‘Nonsense! There is a microphone on the stage, I know you can do it, so do it!’ I liked her immediately.
‘What will I sing?’ I asked.
‘Whatever you like dear!’
‘Ok…….um, how about ‘Time after Time’? It’s an old song, by Cindy Lauper. I like the chords in it.’
‘Fine! Fine! Off you go then!’
I walked up to the stage.
It was lucky there was no one else around though, because I was feeling pretty nervous for some reason.
‘Lying in my bed, hear the clock ticking, think of you/ caught up in circles, confusion is nothing new/ flash back, warm nights, almost left behind/ suitcase of memories, time after/ sometimes you picture me, I’m walking too far ahead, you’re calling to me I can’t hear what you said/ then you say go slow, I fall behind, the second hand unwinds/ if you’re lost you can look and you will find me, time after time/ if you fall I will catch you, I’ll be waiting, time after time……’ I decided to stop.
I looked at Mrs. Smith. She was beaming and clapping.
‘Dear! That was wonderful! You have such a beautiful voice! Mezzo-soprano?’
I nodded.
‘Sing me another!’
I agreed and began to sing ‘I know where it’s at’ by the All Saints.
Then I sang ‘Madeline’ by Hanson.
When I was done, Mrs. Smith could not stop praising me.
‘You are fabulous! Very strong! But, I’m afraid there is no place for you here! In fact, to be quite honest, there never was. I just wanted to hear you sing.’
I was shocked.
My face must have fallen about a foot.
‘Oh.’
But Mrs. Smith just laughed.
‘Dear! Don’t be so disappointed! I didn’t mean it like that! Come here!’ she pulled me over to her office, a small room off the side of the auditorium.
‘I’ll explain. Though I would love to have you here, I feel I would be of no help to you whatsoever. So as soon as I heard you were coming and checked you out, I got in touch with a friend of mine, Diana, who does voice training. She’s wonderful! She used to sing and all. Anyway, she has lots more credentials than me and was delighted to hear you. I took her over a tape and she was thrilled. She said she’d be delighted to take you in as her student. Now, understand she is not a teacher, and has no other students, so she may have different methods. And she is also away a lot. But she is a wonderful teacher and might be able to teach you a lot.’
I was shocked.
‘Wow! Thank you! This is amazing!’ I didn’t know what to say.
‘Look, come back here after school and I’ll arrange it a little more. Now, run along, lunch is almost over!’
I thanked her again and went off to find my locker and get it set up before class.
On the way there, I met Kate and another girl.
‘Oh, there you are! We waited for you!’ Kate told me.
‘Oh sorry! Mrs Smith got me to sing for her. Oh, and guess what?’
song credit Cyndi Lauper, "Time after time"
Get your own Free Home Page