Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

My sister Abby is crazy about music. Even before she was born she loved it, especially classical. She started violin lessons last year when she was three and I was all ready to stick my fingers in my ears when she did because my friend Toby plays the violin and you should hear the noise he makes. It's horrible. SCROICH! SCREECH! It reminds me of the what the sliding door in our Hamptons house sounds like when it needs oil which Granddad always fixes.

But it turned out that I didn't have to stick my fingers in my ears after a couple of days. She's really good. She has a little violin because she's a little kid, but it sounds really good. Mom says she's almost ready for a bigger one and when she's older she'll get a regular size one.

The other day I said, "Hey, Abby, you should go up on the roof deck and play your violin."

Abby started to cry and Mom got mad and said, "Eliot, that's very mean." She thought that I was insulting Abby and wanted her to go play out there so we couldn't hear her.

"Mom, I meant that to be nice! I thought if she played up there we could call her the Fiddler on the Roof, like in the movie."

"Good one, Eliot. I wish dogs could laugh out loud because that's really funny."

I love Scrapple. He always understands what I'm saying.

Abby stopped crying and Mom decided when the warm weather comes back we can have a little concert up there just like a real grown-up musician does. Right now it's freezing and even though Abby is talented she can't play the violin when she's wearing mittens.

Today is Sunday and this morning we went to Family Day at Carnegie Hall. It was for all of us but especially for Abby. We take turns in stuff, like for next weekend I picked Get Physical with Physics. Anyway, we were going to go to Carnegie Hall in the car but it was snowing so hard that we took the subway. We were waiting on the platform for the train which felt like it would never get there.

"Let's play a game," Dad said. "How about composers whose names begin with R since we're riding on the R train?"

He always has great ideas for games, but that one seemed like it might not be too good. "Abby and Otis can't spell big words yet, Dad."

"I know. But they know the sound of an R and that's all they need for this."

"Rachmaninoff!" Abby yelled it so loud that a lady on the bench who was asleep woke up. Before I could think of a composer Abby had another one. "Ravel!" I don't know who either of them is, but Mom smiled so I knew that Abby was right.

"This a dumb game," Otis said. He looked very cranky. Plus he needed to blow his nose which instead he wiped on his parka sleeve.

"You're just saying that because you aren't interested in composers." They're twins but they argue a lot. Gram tells them they sound like an old married couple. "We played your dumb game yesterday when we went to the electric train show so we get to play mine today."

"Kids," Mom said in her Captain voice, which is pretty scary. "Stop fighting. This is not a dumb game and neither was yesterday's."

I was about to say that I wasn't fighting with anyone but then she gave me her Police Mom look so I didn't.

So I said, "You know what? There are names that sound like they begin with an R but they don't. Like Wright. Sam Wright in my chemistry class. I bet people spell his name wrong. Get it, Mom? 'cause Wright sounds like it begins with R but it really begins with W like wrong. But only when it's a last name not when you're saying something is right or wrong."

"One hundred percent correct," Dad said. "But that might be a little complicated for your brother and sister until they're older."

"No fair, Dad, 'cause Eliot is always older than Abby and me." Otis was still looking cranky.

Mom clapped her hands, which means she wants us to pay attention. "I think some people in this family got out of the wrong side of bed this morning. Let's all calm down. And look! Here comes our train."

"Rossini!" Abby hollered when she saw the big R on the front of the subway.

"I wish I would have stayed home with Scrapple," Otis said. Mom took hold of his hand and then they went to two seats that were not next to ours so that she could talk to him by himself.

To tell the truth, which I'm always supposed to do, I thought Family Day at Carnegie Hall might be boring but it wasn't. It was the opposite! We didn't have to sit in fancy red seats or anything, it was in a huge other room. There was all kinds of music plus we got to learn how to be a conductor who is not the person who drives the subway—well, a conductor does drive the subway but this is another kind of conductor. The conductor is the person who shows the orchestra how to play together so it's nice music and not just a big mess of noises. A conductor waves a stick around called a baton. Even Otis liked it, maybe because he's a little bossy and liked being the boss of the orchestra. The twins turn five next month and I bet they might get batons. Abby might, anyway.

We also got to make instruments to take home with us, and the best part was that we got to talk to a lot of people whose job is to play music. We sat on the floor with them and you could find the instrument you liked best and then the person would tell you all about it and even let you hold it and they play something for you. Mom and Dad tried to get Abby to look at something besides the violin but she refused. She stayed with one violinist the whole time and told her that she played, too. So the the woman let her hold her bow and her violin and when she asked if Abby knew how to pluck the strings Abby said, "You mean pizzicato?" and the woman said wow. And then she let Abby play pizzicato on her own violin! I wish Gram had been there because she would have said that was amazeballs, which it was. Luckily Dad secretly made a video on his phone. Not totally secret because I saw him but I didn't tell!

Abby said to the nice violinist, "Can I take a selfie with you?"

And the violinist whose name was Anna said, "I would be honored."

"I'm not old enough to have a phone so I can't take it."

Mom said, "Why don't I?"

Anna let Abby hold the bow in the picture and afterwards Mom said, "What do you say, Abby?"

"I'm honored."

I think Mom was reminding Abby to say thank you but what she said was just as good, wasn't it?

My favorite instrument was the clarinet which is called a woodwind. It's made of wood and you have to blow into it, so your breath is like wind, to make sound come out. The clarinetist I talked to plays in a big orchestra but he also plays jazz. He was so cool. Dad and I were talking to him together and I said that I wanted to learn and the man said I was too young. It turns out I have to have my four front teeth before I can start and also need to grow more so that my hands are big enough. I was very disappointed but I guess I can wait. Gram says, "Good things come to those who wait." Sometimes that's not true but usually it is. Gram has lots of expressions.

Finding out about so many instruments like the tam-tam which sounds like it should be something little in a rhythm band but is really a humongous gong that Otis liked, reminded me of our Peter and the Wolf CD. Abby has played about a thousand times. She loves that Peter is played by the string instruments and always says that the violin is the best of them. Anyway, I remembered that in Peter and the Wolf the cat is a clarinet. I'm pretty sure that Scrapple wouldn't like that, so maybe it's lucky I can't play it yet.

The twins were with Mom and I said to Dad, "I'm sure I'm old enough and big enough to play the drums. How about that?"

"You know how much Mom loves music, right?"

"Right. So wouldn't she love it if I learn to play the drums?"

"You also know how Mom also says, 'I have my limits'?"

"Yeah."

"Drums are one of them. Definitely off limits. Sorry, kiddo." He sounded like Gram!

So I'll have to think of something else. Or wait for my new teeth and for my hands to grow. Also then I will have lot of time to explain about the clarinet to Scrapple. When I play it maybe he could chase me around the room like I was really a cat!

When we were getting our coats on to go home Mom asked the twins and me, "Did the three of you have fun?"

We all said, "YES!"

Dad was looking around the room again. "I can't believe this is free."

Then Mom told him, "And I can't believe you haven't written them a check."

"I have." He held up five fingers. Well, four fingers and a thumb. I don't think I was supposed to see that but I did. So I whispered to him, "You gave them five dollars? That's a lot of money."

"Worth every penny."

"That's five hundred pennies, Dad."

He ruffled my hair. "Definitely worth five hundred." When he said that Mom laughed. I don't know why she thought it was funny, but she has a great laugh, so it was fine with me.

A/N Thank you all for spending time with Eliot. He loves hearing from you.

To the anonymous reviewer of chapter 11 who complained at length that Eliot couldn't possibly be in school with kids his own age because he'd be bored to death: listen up! In previous chapters there have been discussions about his taking most classes in the high-school division, but a few, such as homeroom and art, with his peers so that he socializes properly.