Voice Competition by Alison Quiring

Voice Competition

by: Alison Quiring

She grabbed the mike from the volunteer’s wrinkled hand and marched up the seven steps to the platform. She strode to the middle of the stage, turned to face the audience, and positioned herself at the very edge of the stage. The child stood so near the edge that the tips of her black patten dress shoes hung over into space. With a movement surprisingly fast for one so small she shifted the mike into one hand and smoothed the front of her bluebell-sprinkled dress with the other. Then she held the mike in both hands again and lifted it to her mouth. She flashed a huge grin past the judge into the silent audience and then closed her dancing green eyes, let out a small barely audible breath, and sang.

The judge, who had given the four-year-old an encouraging smile just seconds before, dropped the red pen she was holding. It clattered against the oak table but the child didn’t open her eyes, break her rhythm, or lose her concentration. Her clear sweet voice echoed through the auditorium and the audience sat enraptured. She stood perfectly still on the edge of the stage, moving only her head as she sang. Brown ringlet-curls framed the small tanned face and swayed with the movements of her head. The notes floated up into the rafters as the minute singer ended her song.

For one second after the last sound faded the child kept her eyes closed, standing as still as a miniature mannequin in a store window. Then her eyes popped open and she raised the mike back to her lips. “I have to go to the bathroom,” she announced emphatically. The crowd, judge included, burst into a swell of laughter and the girl returned a soft giggle, the only shyness she had shown since her name had been called. She rocked back and forth on her shoes until the volunteer walked across the stage to grab her hand and lead her to a back stage bathroom. The judge picked her red pen up from the floor where she’d dropped it and began to write on the blank form sitting on the desk in front of her.

Photo by Ashley Dunbar