Short Story

While browsing the short story section in the library, I came upon a booklet titled “Interrupted Serenade” by James Hannaham. It was a random choice, but as I sat down at a nearby cubicle and started reading it, I knew that it was a fortuitous one. The story plotline focuses around the life of Lopey, a “almost ten year old” boy who lives with his father and stepmother in a middle class home. The story begins in a Police Station, where Lopey has been arrested for selling drugs. The first thing that struck me about the short story was the fact that, at nine years old, Lopey was regularly selling drugs on the street. This heavy involvement in drugs at such a young age concerns me as the reader and luckily, concerns his parents. On a side note, it is interesting that as far as I can see, Lopey himself is not a big drug user. He seems to only sell drugs and rarely, if ever, uses them. From what I have heard about drug dealers, this seems to be highly irregular behavior. Anyway, either way, this is not productive, positive behavior, so his father and stepmother send Lopey to live with his birth mother and her wealthy husband. One of the most striking pieces in the large house is a grand piano. Lopey begins to try to play by mimicking the sounds of a classical record that was playing. The family discovers that Lopey has a talent for playing piano, and they start to try and cultivate his talent.

The piano and the drug dealing represent opposing forces in Lopey’s personality, and their coexisting and clashing make up the majority of the story. I think that for my paper, I am going to talk about these opposing forces, and how this is a developmental story as well as a story about choices.