Lenny and the Underwater World Read online

Lenny and the Underwater World

  By

  Willow Bandersnap

  Lenny and the Underwater World

  Copyright © 2012 by Willow Bandersnap

  All rights reserved.

  Illustration: Copyright © 2012 by Willow Bandersnap

  Lenny and the Underwater World

  By

  Willow Bandersnap

  From the safety of the dining room, Lenny studied the woman shadowing his mother by the front door. Her dress stood out most, having been created from a vibrant pink and purple flowered pattern and stitched into a tent shape. Rolls of fat undulated the flowers so a gentle wind appeared to be brushing past only her. Sausage arms, pasty and covered in a rash of tiny red spots, pushed his mother out the way. The woman had spied Lenny peeking.

  “You must be Lenny,” she said in an exaggerated accent, like she wished she’d been raised with the upper crust of England.

  Had his mother fallen for this?

  “I am to teach you piano.” She pursed her swollen lips in a controlled smile. This grimace turned her face into a distinctly fishy shape. Grey streaked hair spiraled back to a tight bun that pulled the woman’s eyes into wide slits, which she blinked in great purposeful swoops. Sweat gathered on her forehead and started to roll, trickling down the sides of her face.

  She leaned towards the boy, and for a frightening moment, Lenny felt sure she meant to kiss him. Instead, she clapped a meaty hand on his shoulder, and whispered in his ear, “You and I are going to make music together.” An odiferous wave of garlic mushroomed over Lenny, and he staggered backwards into the dining room.

  “The keyboard’s in here, Miss,” he said, sat down at the table, and swiveled away from her.

  “An e-lectronic keyboard?” she said, frowning into a cod face. “No. No, one can’t learn piano on an e-lectronic keyboard. I hope you didn’t waste too much money on… this.” She crinkled her nose, as if the machine were repugnant.

  “No, Miss Kellaway. We borrowed it, from a neighbor. Little Johnny Oats wasn’t using it, and his mother Margaret told us we could use it as long as we wanted. Didn’t she dear,” Audra said, and pulled Tim, Lenny’s dad into the small room.

  “Yes,” Tim said.

  “Why? Is there something wrong Miss Kellaway? We thought it would be ideal for learning the piano, you know, as a beginner, and we’d buy a proper one later, when he showed promise. Didn’t we dear.”

  “Yes,” Tim said, rolling forward on the balls of his feet, hands stuck deep into the pockets of his corduroy trousers.

  “I’m very sorry, but I simply can’t teach on such a contraption,” she said, giving the keyboard a sneer with her fish face. “You must get a piano.”

  Audra shifted from one foot to the other, and said, “Maybe he should come to your house, use your-”

  “I already told you no!” Miss Kellaway interrupted. “I am moving house soon, and I am not able to conduct lessons at present,” she said in a softer voice, then turned away from the keyboard. “You must get a piano if I am to tutor the boy, and I can tell you already, your boy has a talent just waiting to be released.”

  “Really?” Audra said, “I’m amazed, how can you tell…”

  “One gets a nose for such things.” Miss Kellaway tapped the side of one nostril with a big fat finger.

  Lenny wondered how she played with immense mitts like that. Skin pooled over her bones, as if she’d put on thick human gloves. Enormous multi-jeweled gold rings had been forced down the length of her fingers. Lenny presumed this was to hold the borrowed skin in place.

  Across the room, Audra stared in awe of her son’s potential unleashed raw talent. She turned and pulled on her husband’s shirtsleeve. “Tim, do you think…”

  “Absolutely not. Sorry Audra, but we can’t afford to buy a piano on the possibility of greatness.” He harrumphed harder on the balls of his feet, his tall body growing and shrinking inches at a time.

  “But Tim…”

  “I’m sorry, but I shall have to leave.” Miss Kellaway bustled a large Harrods bag onto the fleshy crook of her arm. “I think we’ve all wasted enough time here today,” she said, and tried to push past Audra who in turn tried to block the way.

  “Tim, please!” Audra pulled harder on his shirt, the fabric strained, ready to rip. Miss Kellaway tapped her foot, inches from Lenny’s mum. Tim shook his head, peering over the women to glimpse the relieved expression on Lenny’s face.

  “There is another way,” Miss Kellaway said quietly.

  Audra stopped pulling, Lenny’s face dropped, and Tim tightened the grip on the wallet in his pocket.

  “I could loan you a piano, for a short time, to show you what the boy is capable of.”

  “Would you really do that for us?” Audra said. “Do you hear that Tim, she’ll loan us a piano!”

  “Of course… you’ll have to move your room around, you couldn’t possibly get the sound right in such a cluttered atmosphere. No doubt you’ve both been waiting for an excuse to clear out all this old junk.” She waved one of her plump hands, indicating her distaste of the antique china, priceless heirlooms and well-chosen knick-knacks scattered around the room. “The piano will have to go on that wall,” she said, pointing to a wall with a fully loaded dresser positioned in the centre.

  “Now hold on a minute,” Tim said, his rocking becoming steadily more aggressive. “You can’t come in here and say things like that…”

  “Tim dear, shh,” Audra said, then to Miss Kellaway, “Oh course, we’ll do whatever you say. Thank you!”

  Audra grabbed the teacher’s hand and shook furiously. Lenny winced, half expecting a human glove to go flying as his mother’s exuberance dislodged it.

  “Are you mad?” Tim asked in hushed tones after Miss Kellaway had left.

  “Me?” she replied, indignant. “I want our son to have a chance, did you pay attention to what she said, about Lenny? And besides, it’s free!”

  Tim surveyed the room, tallying up how much of his weekend would be wasted rearranging furniture. “Come on, lad, we’ve got work to do,” Tim said, and rolled up his sleeves.

  “I’ll put the kettle on…” Audra skipped from the room. “A free piano, fancy that!”

  Two days later, and without warning, a knock sounded at the front door. Two large men with half smoked cigarettes clenched between their thin lips, and a weeks worth of stubble, stood on the garden path. They leaned their hairy arms on a piano, their t-shirts already damp from exertion. Lenny almost sent them away. He thought of that fishy Miss Kellaway coming back to teach him. Repulsed, he began to slowly close the door.

  “Where d’ya want it,” the closer one barked in a gravely voice. The piano shifted a little as it sank into his father’s pristine lawn.

  Audra scurried up the hall, reopening the door. “Who’s there, Lenny?” Her face broke into an enormous smile as her eyes traced the outline of the instrument. “Please come in,” she said as she dried her hands with a tea towel.

  The men squatted and grabbed the lower edges of the piano, ripping it out of the lawn with an earthy sucking noise. They uttered a few grunts and groans, and then with surprisingly graceful movements, transported it into the dining room.

  “Put it down ‘ere, Alfred,” one of them said. They squatted again, Alfred showing the top of his hairy bum as his jeans slipped a little. “Where d’ya want it?”

  Audra pointed to the blank spot on the wall, and the men pushed it over, the wheels rolling chunks of grass and mud onto the carpet. Lenny stared in horror at the mix of green and brown stains, but his mother had eyes only for the piano. With a second glance, he had to admit it was a fine looking instrument. Dark wood contained the i
nnards, bar a strip of pale wood that traced the edges, and the whole thing had been beautifully polished. He stared hard at the shiny surface, surprised to find his own pale face peering back, as if though rippling water.

  “Oh, Lenny, isn’t it gorgeous!” she said, running her fingertips along the top, down the side, and onto the lid, which she flipped up. Tentatively, she touched an ebony key. A tone rang out, deep and multileveled. “Sit down, have a go!” Audra placed a stool in front, indicating Lenny should sit.

  “We’ll see ourselves out,” the unnamed man muttered, his cigarette still smoldering. Ash floated to the carpet.

  Audra barely glanced up. “Thanks,” she said.

  She stood to the side of the piano, caressing the wood, her eyes dreamy and distant. The men tromped off, she didn’t appear to notice, not even flinching as they gave the front door a hearty slam.

  “Play, Lenny.”

  “But, I don’t know anything,” he said with a shrug, but sat anyway. He