Hospital for Broken Musical Instruments

Surgeons in colorful scrubs operate on a grand piano laid open on an operating table, its strings and hammers exposed under bright surgical lamps. Nearby, a cello lies draped in a blue sheet while a team works with forceps and clamps, sheet music scattered across the floor. A tuba soaks in a bath of soap suds on a rolling cart, and a guitar rests bandaged on a stretcher. Upstairs, a long ward holds rows of violins tucked into hospital beds, each hooked to a drip and labeled with its own chart. A pharmacy counter stocks shelves of colored tonics and polish, and a boy peers out from inside an open cello case near a scattering of trombones and clarinets on a low table. A ginger cat wanders between the rolling stretchers. Every bed, table and cabinet here tends to one instrument at a time, keeping the ward easy to read.