Fingers

Last week, I took N to his piano lesson. He took his first lessons earlier in the year and then had a brief break over the summer. This was the first one since the break and the first time I'd taken him. I think he enjoyed showing me around the place. N's teacher seems nice and he seems comfortable with her. My job during the lesson was to take notes as needed.

Take notes as needed? I didn't know what that meant. Just to be safe, I started scribbling down virtually anything she said. Better to have too much than too little, I reasoned. About fifteen minutes into the lesson, she turned to me and gave me a very exact page number and lesson that I should note. It was at this point that I learned she would feed me the "needed" notes. I jotted down the information and stopped transcribing the session verbatim.

Since I was no longer busy writing, I had a chance I instead to sit back and watch N play. His teacher was quite concerned that he use his arms more and not just his fingers. She was working with him to move his arms just a bit more. She made no mention of the color of his fingers. I hadn't noticed them earlier but now, against the ivory piano keys, they stood out. You see, our neighbor has a black walnut tree and N has been collecting and peeling walnuts for the past few days. This pastime has turned his finger tips almost black. I felt the need to say something, to explain that the stain just doesn't wash out. I figured I'd wait until she said something first, surely his soiled digits had not gone unnoticed.

The lesson continued. I took notes when instructed to, N tried to use his arms more and no one spoke of the dirty fingers. When we got home, I tried scrubbing his hands but had little success in fading the stain. Even though he was advised against handling the nuts, his fingers acquired a fresh black coat over the weekend. I found a site on the Internet that dealt with removing stains. It provided solutions for treating rust, grass, blood and a host of other stains. Someone had written in asking about walnut stains and skin. The consensus seems to be that time is the only real remedy although one guy did write in that cow urine works surprisingly well. I don't want to know how he learned this fact.

I told N his only options were waiting and cow urine. He smiled at the absurdity of using cow urine. Then, after a brief pause, he said, "I wonder if it has to be from a cow?". Yes, I replied, only cow urine works. In fact, most other urines will actually make the problem worse and should not be tried.

I hope he believed me.