Chapter 28 Dmitri's Song

Frustration stiffens my fingers, making the task I have set for myself infinitely more difficult as my fingers wander across the piano keys, trying to find something pleasing. My urgency, too, makes the frustration more poignant. I know Dmitri will be ending his lessons soon and then he will come to fetch me for luncheon, after which we will go back to my posing for his painting. His challenge for me to play for him has been burning in the back of my mind since he issued it, but even more so in these past few afternoons of standing in a river as he paints and not even being allowed a glimpse at the progress. It s scary to me, how desperately I want to achieve his challenge, indeed, to achieve above and beyond his challenge. I want to impress him. I want to earn the right to see his paintings, all of them, not just this most intriguing one he s started so recently. But I mustn t think of that now. I must find a way to focus, focus, get inside the music, inside the piano, inside his m