Extract from 'Paddington: Here and Now'

PADDINGTON ALWAYS LOOKED forward to his morning chats with Mr Gruber.

One of the things that made visiting his friend’s antique shop in the Portobello Road so special was the fact that it was never the same two days running. People came from far and wide to seek Mr Gruber’s advice. If it wasn’t someone looking for an old painting or a bronze statue, it was someone else browsing through his vast collection of books, which covered practically every subject under the sun.
In time, Paddington became quite knowledgeable about antiques himself; so much so, he could immediately tell a piece of genuine Spode china from an ordinary run-of-the-mill item of crockery, although he would never had dared pick any of it up in case he dropped it by mistake.

"Better safe than sorry," was Mr Gruber’s motto.

That apart, since both of them had begun life in a foreign country, they were never short of things to talk about.

During the summer months they often had their elevenses sitting in deck chairs on the pavement outside the shop, discussing problems of the day in peace and quiet before the crowds arrived.

Paddington couldn’t help but notice his friend usually had a faraway look in his eyes whenever he spoke of his native Hungary.

“When I was a boy,” Mr Gruber would say, “people used to dance the night away to the sound of balalaikas. That doesn’t seem to happen any more.”

Having been born in Darkest Peru, Paddington had no idea what a balalaika was, let alone what it sounded like, but with Mr Gruber’s help he did learn to play a tune called “Chopsticks” on an ancient piano at the back of the shop.

It wasn’t easy, because having paws meant he often played several notes at the same time, but Mr Gruber said anyone with half an ear for music would recognise it at once.

“Music is a wonderful thing, Mr Brown,” he was wont to say. “Chopsticks may not be top of what is known as ‘the Pops’, but if you are able to play it on the piano you will always be in demand at parties.”

On cloudy days, when there was a chill in the air, they made a habit of retiring to an old horsehair sofa at the back of the shop, and it was on just such a morning, soon after his adventure with the shopping basket on wheels, that Paddington arrived rather earlier than usual and found to his surprise that Mr Gruber had acquired a new piano.

It was standing in almost exactly the same spot as the old one had been; near the stove where his friend made the cocoa.

There was no sign of Mr Gruber, which was most unusual, so to pass the time Paddington decided to have a go at playing what had become known as ‘his tune’, when something very strange happened.

As he raised his paws to play the opening notes, the keys began going up and down all by themselves!

He had hardly finished rubbing his eyes in order to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, when he had yet another surprise. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mr Gruber crawl out from underneath a nearby table.

“Oh dear,” said Paddington, “I hope I haven’t broken your new piano.”

Mr Gruber laughed. “Have no fear of that, Mr Brown,” he said. “It is what is known as a ‘player piano’ and it works by electricity. You don’t see many around these days. I’ve just been plugging it in to make sure it works properly.”

“I don’t think I have ever seen a piano that plays a tune all by itself before,” said Paddington. “We didn’t have anything like that in Darkest Peru. But then we didn’t have electricity either,” he added sadly.

While Mr Gruber set about making the cocoa, Paddington took a closer look at the keyboard. It really was uncanny the way the keys went up and down in time to the music, and he tried following their movement with his paws without actually touching them. In the beginning he found it was hard to keep up with them, but after several goes it really began to look as though he was actually playing the tune.

“Look, Mr Gruber,” he called. “I can even do it cross paws!”

“I should watch out,” warned his friend, looking up from the saucepan. “It’s the Tritsch Tratsch Polka. You will need to sit very tight.”

But it was too late. Even as Mr Gruber spoke, the music reached a crescendo and Paddington suddenly found himself lying on the floor with his legs in the air.

Extract from PADDINGTON HERE AND NOW
Text copyright © Michael Bond 2008

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