The Piano Man. Tim Vicary

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      The Piano Man

      THE PIANO MAN

      When somebody has an accident, there are sometimes two kinds of injury. One is an injury to the body, perhaps a broken arm or a leg, or something worse. But there is also another kind of injury, and you cannot see these injuries because they are inside a person’s head. The shock of a bad accident can do strange and terrible things to a person’s brain.

      Avril is a nurse in a hospital. She is very good with patients like the man from the sea. He was on a beach, in wet clothes, and nobody knows anything about him, not even his name. He has an injury to his head, but it is not a bad one. He can eat, and drink, and see, and hear. But he cannot speak, and he is very unhappy. Why? What happened to him, and where did he come from?

      One day he draws a picture of a piano, so Avril gives him a name – the Piano Man. Somebody, somewhere, knows something about the Piano Man. But that person is on a boat, and the boat is sailing back to St Petersburg in Russia …

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of OxfordIt furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries© Oxford University Press 2013The moral rights of the author have been assertedFirst published in Oxford Bookworms 201310 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1No unauthorized photocopyingAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address aboveYou must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirerLinks to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this workISBN: 978 0 19 478610 2A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of The Piano Man is available in an audio pack. ISBN: 978 0 19 478602 7Printed in ChinaWord count (main text): 6,476For more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library, visit www.oup.com/bookwormsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Illustrations by: Owen Freeman/Killington Artse-Book ISBN 978 0 19 463018 4e-Book first published 2014

      CHAPTER 1

      THE MAN FROM THE SEA

      The boat, the boat … where is it? I must find the boat … I’m cold … so cold. Oh, Lida, where are you? How can I find you? I must find you … So cold, so cold … I must get back on the boat … Oh, Lida … Lida … Lida …

      ‘Mummy, look at that man!’