• Chapter 2

    The words contest and talent echoed through my head. I personally was not ready for such a thing. I mean, really the highest chance I have at winning a talent contest didn’t even exist. I may have learned pretty fast at piano but not enough to be able to enter a contest.

    “No”

    “What do you mean no? This is a once in a life time opportunity.”

    “I said no. I’m not ready for this.”

    “Bou, I have been teaching you for four months now. Don’t you think I would be able to know how far my students have progressed.”

    “You sure you’re not confusing me with the other students.”

    “Yes I’m su…..”

    “What’s the prize?”

    “Well I already told yo…”

    “No, the real prize.” I said sternly.

    “Er………..the winner is allowed the performance in front of the princess and if she enjoys what she sees then you will be granted a room at the palace as….well….in your case, court musician.”

    I stared at him. There was the answer to all of this. “You’re trying to get rid of me.” I said plainly.

    “No, no,” He waved make the matter seem light, “I’m giving you an opportunity to go to higher achievements.”

    “In other words get rid of me.”

    “I’ll have no more of this from you. This is an honor to be able to compete for such a prize.”

    I sighed letting my shoulders sink. He had already signed me up so I might as well give it my best. I mean come on the worst that could happen would be that I live at the palace. That got me wondering. Why is the princess looking for talents?

    I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I couldn’t get an answer now especially without the voice of the princess. “Oh, dinner’s ready” I turned to the piano room. I needed to seclude myself for a bit.

    “Great, I’m starving” A clap sounded and the rubbing of hands followed.

    I didn’t look to see the hungry beast devour his food. My hand rose to take a hold of the doorknob. Sauntering into the room, I pulled the chair and sat down. During these times of thoughts, I always had a song that I played. It was a very unknown song being the fact that it came from my own family. It had a nice melody but was rather simple to play.

    My hands rose onto the white keys of the large instrument. I slouched. I never liked to sit up right until the time was really needed or if the piece was a difficult one. My fingers touched down lightly onto the keys letting the sounds of a peculiar chord ring. I say peculiar because not many of the compositions I played had this chord. That was partly the reason I liked it so much. My finger glided gracefully up the keys, the pitch rising as it did so. They slowed to a halt letting an immense gape of silence before my hand rose into the air and bashed at the keys to make the next chord extremely unpredicted. My hands would glide back and forth across the keys, rising in the amount of sound it gave. Right at the point when the sound was to become ear pounding there was a measure of silence. My hands would let out another chord, then would retract back from them. That was my warm up. I always liked to play that before anything. It gives me that tingling chill down my spine that I always enjoyed.

    My hands rose back to the key. My foot set itself place on the right pedal. My fingers touched again playing single notes with my right hand and a simple accompaniment with my left. The melody held a bewitching tune to it. It was dark and yet provided peace amongst the notes.

    My fingers continued on their own. Something that just sorta happens when you’ve gotten pretty good at the instrument. I couldn’t help but wonder what all of this meant. Was I suppose to gain a new life? What does the princess have to do with all of this? Questions passed through me mind as the song played. None of them answered and none of the answers sought out for. The old melody would finish leaving me at the thought that things will be answered in due time.

    “By the way, Bou, the contest starts tomorrow and you’re first for the performance.”

    If I could die on the spot, I would’ve. “Y-y-y-YOU SIGNED ME UP ON THE LAST DAY?!!”

    “Well you know I don’t ever leave the house.”

    “Wh……H…….tch……….GRRR!!!”

    I shook my fists in anger and stormed off into my room. The bed gave thud as I planted myself on the mattress. Of all the things that could’ve happened it had to be that the contest began tomorrow. I wasn’t ready. I knew I wasn’t ready but it seemed my teacher differed from it.

    I sighed and rested my back against the mattress. I quickly decided to just do a rather fast song that didn’t have much skill requirement to it. It sounded cool and I was betting that was all that was needed for the preliminary or what I think is the preliminary. Anyways, rest was what I needed, especially for tomorrow. Well I guess I’ll just fail at this and move on in life. I mean come on it’s just a contest.

    When I guessed wrong, oh boy did I guess on. The contest was just like any other contest but they made it so that it was held in the main square of the town. This made it easy for everyone to watch and I mean everyone. I never even knew the place could fit so many people. The place was so packed for an open air performance that a claustrophobic would’ve passed out and died from the closeness of everyone together and that fact that if you felt something touching you it wasn’t just a hand, it was at least one hand from each person that pressed their flesh against you. The only thing that was worst then the millions of people was that the temperature rose considerably with all the body heat and the people created a wall of body odor that made the air humid. I was beginning to worry about whether I’d die from heat stroke or from the aroma of millions of people cramming its way into my nostrils. Did I happen to mention that almost everyone was sweating?

    This was the only time I was glad to be first up. I didn’t have to wait for the other participants till my turn. I could just get this over with and find safe shelter till it was time to call the winners to the semi finals.

    The judges stood on the platform facing the audience. Each of them greeted and gave their names. Of course, they explained the rules and the rewards of this contest. It seemed the decided winner would be made by judge and by partial audience cheers. I was sure it was mainly the judges. There would be one winner to go to the semifinals at the capital of the nation, and there the winners from each nation would compete to be the representative to her majesty. It was simple to understand.

    The judges took their place in the front of the stage. I immediately felt a bit sorry for the judges. Unlike the participants, they had to stay there and bathe in the hot humid environment of human flesh and stink.

    I shivered a bit and heard their call for the first participant. A piano had already been set in the middle of the stage. Gathering up whatever courage I had, I walked proudly but resolvedly onto the stage. Whatever courage I had built up was gone as soon as I hit the wall of stench. If I wasn’t on stage I would’ve ran for my life or fainted on the spot. I turned to face the crowd once I reached beside the pulled out chair. I bowed in respect and took my place.

    My hands rose to the keys and my back was in the actual correct posture. The song began rather quietly. No chords of any sort just intermingling of notes from both hands. Mind you most of the songs I loved to play had a dark tone. This one did as well. My body swayed to the music to make the effort a little more appealing to the eye. The first section was finished, and being repeated. Finally, my hands would begin playing notes rather quickly but still keeping the small dark tone until the abrupt minor chord. My hands would race with notes, as my left hand jumped over my right to hit the correct keys. My foot held onto the pedal releasing at key moments so the sound would be expelled outwards and mix with each other. My right hand would soon begin to run up the keys a few octaves as my left hand continued to jumped back and forth. Eventually, the run would return back to the octave it originally started with. I added a decrescendo for more effect so that the next section could rise in a crescendo to a climax. The song would end with rather swift notes and a change from four four time signature to three four time signature. This made the song seem to increase in speed. My hands would fly off the keys and literally rise about three feet from them until finally the ending chord sounded with an abrupt silence to follow. A random high-pitched single note would sound to end the song. Well it wasn’t a random in terms of choice but of sound.

    Once my hands returned to my side, a wall of screams and applauses came from the crowd. I nearly fell over from the wave of sound. I returned all of their approval with a bow and another towards the judges. They looked impressed and I started to wonder why. Then I remembered, a bit of background information was given early in the introduction previous to my performance. I just hadn’t been paying attention. The judges thanked me and went onto the next contestant. I walked off staged and met almost face to face with my teacher.

    “That was superb. Nothing fancy but good enough to show that you have skill.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder. He grinned widely to a point that I could’ve believed his mouth actually went off his face.

    “Yeah well, could you wake me up when its time to declare the winner?”

    “Of course but are you going to sleep?”

    “No but I think I’m going to pass out.”

    I did.