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ew York's Opera Society chapter 11
Chapter 11
My Mother Makes an Offer to Gosia
As for my part l simply went to my room first to do my homework for the following day and then to send Gosia a response telling her what l was going to suggest to my parents with regards to her giving lessons in our house.
l had just finished my homework and was practicing something for school when my mom knocked on the door saying,” may l enter?". "Come in" was my response. She came in and much to my surprise asked me if l remembered Mrs. Conti the piano teacher who had passed away the previous month of a cancer, l told her l did (after all how could l forget the woman whom l had spent so many a long hour at the keyboard with).Then she told me that now for obvious reasons a lot of her students were looking for a new piano teacher and that they probably had not found someone yet as most of them had probably gone away for the summer (at this point l started to get enthusiastic about our conversation as l could see where it was heading). She then asked me with the look of somebody who has just hit upon a great idea, your Polish friend what is her name, well what ever plays the piano doesn't she, well l was thinking wouldn't she rather earn a living teaching the piano then waiting on tables l could; after having heard her play of coarse recommend her to Mrs. Conti's pupils if she wanted to teach them of coarse and if she had a piano to do it with and she that is to say your Polish friend could take her students and earn 20 dollars an hour instead of what she is making now which l don’t imagine it to be the same amount or more "it was then that l told my mom that Gosia had sent me an email asking me if l knew anybody who wanted to take piano lessons and she would be willing to give them for as low as 10 dollars. My mother simply laughed and said first l will invite her over for dinner and hear her play then if l find her playing to be adequate l will recommend her not only to the pupils Mrs. Conti left behind but to the students at New York School of Music, as there are always people looking for piano instructors not only for themselves as well their children, now the question l need to ask is this where does she live, does she live in Manhattan and second does she have a piano she could use to teach with". As l started to think of what l was going to say in response to my mom's question, l saw her in that stand, the one she always used when she was waiting for an answer that interested her. She stood with her arms bent and one hand on each hip with one leg stuck out further then other and that" lets have it look on her eyes".
l don’t remember the exact words l used to tell my mother that Gosia only had a keyboard which she could not really use to teach on and that she lived in Green Point which was a neighborhood in Brooklyn for newly arrived Polish immigrants, however l will never forget my mother's reply which was "your father and l have been discussing the possibility of her teaching some of her students here and there are some of coarse whom she would have to teach in the privacy of their own house as they would not be able to come here on there own, but that should not represent a problem as these people live with in walking distance of this place some even in this very building, so that both settles the problem of the piano and the place to teach, and as for myself it puts an end to one of my problems which is finding someone to teach Mrs. Conti’s pupils and the other one that we will be finally be having someone to play that piano as neither l nor your would father mind her that is your Polish friend coming over to the house and practicing on our piano, and that way, at least someone can get some mileage out of that piano which has been sitting idle for far too long".
When l first heard her l thought that she had read my mind and had known what l was going to ask her, I had to think about my reply and as l was doing so my mom continued and said "send her an email or call her and inform her of our proposition for her to first come here and play for me and then after l have heard her play, l will recommend her to at least 15 students who were either pupils of Mrs. Conti and other people who have asked me about piano lessons, this will give her at least 30 lessons a weak or more so she should make a good amount of money but tell her to take 20 an hour instead of 10,and tell her not to worry theses people can afford to pay 20 an hour and will gladly do so if they like her way of teaching”.
l gave my mom a smile of relieve and said nervously like a person who seeks to ask for more but however wants to be careful not to push his luck "there is one more thing, could you also recommend her if you like her playing that is to your friends who own those piano bars?". To which she said in a how could l forget tone of voice "yes, l suppose l could do that, as well". Then she quickly added "what are you waiting for don’t loaf get to it, send her an email or call and tell her of my offer l need to know now if she is interested in the offer and if she can she come over for dinner tomorrow so l can hear her play the piano and tell her l will recommend her to our friends who own piano bars if her playing is what it ought to be or on second though forget the email why don’t you just call her, l really need to know tonight weather or not she is interested so l can start calling all of Mrs. Conti's ex-students and start recommending her to some other people l know before they find someone else, what l could do is call them tonight and tell them that l may have found someone but l need to hear that person play and that would be tomorrow evening, and that if everything goes well they might have a teacher before the week is up and l could also tell the same to the people at school who have been pestering me to find them a teacher."
l could tell by mom's agitated and enthusiastic voice that this was something she felt strongly about, because if there was one thing no one could ever deny her was that she never procrastinated or delayed when she had something she felt had to be done. l then recalled that Gosia had told me in her email that she would not be getting of work that day until 10 p.m.. l told mom of her working hours at the restaurant and then much to my surprise she said in very hurried tone of voice "grab your coat we are going to pay this Polish friend of yours a visit at this restaurant which is not far from here so we can just hail a cab and we should be there in no time so we can tell her of our offer, so lets go hop to it", this was so typical of my mother to want to do things as soon as possible, it was this workmen like attitude which made her such a successful teacher. So we did just that, we both put on our coats and went downstairs and got in to a cab which was already waiting for us on the street when we got there as we hailed it from the elevator.
While we were ridding in the cab we were both anxious to get there of coarse both of us for different reasons me to tell Gosia of our offer and my mother to solve the problem of Mrs. Conti's students and also to meet the girl with whom l was associating with. It was strange, for the first in my life l was actually excited that my mother was going to meet someone l knew. This was a first for my mother as well as she was going to meet a friend of mine who she had a personal reason for wanting to meet other then me.
