Chapter 162 Doing “Fairly Well”
Emily was able to run some errands while Sylvia gave Mandy her first piano lesson. She was glad to have a bit of time to shop, and Sylvia insisted on not having anyone interfere in her tutelage anyway.
Emily wondered how Sylvia would cope being left alone with her granddaughter. She had been out a couple of hours, and she hoped they hadn’t killed each other.
Contrary to her expectations, the house was quiet when she entered. Sylvia and Mandy were deep in conversation over tea and cookies.
“Mommy! Mommy!” Mandy ran over to greet her.
“How was your lesson?” Emily asked.
“I learned to play piano!”
“She did fairly well,” Sylvia said. This sounded like high praise from someone who was more used to criticizing.
Mandy sat down at the piano with very good posture to show Emily what she’d learned. She played Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. It was a simple piece that most kids started with, but Emily was amazed that Mandy played it so flawlessly. She kept up a steady rhythmic accompaniment with the left hand while playing the melody with the right and even slowing down the tempo just a little towards the end.
“Sylvia, I’m amazed,” Emily said, after applauding the talented student. “You taught her that in just one lesson?”
“I thought maybe she had done a bit of piano practice already?” Sylvia asked.
“No, that was her first time playing.”
“Well then, I guess I did a pretty good job.” Sylvia looked proud of herself. “If Amanda had paid a bit more attention to what I said, she might have played it with better technique. But as it is, a good effort.”
Emily tried not to snicker at Sylvia’s usual hauteur.
“And we learned something about dealing with cats,” Sylvia added. “Amanda, what do we do when a cat bites?”
“Back away!” The girl hopped backwards, looking adorable as always.
“Good job,” Emily said, giving her a high-five. “Look who’s learning new things!”
Just as they were preparing to go home, Sylvia took Emily aside to talk to her quietly.
“She’s a smart girl, and she deserves to go to a real school,” Sylvia said, “Are you really going to take that away from her?”
“We’ve thought about what you said, and we’re going to go a slightly different route with her education: unschooling for everyone!”
“How is that any better?” Sylvia asked, frowning.
“It’ll be a part-time school for Mandy to attend so she can get out of the house for a few hours a day, and it’s not going to be elitist.”
“Okay, that’s a bit better,” Sylvia allowed.
“I was thinking… maybe you could come on board as a teacher!”
“Me?!” Sylvia made a disgusted face. Clearly, she had not fully reconciled with the idea of individual education.
“Yeah, you’d be great. Look at how well you’ve taught Mandy. You could be teaching other kids too. And I know you have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. Aside from music, you could be teaching so many subjects and having interesting discussions with kids.”
“I don’t know…”
Although Sylvia was still skeptical, Emily felt like she had gotten through to her just a little bit.
“Please think about it,” Emily entreated.
“What happened to our dogs?” she said when she got home. Usually they would whirl around her when she got home, and even Rupert, who was a little more dignified, would wag his tail in greeting.
“They’re being taken on a hike,” Byron said, smiling mysteriously. “And Miss Amanda is now going to go for ice cream with Cora.”
Just as he said it, the nanny was getting out of her car.
“Did you organize a date night?” Emily asked. “I thought we were going to do that on Saturday.”
“Why wait till Saturday when we can do it tonight?”
“What’s the occasion?”
“No occasion. I just wanted to spoil you.”
They went out to The Garden, the city’s best restaurant. It had the most creative dishes from around Europe and Asia.
“I am definitely feeling spoiled,” Emily said as she tasted sauteed brussle sprouts in some kind of amazing cashew-flavored dressing.
“And you deserve it,” Byron said, raising a glass to her. “You’ve had a busy couple of weeks taking good care of Mandy.”
“It’s not like a chore,” she said, “I enjoy every minute that I’m with her. I would never have believed it!”
“Remember when you thought kids were only fun because you can laugh at their failures?” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
“I still think so,” Emily stated, even though she knew now it was much more than that. “Have you seen some of Mandy’s drawings? She sure didn’t inherit any artistic talent from me.”
“She’s only five.”
“Yeah, but I can see it already. She’s not a visual artist. Her piano skills are something else though. We’ve got to get her an instrument!”
Emily was not at all concerned that Mandy wouldn’t follow in her footsteps as an artist or desiner. She couldn’t understand why some parents wanted their kids to do the exact same things they did. She was happy just to see her daughter’s personality express itself.
