Diving Into the Music.

Can you finish this silly story about a boy, his piano, and a swimming pool?

Matthew's fingers ached. Had he been practicing for hours? It have only been twenty minutes. The ivory piano keys seemed to fight back as be struggled to plink out a tune. He knew that if the keyboard fell silent, his mother might add another fifteen minutes to his practice time.

Sunlight reflecting from the swimming pool outside dappled the walls of the music room, inviting Matthew to come out and splash a different tune. He looked longingly out the windows and hit five wrong notes in a row.

"Matthew," his mother called from the next room. "That didn't sound like The Blue Danube Waltz. You'd better start again."

"Oh, no," he muttered. Was he never going to get to go swimming?

Suddenly, he had an idea....

What do you think Matthew's idea was? How can he finish his practice and get to go swimming? Write the ending for this story and send it to: U.S. kids, A Weekly Reader Magazine, Box 567, Indianapolis, Indiana 46206. We'll publish as many as we can.