Chronicles of a Fat Teenager (Complete - Sequel coming soon)

Chronicles of a Fat Teenager - Chapter Twenty One

"So, when did you start singing, Beth?" the local journalist asked, holding a small digital recorder to her face. 

Beth sat backstage with the young journalist, still dumbstruck and her ears still aching from the deafening roar of the audience as she collected the trophy with the rest of the choir. She stared blankly back at him, "Um ...."

He smelled of polo mints and sweet smelling aftershave and Beth sat there, blinking and unable to form sentences, breathing in the odd smell of musk and mint. 

The journalist, growing impatient asked again, "Singing Beth, when did you start?"

Suddenly her mother appeared from behind one of the stage curtains, "Well!" she began, a little too dramatically, "I would always sing to her in her cot and I suppose she picked it up from there! Our family has always been musical. My brother, he plays the accordion. My dad played the trombone ... badly, if I remember and I, well, not being one to blow my own trumpet, I played ... in the second line of the chorus in Ashcombe's Amateur Operatic Society's original musical, The Phantom of the Soap Opera. Now, I was pregnant with Bethany at the time and she must've got it from the womb!"

Beth's dad rolled his eyes, grabbed his wife firmly by the shoulders and moved her to the side, "Come along, dear. The young man is interviewing Beth and Mr Swales, not you! Besides, there's another young man chomping at the bit to get to his girlfriend behind us and the longer she gives this poor chap monosyllabic responses, the longer Miles will have to wait. Come on, Beth ... whole sentences, please!"

Beth came around at the mention of Miles' name and frantically searched for him among the packed backstage area. Suddenly the recorder was back in her face and Beth refocussed on a very weary looking journalist.

"Sorry," she blushed, "It's just been a bit overwhelming. I've never sung in front of anyone before ... well other than rehearsals or family, I suppose you'd class this as my first official performance."

The journalist, obviously intrigued by this revelation continued asking questions about how Mr Swales had discovered her singing talent and how he'd persuaded her to perform that day. Beth dutifully answered each inane question whilst surreptitiously searching for that sapphire smile in the crowd.

Nothing.

"Mr Swales, I wondered if I could bring you in on this interview now, I shan't keep you much longer Bethany.  I just wanted to ask you both about the song choice, highly unusual for the competition among all the choral or show-tunes sung hear today. What made you choose this song?"

Mr Swales, who had been waiting nearby took a seat next to Beth, putting his hand protectively around the back of her chair and replied, "Well, it was a few months ago in a class, much like any other class we had, I asked my pupils to put their fingers in their ears and to sing a line I'd taught them from another song from that era, Patsy Cline, I believe. Anyway, the purpose of them putting their fingers in their ears was to get them to listen to what their own voices sounded like in their own heads and to feel the vibrations in their throats. Of course, none of them could hear each other while they sung this line, but I was suddenly taken aback by this marvelous voice, booming from the back of the class. I got them all to repeat the line while I walked around the class to find out who had this remarkable voice. When I discovered it was Bethany's here, over the weeks I started to bring her out of her shell.I finally persuaded her to sing this song we had been learning in front of the rest of them and well ... the rest is history." Mr Swales sat back on his chair with a smug grin on his face and he beamed at Beth. 

"So, Bethany," the journalist began, "What did you like about the song?"

Without needing to think about her response, Beth replied "I love it because it's so emotional. The melody is simple, so you can have fun with it but the words and arrangement of the original and Mr Swales' is sublime. I love music from all eras, but the 1960's saw blues and soul emerge into the mainstream and it was ... "