| General Fiction posted February 2, 2025 | Chapters: |
...28 29 -30- 31... 
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The first violin lesson
A chapter in the book The Devil Fights Back
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 30
by Jim Wile
| Background Three intrepid women team up to conquer medical challenges. |
Recap of Chapter 29: Fran arrives at Brian’s house to have breakfast with the team on its final day. She gathers everyone in the family room after breakfast to thank them all for the immense effort they put forth in developing the Dipraxa antidote. Her thank you speech is interrupted by the Kendricks' cat, who has climbed up into the Christmas tree and is pawing at Fran’s hair as she speaks. Following this amusing scene, she collects their burner phones and gets them to sign NDAs about the project.
Back at home, Marie decides she will take Julia’s advice and begin teaching again. Her surprise first student ends up being Cedric, the doorman at her apartment building. He will come for his first lesson the following evening, and she will teach him for free.
Chapter 30
Dana
I prepared a text for Leonard Merra, saying that Tony Faiella (Barry Degner) had fulfilled his mission and attached the recording he’d made to “prove” it. In the phony recording, in which he had used a friend to impersonate Brian, you could clearly hear the following exchange, which supposedly took place in a supermarket parking lot:
Tony: ’Scuse me, are you Brian Kendrick?
Brian: Yes. Who are you?
Tony: The name’s Tony. I’m here to tell you to put a halt to da human trials of your new drug.
Brian: Who sent you?
Tony: You don’t gotta know dat. All you gotta do now is quit what you’re doing.
Brian: Or else what?
Tony: Or else a lot more a dis: (Sounds of a punch and a groan and what sounded like the thud of a body falling to the ground. Then a kick and a cry of pain.) You got da message, pal? Quit da trials, or you’ll get a lot worse den dis. I hope for your sake dere won’t be a next time.
I sent this text with the attached sound recording file to Fran as she instructed. She would perform her magic and attach spyware and send this text on to Merra as if it came directly from me. In addition to giving him the proof of the assault he’d required, his phone would now be bugged, and recordings of all his calls would be sent to a server in the FBI. It will be someone’s job to listen to these and report to Fran any kind of threat to Brian or his family.
I also filled out a voucher for our accounts payable folks to pay Tony Faiella his $3,000. Now it would be a waiting game to see when Merra decides to up the stakes.
Marie
I must confess to being a little nervous about Cedric’s lesson this evening. I haven’t worked with a beginner in many years—not since Julia was a child—and I’m not sure how good a teacher I’ll be, especially with a student who probably isn’t as naturally gifted as Julia was. I have no idea about Cedric, and I shouldn’t judge him in advance. I’ll have to feel him out for how much he currently knows about music and what his practice situation will be.
He rang the doorbell a few minutes before 7:00. He had changed out of his uniform and was neatly dressed in blue jeans and a sweater. “Good evening, Ms. Schmidt,” he said with a smile as he entered.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” I said to him. “In here during your lessons, it’s Dr. Schmidt, and I will call you Cedric. We will take this seriously. It doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun while we’re at it, but I want you to treat this with the respect it deserves. Are we clear on that, Cedric?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Very good. Why don’t you take this seat here, and I have a few questions for you?”
We headed over to two chairs I’d set up with a music stand between them and sheet music for a song I didn’t think he’d know: “Moon River” by Henry Mancini. I wanted to test his ability to read music.
“Tell me the extent of your musical knowledge, Cedric. Can you currently read music?”
“Yes, some. I sing in my church choir, and I’ve learned to read the music for the hymns pretty well.”
“So, you know a quarter note from an eighth note and the difference between four-four time and six-eight time?”
“I know the note lengths, but I may be a little shaky on some of the rest.”
“How would you say your intonation is? Can you sing on pitch, or is it a struggle for you?”
“I’d say I’m pretty good. I can hear when I’m off.”
“Okay, I’m going to give you a piece of music to sing. Look it over for a minute or so and sing me the first few bars if you would.” I handed him the sheet music from the stand, and he studied it very seriously. I could see him tapping his toe as he read through it, mouthing the words, and humming a bit as he worked out the melody.”
“Alright, now. Give it a try.”
He sang a very creditable version of the beginning of the song. I stopped him after eight bars and said, “That was very good. Had you ever heard that song before?”
“No, ma’am. That’s a nice melody.”
“Indeed. You have a nice voice too, and your pitch was quite good. This bodes well for playing the violin. Unlike the guitar, there are no frets on the fingerboard to guide where to place your fingers on the strings. You just have to know where to place them and be able to adjust quickly if you haven’t got it quite right.
“Let’s look at the violin closely now.” I took the violin I would lend him out of its case and went through the different parts of it and the purpose of each. Then I showed him how to hold it, as well as the bow, and slide the bow across the strings to make different notes.
He seemed entranced and was concentrating very carefully on each word. He took direction well as I made minor adjustments to his body posture and hand and arm positions.
The time flew by, and it was 8:00 before we knew it. “I’m going to lend you this violin to practice and play with, Cedric, and I’ll expect you to purchase the book I’ve written down for you. You can find it at this store that I’ve written the name of too. I’d also like you to download a violin tuning app to your phone, and please make sure it has a metronome as well.”
I handed him the sheet with the music store and the name of the book to purchase. “Read the first two chapters and do the exercises in them. Does a one-hour lesson at this time work well for you on Thursday evenings?”
“Yes, ma’am. This should work fine. How’d I do tonight?”
“Better than I expected. But you’d better practice hard, and no slacking, or I’ll be able to tell. Do you think you can manage at least an hour a day of practice with a bit more on weekends?”
“I can do it, ma’am.”
“Good, then I’ll expect 100% effort and won’t brook any excuses for why you’re not prepared. Are we clear about that?”
“Yes, Dr. Schmidt.”
“Then I’ll see you next week, Cedric.”
“But you’ll see me tomorrow.”
“Yes, but then you’ll be Cecil.”
He laughed. As he headed out the door, he called back, “Goodbye, Ms. Schmidt, and thank you for the lesson—and the violin.”
“Goodbye, Cecil,” I said, smiling and shaking my head.
 Recognized |
Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.
Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.
Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.
Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.
Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.
Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.
Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.
Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.
Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.
Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.
Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.
Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.
Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.
Judge Raymond Jezek: The district court judge in Philadelphia who grants Fran a wiretap warrant against Leonard Merra.
Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro
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