Mimi's Demons

Chapter 35: On the Topic of Murder

Mimi had never sat at a grand piano until her lessons with Duke. It still felt surreal even on their third week into lessons to be faced with so much polished black and ivory. It felt more like steering a ship than playing an instrument when she put her little fingers on the keys. She still couldn't believe he'd dared to write the names of the each ivory key in permanent marker.

"Wrist's up." He tapped beneath her wrists with a finger. "Straight back. Good girl."

At least she had her starting position right.

Duke smoothed open the book, where some simple scales were printed. "Alright, we'll start with C major scale."

"I don't need the book for that."

"Follow along anyway. It will give you practice in remembering what the notes are. Think the note name in your head as you do so."

Mimi didn't sigh or grump. She'd done so before, sure, and still felt like it was weird that she didn't. But there was something about someone taking the time to sit down with her and actually teach her something. It felt...she didn't know.

But in moved her little fingers along the keys, one step at a time, and she found herself thinking the notes in her head. C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C...then back down and over again, then an octave higher. Serena made her practice these scales every day, but it seemed different playing them for warm ups when she was sitting next to Duke.

Occasionally he'd put a hand on her back to remind her to keep it straight or tap her wrists again.

"Good girl. Now, arpeggios."

Mimi smiled a little. The last movie she'd watched with Duke had been 'The Aristocats,' and ever since she couldn't not think of the song the kittens sang about doing their scales and arpeggios whenever she played them.

Her smile turned full when she heard Duke muttering the song next to her. It hurt the back of her head, for some reason. Probably because she wasn't used to it.

"Don't you murder people for a living?" she asked.

"That's very crass of you, kitten. I do much more than that."

"But you do murder people."

"Not personally anymore, no. That'd be a reward to them. No, I manage people and people's wants. It's not much different than any other company."

"Besides being illegal."

"You'd be surprised how much I do is legal. Remember this," he tapped her wrists and she hurriedly raised them back in place. "Law does not decide morality. There are plenty of evil laws and evil legal deeds."

"Then what's the government even for?"

"Order." He touched her back and she re-straightened. "Or the illusion of such. If you're able to talk and do arpeggios at the same time you must be doing well. Should we do something a little harder today?"

They had started out with songs that either used just the right hand or just the left. Then they'd moved onto songs that used two hands, though they left one side doing a simple one note beat while the other did anything more intricate. This time, however, the song he smoothed the book open on had too many notes on both sides.

She scowled, but lifted her chin in determination.

This song was going down.

It didn't. If it wasn't her left hand losing its place, her right hand would freeze up entirely as she tried to keep track of her left. Then it was trying to keep track of both lines at the same time, both of which meant different keys for whatever line the note was on, and in two minutes flat she was wondering how piano players even existed.