CutBank Volume 1 Issue 68 CutBank 68 Article 6 Winter 2008 The Span of an Octave Jenna Williams Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cutbank Part of the Creative Writing Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Williams, Jenna (2008) "The Span of an Octave," CutBank: Vol. 1 : Iss. 68 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cutbank/vol1/iss68/6 This Prose is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in CutBank by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Je n n a W illiams The Span o f an Octave So, the story goes something like this: A boy— we will call him Samuel— knocks on the door of a professional pianist’s studio in Bevington, Massachusetts, and, stuttering, asks to be taught. It does not surprise the pianist (who, I should tell you now, is no less than the one and only Glenda Himmelricht, though you probably guessed so, as anyone who knows anything about music would), because she’s used to that kind of thing. And I might as well tell you now that the pianist in the story is me, but this will not skew the narrative in the least, because I have been, for as long as I can remember, the most humble person I know. As the recipient of a story, it’s natural to block out certain bits here and there, to latch onto details that seem, to you, the most important.