Prologue
An older, trained piano teacher sat in his office, writing down notes about a new song he was writing as a younger man entered the building. The sixteen year old, colored boy looked around the large room packed with large pianos on a wooden floor. There were framed photos on the walls a long with a bookshelf filled with books; music sheets, novels, biographies. It was obvious that music and reading were two of the teacher's favorite things.
"Hello? Is anybody here?" the young boy asked loudly, his words bouncing off of the walls, causing an echo.
The piano teacher picked up his head at the boy's words, "In here!" he said politely from his office which was at the opposite end of the large training room.
The boy slowly walked into the smaller room, "Hello, I believe I've missed the lessons. Can you tell me when they begin?" he asked as he glanced at many other framed photographs; one with the teacher at a much younger age with a colored man in a bowler hat with a beautiful colored woman.
"Oh, they begin at noon," said the teacher, light wrinkles blanketed his face and stray white hairs were hidden among a dark brown head of hair, "May I ask your name?"
The boy smirked, "Jonathan McCoy,"
"It's nice to meet you," he stated, extending a hand for a handshake, "I'm Brian Smith."
The boy shook the older man's hand, "I saw on the sign outside that you taught Ragtime lessons and I decided to see if I might be able to learn how to play,"
Brian smiled, "That's the first time somebody's wanted to learn how to play Ragime. Everyone's signed up for other styles. Ragtime's got some history, you know."
"It does? Who taught you?"
Brian's smile flinched for a moment, and his voice changed, "It's a long story," he then saw the boy's disappointment when he heard that he couldn't learn of it, "Alright, I'll tell you. You seem genuinely interested."
Jonathan smiled, "I like stories like these," he took a seat on the other side of the large desk ,
"Well, what year is it again? 1922, so that would be seventeen years ago in 1905. I just moved from California to Harlem when I decided to go into a lively club…"