1966, Albany, NY
The woman at the front desk said "Hello, what can I get for you today?"
"Maybe a 1/8 size violin for our little maestro here!" My parents exclaimed, revealing me to the woman at the front desk.
"would you like to rent it or buy it?" the woman at the front desk asked, not looking up from her computer.
"Um, let's buy it!" my mom said, obviously still thinking about buying the violin or not.
"Okay! That would be $70 please!" the woman said happily, finally looking up from her computer screen. Her smile was so big, it almost looked evil! just then my parents started whispering to each other, just loud enough that I could hear:
"Are you sure we have that much money? Robert, please tell me we have enough money!" my mom pleaded
"Maribelle, we'll go bankrupt if we buy it!!" my dad said, pulling out only $80 dollars and a few coins. He was right, we wouldn't be able to afford our house. So we asked to do rental, which was 2 dollars a month, so it was 24$ a year!
Last but not least, we asked it we could get a violin teacher. Unfortunately, the woman said that all the black and most of the white violin teachers were not available , the black violin teachers had all moved out of the area to go teach in Italy, and the white violin teachers were refusing to teach a black girl, excet for one, Charles Borington, the descendant of West Borington, but I doubted he was the same, after all, he was the only one who wasn't refusing a Black student, so my parents turned to me and said at the same time "do you want Charles Borington, they say he is a really good violin and piano player, you and victoria could play together!"
"Okay!" I said, not really sure about that idea, and if Charles Borington was actually a good violin teacher.
Just then the woman at the front desk realized we were black.
"Um, Actually you can't do that, it's against the law! A white teacher cannot teach a black student!" The woman at the front desk was so angry, I could almost see smoke coming out of her ears. She stood up, and said that straight to my face, she was so close I could smell the PB&J sandwich with tuna fish and shrimp chips she had for lunch!
"Sign here, for the violin rental!" instead of her old sweet and cheery voice, now her voice was cracked and angry.
Did you like it? second book
