Diary fragment · 2 min read ·
Notes Kept in the Piano Stool
An eleven-year-old finds a diary in the piano stool of his grandmother's house and begins writing in it too, and the entries from the previous owner start answering his questions.
- dated: Late October, the year the house was let
- narrator: Owen, aged eleven
- reliability: unreliable
Tuesday. Found this in the piano stool when Mum was looking for the sheet music for the recital. It is a green notebook with a dog-eared cover and the first page says *Property of E. Marsh, do not read* but it is in the stool under the music so I think it counts as found. I am starting my own list on the back page so I can keep track of what is mine.
Wednesday. Nobody plays the piano now Gran has gone into the home. Mum says we are only renting the house out for the winter. I do not know who will come. I do not like the stool because it squeaks when you open it and there is a smell of old pencil shavings.
Thursday. Read the first pages. E. Marsh wrote about the shed in the garden and how the door sticks in the wet. I checked and it does stick. She said the bottom step on the cellar stairs gives way if you put your weight on the left side, and I tried it and it did, but Mum says that is because the wood is rotten.
Friday. Wrote a question at the bottom of the page: *Who is in the top bedroom?* In the morning there was an answer in pencil under it, in very small writing: *Not in the bedroom. In the wardrobe, usually.* I looked in the wardrobe. There was nothing but coats and the smell of moth balls. I am not frightened. Dad says I should not believe everything I read in notebooks.
Saturday. The new tenant came to look round with the agent. A tall man in a grey suit who did not take his gloves off. He stood in the hall for a long time and said the house was very quiet. He asked me my name and I told him and he wrote it in a little book. Then he said he hoped I would be happy here.
Sunday. Mum found the notebook and asked where I got it. I said from the stool. She went very pale and said it must go back, and she read the last entry before she put it on the table. It was dated last week. It was in pencil, very neat, and it said: *Owen is writing in my book now. He has nice handwriting. Tell him not to go in the cellar when the tall man is at the door.*
Monday. Mum says I am making things up. I am not. I have started writing my answers on the page under her questions, and the page is starting to fill up. I wrote *I will not go in the cellar*. Then I wrote it again, in case.