AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He finally smiles. “Probably, but you swear more than all of us.”
She smacks his arm playfully as a group of five or six teenagers come through the doors. One of the girls makes a beeline for Romeo and they occupy themselves for a good ten minutes playing tonsil tennis. So maybe his concern over Elle wasn’t coming from a crush as I had originally thought. More and more kids join until there are about thirty of them. They are all excited to see each other and they all comment on Elle’s bruises. She assures everyone she is fine, sticking quite easily to the mugging story.
“Alright, alright everyone, settle down,” she calls with a clap of her hands, and they all dim down as they sink into the seats. “Okay, first order of business, well done at the show last month, you all did incredible. The folks at Mycroft Retirement Home didn’t know what had hit them. Now we move on to our next project. I don’t have anything lined up yet, but best be prepared. Does anyone want to audition for a solo at our next show?”
I stand against the back wall observing her taking charge of her little—well quite large actually—group of youths. Drawing from my experience of my time at the public schools in this area, I’m surprised to see kids that I would consider to be from all sorts of different cliques, judging by their clothing styles and general demeaners. There was a noticeable silence after Elle’s question.
“Oh, come on guys! Someone must want the solo! Romeo and Justine were our last two soloists. If no one volunteers, I will give it to one of them again.”
A timid hand rises above the crowd and Elle claps her hands in delight. “Ah, Connie. Great, come up to the front, my love.”
A girl I would put at fifteen years old stands and makes her way toward the front of the group. Elle asks her if she has any backing music and she nods shyly, pulling her phone from the back pocket of her baggy jeans and connects it to the sound system.
“What are you singing, Con?” Elle asks.
“Um, Speechless, from the Aladdin movie,” she mumbles.
“Oooh, a musical. Hayden’s favourite.” She turns to me and gives me a wicked smile, which I return with an eye roll.
The music starts and the room is silent waiting for Connie to begin, it continues well beyond the point the vocals should have started, but Connie doesn’t sing. Elle stops the backing and turnsConnie toward the wall I am leaning against and away from the onlookers.
“What’s up?” she whispers.
“I…I don’t think I can do it.”
“Why?”
“I’ll mess it up.”
“Okay, and what do you think will happen if you mess it up? The world will stop spinning? Floods? Frogs? Locusts?”
Connie smiles slightly at that. “No. But people will laugh.”
Elle looks incredulous and turns back to the group. “Would anyone here laugh at someone for messing up an audition?” Silence. “Anyone?”
“What sort of pricks do you take us for, Miss?” Romeo speaks up.
“Come on, Con,” someone calls.
“You can do it,” another shouts.
Elle looks to young Connie, as if to say ‘see?’ “Now, let’s start the backing again.”
And that’s what they do. This time, Connie starts her song, almost too quietly to be heard over the music. Once she finds her stride, she belts out a powerful voice, telling anyone who will listen that she will not be silenced. Her eyes close at the crescendo of her song, pushing a line of tears down and over her cheek. Her voice is both sweet and gravelly, both innocent and knowing. I don’t know the song, but I can’t imagine anyone else singing it as well as she does. When she finishes, there are several beats of stunned silence before everyone erupts into loud applause with whistles and cheers.
Elle claps with tears in her eyes before hugging Connie in a tight embrace. “All those in favour of Connie taking solo at our next show?” She calls over the celebration and everyone gives an emphatic agreement.
Once the celebration dies down, Elle splits the kids into groups, asking them to work on something called a ‘riff-off’ but asks one girl to come over to the piano.
“Hey, Miss, what’s up?” She’s pretty, wearing bright clothing.
“Maria, I have something for you.” Elle ushers her behind the piano and pulls a box from her duffle bag. “Just don’t go telling people, I can’t afford to give everyone gifts.”
Maria takes the box and unpacks it to find a colourful square of silk. She gasps and looks at Elle with wide eyes. “This is Hermès, like actual Hermès. This is like eight, nine…do you know how expensive this is?”
“I’m aware. It was given to me, but I won’t wear it, and immediately thought of you. You’ll make better use of this.”
“I can’t accept this.”
