Body & Soul Read Online Free PDF

playing them. His mind was hot with music, and he did not think at all until it began to cool down.
    Sliding into sleep, he pondered the mysterious beauty of her voice. It seemed to come from somewhere else and simply go through her, like the Mozart he heard through his cardboard radio. And how did she know about counting? It had been a useful tip, but it worried him. The music was his. He touched the
Blue Book
under his head. He didn't want her somehow taking it away from him. Under the covers his knees gradually worked their way up to his chest, and he fell asleep.

    At Weisfeld's Music Store he put a dime on the counter and held up the
Blue Book.
"I'm finished," he said.
    "It takes patience," Weisfeld said, looking up from some paperwork. "You should have told me. Show me where you got stuck."
    "I didn't get stuck. I learned it all."
    Weisfeld gently put down his pen. He took the dime and dropped it into the open drawer of the cash register. "I hope you will not take umbrage if I say that's a little hard to believe."
    "What's'umbrage'?"
    "Offense. I hope you don't take offense. I hope you don't get mad."
    "Can I show you?"
    Weisfeld got off his stool, came around the display case, and led the way to the piano. "Be my guest," he said with a wave.
    Claude put the
Blue Book
up, opened to the first lesson, and laid his fingers on the keys. "I'm not completely sure, but I think I did everything right." He began to play, moving quickly through the early lessons and exercises, turning the pages with his left hand. When he
began to play with both hands Weisfeld stepped forward and turned pages for him. He watched Claude's fingers intently, occasionally taking a quick glance at the music. His face was expressionless. Somewhere in the middle of the book Claude asked, "Is it right? Am I doing it right?"

    "Yes," Weisfeld said. "Keep going."
    The last piece in the book was counterpoint, twenty-five bars from Bach's Two Part Inventions. Claude paused for a moment. The music had been hard to read. Tricky in terms of meter, and he'd played it wrong for a couple of days, feeling uneasy. Eventually he had forced himself to count everything out without touching the piano. One
and
two
and
three
and
four, until everything seemed to fall into place. Only then did he allow himself to play it, over and over again, and he hoped now that his counting had been correct. He set the beat in his head and began to play.
    "Hold it, hold it," Weisfeld interrupted. "That's much too fast. Play it slower."
    Again Claude silently counted, at a slower tempo, and began to play. It was harder, somehow, to keep track of everything at the slow beat, and about halfway through he made a mistake. He took his hands off the keys.
    "I'll start again."
    "No, no, keep going," Weisfeld said quickly. "When you're playing a piece straight through and know you've made a mistake, keep on going. Don't start all over again. You can correct it the next time." He tapped the page with a finger. "Start here and keep going no matter what happens."
    Claude did as he was told and played through to the end without any errors that he was aware of. Claude closed the book and stared at it in the silence.
    "Was it right?" he asked, turning.
    Weisfeld seemed to be absorbed in thought, his round face tilted upward, staring at the wall.
    "Was it right?" Claude asked again.
    "Yes," Weisfeld answered.
    The icy bell announced the arrival of a customer. Weisfeld muttered a foreign word under his breath, rubbed his cheeks with his hands, and turned.
    "One minute," he said to Claude as he moved away.
    Claude took the
Blue Book
from the piano and went back to the counter. In the front of the shop Weisfeld conferred with a large woman who pointed at something in the window display. After a few moments the woman left and Weisfeld returned. He stepped behind the counter and arranged the papers on which he had been working into a neat pile, papers covered with handwritten music.

    "What's that?" Claude