PIANO MOVERS, sent by Steinway at Albertine’s request, came and took her piano away. They left her a check for what it was worth to Steinway, which was about a quarter of what a Steinway representative had told her they would sell it for after they had refurbished it, or about sixty-five percent of what we had paid for it, representing an immeasurably minuscule fraction of the pleasure it had given Albertine to play it or had given me to hear her play it, but approximately equal to the cost of a couple of new washing machines and one month’s mortgage payment. By late afternoon, Tony T had brought the new machines on the launch, he and Dexter Burke had removed the carcasses of the eight deceased machines, and the two jolly tinkers, with the assistance of Grumpy Cluck, had installed the new ones so that they were nearly level and hardly leaking. With the machines came Loretta Pearl, who registered as a guest, went to her room and unpacked, and descended the stairs as Director of Maintenance for Small’s Hotel, equipped with a personal digital assistant — a computer in the form of a clipboard — and the firm conviction that if it was kept well oiled no machine need ever die.
“Friend of Lou’s?” asked Albertine.
“Why, yes,” said Loretta.
“Escaping the cares of business?”
“Giving it a try,” she said. “After my husband died, I had to step in and run his advertising business myself. It has now been — well, let’s just say a long time — and the responsibilities are exhausting. I haven’t had a vacation in years. That is, I haven’t enjoyed a vacation in years. I’ve tried to get away — ”
“But the business keeps crying out to you.”
“Yes. You’ve heard this before.”
“We have a few friends of Lou’s here.”
“Well, he’s quite persuasive about the therapeutic value of the place. Now where are your warranties?”
“That’s a question I often ask myself,” said Albertine.
[to be continued]
Subscribe to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy
Share The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy
Watch Well, What Now? This series of short videos continues The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy in the present.
Have you missed an episode or two or several?
You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide. The Substack serialization of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here; What a Piece of Work I Am begins here; At Home with the Glynns begins here; Leaving Small’s Hotel begins here.
You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed. The Substack podcast reading of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here; What a Piece of Work I Am begins here; At Home with the Glynns begins here; Leaving Small’s Hotel begins here.
You can listen to “My Mother Takes a Tumble” and “Do Clams Bite?” complete and uninterrupted as audiobooks through YouTube.
You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of Little Follies, Herb ’n’ Lorna, Reservations Recommended, Where Do You Stop?, What a Piece of Work I Am, and At Home with the Glynns.
You can buy hardcover and paperback editions of all the books at Lulu.
You’ll find overviews of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy (a pdf document), The Origin Story (here on substack), Between the Lines (a video, here on Substack), and at Encyclopedia.com.
Share this post