The Piano Player

Back in 1925 many musicians lived in the Missouri Delta and they hoped to obtain success and esteem. One such man was "Fingers" Brown, who grew up in the slums of St. Louis, and would sneak into club alleys to hear the pianos through the back door crack. He returned every night, and decided he too would be a great pianist. He took a job at a local slaughter house where he worked until he could afford a piano. The first stores he went to refused to sell to him, but at last he found a blind man's traveling shop- the blind man knew Brown, but never explained how, but agreed that Brown ought to have a the piano he so desired since boyhood- so he gave him one, but warned that he would never play piano again. Fingers found it to be the most beautiful piece of gleaming wood and vibrating wires that he ever witnessed. He took it home at once without any further inquiry. He forgot all about the strange warning, and he played the piano each day until his finger tips callused and bled on the keys.

The next morning the St. Louis police stormed into his home, claiming to have recovered a piano stolen from John F Queeny's estate. The police coerced his confession- adding on other charges such as attempted rape to burglary. The judge sent him to prison with a life sentence. But Brown never stopped playing piano. In his cell, he etched the keys into the wall and spend his days tapping away at the concrete tomb. He died from a stab wound and was buried in the prison potter's field. Yet his fellow inmates never knew that he was gone- because each night they heard those tapping keys against the hallow walls.