practice

This is where I practice, seventy percent of the time at least. While I was in school, a neighborhood church let me use their choir room, which is just above the sanctuary, right behind the baptismal pool.

 

I remember the first day I showed up here. A cheery, gray-headed woman met me at the front door to show me how I could get into the building and all the way up the stairs to the choir room. "I hope this is okay," she said as she opened the door and turned on the lights. "It gets pretty hot up here in the summertime, but you can always turn on the A/C in the window."

 

It was wintertime, actually, and cold. "Thank you," I said. "This is great, and I really appreciate you letting..."

 

"Oh, of course, we love music, so it's really our pleasure."

 

A thought suddenly occurred to me that hadn't before. Did they think I would be playing church music, like hymns and stuff? What would they think if I didn't - if I played nothing religious at all?

 

"Um, Ms. Pam," I called, as she hurried out of the door. She turned her head. "I just wanted to make sure... I mean, I'm a student, classically trained on the piano, so I'll be practicing classical pieces, not... [how do I say this?]... church music. Is that okay?"

 

Turning her whole body to face me now, with eyes glinting like silver coins, she said, "That'd be great, Bethany, just great." She was smiling, I was nodding, something mysterious was being exchanged. Then she walked out and closed the door; I sat down and opened the piano.

 

I went back to the church a couple of weeks ago, for the first time in many months. Mrs. Pam no longer works there, which made me so sad that I nearly said, "Oh okay, thanks," to the new guy and hung up the phone. The young choir director is still there, though, the one who always wanted to hear a piece I was writing during my last semester, "to see how it's progressed," he explain. On my first day back, I sat down at the piano to face a yellow sticky note. "Welcome back, Bethany. If it gets too hot in here, feel free to turn on the A/C in the window."

 

Something is notably different without Ms. Pam, and while I'm in the building, I really miss her a lot. I'm very grateful for all the rest, though.... for who remains, for being welcomed back, to be playing here again.

Done