♪♪♪
REI ran over to me as I was cleaning up my desk before heading home. It was the day before the quarterfinals. “Thank goodness! You’re still here!” she panted, still dressed in her soft tennis jersey. She must’ve come from her club. “I spent all that time making this, and then I forgot it at home! I just ran back to my house to get it.”
Rei pressed a small good luck charm into my hands as she gasped for air. “Good luck tomorrow! I know just how hard you’ve been working at the piano, Mashiro. You’ll do amazing!”
“Rei…”
Oh no, I feel like crying. I actually felt nervous to the point of being sick when I thought of the quarterfinals coming up tomorrow.
Miss Ayumi had given me her stamp of approval when she said, “You can take it easy until the finals with your skill level,” but this was my first time participating in a music competition. Truth be told, I was a bundle of nerves.
What should I do if I make a mistake? How do I get by if my mind blanks on me and I forget how to play the next note? Those thoughts gnawed at me.
All of my schoolteachers rained encouragement on me when I turned my absence permission slip in to the teacher’s lounge. Even the principal had encouraging things to say. Mr. Matsuda was about the only person who smiled and said, “Don’t make yourself too nervous.”
The panic inside me grew and grew the more I wanted to live up to the expectations placed on me.
“Whoa! D-Don’t cry, Mashiro!”
“I’ll try… Sorry, I just wanted to say thanks too.”
I opened up my right hand and examined the good luck charm with a warped shape. I could tell Rei had put everything she had into embroidering the material. The embroidered words “Prayers for Certain Victory” brought tears to my eyes. Rei’s fingers were covered in Band-Aids. And I couldn’t even make myself take time off to go and see her singles match.
“Don’t look at it too close! Ugh, I should’ve taken home ec more seriously.”
“Hehe… This is why I’m always telling you that keeping up with your schooling will—” I paused in the middle of repeating my usual saying as I wiped the tears from my eyes with a handkerchief.
“Will only make life easier for me, right? It really hit home for me this time,” Rei conceded, beating me to the punch line. We both laughed.
Chatting with Rei had taken the load of tension off my shoulders, allowing me to return home with a little hop in my step. I was pedaling my bike with a dorky grin as I squeezed the good luck charm in my pocket, when one of the older men in my neighborhood saw me on his way home from work and joked, “Oh! Somebody’s happy! Did you get a boyfriend?”
“I got something even better than that!” I giggled back.
Eri dropped by my house that night to give me a fancy square cardboard letter that all of our friends had written in. I squeezed the colored cardboard to my chest that had messages from my group of friends saying things like, “Believe in yourself” and “You’re definitely number 1, Mashiro!” and cried again.
Why did they do so much for me when I was such a hopeless friend? I could kind of understand why Rin and Majima would leave a message because of how long we knew each other, but there were even messages from Tazaki and Hirato.
“GOOD LUCK!”
“YOU’D BETTER WIN!”
✦ ✦ ✦
♪♪♪
AT long last, it was the day of the quarterfinals.
I followed Miss Ayumi through the Arts Center’s backdoor to the waiting room. Today was the middle school division, tomorrow the high school division, and the university division was to be held on the third day. A large group of reporters had gathered at the Arts Center since today was the first day of the competition. Sadia Francesca had earned herself a lot of fans in Japan when it became widely known what a Japanophile she was. There was probably a lot of demand for articles covering her time here.
“Are you all right? Though you look calm enough I don’t have to ask. You look confident.” Miss Ayumi peered down at my face and smiled with relief at what she saw there.
The only reason why I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I’d be was because of Miss Ayumi and everyone else there for me. Dad, Mom, and Hanaka had come to cheer me on from the audience as well. I wanted to convey my gratitude to them as best I could through my performance.
Each waiting room was assigned to a group of five participants. Some had come with their guardians, while others came with their mentors like me. Competition staff members were giving instructions at the stage wing. They informed us that we were free to do what we wanted while we waited for our names to be called.
I’d already confirmed what the piano I would be playing on sounded like during the public practice session held beforehand. As one of the sponsors for the competition, the Shiroyama group had provided one of their newest model concert grand pianos for us. I had spotted several participants I hadn’t seen before during that practice session. There were kids wearing Seio’s uniform, as to be expected. I wanted to chat with them, but everyone was stuck in their own world, shutting out everyone else they viewed as rivals. This was the time to read the mood and behave myself.
Several other participants aside from me had chosen to play Chopin from among the song selection. No one in the middle school division had chosen to play what was considered to be one of the most difficult etudes, Chopin’s “Étude Op. 10, No. 1 in C major”, which is why Miss Ayumi strongly suggested I pick it. I still didn’t have the confidence to pull off that challenging piece of music with the perfection required of a competition.
I always ended up struggling to add the accent onto the intro’s arpeggio. It was hard to play passionately until the end when my fingers were exhausted halfway through the piece.
In fact, Chopin had surprisingly small hands and had to come up with some imaginative fingerings for his music in order to play it. I’d read somewhere that they were so small he could only reach ten keys, but he made up for it with extremely limber palms.
Some of the participants were wearing concert dresses, but I came in my middle school uniform. I didn’t think it would pose a problem since even Miss Ayumi told me it was fine. I listened to a recording of my performance on my cell phone while I went through the sheet music in my head.
All of the repeat signs are omitted to make the performance more compact for the competition, right? Okay, I’m good. After all, I’ve been practicing long and hard for this day, I reminded myself. The good luck charm was secure in my chest pocket and the cardboard letter from my friends was tucked away in my lesson bag with my sheet music.
“Miss Shimao, please get ready.”
“Ah, okay.”
I entrusted my things to Miss Ayumi and followed the competition staff lady. I’d arrived at the stage wing by the time the person before me had finished their performance. The spotlights were blinding. Taking several deep breaths, I held my hand over the good luck charm.
I’ll do the best I can.
My name and song were being announced. I took one big step onto the stage.
Chopin – Etude in A flat major, Op.10, No.10
This etude was a technical study composed by Chopin that placed huge demand on the performer in varying a single pattern by changes of accent and touch. As a practice piece, this etude was designed to develop and stretch the right hand, specifically between fingers. The ludic melody took flight on the lively rhythm in an endless continuum of sixths sonorities. With carefree feeling, I danced my fingers over the keys.
This is fun! The piano truly is loads of fun!
Putting my whole body into it, I gracefully and lightly let each note ring out. I clearly defined each stress, careful not to shake up the tempo. Happiness exploded inside me when the sound I was aiming for reached my ears. Only the melody stood out from the notes strung together like a pearl necklace when the accents were pulled off correctly.
Just like this.
I was able to play the song with more concentration than ever before, playing through to the end without a single mistake. I gently placed my fingers on the keys for the last chord.
I rose from the bench, picked up the handkerchief I’d left on the side of the piano music rack, and turned to face the audience where I bowed once and hobbled quickly from the stage.
I was already off the stage by the time applause erupted from the audience that had been stupefied into silence moments earlier.