The strange demise of Biff's mum

Extract from an unfinished novel

In idle moments Biff would wonder where she had been going that day, when she had left her apartment building in just her shoes, underwear and a pristine white housecoat, purse in hand, no make-up, not even a bit of lippy, rushing out the door at the exact moment the hoist gave way. And then... well, you see it in cartoons, don’t you? In some of them it positively rains pianos and safes.
Of course, the ’toon usually slaps itself back into shape, if only to get its head blown off three seconds later; but even a glancing blow from a 1930s wood cabinet Rockola jukebox with 10 meters of gravitational acceleration behind it is extremely inimical to human health. And there was nothing glancing about the blow delivered by the Rockola with Mrs Margaret O’Toole’s name on it. Biff’s mother took the full whack on her shoulder-blades; instant raspberry pavlova.
Of course, the removal company payed up big-time, and there was life insurance, too ... he had enough to buy the house and some over.
Incidentally, did you know that Rockola had nothing to do with rock ’n’ roll? it was the name of the people who ran the company. Czechs I think.