The Piano Man

IX. A Whole Lotta Joy

"To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with." Mark Twain

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IX. A Whole Lotta Joy

The next morning, Sophie sat with her cup of tea while Maddie munched away on her Weetabix watching a cartoon that she liked on the television.

Weekends were usually a time when Sophie liked to unwind from the stress of the week. She liked to hydrate, ready for a week of crying while fighting with Maddie about school and homework. She also liked to plan little fun things that they could do together so that Maddie's only childhood memories wouldn't be of Sophie screaming and crying about bloody school.

Sophie flipped through her phone as she drank and rolled her eyes when she saw that Beck had sent her a succession of suggestive and lewd drunk text messages, followed by a sheepish apology sent this morning. Sophie just deleted the thread. She would have liked to change her number, but she felt as though Beck had some sort of paternal right to be able to contact her.

She then smiled when she saw that Noah had sent through a text message this morning. She had kept to her word and texted him when she had gotten home the night before. She did think it was really sweet that he was concerned about her.

As soon as she opened the message, Sophie burst out laughing. Noah had sent her the picture that they had taken the night before, only he had photoshopped the Snapchat logo over her face.

This better? he had asked.

"What, Mummy?" Maddie asked, her mouth dripping with milk.

"Noah is being silly, sweetheart. Don't get the milk on the carpet, though!"

Sophie sent him back some laughing emojis and set her phone down. "Maddie," she said tenderly. She had been thinking about this all morning, and truly hoped that it would work. "Did you like having a piano lesson with Noah?"

Maddie nodded eagerly. "Yeah!" she cried. "It was so fun, and I was so good at it!"

Sophie beamed with pride. "That you were," she confirmed, with no hint of a lie. "What do you say I have a chat to Noah tonight about organising some piano lessons for you?" she suggested.

The pure joy in Maddie's face as she cried in delight made Sophie's heart swell. Maddie had never been more excited for anything in her life. Children needed to have activities and things that they excelled in. "Yes, please!" she exclaimed.

"Well, good. I'll speak to him when I go into work tonight. But piano lessons are going to cost money, you know. So, you do need to do something for me." Sophie tried to keep her voice positive. This was not meant to sound like a chore. "If you would like to have piano lessons," with Noah or whomever else was available, "then you need to go to school without arguing about it."

Sophie braced herself for a fight. She expected a tantrum. She expected Maddie to flip her cereal bowl over onto the carpet. She expected Maddie to call her names and to lock herself in the bathroom until Sophie gave in pleading and crying.

But Maddie didn't do any of that. She just smiled, and replied, "Okay." She then turned around and focussed her attention back on the television.

Sophie sat, stunned. Bloody hell, if she'd known all it would have taken was a piano lesson, she would have shoved her on the damn thing years ago.

***

Noah grinned as he received Sophie's laughing emojis in response to his picture, and he rolled over in bed to pull his charger out. It seemed really stupid, but it was nice to have a sort of inside joke with someone.