Chapter 1

Marlena Parcells was known throughout the Boston area as the consummate piano teacher of young girls and boys. Only the children of rich merchants and families of prominence were accepted for tutelage at her studio.

Before turning to teach as a career Marlena had a distinguished but short career as a concert pianist. At the age of fifteen, Marlena was featured in concerts at Carnegie Hall. It was 1955 and Marlena was eighteen when she played for President Dwight Eisenhower at the white house. At the age of twenty-two, a freak accident crushed two fingers on her left hand. Marlena’s career as a concert pianist was over.

After spending two years in denial and constant visits to specialists Marlena resigned herself to her fate. Marlena started taking in students to earn a living. She found that she actually had a flair for teaching and was soon overwhelmed with requests to take on more students. Marlena doubled then tripled her hourly fees. All of her students from working-class families eventually went elsewhere for training.

All but one. His name was Thomas Taylor. Marlena had been teaching for a year when his mother brought the six-year-old boy to see Marlena for the first time. Mrs. Taylor was a single mother worked as a seamstress and told Marlena how he was obsessed with the upright piano that was left in her apartment by a previous tenant. She asked if Marlena would teach him to play properly. Marlena sat him down next to her at her baby grand piano and played a simple tune. Thomas smiled and played the tune perfectly. Marlena spent an unprecedented half hour talking and playing slightly more difficult tunes that Thomas emulated nearly perfectly. Marlena could see his mother was not going to be able to afford even her then reasonable fees. The child intrigued her and she saw something in him that other students his age lacked. She felt she needed to further test Thomas to see if what she thought was true.

Marlena told his mother a white lie. For him to be accepted he would need to undergo further tests. If she found him acceptable and his mother was satisfied with her instruction then and only then would she be asked to pay for her time.

One month later Marlena knew she had a remarkable prodigy on her hands. Marlena went with her piano tuner to his mother’s apartment to tune the piano and see that any repairs that it need for him to practice were done. Marlena became obsessed with him and spent two hours with him four times a week.

To justify his mother not paying for his training Marlena told his mother she would suspend any fees if she would allow her to take him with her to impress important clients with her studio’s teaching skills. Marlena knew Mrs. Taylor would sacrifice almost anything to give Thomas the lessons that he enjoys so much. Marlena could see the relief in her face when she presented her proposal to her. After five months of training, he was becoming proficient at playing short classical pieces by Mozart, Beethoven and many of the day’s more popular show tunes. Watching a seven-year-old play the way he did easily convinced her clients that her studio was worth the fee she was charging. Marlena hired two very qualified teachers to teach the less talented. She concentrated on teaching Thomas and three other students that had exceptional skills. Although none of them were able to match Thomas’ grasps of the instrument.

Thomas turned fourteen and Marlena still hasn’t charged his mother a penny for his training. They are at the point in his training where Marlena sits next to him as he plays and closes her eyes and enjoys the music that flows from his fingers. Needing only to correcting minor errors and occasional lapse in concentration that only a trained musician would notice. Their work together now concentrated on how to interpret the music and make it his own.

He was fifteen when Marlena arranged for his first appearance in New York City to introduce him to the world. It was with the New York Symphony. Marlena had called in a favor from her days as a concert pianist. After a brief audition, he was invited to play one concerto. Their fee barely covered expenses. But some of the right people noticed and he started receiving invitations to appear as a guest pianist at other concert halls.

Soon solo concerts were booked in Boston and Providence. The word of his talent spread. Balancing his schoolwork and his music became a challenge but Malena was adamant about his education and paid his tuition at a private boys school. If he was behind in his studies she hired a tutor.

Thomas was seventeen and his first summer after graduating from St. John’s Academy for boys when he gave his first solo concert in New York City. Marlena had secured a booking for two matinees and three evening performances.

It was his last performance before they were to take the train back to Boston the next morning. When he walked off the stage to the thunderous standing ovation. Marlena threw her arms around him and kissed him. Not on the cheek but his lips. “You were wonderful. I am so proud of you.” Marlena was so excited for him she kissed him again as her face showed the pride she felt in their accomplishment. She turned him around “Go, Thomas, take another bow and play an encore. They love you.” Thomas went back out to take another bow and played an encore to the attentive audience and was again rewarded with thunderous applause.

When the curtain went down and he walked off the stage he put his arms around Marlena and kissed her. “Thank you, Marlene. You have no idea what I am feeling right now.” As he kissed her again, Marlena pulled back and saw it in his eyes. What he was feeling was desire. Marlena was no stranger to the looks of men from her days when she was the diva. She even favored a few with a night in my bed. She could not believe at Thomas’s young age he had that same look. The adrenalin and excitement from tonight must be flowing through his veins

Marlena freed herself from his arms and took his hand, “Come, Thomas, it’s time to go.” They went to the manager’s office and collected their fee from the very pleased promotor and went out and caught a cab back to the hotel. As soon as they were in the lift and the doors closed he took Marlena into his arms again. He pushed her against the elevator wall and she could feel him pressing his manhood against her as he kissed her. She knew he was still excited from tonight’s triumphant performance and very sure the adrenalin was still pumping. Marlena is thirty-six and all she could think was this seventeen-year-old teenage boy is trying to take advantage of me.