#100: Accordion

The screech of an instrument plucked at Peter's consciousness. In that moment, he realised he had lost sight of Rory amongst the piles of junk.

He's been searching the corpses of discarded washing machines. Grace had insisted on finding a replacement rather than buying a new one. She'd said it would be a good lesson for the kids. And for them. Get them off the merry-go-round of consumerism.

Perhaps they could save the money for a holiday. When Peter raised his eyebrow at the irony of going for a holiday instead of buying something they needed, Grace told him to fuck off.

So he packed the one kid at home to teach him a lesson on listening to the wife.

Peter heard the sound again.

Rory sat on a pile of books, squeezing a piano accordion. There was a look of absolute joy as the boy was figuring out that the sound would change if he pressed one of the black and white keys while making the instrument breathe.

Peter took out his phone and filmed what he hoped would be the beginning of a musical career, one of those evolution stories that would have this grainy footage to support the legend.

Peter wished he had been still filming when he told Rory he could take the accordion and they'd use the money they saved by fixing the washing machine to buy him music lessons.