Piper could sing!
      Her mom wasn’t the kind of mother who said stuff like, “You’re 
amazing” and “Never give up,” so when Piper’s mom looked into her hazel eyes and said, 
without a hint of sarcasm, “Piper, you can sing,” Piper just stared at her until finally deciding it 
wasn’t a dream.
	“Really ma?” Piper said with disbelief, looking up with her bright eyes and her red hair. 
The single mom looked down at her little girl. “Really.” 
      Piper smiled her biggest smile. Some of the town folk said it was even bigger than the
 country-side itself. It was Piper’s ninth birthday and she was wearing her blue rose dress, the 
one that smelled like cupcakes and a summer breeze.  “And Piper, I was thinking and all, if you 
were really to keep this up, we could have you learning how to sing from Ms. Panzee.” 
      Piper’s eyes lit up enough to light half the world. Ms. Panzee was a schoolteacher, but 
everybody knew her because of her unbearably beautiful vocals.
	“I, I, I don’t know what to say, ma, thank you! Thank you! I’ll do extra chores and I’ll 
even clean the shed!” Piper bounced up and down. “Maybe I can learn one of them popular 
songs the school girls sing!”
      “Don’t get ahead of yourself!” her mother chided. “You’re welcome, now go 
to bed. You’ll need energy if you’re gonna be singing tomorrow.” Piper nodded, but felt the 
opposite of tired. She bounced down the hall with a beautiful gleam in her eyes. She was gonna 
sing tomorrow! She tossed and turned in her old creaky bed, covered by the quilt her grandma 
had made her before she passed away. Piper’s grandma had been the best thing in her life, her 
best friend, and the person her smiling eyes looked up to. Piper groaned, staring at the ceiling. 
She couldn’t think about sleep when there were tons of other things to think about.
      Like singing. Piper looked up at the ceiling and ran through the notes of the songs that 
she and her mom had learned at church. After what seemed like forever, Piper drifted into a sleep
 filled with singing dreams. 
      Piper got up even earlier than the rooster, because today she was going to be the best
singer Ms. Panzee had ever heard. She pulled on the blue dress she wore yesterday and joined 
her mother for breakfast.
      In the kitchen she noticed a pot of flowers with a pink note neatly attached to the side of the pot. The note read: “Dear Rachel, I wish I hadn’t made such a big mistake. From Douglas.” Piper studied the note with confusion. 
      “Who’s Douglas?” Piper asked. It sounded like her mother had a secret admirer. Rachel raised an eyebrow and eyed the kitchen where the pot of flowers and card sat.
	“Now Piper, you know better than to go through other folks stuff, it just ain’t right.” Her mother looked at her crossly.
	“Sorry ma, it’s just, you know how I like romance and all, and it looked like-“ Piper was interrupted by a slow, deep four -pitched melody that rang loudly from the old grandfather clock shaped like a majestic tree. Piper used to pretend that she was a fairy living in the tree, but she was nine now, much too old for stuff like that.
	“Now you know what that means,” Rachel said to her daughter. “We don’t want to be late for singing, do we Piper?” Rachel motioned with her head up at the old great clock.
	“No ma! I don’t want to be late!” Piper pulled on her shoes and the blue cap that her dad had given her before he left, when it was way too large for her head. Piper had only been three when her dad had left, and she couldn’t even remember what he looked like, much less his name. She pulled on the cap and remembered quickly that her friend, Jimmy had told her that only boys could wear caps. She had insisted that if the cap fit on her head, she had as much right to wear it as he did. Jimmy had just shaken his head and told her it didn’t work that way.
	Piper put the cap onto her head; she sure hoped that Ms. Panzee wasn’t one to agree with Jimmy. She stepped out into the summer air. Piper brushed a strand of red hair from her face. She looked around the long stretches of land; the sun seemed to sit on the rolling green hills as it rose. The hills were the most pretty thing Piper had ever seen; they looked like a quilt, stitched together by the swaying trees.
	Rachel hurried Piper along to the car they had gotten many years ago. Climbing in, she settled herself into the back seat. Piper brought her knees to her chest and started to get nervous: What if she wasn’t good enough? How would her mother pay for the lessons? Her house-cleaning job didn’t earn her much. Piper pushed these thoughts away. 
      They arrived at an old white house at nine. A small squeaky blue door opened to present a woman who looked even older than the grandfather clock at home. But she smiled at Piper with a smile that evaporated Piper’s fears. 
      “Is this little calf here Piper?” Piper laughed. Apparently she was a calf! Her mother nodded. “This would be your calf.” She gave Piper a little squeeze. “I’ll just pick her up at 11 if that works.”
	“That would be fine!” Ms. Panzee said, leaning against the side of the blue screen door, “but if this little calf would like to stay for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies at 11:30, she’s more than welcome!” Piper immediately looked up at the sound of chocolate chip cookies. “Would you like that, Piper?” Piper nodded her head up and down vigorously. Her mother let out a quick laugh. “Okay then, I’ll be off.” She gave Piper a quick hug and climbed back into the old car. A little bit of the shyness returned.
	“C’mon now, I don’t bite!” Ms. Panzee gestured her hand towards her. Piper nodded and crept down the stone path cautiously. They stopped in the doorway and Ms. Panzee gingerly took off Piper’s cap and hung it up on a rack.
	“Thank you Ms. Panzee!” Piper said shyly, looking around the house.
	“Please dear, call me Barb,” Ms. Panzee said gently, a tone that told Piper they would become great friends. 
      Barb led them through the house to a huge studio with a gleaming black piano in the center. Piper gasped. “Let’s get started!” Barb looked around, as if satisfied by the room, sat down at the bench and patted the spot beside her, gesturing to Piper to sit down. “This is so amazing!” Piper finally managed. Barb nodded.
	“Now to begin, let’s do tongue exercises,” Barb began. Demonstrating, she wiggled her  tongue.	 
      “Tongue exercises?” Piper knit her eyebrows. “I don’t know how!” 
      “Just pretend you’re licking a lollipop!” Piper giggled and moved her tongue up and down. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
	“You’re a natural!” Barb joked. Piper giggled so hard she almost fell off the bench.
	After vocal warm-ups, Barb assured her it was time to start singing some music. Barb started a familiar tune on the piano and Piper began her part. She felt warm and self-conscious. She let the music flow with her as she let the shaky vocals emerge from her mouth. She sang the last line and Barb ended the folk song. “That was amazing!” Barb cried. Piper smiled and felt her face get redder and redder.
	“We need to work on your confidence for sure, and you were a little flat on a few notes,” Barb instructed. Piper nodded and looked down at her lap, feeling her face get hot again.
	Before she knew it, she had sung another two hours, enjoyed her sandwich and cookies, and was walking towards her mother’s waiting car. “How was your first lesson?” her mother asked, grinning.
	“It was fine!” Piper exclaimed, her mind twirling in the world of singing and cookies. She watched the scenery whirl by as she lay in the back seat. Examining the blue sky she thought about where this singing would take her. Then she noticed her mother was in an extraordinarily good mood. “Why’re you so happy, ma?” Rachel looked back at her daughter.
	“Oh, I’m just loving life,” Rachel replied. Piper had known her mom for, what was it, forever now? She wasn’t the kind of mother who was just in a good mood for no reason.
	As they entered their small house, Piper neatly put away her jacket and tucked her shoes under the shelf in front of the door. Then she noticed a wrapped gift sitting on the table. “What’s that, ma?” Rachel looked up at her.
      “Oh, someone… dropped that off today, it’s for you,” her mother smiled at her. “Go ahead, open it up!” Piper ran over to the table. Sitting in the package was a miniature black piano…and a check for $500, written out to Ms. Panzee.
      A small envelope sat beside it. For goodness sake, she hadn’t even checked who it was from yet. Opening the letter, she read with gentle eyes: “Dear Piper. I’m sure you’re a beautiful young woman now, just like your mother. I wish I could hold you like I did when you were only a baby, maybe someday I’ll get to meet you again. I hope this check helps you live your dreams -Douglas”
       Who was Douglas? How did he know about her piano lessons, and why was he paying for them? And why the heck had he held her when she was a baby?! Something clicked in Piper’s mind. Dads held babies. That was stupid; Piper was probably having what her mother called her imagination overrides. 
      The next day Piper arrived at Barb’s at exactly 9. After doing tongue exercises and vocal warm-ups, Barb smiled and looked her in the eye. “You know, Piper, you have a really nice voice. And I was thinking, there’s this singing competition in New York City if, after a lot of practice, you might want to participate. If you were good enough, the singing company would pay for everything.” Piper’s eyes grew wide. New York City! A city! The most houses she had seen together at once were two!
      “How would I get in?” Piper finally managed. Her jaw dropped.
      “Well, what would happen is we would get on the phone with the manager, and you’d sing for him right on the phone,” Barb said.
      “I would really like that!” Piper said with excitement. Barb pulled out a phone that she had probably been hiding behind her back the entire time.
      Barb smiled. She dialed the number. “Yes, we’re calling about the audition,” she said when someone answered. Yes, oh, okay, right now?” Barb put the phone to her chest and said to Piper, “Okay, let’s sing!” Barb put the phone on speaker and set it in front of Piper. Barb started playing the piano gingerly, because both Barb and Piper knew that if either one of them messed up, it was all over. Piper let her voice sing out loud; she didn’t dare think about being self-conscious, she wanted this really badly. Then Barb held the phone back up to her ear. She gave Piper the biggest smile ever and then hung up. “Someone’s going to New York!” Piper’s mouth fell open.
      “Really? Thank you so much! I... just thank you!” Piper jumped up and down. Then she took a long, deep breath. “But how can I afford it?” 
      Ms. Panzee smiled. “A friend of your mother’s has offered to pay, but I can’t tell you who. Forget that now. You’re gonna be singing a pretty hard song here, a song that has a lot of high notes. Do you think you can manage?” Piper nodded.
      After preparing for another hour, Rachel arrived for pick-up. Piper was about to shout her news to her mom when she noticed how distracted she looked. “Why don’t you come sit in front with me in the car, okay?” Rachel said, in a quiet voice. Rachel looked down at her lap. “Now, you know about Douglas, right?” Piper knit her eyebrows.
      “I haven’t been told much, but he’s paying for my piano lessons,” Piper said, looking up at Rachel’s nervous eyes.
      “Well, Piper, Douglas, the man I got the flowers from, and you got your piano lessons from, we used to be very close. In fact, we were married. And Piper, one day he left. He said that it didn’t work for him and that we weren’t meant for each other. He said we had to get a divorce. Piper, I should have told you this a long time ago, but Douglas was your dad.” 
      Piper froze at the word dad. Then she started to let all the feelings come back to her about the dad she had never had. “And Piper, your dad, Douglas, just asked me to marry him again.
      Emotion filled Piper to the max, and it was a combination of 50 different feelings in one. She felt mad at him for leaving her mom, she felt happiness because she would finally have a dad, she felt guilt for a reason she didn’t know. Piper started crying. Was that even legal? Marrying someone, divorcing them, just to marry him again? 
      Piper knew that this was way too sudden; she was mad at her mom too. All she had wanted was to know she had a dad. A man who held you in his arms and told you everything would be alright. A man who loved your mom so much he would write poems for her. A dad who would be there when Piper wanted to share good news…like New York. New York? Was he the secret friend paying for her trip? How did he even know?
      When they got home, Piper ran straight to her room; she wasn’t in the mood to talk. Piper was confused. Tears in her eyes, she thought about how she couldn’t even remember her dad. Then she thought about New York. Anger, confusion and excitement didn’t blend well and after her tears were spent, she fell asleep.
      The last five weeks had been tough, singing every day. Most days, Piper would wake up with a sore throat. Most nights she fell asleep, exhausted.
      The issue of her dad hadn’t exactly been resolved. One day she had come home to find him waiting in the living room. Piper had run straight to her room, tears in her eyes. She felt badly, of course, but this man was just another stranger. She could almost hear Douglas's disappointment.
      Finally, it was time for New York. It took hours to get to the airport, where the giant building with hundreds of travelers scared Piper half to death. People rushed in and out of the building and a women repeated messages into the loud speaker over and over again. 
      Once on the plane, Piper sat uncomfortably in the blue padded seat. She hadn’t been up in the air before; she hadn’t even seen an airplane until today. Piper was nervous: Birds flew, metal didn’t.
      They made it finally; a taxi took them to their hotel. Their room was much nicer than the house at home, and with a huge screen that Piper was told was called an HD TV. Piper ran into the bathroom, then around to the bed. Piper didn’t understand the concept of staying in another building at all, but she wasn’t complaining. When she wasn’t taking baths and watching the amazing TV, she was singing her head off with Barb. 
      The day of the competition finally arrived and Piper woke up before it was even light out. Piper was aware that it would be a hard day, and all of the sudden, Piper wasn’t so excited. Her stomach turned upside down as she remembered Barb telling her that there would be more than 1,000 people watching her. Walking over to the window that looked over New York, she watched people below rushing from stores and cars racing through traffic lights. This scared Piper too, for a girl who hadn't even seen a paved road before. She looked around at the tall skyscrapers, she was told they were called. The big buildings with their flashing lights would have scared someone at her town half to death.
      They arrived at the place an hour early like they were told to do. She was forced to split up with her mother, who would be watching her from the audience. Examining the back entrance, Piper's stomach did a little flip: this was actually happening!
      A man walked over to her. He was small, with snow white hair. “Hi! You must be Piper!” he smiled as he examined her. “Welcome to the show! My name’s Mr. Stimps and I’m the host here.” 
      Piper nodded, but was far too shy to say anything. “Now Piper, the rules are simple. There will be three judges watching you. You’ll go onto the stage. Once you get to the center, the song will start and you’ll start singing. When you’re done, the judges will give you their thoughts and you’ll exit the stage, got it?” The words all got slurred together in Piper’s racing mind, but she nodded anyway. Mr. Stimps led them to a room where other singers waited. 
      The next youngest person next to Piper had to be like 17, which didn’t soothe Piper much. She sat down on the floor and started to worry. The show started and she heard a roar of people clapping. She also heard Mr. Stimps introducing the first contestant. She just sat on the floor and worried as person by person sang. She squeezed her eyes closed when a backstage worker came into the room and called:
      “Piper, you’re up!” Piper got up and walked down to the stage entrance, and walked onto the stage slower than a slug. And when she got to the middle, the world seemed to freeze. She scanned the room. The first thing she saw were three amused judges. Then she turned to the second row. There sat her mom. That’s when she saw her dad. Piper immediately decided this performance would be for Douglas. Behind them, there had to be at least another 100 rows. What felt like millions of eyes turned to her as she looked shyly out into the crowd.
      Piper had a sudden flashback: the cookies she had made with Barb that first glorious day of singing, the time she had found her dad waiting, the tiny piano he gave her. Piper smiled. All those people out there loved Piper. Her! They loved her! Her dad loved her.
      The crowd roared for her as it did for everyone else. Flashing lights from cameras stung her eyes and the music started playing. Piper started singing, watching the judges raise their eyebrows at Piper’s melodic voice. She let the music flow through her as she had done when trying to get the part. She sang this for Barb, for her dad. She remembered the lyrics, the song, and let herself sing. Almost if she was asleep, dreaming, she sang with as much emotion as she could find in her nine-year-old body. 
      The song reached the high part. And that’s when the awful thing happened. The world went into slow motion once more and she watched as the judge’s faces went from amazement to scowls. Her voice had cracked. In the middle of the high note, her voice had collapsed. As the world sped up again, it was obvious to everyone in the room that this wasn’t the dream Piper had imagined. Without letting the judges say a word, she dragged herself off the stage, tears streaming from her eyes. Barb and Rachel ran to her, embracing her warmly. 
	“Oh Piper, that was amazing!” her mother said, tears in her eyes as well. “Now forget about the
 contest: you’ll have other chances. I want to tell you something. It might cheer you up, it might 
frustrate you more, but it’s time you knew.” Rachel swallowed as Piper stopped crying. “Your dad and I, well, we’ve decided to re-marry. We’re a family again.”
	Piper’s eyes widened, and her eyes welled up again with tears.


Piper’s Performance, 6-8, p.1 
								   


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