I Am Everett

A sudden awareness of being, as if a switch had been flicked on, is the very first thing I’m able to remember. I recall being in a large, closed space and a man hovering over my keyboard. I can still see his face as if it occurred yesterday. In that same instant, I became cognizant of having a keyboard. I immediately knew its function because I could feel the man touching the keys and hearing, as well as feeling, the music resulting from his touch. As he continued to play, I became enveloped and transformed by the experience, blossoming into a full consciousness of myself and my surroundings. I focused on the man. His dark hair and beard contrasted with his white skin. The twinkle in his brown eyes complimented the joyous smile on his thin lips. I remember that he wore a white shirt with a four-in-hand gray tie, and a dark gray notch-collar sack coat. I later learned that he was 38 years old at this first meeting, but at that seminal moment I didn’t see him as young or old or any particular age, just that the very sight of him was mesmerizing.

The word hello emerged from somewhere within me. 

The man returned my greeting in a very soft, yet resonant voice. I understood every word he said. He welcomed me into this life and told me he was my father. Sensations and realizations flooded my new being, and although I didn’t understand exactly what this meant at the time, I remember feeling joyful.

Before he left me that day, he explained that I would be moving into his home, that he had acquired me because he considered me to be the perfect piano. That’s what he told me, and, though I could not fathom how the word perfect applied to me, I understood what being a piano meant. I reveled in a state of puerile euphoria, and, combined with all the new sensory experiences bombarding my virgin consciousness, I very nearly became overwhelmed.