National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 4

Today was the real deal. Hopefully, last practice was real and not just in my head.

“Hey! You know what today is?” Noor asked me excitedly.

“Yeah! I was just thinking about it,” I said while rolling my eyes.

“Well let’s just hope that we would sing like last week,” she pointed out.

Good. It means that it wasn’t all in my head. When the bell rang, signifying the start of the day, all of a sudden, time started flying. We went through French, Math, Science and all sorts of units in a flash. When we all assembled in the library after school, it seemed as if only minutes ago I was still outside talking with Noor. Our music teacher suggested we practiced the anthems again so we can be sure. Our note was still beautiful as before and she smiled. When we finished, she told us that we were 100% ready. We waited patiently for the bus and the seconds ticked away.

“The bus is here!” Noor exclaimed.

As we barded the bus, we all giggled and laughed. Every one was chatting about the time to come. Just seconds later, we were all prepared and ready on the field. This was when time finally slowed down as the announcer introduced us to the whole crowd.

“Lets all welcome Dunlace P.S.! Please stand up for the national anthem.”

We opened our mouths and …

“Oh … “

The fist word flew out of our mouths and reached the audience. We kept singing and singing. We opened and closed our mouths in sync even as the song ended. We moved on to the American anthem and the same angelic voice still rang out. When we finished, the stadium roared with applause. Everyone shone with pride even as we excited. Every staff member at the game who passed us said or whispered:

“Good job guys!” or “Nice singing!”

I looked at Noor and we were thinking the same things. One, we’ve really outdone ourselves. Two, everyone liked it. And three, it was way better than last year’s singing.

“You know, I really think that we sang way better than the ones that sang last year,” Noor said, just to clarify herself.

We both smiled and scurried to our parents to enjoy the rest of the game.





National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 1
National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 2
National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 3

THE HORRIFYING RECITAL (b)

THE HORRIFYING RECITAL

The seat was cool and my stampede suddenly eased giving me a feeling of calm and peace. I managed a little smile as I placed my now dry and steady hands on the black and white keys. Take a deep breath, I told myself, remember what you teacher told you. I pressed down the first key and a note that was sharp and clear rang and the audience became attentive. I proceeded in playing the second note with a little more confidence. It too, was sharp and clear like a glittering crystal. My back eased as I let out a breath and began playing. Suddenly, something happened that shattered my entire piece.

 An ugly note escaped my fingers and it made sure everyone heard it. I made a mistake, I thought with absolute certainty. My nightmare came true. However, my breathing was still slow and steady and my heart didn’t get louder of faster. The butterflies that were supposed to swarm my stomach were taking a rest. My forehead and fingers were dry instead of sticky with sweat. How do I fix this mistake? I wondered in my head aware that the audience hadn’t taken their eyes off of me. I knew they knew I made a mistake. But the show must go on, I thought. I couldn’t keep the audience staring at me. In a spilt second, I did what the only thing that came in my mind. I began from the beginning, searching for the culprit that wrecked my piece. Again the criminal note sounded and again the audience heard. Which hand had it been in? I wondered. Quietly I played with my right hand. There was no mistake. It’s in my left hand, I realized while already beginning to play with my left hand. Finally I found the awful note. However, what was the REAL note. My mind formed a huge question mark. I started from the beginning again and what seemed like a year, I finally recalled the real note.

When the correct note sounded I immediately fell in a world with only the piano and me. There was no more beautiful notes of ugly notes but only music. I danced in my mind merging as one with music. My fingers were obeying the music as they danced around the keys like my mind. I smiled in the sweat world. Slowly I emerged out of the world of music and found myself in reality as the world thundered back and I took a bow.

My father patted me on the back when I came to sit by him on the bench. An old woman came up to us and patted my sister and I on our heads. “Great job,” she said, “I only hope that my grandson can play as well as you two did.” She looked back at a young boy who was talking with another child. After a few minutes of chatting with us the woman walked to her grandson and left. Just then, my piano teacher came over as she finally finished talking to anther parent. “I am so proud of you two,” she said while smiling. Her eyes looked distant as she told us a story. “When I was young, I also dreaded recitals and never wanted to go.  In one recital, I played my first note and I made a mistake. I was so scared that my mind went completely blank and I had no idea what I was suppose to play!” my teacher said while laughing. She turned to me and told me that I did a great job handling my mistake.

When we arrived home, my father told me that it was a good thing that I kept playing my piece because if I didn’t, they would wonder what was happening and perhaps some people didn’t know I made a mistake at all and the piece was suppose to be that way. My mother came out from the kitchen and told me that she was about to ask my sister to hand me my piano book. We all laughed as we went to the kitchen to have lunch.

The End

Epilogue

She practiced the accordion everyday, perfecting her fingers and her form. She was the best in her class and she would get the most applause in recitals. On day, after her father came home from work, he told her that he would be watching her play in her next recital. Her father never had time to watch her and she wanted to make everything perfect. She practiced harder and each night would hum the piece before she slept and she would also have nightmares about forgetting her piece.The day of the recital arrived and the accordionist's father drove her to the stage where she would be performing, all the while whistling a cheerful tune. The accordionist was still practicing, getting more nervous with each passing minute. Finally, they arrived at their destination and her father wished he luck. When it was the girl's turn, she reluctantly walked onstage. She took a deep breath and caught her father's gaze. Her mind became blank. No notes came out correctly as if she did not spend time on her piece at all. On the way home, her father did not look at her or talk to her and after that day, he never went and watched her daughter play in fear of scaring her.       

THE HORRIFYING RECITAL (a)

National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 3

Today was the day of the third meeting. The last two practices were a disaster. Everyone was mumbling and muttering. They all sounded as if they all regretted joining. Imagine us singing like that at the games! Today, I’ll have to endure another session of moaning. The classes all passed by real quick, as I dreaded the end of school.

“Hey! We got practice remember?” I called to Noor, as she was about to leave.

“Oh yeah … sigh … that,” she groaned.

“Yeah that, now lets get over it,” I said.

As we were trudging in the sea of people to the library everyone’s eyes sparkled strangely with a new king of power. Their chests were puffed up and eyes set with raw concentration. I nudged Noor to see if she noticed the change and she nodded her head, still regarding the kids with interest. They were all marching and their feet made a rhythm kind of like:

“We can do it, we can do it!”

Seeing that we stepped into the library as one and determined, our music teacher’s face turned from boredom to shock and surprise. When everybody calmed down she eyed us with suspicion. All the children’s eyes were glued on Ms. Tai and our ears pointed, waiting for her next order. I was half expecting the room to start madly talking, whispering, laughing and giggling. The uproar never came. I glanced at Noor but she just shrugged. Mrs. Tai cleared her throat.

“Well, lets begin with the Canadian anthem.”

She blew into her pitch pipe to give us the starting note. The second she motioned us to start, the first word came ringing out, loudly and clearly. Mrs. Tai took a step back as the sound came blasting in her face. Her mute face turned happier as the straight line from her lips slowly turned upwards into the smallest smile. The smile grew bigger and bigger and she began to nod her head. Everyone else began to smile too, not because she liked it, but because we were truly powerful and we knew it. Noor’s mouth was opened as she was singing. Alexa’s chest heaved as she made the words alive. Erin’s cheeks were rosy and puffed; her eyes shining. Our principle walked by the door with her clipboard, and she dropped it as she heard the music. Not one person was distracted by the clatter. As the song ended, our eyes darted over to a few unnoticed teachers as the clapped.

“Wow! That. Was. Amazing!” the principle said.

“Yeah! That was exactly what I wanted!” Mrs. Tai exclaimed. “It was as if a god just came down and crawled inside you!” she continued.

A few of the girls in the back giggled.

“If you sing like that,” a teacher motioned with her hands, “the Blue Jays would invite you next year definitely!”

Mrs. Tai clapped her hands together to regain the attention.

“Great! Now let’s see if you can ace the American anthem too,” she winked.

As she motioned for us to sing again, we said the “oh” with no hesitation. As the song neared the end, our words were bouncing off walls and filling the room with music. We all noticed how the teachers didn’t leave.

“And the home, of the brave!”

As we ended in triumph, the teachers clapped and cheered. Mrs. Tai beamed and clapped as she said:

“I personally think that you are ready. Let’s go rock that crowd tomorrow night!

Everyone cheered. When we were exiting, Noor came over and gave me a high five.

“OMG!!! I can’t wait for tomorrow night!” she squealed.

“Yeah, me too,” another of my friends, Kaitlyn, said. “But you gotta get rid of that squeal!” she teased, rubbing her ears.

We may have understood today, but will it be this good on the field?

National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 1
National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 2 
National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 4

National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 2

I finally decided to call Noor to see what she would do. 

"Hi, what's up?" Noor chirped.

"Nothing really," I said with a sigh. "If you were part Canadian and part American, what would you do if you had to support only one team?"

There was a pause on the line and I wondered if she hung up.

"In Canada, I'll support the Canadian team and vice versa. However, deep down, I'm also rooting for the other team as well," she said finally.

"Yes, I see ... " I replied.

However, that would mean that only one team will know that I'm supporting them and the other team wouldn't know. It still didn't feel right to just ignore the other team.

"Well Noor, thank you for the idea but I don’t know ... Well, see you later, then ..." 

We hung up, and I stared at the phone blankly. Noor was no help at all. Suppose I did what she said. So the Canadian team scored a home run. Yaaay! Now the American team also scored one. Booooo! However, I can't boo on them. It's not right. Perhaps I could just sit quietly during the whole game, doing nothing and saying nothing. however, if I did that, it would seem as if I don't care about the game. I didn't dare tell or ask my parents. They would laugh at me and call me a failure. I was in the middle of deciding wether to tell them or not when my mom walked in with a smirk on her face. No way was I going to tell her my problem and make that face even more smirky.  

"How was school today?" my mother asked. 

"Uhh ... Fine!" I smiled hard, spinning my chair.

My mom gave me a quizzical look, but she shrugged and walked away. But actually I'm not fine and school is not okay. I guess for now, I'll just practice both with pride, happiness and perfection. Suddenly, the phone started ringing. I waited for my parents to pick it up so I could continue practising, but the phone just kept on ringing and ringing. I dragged my feet over groggily and picked up the phone. 

"Hello? Who's calling?" I said, trying to sound annoyed. 

"Hey, what's up?" 

Before she said her name, I knew it was Noor. Oops. 

"It's me, Noor. I was just wondering if ... "

National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 1
National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 3
National Anthem at the Blue Jays Game 4