The piano thing started when Mrs. Kopecki decided she wanted to learn to play. After school I would show her some things on my small electronic practice instrument. Before long she went out and bought a baby grand. I still remember the moment when I was looking out at the spectacular view of New York City from her window when she said, “Danny, do you have time to give me piano lessons twice a week? It’ll be worth a hundred dollars a week to you.”
I’d been playing since I was five and I could certainly teach a beginner, but in no way was I worth fifty dollars an hour. I knew she was trying to help me out since money was tight for mom and me. I made the best bargain of my life when I jokingly said, “I couldn’t take money from you Mrs. Kopecki, but we can call it even if you can teach me how to afford a view like this.”
She took it seriously and stuck out her hand and said, “Deal. And I’ve told you before to call me Carla. Now you have to, since you’re going to be my teacher.”
For almost a year a year we didn’t miss a lesson and she took so much pleasure even in practicing. After she learned the basics she turned to Billy Joel. When she moved on to Mozart, that became all she wanted to learn. And even if she would never end up playing in a concert hall, she was very good.
For her part of the bargain, it was more a matter of her telling me what stocks and bonds to buy and when to sell them, than it was teaching me how to do it on my own. We set up an account and basically I did whatever she suggested. She was excellent at picking more winners than losers; after all, her lifestyle wasn’t paid for by accident. But we also had a stroke of luck when she told me to buy Google and I misunderstood how much she had told me to buy, and I put almost all my money into it. We sold it when the price quadrupled.
While all this was going on, mom was still working a full-time and a part-time job near Fort Hamilton in Bay Ridge. Somehow she ended up dating a guy named Mcteer who was a colonel. He called her all the time. She had dinner at the officer’s club a lot and he usually took her to all the formal functions there.
I knew we were strapped for money, so when mom came home with a new car one day. I couldn’t understand it and I said, “Mom, where did you get the money?”
She hesitated and then said, “From Colonel Mcteer.”
I got whacked with a jumble of feelings, topped by anger and jealousy. I drew conclusions and it came out as, “You mean you fucked that damned officer for a car?”
She turned red and raised her hand. She’d never hit me as a kid and I don’t know how she stopped from slapping my face at that moment, but she did. She took my arms in her fists and said, “You listen to me Danny, first of all, if I did, it wouldn’t be any of your business, and secondly, it was just a loan for the down payment. I’m tired of getting stuck on the Verrazano Bridge, I’m tired of being a dollar short every month, and I’m tired of not having enough strength to get through the day.” By this time her eyes were welling with tears and I put my arms around her to hug her.