The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy
The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy
🎧 983: Piano movers, . . .
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🎧 983: Piano movers, . . .

Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 35 continues, read by the author
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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]

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