Mordred the concertmaster

     The talent show took almost six hours. I was excited when Wila and Mina had their turn and cheered them on from my place backstage. One after another we all went and performed. I was fifth from last to perform and let me tell you, the looks on the judges' faces were priceless. One of the judges was none other than Digby. Not only had I completed the concerto, but I had also done so making only two mistakes! That was a record for anyone who had attempted this concerto. The last person who had tried to play it had made six mistakes and that was fifteen years ago.

     After I had finished my performance, I had made sure (as my mom had taught me.) to face the audience, specifically the judges and politely bow. She had also made sure to tell me to keep my hands out of the pockets of my tuxedo. It was a nervous habit I had when I didn’t want to talk to or interact with people.

     The judges had taken an hour to deliberate. The contestants who had not placed in the top five were called to the stage one by one and congratulated on their performance. They received roses and pleasant compliments from the judges. When it came to the top five, we were all escorted out onto the stage.

     My sister, myself, the twins, a Red Nimmo with a Viola and a tall Lupe with an electric guitar who reminded me a little of Balthazar were made to stand in the centre on the stage. They began calling fifth place. I watched waiting to either be nudged forward by my sister, or see someone else move forward. I watched Wila and Mina walk forward.

     “Wila and Wilhelmina Nocturnus!” I watched the lead judge say, “Congratulations young ladies on your wonderful duet!”

     This meant they were going to the big show! Next up they called Marley, the Red Nimmo. Mina had said she had played a lament on her viola. Third place had gone to Braxton. The large Blue Lupe with the electric guitar. He was apparently too shy to sing. My sister said he had dished out one of Twisted roses hardest guitar solos from their early years. She said he must have been practising that for years. Then it came down to it. Just me and my sister.

     “Second place…..Vanessa Imogen Dulac!” The judges soundlessly spoke with pride. I watched my sister walk forward. She had performed one of Neopia’s most classic violin pieces. One that had originated right out of Neovia too! That meant…..

     “And the winner is……Mordred Gaheris Dulac!” The lead judge announced.

      I watched the crowd stand an applaud me as my sister took my hand and lead me to the front of the stage. She translated everything the judges were saying to me, for me. Even Mr Digby seemed proud of my accomplishment. They were excited to see what I would be doing for the grand talent show. I assumed the judging panel would be larger and harder to please. Honestly, in that moment, I had no idea what I would be doing. I was still coming to terms that I had a large-scale talent show. I accepted my medal and my bouquet of roses. At that moment I knew I could make my dream of being the world's greatest deaf musician a reality.

     ***

     I had roughly a week and a half to practice for the land-wide talent show. It would be difficult to compete against what were now considered the Haunted woods most talented musicians. The twins were going to enter with their flutes again. Instead of the flower duet, this time they were going to do a more complicated duet. I was sure it would get them a high placement! I had looked over the sheet music to the piece they had chosen. It was a great one!

     As for myself and Nessa, we had to compromise. We both wanted to play the electric violin in the talent show. So, we had both asked to borrow an old one off an Orchestra member. She was very happy to oblige us! She lent us her seven-string electric violin and one of her amps. I didn’t even care that it was the brightest hot pink I had ever seen in my life. I just wanted to play it. We took turns practising for three hours each day. When it wasn’t my turn I was outside playing in the snow with the twins. We were building snowmen out in my front yard. Well, more like a snow army. We had made at least ten with all the snow that had fallen since the beginning of the month of giving.

     “Have you decided on a song?” Mina signed to me.

     I nodded and told her I had even been practising already on a borrowed Violin.

     “Wow, that’s so cool!” Wila signed. “Can we come and watch?”

     I nodded. My best friends would be the first people to see my performance. I was excited to show them. They had already shown me what they were doing, it was my turn. My watch vibrated, it was two in the afternoon. Nessa should be wrapping up her practice. I signalled to the twins it was time to go in and had them hurry behind me. I was excited for my turn!

     “The Violin and amp are already set up in your room,” Nessa signed. “I’m going to the Music Store to get some new strings for my violin and the electric one. Do you need me to pick up new strings for your violin?”

     I nodded and thanked her. I was trying to remember when the last time I had my bow rehaired was, but it was too late to go and get it. Nessa was already out the door. We went to my room and sure enough, the hot pink electric violin was set up on its stand beside the amp. The twins were mesmerized.

     “It’s so cute!” Mina signed excitedly.

     “It’s so awesome looking!” Wila signed in and returned.

     I went over and picked it up and gave them a demonstration of what I was working on for the big talent show. When I was finished I was met with two very excited cheers I couldn’t hear. Had my parents been home, one of them might have come running up to my room to see what was going on. If the twins were excited enough to verbally show excitement then I knew I was on the right track to winning this thing! They had seen me play almost everything on a violin over the years. They don’t get excited that easily anymore.

     Nessa got home before our parents did and made dinner. The four of us ate while discussing the only other talent show participants we knew about. Marley and Braxton had been so cool. Braxton and his electric guitar were one of my favourites to watch. Braxton was entering the big show with an acoustic this time. Marley and her Viola had been great too! Viola’s were underappreciated instruments. She had chosen to go with her viola again.

     After the twins left for home, Nessa and I went up to our rooms. I had returned the violin to her and she had given me the strings to my acoustic violin. I studied the sheet music I had picked for the performance. I could practice it on my regular violin and I did. I practised until my dad, a conductor in one of Neovia’s smaller ensembles came to my room and told me I had to shower and go to bed. I did as I was told and sign goodnight to him.

     Lying in bed, I thought of all the different bowing techniques I could use to really emphasize the song. I can run a few by the twins. I couldn’t hear, (obviously) so I asked the twins their opinions on some of the techniques and had them choose which one made the song better. I trusted their opinion. Both my mother and Nessa had been teaching them the violin for about seven years now. Likewise, their mother had been teaching us (minus Nessa) the flute.

     So when we had agreed on which bowing technique made the crossovers sound cleanest (to the twins) and it was settled. I would run this opinion by both my mom and Nessa tomorrow. Just in case they knew about something that could help me improve upon what my friends and I had already achieved today. I was excited. I wanted to sleep, but all I could do was stare up at my ceiling fan and think. I didn’t even see Ginger, our puppyblew, come into my room. She came in and bounced up onto the bed. In a minute she was asleep at my side. I decided sleep was a good idea too, I gave her a gentle pat on the head and rolled over.

     ***

      My shoe was gone. Normally, I leave my shoes at the front door, but when I knew I had to be up and ready early I would bring them to my room. I was ready….but missing one shoe.

     All of a sudden a whiz of green zipped by me and jumped up onto my bed. Ginger our green puppyblew rolled around happily on my bed. I had a sneaking suspicion she knew where my missing shoe was. I got her attention and signed the word for shoe. We had trained her to understand particular signs and one was shoes because she kept stealing them and hiding them.

     I signed the word shoe to her again and she bounced off my bed and down the hall. I followed her downstairs into our living room and saw my mom’s favourite plant dumped over with my shoe buried in it.

     I cleaned up the mess as fast as I could. Nessa had come downstairs and saw me cleaning, knew what happened and ran back upstairs to grab my music books and violin for me. She had the electric one and would be practising with it at the music hall first. Then I would take my turn with it and she would play my acoustic one we had agreed.

     We put up the baby-gate to keep Ginger out of the living room while we were gone, filled her dishes and left.

     It was a chilly morning. Regular orchestra rehearsals were at seven am sharp. It was already six twenty-five. We marched along quickly as we could. By the time we arrived it was six-forty in the morning. We were greeted by Mr Digby who addressed me with a bit more respect this time around.

     “Mr Granger isn’t in today,” he signed as best as he knew how. He was very, very limited. “Junior rehearsal is cancelled today.”

     I couldn’t help but think of my own stroke of luck here. I asked Nessa if I could practice first given the situation and she could take my violin and participate in senior orchestra. She agreed to it and we swapped instruments.

     ***

     I had custody of the electric violin for almost three and a half hours. At that time I had located Wila and Mina and my mom. We went over bowing technique together with my mom to get her opinion. To my surprise, she told me that what I was doing worked very well. Normally she had a critique or two.

     Nessa eventually came for her turn with the electric violin, she was followed by the member of the Orchestra we had borrowed it from who was eager to see what Nessa was doing with it. Melanie was a few years older than Nessa, but had become a close friend of ours not long after Nessa had graduated to Senior orchestra. I asked the twins if they wanted to stay and watch Nessa practice. They shook their heads. From there, we decided we wanted something to eat and quickly made plans to head to the crumpet mongers. Fresh and hot blueberry muffins sounded pretty good after a morning of practising for the biggest talent show of our lives.

     We told Nessa where we were going and wished her a good practice. She grinned and gave us the thumbs-up as we left. The chilly morning air felt refreshing after being in that stuffy and hot music hall for three and a half hours.

     We had made it to the crumpet monger’s store and gotten our muffins. Fresh and hot. They were so fresh in fact, that they pretty much melted in your mouth. It was truly a delightful morning! That’s when we saw Braxton, the big Blue Lupe with the electric guitar from the Neovian talent show last weekend. He was strumming an acoustic while sitting on a bench. The twins wanted to stop and listen, so we (they) did. I watched him carefully. I didn’t know guitar tabs well, it was quite a bit different from a violin. If I had to guess, I would say he was playing one of Yes Boy ice cream’s songs on his guitar. He was fast. I briefly wondered how hard it would be to learn the guitar and add it to my stringed instrument repertoire.

     He eventually looked up and noticed us. He smiled and waved. I saw Mina step forward a bit. I watched her beak as she began talking. She told Braxton he was very good at the guitar. A sentiment I agreed with and signed to her, so she could tell him. The three of us were all in agreeance that we liked Braxton’s playing. It made me curious about guitars. We stood around and watched him for a few more minutes before we had to leave. Next weekend was the big Haunted woods wide talent show and we still had a lot of practising to do.

To be continued…