over your pieces one more time before your piano recital today. Remember how important it is.”
Opening his eyes, he rubbed them and looked around. A breeze from the courtyard came from two opened windows between a desk, giving some relief from the warm room. Brownie, his little dog, jumping on the bed and licked his face.
“You’re my best pal, Brownie,” he said with a heavy heart. “In fact you’re my only pal. I sure haven’t had any time to make any close friends, not with all that piano practicing I have to do. It’s been kind of lonely.”
Jumping off the bed, he ran to the closet and looked at himself in the mirror. A sad, youthful face of eighteen with wavy brown hair and big expressive eyes stared back at him.
His mother, Fanny, a dynamic little woman with sharp brown eyes that could look straight at you and seem to pierce your soul, opened the door and came in. “Come on, Russell, stop procrastinating. Get dressed, have a little breakfast and run through the pieces you are playing for the recital this afternoon. You want to make sure you play well.”
A short time later Russell walked into the living room, followed by Brownie, and opened the lid of the ebony Steinway grand piano. He reminded himself that his mother and late father had scrimped and saved, working extra hours, to get this beautiful musical instrument for their only son.
Fanny entered the room. “Aren’t you going to have breakfast first? You’ll need plenty of energy for the performance this afternoon.”
“No, Ma, my stomach feels queasy.”
“Does it? You’re just a little nervous about performing. You’ll be fine. Want a little Pepto-Bizmol or Tums?”
“No, Ma.”
“What’s the dog doing in the living room? He’ll soil the rug. It’s a good thing I took him out earlier.”
“He’s keeping me company. Now, please Ma, stop nagging me or I won’t review the pieces at all.”
Fanny put her hands on her hips. Her voice grew loud enough for all the neighbors to hear. “Don’t get smart with me, young man. Whom do you think you are? If I wouldn’t have pushed you all these years, you wouldn’t even be able to play ‘Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star’.”
Russell was beginning to get a headache. His eyes filled with tears, but his mother didn’t notice, she just kept yakking on and on. Smashing the lid down on the keyboard, he got up, put the leash on Brownie and went outside for a walk.
“I’m getting tired of always being the one to give in,” he mused. “That woman wants me to be a Little Lord Fauntleroy all my life. Sometimes I wish I had no talent. Life would be so much easier.”
Now at eighteen, he was ready for his most important performance. If it turned out successfully, that would be the beginning of a professional career. His piano teacher had been so impressed with his talent and progress that he personally arranged this recital and invited one of the top agents who, if he liked Russell’s performance, would sign him to a lucrative contract and arrange a series of concerts and recordings that would make him internationally famous. But was that what he really wanted - or had he been brainwashed by his mother?
Sitting down on a stoop near the front entrance of his building, he sighed then bent down and scratched Brownie on the head. The dog looked at him and turned his head, sensing his master was in a dilemma. Amy Posner, who lived in the same building, and was his age, came up the block and waved to him. Her long blond hair shone in the sun. She was a total knockout. He had always liked her, but his busy schedule never allowed him the time to ask her out.
“Hello, Amy,” he said, getting up and walking up to her with Brownie.
“Hi,” she replied, petting Brownie. “How’s it going? I heard that you have an important piano recital coming up today. Your mother is very excited. She’s told my parents all about it.”
Russell frowned. “Yeah, it’s probably going to be one of the most important things I’ll do in my life. If I perform well, it will probably lead to a professional career.”
“Gee, what’s the matter with that? You don’t seem too happy about it.”
The young man sighed. “ I’m not too sure I want that. I mean, I do like playing the piano, and know my mom has her heart set on me becoming a famous pianist, but it’s very time consuming and there are many other things in life I want to experience and be exposed to. Honestly, I feel like a butterfly trapped in a box.”
Amy put her hand on his arm. He felt a surge of physical excitement. “Then maybe you after this recital you could slow down and give yourself a chance to think things out.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to disappoint my mother or do anything stupid that could ruin my life. After all, there must be a reason why God gave me all that talent. Perhaps it’s my destiny to become a pianist.”
“Well, there are other things you could do with your musical talent, like teach. In any case, I hope you can resolve your problem and find the right kind of happiness.”
“Thanks Amy. Say, are you doing anything important this afternoon?”
“No, why?”
“I got an extra ticket for the recital in my pocket. Want to come?”
“Oh wow. I’d be delighted to go.”
He gave her the ticket.
“Thanks,” she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek before leaving.
When Russell returned to the apartment, Fanny looked relieved. “You got me worried when you ran out like that. Come on, Russell, now is not the time to get so temperamental. Remember, everything I’m doing is for your own good. Someday you’ll see I’m right. Come on, darling, please go and review the pieces.”
“Yes, Ma,” said he said without any more arguments.
Russell’s piano recital was in the prestigious Weill’s recital auditorium at Carnegie Hall. Standing in the wings, he looked handsome wearing a formal white dinner jacket. His mother was seated in the audience next to his piano teacher and the invited agent. Her face was all aglow with pride. The houselights dimmed, the young pianist took a deep breath and walked out onto the stage.
The recital was going well. For the piece d̀resistance, Russell would show off his superior technique and talent by playing “The Mephisto Waltz, number one” by Franz Liszt. Just before starting, he looked out into the audience and saw Amy’s face. She smiled at him and he felt a tingle go through him.
“How beautiful she is,” he thought. “I believe I’m falling in love with her.”
A moment later, his hands flew across the black and white keys, crisp and brilliant tones emanating from the piano. Then suddenly during the final dramatic cadenza of the composition, he abruptly stopped. A gasp came from the audience. Without a word, Russell got up, shrugged, and walked off the stage.
“Daddy, wake up! You promised to take me to the park today.”
Russell rubbed his eyes. For a moment he was slightly confused, then everything snapped into place. His nine-year-old boy, Brian, was jumping up and down on the bed.
“Hurry up, Daddy, get dressed. It’s almost noon. You slept enough. ”
Amy, his adorable wife, came into the room.
“Come on, Honey, I know it’s the weekend and you want to relax after teaching all week, but you did promise to go with us to Central Park today. I packed a basket full of goodies so we can have a nice picnic there.”
Russell gave his wife a kiss. “I’ll be ready in a second.” From the living room he could hear his thirteen-year-old son, Corey playing a Chopin Etude on the piano. “Isn’t Corey coming with us?”
“No, he wants to do some more practicing. With his first piano solo recital coming up in a week, he wants to get in as much practicing as possible.”
“Well, I hope he doesn’t over work himself,” the worried father said.
Fanny walked into the room, all smiles. “Don’t worry about Corey. After he finishes practicing, I’ll make him a delicious lunch and make sure he gives himself some time to relax.”
Russell walked to his mother. “Well, Mom, I’m glad someone in our family is eventually going to fulfill your dream.”
“
Elliot Richard Dorfman taught in the New York City School System for more than three decades, as well as giving private vocal and piano lessons. He founded Suma Play Productions, Inc., and was artistic director of the American Youth Repertory Company, Off Broadway. After retiring, he moved with his family from the borough of Brooklyn to Johnstown, New York.
Among his successful former students are American tenor Daniel Rodriguez,character actress Kelly Wolf and Broadway stage manager Ira Mont. Mr. Dorfman, a former member of the NY Dramatist Guild and Associated Music teachers League has appeared and written for radio and television. His plays (dramas and musicals) have been presented on the professional stage, schools and centers.
Since the fall of 2007, over fifty-five stories have appeared in the following magazines: Delivered, Twisted Dreams, Bewildering Stories, Golden Visions, Static Movement, NVH, The Tiny Globule, Perpetual, Paradigm Shift, Black Petals, Blood Moon Rising, Demonic Tome, Short Story Library Magazine,Stories That Lift, M-Brane Science Fiction, Coffee Cramp eZine and Infinite Windows. Five poems have appeared in Falling Star, Orange Room Review, Debris, and Golden Visions.
For more detailed information go to: elrite.webs.com
October November December 2009
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