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He played the middle part for me. In the living room, twilight strayed through the slitted drapes onto the plastic runners which crisscrossed the living room. Every large piece of furniture in the living room was covered with plastic, except the piano. The Wotylas kept the living room for company. For the big holidays -- like Easter midnight Mass when they ate special foods like cheese pierogis at two in the morning -- they went to relatives in Hamtramck. I don't think they ever had the company they were saving the furniture for. None of the kids were allowed in the living room even if they stayed on the runners because the living room contained the Wotylas' best carpet and the best furniture, a complete matched set like those you saw advertised in the Sunday papers. The ban on the living room was fine with Carole and me; it reduced the area we had to clean.

I was too shy to ask him this directly so I asked Carole 'Is your dad a concert pianist?' and she said 'No he works at Ford's.' Her mother overheard us talking and said pay attention to what you're doing. 'Those forks aren't dry,' she said, picking up one of the forks I had dried while Carole was washing the dinner dishes. 'Wet between the teeth. Is this how you dry dishes at home?'

I didn't want to tell her I didn't do dishes at home because Grandma did them, to 'earn her keep' and she put them in a rack to dry. In fact I had never done any housework except sporadically making my bed until I became friends and co-drudges with Carole. Between marching orders, Mrs Wotyla told us Wadiszwaw ('Walter' he corrected from the living room. 'My name is Walter.') could have been a concert pianist but his parents wouldn't buy him a piano to practice on and he had to practice on a strip of paper with the keys inked on. He took lessons at a piano store where he worked after school and those were his first formal lessons, and he worked them off. 'It wasn't like they didn't have the money, they're loaded,' Sonia said. 'But they just didn't want to spend their money on Wadiszwaw. They didn't appreciate him. Music means nothing to them. In fact they're still pinching every dollar. I bet they're hiding a bundle in the walls of that house.'

'That piano of his cost almost a year's wages at the Ford's, but at least he comes right home. Doesn't stop at the bar.' I had never seen the Wotylas drink except for a 'highball' on Friday nights, not like my parents whose evening could not begin without the cocktail hour which also lengthened their nights. When I said 'Ford's' at home, my Dad, who also worked there, corrected me. 'I am employed by the Ford Motor Company. Executive track.'

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