There was one instrument much larger than the others. It was set on a raised platform and looked different. He wandered toward it, and discovered the enclosure. From the audience he hadn't noticed this; the enclosure was hardly visible though he was leaning against it.
He had experience with this sort of thing. A museum case; a guarantee that whatever was inside was real. With practiced fingers he felt for an invisible crevice in the transparent enclosure. A fingernail split, but something swung open, and Danny was inside.
He looked curiously at it. A large wooden instrument with white markings along the front of it. Danny remembered how these had been touched during the performance.
He was good at imitation; Danny brought his fingers down the way he had seen it done. The white things weren't markings: they were keys. The sound rolled out into the empty auditorium. Startled, Danny jerked his hands away. He didn't know it, but with those few notes he qualified as the musical genius of a hundred years. The only human who, in that time, had produced anything resembling music.
Entranced, he listened. When the last echo was lost he felt empty. He sat down on the stool and rubbed his cheek against the old instrument. His hands couldn't stay away from the keyboard.
Meanwhile his mother strolled determinedly through Culture City. "I just love the synthony don't you, Danny?" For the first time she realized he wasn't with her. She looked around bewilderedly.
"Don't worry," said her companion. "He can't be far. Probably in the twentieth century section watching the electric signs."
His mother laughed nervously. "Quaint, isn't it? Let's go. We have to find him." She angled to the left, thinking she saw him through the crowd. When she got there it was another little boy, not Danny at all.
However she had a bit of luck. The commercial artist on the street was temporarily vacant. She hesitated for a moment between her duty to find Danny at once and her desire to own a real work of art. The middle aged couple heading toward the booth decided her. Swiftly she inserted a coin.