The Cravat Variation

The Cravat Variation

The murmurs of the foreign audience were lost on the little man.
The little man wore a green silk cravat that was a gift from his mother.
His mother had given him the cravat when he turned twenty-seven.
At twenty-seven, the little man stopped wearing ties, but wanted to look fashionable when he played the piano.
The piano that he was about to play now was a Steinway.
Most of the audience recognized what a Steinway was, but they rarely encountered a cravat.
The cravat had no opinion on the matter, but the little man always enjoyed playing to audiences in Tokyo.
Audiences in Tokyo cough a lot more than in the US, but they also pay more for the tickets.
The tickets to see the little man started at 15,000 yen because he was a famous pianist.
For such a famous pianist, you think he could have worn a tuxedo, but he preferred to wear a a black silk shirt and matching pants.
The black silk shirt and matching pants complemented the cravat nicely and were soon forgotten once he started playing.
He started playing the Goldberg Variations and except for the all too frequent coughs, which he ignored, the pianist forgot about his cravat, the audience, his mother, and he remembered everything.

-Adam