The Testimony of Taliesin Jones (22 page)

Wh
en
T
aliesin s
tarted hi
s
les
sons
h
e
h
eard
h
is fa
ther ref
er
to hi
s
te
acher
a
s '
Evans The T
ouch'
.
T
aliesin
pr
esumed
this r
eferred
t
o
Billy
's
wa
y
with th
e
k
eys
unt
il
hi
s
m
other
m
en
tion
ed
that Bill
y was
a heal
er.
T
aliesin as
ked h
er
wh
at
that w
as. S
he
sa
id
so
mething about Bill
y
helpin
g
th
e s
ick,
sw
iftly
a
dding th
at
T
aliesin
was n
ot
to ask Mr E
vans a
bout it b
e
c
ause
'it
was a ve
ry privat
e
m
atter.
It
was
v
ery g
ood
o
f Mr
Eva
ns t
o g
ive up hi
s
tim
e, s
o h
e
mu
stn't
b
e
tr
oubled w
ith
a
ll
so
rts
of
qu
estions
.
'

Thi
s was
a
ga
untlet
that he had to pi
ck
up
. '
All
so
rts of
que
stions'
b
egan
t
o
float t
o
th
e s
urface. Wh
at exac
tly did Bill
y
d
o
wh
en
h
e
h
ealed
p
eople?
H
ow
did
h
e
do it
?
W
as
it
magic? Were
there spells? Was he some kind of wizard? Was this
s
omething that
Grown-Ups needed to keep a secret? Something they didn
't
want to talk about
~ like God? Who were these people who kept coming to his teacher's house after
the piano lesson? Many times he had arrived for a lesson just as someone
-clearly not well -was leaving the bungalow. And only last week an old lady sat
in the lounge, bent over like a tree in the wind, her hand shaking as she
stirred her tea, while Taliesin tried to play 'The Dancing Bear'. He wanted to
ask Billy who she was and why she was there. She looked too old to be learning
piano.

Th
e
vague
e
xplanations of his parents were not enough to sate his
curiosity. If they couldn't explain what it was that Billy Evans did then he
would find out for himself. Sooner or later he'd ignore his mother
's
instructions not to
ask question
s.
To date this prohibition has kept him discreetly silent
.
But perhaps if he
shares his own secret with Billy he will be in a position to ask him.

Welsh Rain has stopped for a rest and allows the land to
drain off the recent fall. It leaves the air damp and cool.

Rain, rain, go away,

Come again another day.

Billy's bungalow has a prefabricated extension built
around the doorway, acting as a porch. The roof here is corrugated plastic and
translucent, so that when it rains it smack
s
on the cover and makes a din. The
jerry-built front is filled with junk, including a piano without a lid, the
white keys looking like teeth with gums pulled back. There are ladders
,
boots, some blue
overalls, cutting equipment and a small pile of slate, left over from his days as
a roofer. Although it's ugly
,
Taliesin likes Billy's home because it isn't a normal
house
.
It
has a temporary, toy-town feel, as if it's meant to be played in rather than
lived in.

Billy
is slow to come to the door and he looks tired and grey.
Sleep dust dulls the twinkle in his eye and he is wearing a
dressing gown over his clothes
.
He holds out
an ushering hand and leads Taliesin into the warmth.

'
It's stopped
raining,' Taliesin says. Billy smil
es
hi
s
half smile. His movements are more languid than u
sual
and his dressing
gown gives him the air of the invalid
.
He pats his chest and emits a rasping cough
.

'The weather's given me a chill,' he explains.

Taliesin
is hot from his walk and his mu
sic
book wei
ghs
twice what it did when he set off. Inside the
bun
galow
it
's
stifling
and the whole place smells of gas. The fire i
s
on
the full three bars and hissing its heat out. It
g
ives
th
e
formica and plastic int
erior
a faint orang
e
glow.
A chair is right up close to the fire and a blanket lies on the floor
.
Bill
y
pull
s
up another chair for Taliesin and goes to the
kitchen to put on the kettle
.

'Two sugars is it?' Billy asks.

'Yes, please
.'

Billy makes the tea with ritualistic attention to d
etail:
warming the pot
with a cupful of just-boiled water
,
adding th
e
bags and water before placing a cosy over the pot and
letting it stand for three minutes, putting the milk in the mugs and pouring
the tea, the spout some twelv
e
inche
s
from th
e
lip
.
It's the hands that Taliesin watches closely
.
Everything done with
those hands has a sureness of touch and a calm beauty
.
The tea enters the
cup with an exquisitely irritating noise and as the cup fills he lowers the pot
towards it
.
Then
h
e
adds
the sugars, stirring them vigorously before tappin
g
the spoon dry, all
the time smiling his smile
.

Billy
's
face invites those who meet him to relax
.
It is the face of an ageless cherub with
laughing eyes that blink and ~winkle rapidly as if letting you in on a joke
.
Reverence and Irreverence jostle for supremacy
there but neither of them wins. Some smiles smile at things or with things
,
before and
after
things, some patronize
, s
ome anticipate. Billy's smile is a smile of
ge
ntle surprise
e
at th
e
wonder of it all
;
a smile that finds
beauty in every littl
e
thing -even the stirring and tappin
g
of a stainle
ss s
teel t
easpoon.

'I'm afraid we may have to cut the lesson short today,'
he
s
ays.
'
I don
't
know if you rem
ember
the lady who sat
with us last we
ek?
Sh
e'll
b
e
turning up again today. It's the only time she can come
.
We'd better make a
quick start
.'
Billy nods toward
s
the piano.

Wh
en
Talie
sin
fir
st
s
aw
Billy's pi
ano
he was disappointed. He exp
ected
a piano teach
er
to own a piano of
the highest qualit
y
-
s
omething Germ
an
sounding and black
.
But compared to Tali
esin's
father Billy i
s
poor. His house only has on
e
floor and hi
s
pi
ano
sounds tinny
compared to the full, rounded timbr
e
of his mother'
s
German, mahogany, one hundred-y
ear-old
piano which
she always described as priceles
s.
Talie
sin
has y
et
to find out how much pr
iceless
is. Priceless i
s
a word us
ed
to d
escribe
jewels found
in che
sts
by
pirates. Wh
en
he asked Billy Evan
s
if his piano wa
s
priceless Bill
y
r
eplied
that it was worthles
s.
He owned nothin
g
that wa
s
pricele
ss,
he
s
aid.

Th
e
room is spar
sely
de
corated:
a jubilee mu
g
and a pipe rack with two pipes in it stands by the fire
.
Ju
st
above the
television is
a
sin
gle s
helf with a brass bell and a lilac figurine of a lad
y.
On top of the
television is a Bible thi
ck
enough to wind-break a chapel door. Billy used this book
to improv
e
Taliesin
's
po
sture
at the piano
.
By balancing it on
his head Talie
sin
was forced to sit correctly and he now sits well, thanks
to th
e
imagined
pr
esence
of
the book lying across h
is
crown.

Taliesin starts to play
'
The Dancing Bear
',
playing it as if he'
s
readin
g
th
e
music
.
H
e
isn't able to admit anything yet. He even feigns a
squint.

'That'
s
a little too fast
,'
Billy says. 'You need to let the gaps in
.
The gaps make the
music work
.'

Tali
esin s
tarts a
gain,
pl
aying
it m
ore
s
lowly, l
eaving
m
ore
t
ime
b
etween
th
e
b
ars.

'Tho
se
ar
e
p
auses
but th
ey're
n
ot ga
ps
.
Y
ou're
n
ot fe
elin
g
th
e ga
ps. L
et
m
e s
how
y
ou.' Bill
y
pl
ays
th
e
pi
ece a
n
oc
tave
lip th
e
k
eyboard
.
H
e is
a robu
st
~
an a
nd th
is ac
ce
ntuates
~
he deli
cacy
with
which he pl
ays.
His
h
ands a
re wide
a
nd thi
ck
fin
gered
.
Th
ey
hav
e a
w
eight, a
n
a
ura,
th
ey
p
ossess a
n
int
ellige
nce
o
f
th
eir
own.
T
aliesin's
f
ather a
lways
sa
id
th
at yo
u
co
uld
tell
a
l
ot
from
s
omeone’s h
ands:
age, occ
upation,
eve
n p
ersonality,
Bill
y's
h
ands say a g
reat d
eal.
Th
ey a
re w
ide
,
hairl
ess,
m
ottled, g
enerous h
ands,
built t
o a
pplaud li
fe a
nd r
estore
it
;
h
ands
th
at
m
ight
cla
sp yo
u
o
n
e
ither
s
houlder
a
nd
s
teer
yo
u
i
n
the r
ight
dir
ection;
wo
rking h
ands w
ith b
attered
h
alf-moonless
n
ails, c
hipped here
a
nd
th
ere;
h
ands
th
at you
r
eally
n
oticed w
hen the
y
w
ere s
till;
o
ld
h
and
s wi
th
a v
ivid "low' l
arge
ve
ined,
oc
tave
s
tretching hand
s wi
th
fin
gers t
hat
mi
ght occa
sionally str
ike
t
wo
not
es
in
stead o
f
o
ne
:
pr
a
ying,
pl
aying,
l
aying
hand
s.