Reverse Encounters

Ghost Girl Parts 3 & 4

In one of the last open recitals of the year, I was excited to perform with my quartet group again. As I strode confidently onto the stage, I looked out at familiar faces. One of the nice things about open recitals was that it was only conservies, meaning I only ever had to worry about performing in front of friends and occasionally professors. Other people can come but they almost never...

I looked out and there, sitting by herself in one of the back rows, was the ghost girl. What. The. Hell.

While I enjoyed the songs, I spent most of the time on the stage avoiding eye contact with the back half of the recital hall. There was another person I didn't entirely recognize next to her - another non-conservie for sure - but he was sitting next to a piano major. On second thought, I'm pretty sure he's dating the piano major. So then, who the heck is ghost girl? A freshman? No, I've never seen her in the conservatory; yet here she is, at an open recital meant only for conservies. A mystery...

                                                                                         ~~~

I plopped into one of the seats along the wall of the alove. I wasn't really nervous, I just...had a lot of nervous energy. That's not the same thing, right? Besides, everyone gets nervous for juries. I searched for something to distract myself with. Unable to help it, I scanned the titles of the sheet music the people around me were holding. When that got boring, I noticed a Henle single lying on the seat next to me along with an Alfred single and a phone. Beethoven and Chopin, eh? Not a bad choice but...

There.

Coming down the hallway was ghost girl. She was walking straight towards me. I tried to play it cool but when I looked back up she was ten feet away, looking at me and smiling. I smiled back, praying I didn't look like an idiot. She opened her mouth slightly as if to say something.

"Rachel?" one of the judges called from down the hall.

Ghost girl snapped her head to the source of the call.

"That's me!" she said, waving at the judge to get her attention.

She quickly went to the seat next to me, scooped up the Henle and the Alfred as well as the phone, and hurried to the exam room.

I was so close to talking to her.

Rachel. Ghost girl's name was Rachel.

With a jolt, I realized that if she was doing a jury, she must not be as separate from the conservatory as I had thought. I waited, hoping she would come back before I was called to my exam room, but had no such luck.