The Revival of the Concertmate 470

 A few days ago I was in my garage when my eyes fell upon a sad mini-keyboard. It didn't seem to be of any use, with its back broken and a strange sound from the inside when I moved it ( I later discovered this was from an internal speaker dislodged and rattling around). Even when I put in the right size and amount of batteries, there was too much space and it did no good. But there was a certain sympathy I felt for this tiny instrument, and even though I've never had much luck with technology in the past, I was determined to do whatever I could to save the little guy.

 So I spent a good 45 minutes trying to remove the back from the front with no formal tool at my disposal other than a teeny screwdriver and my own unskilled, grubby old hands. I'll admit, at one point I had a deep desire to thrust the keyboard through the air with enough brute force to shatter it into a thousand pieces, but thankfully I suppressed this urge and continued sputtering angrily and yelling menacingly into the plastic.

 Once I'd accomplished my task and could see the internal organs of my patient, I tried diagnosing the problem, namely in the battery department. It turned out that the battery spring had been moved from home, which had caused the mishap of the batteries falling in too far. I put it back in place and put in the batteries again, and hoping for the best, I flicked the switch to ON and pressed a key.

And guess what.

IT.

WORKED.

 At first I was initially shocked at the miracle this had been, although only about half the keys actually worked (which isn't much considering there's literally only 32 keys, including the flats). Still, I was overjoyed, and sent myself to work discovering just what this little firecracker could do. Which, as it turns out, is more than you'd expect. 

 There's five different tone setting groups (of which two work) which contain five sounds each, and also three pattern groups (of which two work) which contain eight sounds each. It also features a three-setting tone editor (fully functioning), volume (works) and tempo (doesn't work) control, as well as a demo and lesson function that I don't understand yet. A lot in a little package. And even though it's feeble, broken, and has some bent keys, I feel a deep connection and a faint relation to its gentle sincerity when I play around on it.

 Now, if only I could really play a keyboard.

I'm naming him Chance.