“Not a Second Time”

“Not a Second Time” is the Beatles song through which Abra Stone’s parents first confronted her ability to make music without playing an instrument. Its simple piano break became the sound that turned an uncanny nighttime disturbance into a shared recognition: Abra was producing the notes from a distance.

The song and its place in the family

David Stone recalls that he gave Lucy Stone a book of Beatles piano arrangements for Christmas in 2001. Abra, still a baby, listened while Lucy played from the book in the living room, where the family’s Vogel piano stood. The piano itself had been a wedding present from David’s parents; the room had also held Abra’s playpen.

The collection included familiar hits such as “Hey Jude,” “Lady Madonna,” and “Let It Be,” but Abra’s favorite was the less prominent B-side “Not a Second Time.” David describes it as upbeat, with a piano riff in place of the guitar sound common to the Beatles’ faster songs. The instrumental break was especially accessible: its left-hand part consisted of twenty-nine notes, which David counted, and Abra later reproduced them accurately.

The first performance

The first unexplained performance occurred in spring 2002. David and Lucy were upstairs in bed, reading while the late-evening weather report played on television. Abra was supposed to be asleep in her room. When David switched off the television, they heard the song’s piano break coming from downstairs, played perfectly and without a missed note.

The couple feared that someone had entered the house. David, who had no gun and could not reach his golf clubs in the garage, took a large book downstairs and told Lucy to call 911 if he shouted. He found no intruder; all the doors were locked, and the cover over the piano keys was down. When the couple went to check on Abra, she was awake in her crib, looking at them. They suspected that she had made the music, but neither wanted to say so aloud.

From disturbance to recognition

For the next three nights, David slept on the sofa facing the piano. On the third night, the music began just as he was settling down. He hurried to the Vogel and raised its cover, but the keys were not moving. He realized the notes were not coming from the piano at all, but from the air above it.

Lucy was already in Abra’s room. This time, rather than remaining silent, she asked Abra to play the passage again. After a pause, the notes sounded once more, with David standing close to where they seemed to hang in the air. In John Dalton’s office, as David recounted the incident and Concetta Reynolds watched, the account gave the earlier mystery a clearer shape: the song was not being played by an unseen visitor or by the piano, but by Abra.

Lucy then took Abra onto her lap and asked her not to play at night because the music kept her parents from sleeping. That ended the nightly performances. The ending was not quite absolute: about three weeks later, the family heard the music once again, much more softly, this time coming from upstairs—from Abra’s room.