A Musical Mystery: Part 4

When I got home that afternoon, I saw James' Jeep in front of the house and knew I would have to confront him.  I stormed inside, with my stomach in my mouth.  "How could you have done such a thing?" I demanded as he calmly sat on a living room cushion. "How could you have taken Portnoy's bow and bass?

"I didn't really do anything wrong," James explained matter of factly. "I took the bass because he has several others and doesn't really need this one.  And the bow, I actually didn't think he would miss it."

"The bow, I can see that it would be easy to take and get away with it.  But the bass...how on earth did you get it  and where is it?"

"I just put it in its BSO trunk backstage at the Shed (where they played) and had it shipped down here to my folk's house.  It's sitting in their garage right now," he replied.

"You know Portnoy is coming down here tomorrow.  He is furious!  Who knows what he is going to do.  I can't believe you did this!  Don't you realize how serious it is?"

Totally unsatisfied with James' behavior and rationalizations, I stayed at a friend's house that night.  Thankfully, I had a very busy schedule the next day and missed the police and Mr. Portnoy coming to our house for the bow and then driving up to James' parents in North Miami.  After retrieving his bow and bass, Mr. Portnoy decided not to press charges as long as James promised to see a psychiatrist.  I quickly moved out of our house and into student housing with a friend.  As far as I know, James never did seek counseling, and Mr. Portnoy never pressed charges.  James had explained that I had had nothing to do with the heist, and miraculously I was left alone.  But I was not invited back to Tanglewood again, something I regret to this day.  I also found out that Portnoy told his next summer's class of bass students that I had helped James with the robbery.  I immediately called him up and begged him to believe that I had known nothing about the heist until Dr. Drew had told me and that I had been blinded by love.  He seemed to believe me.  Nearly 40 years later, I spoke with one of the current BSO bassists and he told me that it would not be impossible to smuggle a bass from backstage at the Shed, since things can get pretty chaotic there at the end of the summer.  Needless to say, I have had no further contact with James and hopefully have gained some wisdom along the way.  I am truly sorry about what happened and learned a valuable lesson.

The End