Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9


The auditorium was packed with people. It seated about 2100 people and there was not an empty seat in the joint. The three small front rows were reserved for the contestants of the talent show, but most of the rest of the seats were filled with family and friends of the contestants. A good majority of the student body was not there because, really, how cool is it to spend after school hours watching a talent show?
Stan and Greg had already found their seats inside. They were just a few rows behind the contestants but way off to the left-hand side. Jon had remembered to return the music to the store for Aleisha’s mom and he had brought his sheet music for Gaspard de la nuit. He was now just waiting in the hall for Aleisha to show up so he could give her back the refund money. That was why he had set up this meeting, but he was also secretly hoping that he could get a little wish of good luck from her, too. Along with setting up that date, of course.
Jon was dressed in khaki slacks with a short sleeved white shirt. Not too formal, not too casual and he could move his arms in it as opposed to a full suit. He was rocking back and forth on the heels of his toes when he heard a familiar voice behind him. Not a very friendly familiar voice, either.
“Mr. Mills?”
He turned, already aware of what he would see.
“Mrs. Perry! How the hell are you?”
“I should ask you to refrain from the profanity, Jonathan.”
“You should ask me to refrain but you won’t. You see, I wasn’t swearing. I was merely asking about your place of residence.”
Mrs. Perry’s tongue went into her upper lip indicating that she wanted to retort very badly, but knew this was neither the time nor the place.
“I have been asked to remind you that you may not play the same piece of music as this morning. This time, you will be judged on how well you play and how much attention is paid to rests, beats per minute and that kind of thing. You were lucky to get in tonight. I wanted to boot you out, but Doc was so impressed by your dexterity that he felt you must be let in.”
Jon smiled. “I’m in and I fully intend to win.”
Mrs. Perry glared at Jon for just a moment, turned, and entered the auditorium.
“Hi, stranger,” came another voice from behind him.
He turned and saw what he had been waiting to see. Aleisha Madsen was standing behind him and looked radiant! Even though she was just wearing an orange T-shirt, a brown jacket over it and blue jeans, she still looked smashing. Maybe it was her beaming smile that made it all work.
“Thanks for coming! I, uh, wanted to make sure I got you the money back.” Jon reached into his pocket and clumsily pulled out the four dollar bills which had the change wrapped inside of the tangled mess. As he passed the money, he made sure that he didn’t actually touch Aleisha.
“Actually, Jon,” she smiled as she took the money, “I wouldn’t have missed seeing you perform again. This morning was very…interesting.” She grinned and showed her white teeth to Jon.
“That’s what I’ve heard.” He could feel himself getting red with embarrassment and anticipation again. “I was just wondering if tomorrow would be a good time to go to a movie. Look Who’s Talking is playing. I don’t know if you’d want to see a talking baby, but-“
“Tomorrow is perfect! However, I’ve been wanting to see the Tom Selleck movie? An Innocent Man? Would that be fine?”
“Totally fine! Especially if I can take you to my favorite theater that’s playing it.”
She nodded, bowed her head just a little and showed her teeth again.
“Great! That would be just great! I’ll pick you up at, say, six tomorrow night, and we can go get a bite to eat before the show?”
“I would like that.” She was enjoying watching him almost melt.
Stan poked his head out of the auditorium door. “Jon! I think they’re getting ready to start!”
Jon looked at Aleisha and was both happy and sad for the time to split up. “If nothing else, I’ll see you tomorrow in Katsilas’s class?”
“You know it!”
“Bye, Aleisha.” Jon turned and ran up the stairs to go in and take his seat.
Aleisha watched him go. She put up her hand and waved, even though she knew Jon would not see it. She happily skipped up the steps after him and found her seat as her heart fluttered.
Jon was not scheduled to go on stage until near the end. There were thirty finalists in the different categories and Jon was listed as number twenty-five. He was the last of the pianists, so he could see how he measured up.
The problem with the measuring up theory was that he had to stay awake for the twenty-four so-called talents that preceded him. After three talents, he was ready to call it quits. Even though the three front rows were small, and they were reserved for the contestants, he noticed friends and family of the remaining group slowly making their way into the seats. The chair beside Jon was vacant, so he wondered how close Aleisha was. He craned his neck and squinted through the dark to see if he could spot her.
As he was turned around, Jon felt someone take the empty seat next to him. Since he hadn’t spotted her yet, he turned around in resignation of just falling asleep. He was overjoyed however to catch a glimpse of a brown jacket as he turned back around.
“Good timing!” he whispered to Aleisha.
“Thanks. I figured that other people were doing it, moms, dads, boyfriends, and girlfriends. So, I thought we could be considered a couple since we have a date for tomorrow, right?”
Jon’s butterflies, which had been noticeably absent during his time with The Agency, reared up again when Aleisha even mentioned the word couple in reference to the two of them.
Jon and Aleisha made it through a ventriloquist who was so poor that by the end he didn’t even try to hide that his lips were moving. They were treated to a saxophonist playing a Kenny G song while his girlfriend ballet danced in a silhouhette against a blue light. Two different couple sang the Phantom of The Opera Duet. Neither one did it well. There were several pianists, one played The Man From Snowy River Theme, but they both seemed like second year piano students. One girl even tried a stand up comedy routine in French.
The new couple just made it through each one silently whispering to each other and hiding under coats to muffle their laughter. Jon made sure that even with all of the leaning over and whispering, he never touched Aleisha. It would’ve just seemed too weird. He did brush her hair away from her ear a time or two, but that was the extent. Aleisha quickly touched his arm once or twice to get his attention, but he would move it off of the arm of the chair under the pretense of getting closer to her.
Mrs. Perry had given them a few stern looks throughout the night, but they weren’t being overly rambunctious to warrant a tossing out of the assembly.
Finally, it was time for number twenty four to take the stage which meant Jon had to leave to go to the side of the stage to prepare. He raised his eyebrows in a ‘Here I go’ gesture. Aleisha smiled and gave him the thumbs up sign as he stood to exit the row.
It wasn’t until he was alone in the hallway headed to the stage door, that he realized that he had actually had a very fun time this evening. It had been awkward now and again, but all told, he wasn’t worried about saying anything too inappropriate, he hadn’t been concerned about whispering into Aleisha’s ear, it had almost seemed natural. Jon paused before he entered the stage and leaned against the brick corner of the alcove, enjoying this moment, before he got stressed out for the next ten minutes up on stage.
As the door to the parking lot opened, Jon knew the rest of his night had gone south.
Kate Thompson strolled through the door and looked happy to see Jon. “You haven’t gone on yet, have you?”
Jon mustered a smile. “Perfect. Just perfect,” he muttered. Louder, he said, “No. Not yet!”
“Good! I didn’t want to miss this!”
Jon was almost shocked. “Miss it? What do you mean, miss it?”
“I wanted to see you perform! You were so intense about it today, I figured that I couldn’t miss my trainee’s big night!”
“You’re my trainer, right?” Jon questioned.
“Yup. You know it.” Kate’s voice was way too cheerful. Jon didn’t like the sound of it at all.
“Kate, I don’t know how to break this to you, but you’re my trainer. You’re not my mother, my nanny, or my girlfriend. Thanks for coming, but I’m not sure that I feel comfortable with you being right here at this part of my life right now.” It was only after he had said it, that Jon realized the word girlfriend wasn’t that scary of a word after all.
Kate stood her ground but remained silent for a beat. “Okay, you got me.” Her shoulders sagged and her voice went back to being all business.
“Oh, shit,” Jon lowered his head and started shaking it.
“Two things that I came here for, Jon.”
Jon squeezed his eyes shut tightly and listened to the strange sound that emanated from somewhere deep inside his ear canal. He opened them and mustered the same fake smile that he had previously worn. “Number one?”
“A student of Taylorsville High was shot to death at a fast food restaurant just up the street.”
“And this matters to me because-?”
They could hear applause starting in the auditorium that meant Jon needed to get inside the stage door.
“We’ll get to the importance of that issue in a moment. But number two-“ Kate snatched Gaspard de la Nuit out of Jon’s hands and thrust another piece of music in its place, “-is to apologize for the last couple of days, I’m here to help you win the talent show. Come on!” Kate opened the stage door and for all semantical arguments aside, threw Jon into the backstage area.
“Kate-!” Jon started, but Kate was already strutting front and center in the spotlight. Jon hurried out to the piano. “Perfect.”
Stan and Greg had been slouched in their seats doing their own mocking of the proceedings. As Kate marched onto stage, their eyes widened, their mouths opened, and their butts slid straight back in their chairs. There was no need to look at each other or say anything. They both knew something was about to go down.
Aleisha also sat up straight and was a little confused by the turn of events. She was in the school choir. Why hadn’t Jon asked her to sing? And who was the girl- woman more accurately- standing up there? Aleisha had never seen her in the halls. Did she go to this school? Was this a legal part of the talent show?
Jon was busy finding the first page as Kate took the microphone out of its stand.
“Hi. The next contestant is Jonathan Mills. He will be playing the piano as I sing. The piece is entitled Short People by Randy Newman.”
Mrs. Perry stood up in her spot in the audience. She blocked the spotlight so that she was outlined clearly to Kate. “Excuse me, miss, but who are you?”
Kate looked at Mrs. Perry dead center at where her eyes should be in the dark shape in the spotlight. “I’m the singer.” She smiled triumphantly. Kate turned and nodded at Jon.
Jon was still scanning the music. He had heard the song once or twice during the novelty song days of Carter and Bammes and once or twice on The Dr. Demento Show, but to play it cold? As he was scanning, he realized that it wasn’t that difficult. He would’ve preferred not playing it for the first time at the finals of the talent show up on stage, but there were much worse pieces of music to have to play under the gun. He noticed Kate’s nod, so he flipped back to page one and started.
The piece was mostly a simple rhythm piece. It started with a three note chord on the right hand for four beats. Then, it brought in a single note on the left hand which then went to a much lower note and another very low note in quick succession also on the left hand while the right hand stayed on its own three note chord rhythm Jon got to play this specific bit four times at the exact same speed for eight bars.
After eight bars, the beats per minute changed and he now played the same pattern about one-third faster than he had been playing it before.. He was to keep this beat per minute for the rest of the song, he played this pattern at this speed for eight more bars and was surprised enough to jump ever so slightly when on the ninth bar, Kate started singing.
“Short people got no reason, short people got no reason, short people got no reason to liiiive.” Kate sang.
The down beats on the left hand came after every use of the word got.
She had a nice, raspy quality to her alto voice. The song was not high pitched at all. It was almost in a spoken tone with a few pitch changes and an actual holding of the note on live, but that didn’t matter. Kate’s voice had the sensual raspiness to it, but was also perfect pitch with a pleasing timbre. She had the depth of pipes and stage presence of Ethel Merman or Aretha Franklin. She not just sang on the stage, she seemed to prowl it. The audience was not ready for this kind of a performance at a high school talent show. There was an immediate stillness in the auditorium, yet an instant electricity at the same time.
Stan and Greg sat mesmerized, watching the red hair almost seem to take on a life of its own as Kate sang.
Jon almost missed the next beat pattern as Kate hit the last note on the phrase. It was so crystal clear and beautiful, he almost wanted to stop playing and watch the performance himself. Instead he caught himself, and kept playing. Since the piano part was pretty basic, he could feel himself loosening up and not being quite as tense. He started hitting the notes with purpose instead of just because they were on the paper. At the word live, Jon got to go down the scale with his left hand and he relished every note.
Kate continued singing. “They got little hands, little eyes, they walk around telling great big lies….”
Jon almost expected someone to stop them in this too politically correct world that they lived in. Talking about short people like that? That can’t be good for the Federation of Height Impaired Citizens, but, for some reason, Kate’s voice broke through what the words were saying.
“…they got little noses and tiny little teeth. They wear platform shoes on their nasty little feet, well I don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people ‘round here.”
It was time for Jon to just play a little bridging section. He was playing the right hand almost, but not quite, stacatto like, and was hitting the left hand notes with gusto, giving the song a bass kick. He looked ahead and saw that a change was coming. He prepared and flowed naturally into it as though he had played this song for years. The music almost turned into a schmaltzy message type song music, but Jon, knowing the genius that is Randy Newman, knew that it was as satirical as all get out. Words and music, both.
Kate sang as though she got the joke as well. “Short people are just the same as you and I, a fool such as I, all men are brothers until the day they die, it’s a wonderful world. “
As Kate sang the word world, Jon started back on his right hand rhythm, left hand bass. The down beats again came after the word ‘got’ each time.
“Short people got nobody, short people got nobody, short people got nobody to looooove.”
There was a whooping in the crowd and all of a sudden the audience started having fun with the song, too, not just listening to Kate sing.
“They got little baby legs, they stand so low, you got to pick them up just to say hello-“ Kate grinned as she sang that line and she got a whooping round of encouragement from all the tall friends ribbing their short companions.
“They got little cars that go beep beep beep, they got little voices going peep peep peep. They got grubby little fingers and dirty little minds-“ At this the audience went into catcalls as Kate reached down to her shirt’s neckline and ever so slightly tugged at it. “They’re gonna get’cha every time, well, I, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people ‘round here.”
Next, it was Jon’s turn to improvize and jam. He was continuing to do the rhythm and bass boosts, but every four times he did it, he threw in extra notes either sliding up or down the scale, turning the three note bass kick into chords as he would go down, just making it his own. He played the cycle eight bars four times, jazzing it up each time.
The crowd got more and more wild as they got into Jon’s improv and Kate’s strutting around like a rock star, getting eye contact with boys near the front row and making suggestive hand motions. Stan and Greg stood up, and most of the audience followed their lead. Greg started whistling with his fingers in his mouth. Even girls were dancing in their seats to the rhythm Jon was providing while the guys were drooling over Kate.
Aleisha was enjoying the fact that it was easy to see that Jon was the audience favorite at least. She enjoyed watching him perform. She was giddy at the sight of watching him go from being a jumble of nerves to loosening up and rocking out. She grinned and clapped along with the rest of the audience. She joined Greg in the whistles with her fingers in her mouth. The difference was hers were aimed solely at Jon.
Mills saw the end of the song coming, but he could hear Kate not speaking into the microphone over the roar of the crowd. He knew she was speaking, but couldn’t make out a word. He kept his fingers playing the rhythm as he leaned over the music and shrugged while he mouthed the word “what?’
“Go back!” she yelled. “Go back to the top of the fourth page! Link it up and replay it till the end!”
When Jon was only playing his right hand, he quickly flipped back to page four. It was the start of the fake schmaltz. He nodded to Kate. She turned back around and started vamping the crowd once again. Jon found a perfect place to make the splice. He played one more eight bar round and then turned back, and started replaying the new bridge. Jon had memorized the music by this time so he just forgot looking at the page.
Kate started singing again, only this time really playing up each single word and instead of singing, almost growling into the mike.
“Short people are just the same as you and I, a fool such as I. All men are brothers until the day they die. It’s a wonderful world.” The crowd erupted again as Kate brought one leg up and thrust her chest out toward the audience. She had seen Tina Turner do it once and wanted to try it. It had worked.
Jon kept the rhythm going still and kept a strong bass presence but was throwing in extra notes all over the place and punching out the bass as hard as he possibly could on the old run down school piano.
“Short people got nobody, short people got nobody, short people got nobody to looooove!” Kate ground out each ‘nobody’.
“They got little baby legs, they staaaand so low, you got ta pick ‘em up just to saaaay hello. They got little cars that go beep beep beep.” Each of the beeps was a low rumbling stacatto bass note. “They got little voices going-“ Kate’s voice jumped an octave for the next two peep peeps and went to an amazingly high glass shattering, Mariah Carey note for the final peep..
Aleisha’s eyes widened to an unnatural state. “Damn!” she whispered.
“They got grubby little fingers and dirty little minds-“ Kate tugged on her neckline again, but this time really went for it. “They’re gonna get’cha every time, well, I, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people ‘round here.”
Jon played through eight more bars and then ended in rousing fanfare, something that he imagined Billy Joel would play on his piano at the end of his last song in concert: a triumphant pounding bass chord on the last octave on the piano in unison with a pounding treble chord on the uppermost octave on the piano. As he played it, he stood up quickly and suddenly flinging the piano bench halfway across the stage with the forcefulness of it all and his hands went up in the air, as if he had just made a touchdown pass. He grabbed the mike that was on the piano. “I am Jonathan Mills and that was the amazing-“ he paused for a moment. Should he tell everyone Kate’s name? “The amazing Kate!” was his decided answer.
Even though he didn’t think it was possible, the crowd got even louder and had even more whistles and catcalls than there had been previously. He went to the front of the stage, stood on Kate’s left and grabbed her left hand.
“Why didn’t you tell me you could sing like that?” he muttered through the side of his mouth.
“You never asked,” was Kate’s reply. They raised their clenched hands together and as they brought them down, they bowed to their adoring fans. They raised their hands again and bowed a second time. Stomping of feet had started. They did the bow a third time and finally Kate tugged Jon off of the stage.
As they got behind the curtains, Jon pulled Kate to him and hugged her tight. His adrenalin was flowing at an all time high. As he let her go, he took a step back to admire her. “That was incredible. You were amazing!”
She was grinning widely. “You did a damn fine job, too, if I may say so my damn self, thank you!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him through the stage door into the hall. “Come on! We’ve got to go!”
Jon was puzzled. “What do you mean? We have to stay around and get the award. It’s only going to be another half hour or so. Come on, Kate! I’ve wanted to get a reaction like that up on stage ever since I was in seventh grade drama! Let me enjoy this!”
Kate was still smiling, but shaking her head. “You did an amazing job, Jon! I know you think that that was an easy piece, and, truth be told, it’s not that hard. But only someone with true talent could have pulled off all of the improv riffs and scales, and notes, and played it on the first time with a joy to match what I was doing onstage. You are on an adrenalin rush that you can identify that is different than the other recent adrenalin rushes, but I need you to come with me right now.
“I’ve actually been in the back row watching the entire show!” Kate continued. “There is no way that they can give the top prize to anyone but you! There are still five bits to go, but judging on the shit that has been up on that stage tonight, you don’t have anything to worry about! The award is yours and sewn up and in the bag! There will be a mutiny if they even try to play the whole ‘you must be present to win’ card, so I need you to trust me. I need you to come with me right now! Earlier this afternoon you told me that you were in. This is what being in means, Jon. It means letting go of personal wants and desires and doing what’s best for The Agency and the nation.”
In the matter of a few seconds, Jon’s face went from utter joy to total resignation. He took a deep cleansing breath. And let it out slowly. “You’re right, Kate. You’re right.” He took another deep breath. “Where are we going?”
“We are going to talk.” She started walking out of the building.
Jon put his hands up by his sides in a shrugging motion. He had a look of confusion on his face. “That didn’t really answer my question...” He started to follow her.
Several people started coming out of the doors as if they knew they had already seen the winner, so why stick around? Stan and Greg, however, had gone up on stage and followed Jon and Kate’s lead and gone out of the stage door. “Jon!” Stan called. They ran up to meet Jon.
Greg slapped his friend on the back. “That was great! You were great! She was great!”
Jon laughed at the enthusiasm. “Thanks, but I really gotta get going!” He motioned to the doors that Kate was already at.
“What’s up, Jon?” Stan asked. “Honestly, is everything on the up and up?”
“Yes, “ Jon answered. “Everything is on the up and up. I just need to go with her.”
“Aleisha was wanting to follow us, but she got stuck by the crowd. She should be out here any second.”
“I really can’t. I mean, I’ll be seeing her tomorrow night, anyways. We set up a date.”
This time, Greg gave Jon a surprisingly hard punch on the shoulder. “Good for you, stud!”
Kate came walking back up the hallway. “Jon, we really need to go!”
Jon put up his hand. “Okay, okay. I know, Kate. I just want to say goodbye.”
Kate grabbed Jon by the elbow. “Actually, they can come along.”
All three of the guy’s faces were awe struck. “Excuse me, miss?” Greg vocalized for the group.
“You can come along,” Kate repeated. “I was going to wait until tomorrow morning, but since the opportunity has presented itself, they may as well come right now. But, in order for them to come along right now, we must goooooooo.” Kate stretched out the last word as she tugged at Jon’s elbow again.
The trio followed Kate out to her car.
It took Aleisha several more minutes to make it out to the hall. She ran down the hall, calling Jon’s name. She even left the building and looked around at the parking lot and the street. She didn’t know it, but she watched as Kate’s Lumina pulled out of the school’s parking lot into traffic.
Aleisha’s grin faded into a frown as she buttoned up her brown jacket against the wind. She shoved her hands deep into her jacket pockets, lowered her head, and walked to her car, scuffing her shoes.