Teaching Fiasco

My last piano student of the night dropped one of her books in the gutter outside our house as she was putting them in the car. Her mom and I tried to fish it out by laying on the sidewalk and lowering various makeshift implements attached to the end of a broomhandle down under the grate including tongs and a metal skewer. Amidst side-splitting laughter, we resorted to attaching duct tape sticky side out to the top of the broom handle. She watched while I jabbed one of the pages with the taped handle and tried to lift the book, successfully tearing the page out. Luckily it was the page my student had to practice this week because we never did get the book out. In a last ditch effort we tried to scoot the book onto a shovel with the end of the broom handle, closing the book. Glancing at the front of the book, I read the title in bold lettering, "My First Piano Adventure."