The next day, I got stuck at the same place again.
I used to be able to play that passage with my eyes closed. Now, whenever my left hand sped up, my right fell behind. I grew increasingly frustrated until I stumbled through the last few notes and reached up to close the keyboard cover.
Someone pushed a cleaning cart past the door. I sat without moving until the wheels faded into the distance, then lifted the keyboard cover again.
I couldn't keep putting off the hard parts whenever I played badly.
I slowed the metronome, practiced each hand separately, and began with that single measure. On the sixth attempt, I finally made no mistakes. I didn't rush ahead. I played it once more at the same tempo.
By the time Finn knocked on the door, I hadn't noticed that it was already dark outside.
