the piano goes to america

the piano goes to america

fiction
edward w pritchard

Down around Adkins, Virgina, just off route 81, on an small strip of obsolete commercial properties, an old British piano sits in front of what looks to have once been a old hotel and slowly decomposes. The piano has no keys and the veneer of fine wood was appropriated long ago but anyone could recognize with a glance that the rectangular upright box was once a piano, and maybe a fine one at that. It came from England in 1844 and has been used throughout Ohio, down through West Virginia, and ending up in Adkins Virginia. The vacant building that the piano sits in front of near the door has a small overhang that protects the piano frame from the worst of the winds but the piano looks like a 99 year old man trying to look confident standing in front of a bar. Traffic on Route 81 is brisk down through that part of Virginia and 81 is why that commercial strip is now vacant as life has moved on and the piano is one fading last remnant of 19th century America.

end part 1