He saw her coming out of the underground station.
She was making her way along the busy street in the same direction, but on the other side. He was sure she hadn’t recognised him. She was probably in town doing a bit of shopping. She was a lot older, of course, but it was definitely her. He remembered her from his school days. His old music teacher. She was a really nasty piece of work. She had given him a horrible time back then. He had never been musically minded and didn’t do well with any of the instruments that the class all took turns playing, in the school’s music room. He thought back to how it had all been made worse by his parents insisting on him receiving piano lessens from her after school hours, twice a week. He could do nothing right. It was sheer hell!
Further ahead he was watching something being hoisted off a truck. Of all things, it was a piano. It was being lifted to the roof of a hotel. He’d heard that they planned to open a rooftop restaurant and bar up there. It was being winched up by ropes that didn’t look too safe. When he drew along side of the activity, he stopped to watch the progress. It was several stories up when he was sure he could see at least one of the ropes slipping sideways. It was then that he realised that the woman had also stopped to answer her phone. She was standing right underneath it when he saw the first rope snap, causing the whole thing to move sideways. He wondered whether he was the only one to witness what was happening. Should he call out? Under any other circumstances…
He entered the closest shop and stood looking along a rack of men’s shoes. He was examining one when the calamity out in the street could be heard through the doorway. First, came the shouting. This was followed by a woman’s scream, then the crash and a cacophony of discordant piano notes.
As it happened, in his case, it wasn’t much of a struggle for him to convince himself that he was completely oblivious to the significance of the whole thing.