The Piano

"The voice you hear is not my speaking voice - but my minds voice. I have not spoken since I was six years old. No one knows why - not even me. My father says it is a dark talent, and the day I take it into my head to stop breathing will be my last. Today he married me to a man I have not yet met. Soon my daughter and I shall join him in his own country. My husband writes that my muteness does not bother him - and hark this! He says, "God loves dumb creatures, so why not I?" Twere good he had Gods patience, for silence affects everyone in the end. The strange thing is, I dont think myself silent. That is because of my piano. I shall miss it on the journey."

"At night I think of my piano in its ocean grave, and sometimes of myself floating above it. Down there everything is so still and silent that it lulls me to sleep. It is a weird lullaby and so it is; it is mine."

"One day when my mother and father were singing together in the forest, a great storm blew up out of nowhere. But so passionate was their singing that they did not notice, nor did they stop as the rain began to fall, and when their voices rose for the final bars of the duet a great bolt of lighting came out of the sky and struck my father so that he lit up like a torch. And at the same moment my father was struck dead my mother was struck dumb! She never spoke another word."

"I teach piano now in Nelson. George has fashioned me a metal finger tip, I am quite the town freak which satisfies! I am learning to speak. My sound is still so bad I am ashamed. I practice only when I am alone and it is dark."

"[to Ada] I have given the piano back to you. Ive had enough. The arrangement is making you a whore, and me, wretched. I want you to care for me. But you cant. Its yours, leave. Go on, go."

"What a death! What a chance! What a surprise! My will has chosen life! Still it has had me spooked and many others besides!"

"Ada, I am unhappy because I want you, because my mind has seized on you and thinks of nothing else. This is how I suffer, I am sick with longing. I dont eat, I dont sleep. If you do not want me, if you have come with no feeling for me, then go! Go! Go NOW! Leave!"

"[to Ada] Do you know how to bargain, nod if you do. [she doesnt move] Theres a way you can have your piano back. Do you want it back? You want it back?You see Id like us to make a deal. Theres things I want to do while you stay. If you let me you can earn it back. What do you think, one visit for every key."

"[to Baines] Understand me. I am here for her, for her I wonder that I dont wake, that I am not asleep to be here talking with you. I love her. But what is the use? She doesnt care for me. I wish her gone. I wish you gone. I want to wake and find it was a dream, that is what I want. I want to believe I am not this man. I want my self back; the one I know."