Rufus M. (6 page)

"Are you scared of Mrs. Saybolt?" he asked. "Don't be scared. I won't let her hurt you."

At this moment Mrs. Saybolt came around the corner of the house, her apron full of twigs she had snapped off the hedge. "Shoo, tiger!" she shouted.

Rufus tore home and crawled into the little old chicken coop, where he thought for a while. But he couldn't stay there long because curiosity won the upper hand. He must find out once and for all: Can you feel an invisible man or is he like thin air?

With bits of feathers and chicken dirt clinging to him, he returned to the home of the invisible piano player. Mrs. Saybolt was in the backyard now, her mouth full of clothespins, hanging up the laundry. She did not see Rufus.

Rufus decided to hop in the open window, feel the place where the piano player should be, and then hop out. He stepped over the low windowsill into the parlor. But he didn't go right over and touch the invisible person. He suddenly felt shy about that. He couldn't see the invisible man but the invisible man could probably see him and would not want him to get too close while he was playing. Rufus sat down on the edge of a chair and watched.

Up and down, up and down, hopped the keys.
Clinkety-clinkety! Poompty-poomp!

There came a little pause in the music.

"Hey, mister," said Rufus, in case it were a man and not a boy after all.

Nobody answered him. The music began again. This piano player was wonderful.
Poompty-poomp!
Rufus stared hard, watching the keys hop up and down all along the keyboard from one end to the other. At last Rufus stood up. He cautiously approached the piano. Now he was going to touch the invisible piano player's hand, if possible.

Rufus reached out his chubby fist. The keys kept hopping up and down very fast and Rufus swooped his hand up and down the keyboard but he did not feel anybody's hand there. It was a very scary thing to do, feeling for an invisible piano player's hands.

"I see you, fella," said Rufus, to reassure himself. Since there was no answer to this remark, only that same uncanny hopping up and down of the keys, Rufus began to feel bolder. He tapped where he supposed a shoulder would be if a man were sitting there. He felt nothing. He quickly touched the stool, ran his chubby hand all over it. He still felt nothing. Rufus's spine tingled with excitement. He retreated across the room and stood under a big rubber plant. He had put his hand right through an invisible man! That was proof all right. An invisible man cannot be felt! He cannot be seen and he cannot be felt! He is like thin air and you can walk right through him or hundreds like him and never even know it.

Wait till he told Jane that! All the time she was going around thinking an invisible person can be felt.
That's not so. What would be the advantage anyway of being invisible if people bumped into you all the time?
Rufus thought in disgust.

Poompety, poompety!
From beneath the rubber plant Rufus watched the invisible musician, thinking of the hands that were making the keys hop up and down so fast, never forgetting a note.
A Paderooski all right,
thought Rufus.
An invisible Paderooski,
and he imagined him tossing his hair off his forehead.

All of a sudden in rushed Mrs. Saybolt. She dashed over to the piano and then she dashed out of the room again, fortunately without seeing Rufus. But when she left, the invisible man began to play faster. Goodness, how fast he went! Rufus got dizzy watching the keys pop up and down.

Then Mrs. Saybolt raced back into the room. Rufus guessed she did not like the fast way the invisible man was playing. Rufus could not see what she did to him, perhaps she rapped his knuckles, but when she left this time, the man (Rufus decided it must be a man; no boy could play that fast) began to play very slowly.
Poo-oomp-ty, poo-mp.
Instead of pelting down like raindrops, the keys rose and sank so slowly you would almost think there was another invisible man inside the piano trying to hold the notes back.

"Play slow, too, don't you?" said Rufus, ruminating on this.

Once he had gone to the moving pictures. He had seen pictures of athletes racing and of a ballgame. Then they did tricks with the movie. They made it go lickety-cut. The racers looked as though they were running right out of the screen at you and you couldn't help ducking so they wouldn't step on you. Then they made the movie run very slowly. The runners looked as though they could scarcely pick up their feet, as though they were made of lead. And then they made the movie go backward. The runners were whisked back to their starting point, and in the baseball game the ball was sucked right back into the pitcher's mitt. It was quite miraculous.

Now this invisible piano player was going so slowly that maybe the next thing he would do would be to play backward. He had played fast and he had played slow; also just right. But would he play backward, Rufus wondered. Could he?

"Hey, fella," he said cautiously. "Could you play 'My Country 'Tis of Thee' backward?"

Then he felt ashamed of himself for asking such a question. How did he know this man could play "My Country 'Tis of Thee" forward, let alone backward. Just because he, Rufus, could play "My Country 'Tis of Thee" frontward very fast on the Moffats' little organ did not mean that everybody else could play that song, too. And he himself had never tried it backward.

But this man was such a remarkable player! Rufus imagined that he could easily play backward as well as fast, slow, and just right.

Poompety, poomp!
The invisible piano player struck the last note. He had finished what he was playing. Maybe he was tired now. Maybe that was why he was playing so slowly. The keys were still. There was silence for a moment and Rufus strained his eyes, hoping to see just the vaguest outline of the invisible man.

Then Rufus jumped! There was a sudden rattling noise inside the piano and a little slot above the keys sprang open, revealing the inner workings of the piano. Then came more rattling sounds and some round thing kept winding rapidly.

He's going inside where the machinery is, that's what!
thought Rufus excitedly.

"Hey, is that your house, mister?" he asked.

There was no answer to this question.

Might be a boy after all,
thought Rufus,
because that hole is not very big. Might be about my size,
he thought.

Rufus waited to see if the invisible piano player would come out and play again. But the keys remained still. No more hopping up and down. The man was through. And at this moment Rufus heard Mrs. Say bolt coming. He ran out of the door as fast as he could, leaving the astonished Mrs. Saybolt standing in the hall shouting "Tiger!"

"Wanted to hear the player," Rufus called back as he ran down the street.

He tore home. He ran around to the backyard and crawled into the little chicken coop again to think about the invisible piano player. A man like that might be able to get through keyholes.

"Criminenty!" exclaimed Rufus aloud, at this thought.

Speaking out loud revealed his whereabouts to Joey, who had come to look for him.

"Hey, Rufe," he said, "get your wagon. Just saw Mrs. Saybolt and she said we could have that big box that her new player piano came in."

"She did!" said Rufus. And he added, "Did she say we could have him, too?"

Through Rufus's mind flashed the vision of life in the Moffats' house if they had an invisible person there, too. Where would he sleep? There were no extra beds. Just enough beds. He could sleep on the yellow couch maybe. On the other hand he might not need a bed at all. He could sleep in the air.

A chap like that in the house would not be an altogether pleasant addition to the family. For instance, he could eat all the dinner off their plates and they wouldn't even see him doing it. If he ate as fast as he played the piano, there would be nothing left for the Moffats. Since he couldn't be felt, they couldn't grab hold of his wrist and stop him. Mama would have to divide the butter into six parts, and even at that how could they explain to him that in this house it was share and share alike? So Rufus was really quite relieved when Joe answered absentmindedly:

"Who? Said we could have the box, that's all. Good box."

"Yeah," said Rufus, crawling out of the chicken coop. "That might be where he sleeps though, and where's he gonna sleep if we take that away?"

"Who sleeps in that box?" asked Joe in disgust. "Nobody'd want to sleep in that old box."

Now this was just the kind of a box that Rufus felt he would really like to sleep in himself. He could fix it up and have it for his own house. So he was really glad to know that the invisible piano player did not sleep in it. He probably did sleep inside the piano with the machinery after all. Rufus got his express wagon and he and Joey went down Pleasant Street to Mrs. Saybolt's. While they were hoisting the big wooden crate sideways onto Rufus's wagon and trying to balance it there, Mrs. Saybolt came out to lend a hand. Rufus and Joey did not run because she had asked them here.

"And this is the lad who loves music," she said in a deep, hearty voice. She really was not bad close to. She just didn't want people trying to sit in her hedge chairs. "Yes," she repeated, "it's a pleasure to see a boy his age who likes music that much," and she fastened her eyes on Rufus. "Before you go now, come in and hear my player piano for a while."

Rufus looked at Joey. Mrs. Saybolt was inviting them into her house to hear the invisible piano player! He glowed. Joey did not look so happy at the thought. Today was his day for dusting the pews. But who could say no to Mrs. Saybolt? Since ordinarily she chased you away, yelling "Tiger!" after you, when she wanted to be nice you had to be nice to her. That's the way Joey figured anyway, so he and Rufus went indoors.

Mrs. Saybolt preceded them, and Rufus observed that she had already told the invisible piano player to play. He was slightly disappointed, because he thought this time he might have seen the fellow hop out of his house with part of his cloak not on him. Then Rufus might have seen an arm or a leg. But no, the fellow was already playing by the time Joey and Rufus entered the parlor.
Poomp-ty, poomp!

Mrs. Saybolt had a davenport instead of a couch or a sofa and Joey and Rufus sat on this. Mrs. Saybolt stood beside the piano and watched Rufus with an amiable smile.

"Plays nice, doesn't it?"

It!
thought Rufus.

"Sure does," agreed Joey.

"Now I'll play a march," she said. She pushed a button, opened a little hole over the piano, took out a roll, put another in, and pushed another valve. The music began again.
Rat-ta-tat! Boom! Boom!

Rufus looked at this proceeding with unbelieving eyes. The invisible piano player had been very real to him. And now instead of there being an invisible piano player the thing worked by machinery! Rufus felt cheated.

"Criminenty!" he exclaimed in disgust. "It's a machine. It's not an invisible piano player! Come on!" he said to Joe. "Let's go!"

He tore out of the house and Joey followed him, giving Mrs. Saybolt an apologetic wave of the arm. They got their box and their wagon and teetered home with it, planning what they would do with such a good crate.