The Choir He Wanted, The LIfe He Had

Saturday, September 22, 1935

Roger and I were sitting in the auditorium at the school. A surprisingly large amount of students ended up signing up for the audition, and Roger and I had already listened to some of them. We had so far heard just two good ones. As the person who was singing walked off the stage I sighed.

"We're never going to get a large enough group at this rate," I said.

"At least we have two," Roger said. I groaned.

"Four people isn't nearly enough," I said. I sighed and looked down at the list. The next person was...

"Simon?"

"What?" Roger said.

"I didn't know Simon had signed up," I said.

"Simon?" Roger asked. "You mean the kid you were mean to last year?" When I nodded, Roger asked, "How did he sign up? He doesn't even go to this school."

I looked up and saw that the stage was empty.

"Where is he?" I asked. Roger shrugged.

"Maybe we should just call for the next person," he said. He yelled "Next!" as loud as he could, and the next person started to walk onstage.

"WAIT!" I heard someone yell. "WAIT!"

I watched as Simon ran onto the stage. I hadn't seen him in several months, and I was surprised by how young he looked.

"I'm here!" he yelled. The person who was about to walk onstage looked at me with an annoyed look, and when I waved him off he rolled his eyes and walked away.

"You're late," Roger stated.

"I'm sorry!" Simon said quickly. "I forgot what time I had to be here."

"Hopefully you don't do that before an actual practice," Roger said.

"I won't," Simon said. "I promise!"

He walked up to the microphone on the stage, and it was just a few inches too high. As he was reaching up to push it down, he seemed to almost trip, and the microphone fell onto the stage, him falling with it. There was a loud boom as the microphone hit the stage, and it nearly deafened Roger and me.

"I'm so sorry!" Simon said, standing up. He seemed really nervous. Why he was I didn't know. Maybe it was because Roger was here. Maybe it was because I was here. Maybe it was both. Roger sighed loudly, then said,

"Just stop apologizing and do what you came here to do."

Simon picked up the microphone, and for a while he just stood there looking at us.

"Whenever you're ready," I said. Simon took a deep breath, sighed, then began.

His voice was amazing! Beautiful! By the time he had finished his song I was gaping, and when I looked over at Roger, even he seemed impressed.

"So?" Simon squeaked. Despite the fact that he had just sung better than anyone I had seen so far, he still sounded quiet and nervous. I closed my mouth, then said,

"We'll think about it."

Simon didn't react. He set the microphone on the ground, then ran off the stage.

"Wow!" Roger said. "That wasn't what I expected. That was the best one so far!"

"Yeah," I said. I looked down at the sign-up sheet in front of me, wrote "Definitely!" next to Simon's name, then called the next person onto the stage.

Needless to say, nobody who sang after Simon was even half as good as he was.

I only wished he could have had the confidence to show it.