Plucked from the Crowd

It all started with the Saturday Afternoon Talent Quest at the local Mall. Not that I was an entrant, way, way too chicken for that but I loved to watch and most of them were really good. Well I thought so. So, anyway, this particular Saturday my Dad dropped me at the Mall and I found my friends over in the corner of the food court.We were all broke as usual but Deb had just enough for some fries to share as we waited for the acts to start.

So nothing unusual , we finished the fries and moved over to the stage .It was just a foot or so higher than the floor with seating directly in front or you could stand at the side without blocking anyone's view. That's where we were.One of our friends was having a try. She was on early and did really well apart from a bum note, or two, on the chorus. Anyway we cheered for her but she didn't get through and I saw how upset she was and I'd like to tell you I was a darling and comforted her but her Mom did that- and took her home. Well she was upset.

More acts followed and we got right into it dancing away to the music and clapping loudly after every act. It was fun and I was really enjoying myself, we all were I think. And that's when Troy came on stage to great applause.

OMG he was hot, black hair swept back, the skinniest waist you ever did see and eyes to die for. We all went quiet and watched. He sang an old song Hey Paula, which I knew and I swayed to the music singing along. Why, I don't know, I guess he saw me singing , but he came to the corner of the stage and reached his hand out for me.

I took it and he pulled me up on stage. I remember hearing clapping but I was too numb to register anything else. My God! Me on stage.He put his hand up for the backing musicians and they stopped.

"Ladies and gentlemen please allow me to restart this wonderful song as a duet with my lovely partner?"

"April." I whispered.

"April," he repeated into the microphone imitating my whisper to much laughter.

But he looked into my eyes and held my hand and it was like we were in our own little world.

He opened with "Hey, Paula, I want to marry you" holding my hand and singing so intimately to me, that I feared my knees wouldn't hold me up and I imagined a life for ever with him in my arms.

He finished "My love, my love" and it was my part.

I didn't hesitate and hit the note perfectly on "Hey Paul I've been waiting for you" as I sang to him and the next line

'Hey, hey, hey Paul, I want to marry you too" I sang meaning every word. The crowd had just gone completely quiet and I saw the faces were looking at us and people were coming out of the shops to watch. I finished my verse and we launched into the chorus

"True love means planning a life for two" and our voices harmonized perfectly. I sang better than ever I did in the bathroom and I loved the sound our voices made together. We finished and there was dead silence.

"Oh goodness!" I thought,"I didn't think we were that bad."

Then the place erupted. Everyone was clapping like crazy, they all stood and whistled for us. Troy held my hand and we went forward for a bow as the applause went on and on. When it died down Troy held his hand up

'Did you like that?" He shouted.

A round of loud applause was his answer and he held his hand up again

"Wanna hear another one?"

Well hell yeah. He asked if I knew This Ole House and I did- my grandmother has a lot to answer for- oh now she could sing my Gran.

The crowd was now really big and all of them were watching us. Troy still held my hand as he sang. We just fell into singing alternate lines and harmonized on the last two of the verses and the chorus.Our voices blended perfectly and we combined in a big last note on "saints."

This time the response was immediate and there was cheering and clapping and whistling and I looked at Troy and he was looking at me and we hugged and, oh it was just such a wonderful moment. We took a bow and three curtain calls and as the crowd drifted away he led me off the stage and over towards the ice cream stand.

I held his hand and pressed as close as I could to him not believing my luck that I had met such a wonderful hot gorgeous young man like this. I hadn't noticed but he lead me to two girls a year or so older than me.

One of them came forward and kissed him - on the lips.He dropped my hand and put both his behind her back as they kissed .

"Oh April.," he whispered it like before but it wasn't funny now," this is my fiance Gina. Gina April."

Gina gave me that smile girls give each other when they mean" He's mine, speak to him and die."

"Oh., oh, um. hi Gina, um nice to meet you," I mumbled , utterly crushed and wanting to get away from her before the tears I could feel starting showed and I turned to stumble away with them now streaming down my cheeks as I heard her having a go at him for getting me up there and she saw how he looked at me and I just felt like running.

My best day ever and now I wished I was dead. I fished in my wallet expecting it to be empty only to find my Dad had stuck a ten dollar note in the zip part with a note on a little scrap of paper saying how much he appreciated how much of a help I had been to Mom these past few weeks and hoping I had a good time today. I held the note and kissed it. That was my Dad. I didn't want to go off to my friends, not while I was like this so I went to another Ice Cream Parlor and got a chocolate malted.

I sat in a corner holding my milkshake and just looking down in my own sad little world. Well I wasn't on my own long; people just came over and sat by me or stood and spoke to me. Some told me how much they had enjoyed hearing us and how talented I was, could they have my autograph and so on. Its a drug performing and I never realized it at the time. I had been intoxicated by the applause, its one thing to sing well; its another thing entirely to feel the response from the audience and this was the other part, hearing people tell you what they thought and I could feel the adrenalin rush as I heard what they had to say and the hollow feeling that this was a one and only because I couldn't sing with Troy ever again; I couldn't look at him ever again.

The throng thinned out until there was just one guy there. He was shy and he stood about five yards away but he obviously wanted to speak with me. I looked up at him; he was kind of cute in a way. He had fair hair that was a bit longer than my Dad would approve of and he was a bit beefy, not fat but not skinny either, maybe five ten and a regular face . Just an average guy really. He was looking at me and I could see his mouth working as he tried to think of something to say.

"Do you want to sit down?" I asked him feeling unnerved at the way he was standing there.

"Oh, um, yes please, um thanks," he answered sitting down a few feet away.

"You saw me up there before?" I asked to break the silence.

"Yes, oh yes you were amazing!" he said putting the emphasis on 'amazing.'

"Really?"

"Oh yes you are a way better singer than him-"

I pit my hand up," that's nice of you to say but I'm just a girl in the crowd he hauled up on stage-"

"Its a duet, the song, how was he going to sing Paula's part? He had no range left! He picked it so he could hit on a girl in the audience and he chose you, I would have too," he said the last bit quietly and looked away but he meant it and I went from liking him to really liking him.

'Do you sing or play anything," I asked wanting to move the conversation along from the difficult spot it was in at that moment.

"Well I sing a little but I play keyboard and I write songs, well try to."

"Oh OK, hey that's nice, look I guess I better get going my friends are around somewhere."

"If I were to accompany you on the piano would you sing again here next week? Would you?" there was a sound of desperation in his voice, he really wanted me to say yes.

I nodded, "I guess so, I'm not that good really, I-"

"You are that good. Your voice is magic. Now we have to rehearse - I have an electric keyboard, you know piano, organ all at the flick of a switch. Can I come over for practice with you say Tuesday?"

I was flattered and said yes. He had a bit of paper he wrote my name and address on then wrote his down, Adam Fairly his name was, ripped that bit off and gave it to me.

Well Mom and Dad were all excited at my adventure, sorry that this Troy character had turned out to make me look stupid like that and interested in Adam; Mom from a possible match leading to grandchildren and Dad from that fatherly instinct of wanting to protect his girl from Lotharios and wastrels. Yeah, that was Dad.

Monday I was the celebrity at school but by Tuesday it was all getting to be a bit yesterday's news sort of thing so by Tuesday evening I was just feeling flat. At seven thirty exactly he knocked on the door. His Mom had brought him over and she came in for a cup of coffee with my Mom and Dad. They got on like a house on fire and Dad insisted she stay with them while Adam and I had our practice. I lead Adam to our basement-yes away from the lounge - and he set up his key board on the collapsible stand then plugged it in.

"We get a song and an encore when the first one knocks em dead." he told me. So positive- I just stared at him.

"OK? We need to nail that first one."

I nodded still in shock.

" You will sing All Alone Am I, you know it? All alone am I ever since your good bye.Yes?"

"Uh huh," I knew it well, it had been one of Gran's favorite songs , she loved Brenda Lee.

"OK and for the encore Where The Boys Are, the Connie Francis song,OK? I know they're old songs but they're great tunes and I know they're just right for your voice."

He had the words printed out and handed the sheets to me.

"OK, I'll play an intro and you come in."

I nodded aware that suddenly my mouth felt terribly dry. He started playing and I felt something building up inside me, I wanted to sing. When he reached the note where I was to join I opened my mouth and I was right on the note. My phrasing was instinctive and perfect. I was in the song; a heartbroken girl yearning for someone she couldn't have.

He finished , turned to me and just clapped- loudly. There were tears in his eye and he was nodding.

"Good grief!" he declared after a few seconds," I knew you were good but that was amazing."

He paused then said, "lets do Where The Boys Are now, OK?"

I smiled and waited as he got himself sorted for the next song. The first note in Where the boys are is huge and once again I felt this force building in me and I launched into "Where" moving on to "the boys are" and then onto "someone waits for me"

He was smiling and nodding as he played and again, when he finished he clapped really, really loudly.

"Fantastic. Oh gosh I'm busting I didn't go before we came over, could I use?"

"Oh, sure I'll show you-"

"No, its OK up the stairs and just past on the left?"

"Yeah that's it , you're sure?"

"I'll be fine, back in a minute."

He took off up the stairs and I heard the toilet flush then the bathroom tap running but then I heard his footsteps going into the lounge.

"Oh shit!" I thought,"he's gone in there to tell his Mom he wants to leave. My God what is it with me and men?All they do is leave me, what the heck is wrong with me?" and I had sat down in one of the old dining room chairs we had down there when I heard footsteps on the stairs. I looked up and it was Adam leading the way with his Mom, my Mom and Dad following. Adam walked briskly over to me, took my hand and pulled me up out of the seat and lead me to a spot by the keyboard then dashed back and drew three chairs up for the parents to sit on to watch me.

'She is sensational," he said to them then looked at me with a little grin after.

"Oh my God!" I thought." he is for real."

Meaning he wasn't running away I enjoyed singing but I wasn't sure about 'sensational', I could sing in key and had a nice voice I thought but "sensational". well, hmm?

However he played the intro to All alone am I. I had been looking at Mom and she was smiling encouragingly at me and I could see Dad squirming, hoping I wouldn't get embarrassed but that thing happened again; I felt this force welling up inside me and I was in the song again, Mom and Dad were right there but I was in my own little world in the song. I sang it, he had slowed it up slightly and now it was a real tearjerker, not that it wasn't before only now it was worse. Well we finished and they all clapped long and hard. Dad had tears in his eyes and that "Thank God" look on his face while Mom had a smile on hers with tears running down from her red rimmed eyes. Adam's Mom was wiping her eyes and nodding with a happy smile.

I had connected, and I felt the magic, the excitement you feel when that happens, its just this sense of euphoria and I stood there smiling happily at them and at Adam. We did Where the boys are and I got wild applause for that too. Adam played superbly, he put the songs in my key, which he figured out just straight away and he played to suit my voice with little trills and sparkles in his accompaniment to enhance my vocals.

He was a keeper as far as I was concerned and I moved over to him and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Well that was it for the evening, it was getting on and we agreed we'd do the contest on the Saturday.

We walked them out to the car with Adam carrying his keyboard in its case.At the car Dad reached for it as Adam's Mom was opening the trunk and taking it off him said "kiss her you fool," at Adam and winked at me.

Adam edged over to me and I put my arms out for him. Emboldened he took me in his arms and looked into my eyes. I saw such kindness in his and I put my lips forward for him to kiss me. He did , pressing hard against mine but keeping his mouth closed.

'Thank you." I told him, "I really enjoyed that."

I had meant the singing but he looked puzzled and it clicked- finally.

"Sorry the kiss was lovely, thank you and I loved singing with you, you're such a talented musician."

After his Mom drove him away , with me waving till he was out of sight we went back inside and Dad gave me a rare cuddle then Mom just about squeezed the life out of me.

'Think he's the one Hon?" she asked.

I gave her that woman to woman smile and nodded,"Uh huh."

Well he didn't ring me on the Wednesday nor on the Thursday and I was wondering what was going on but he rang on the Friday. I told I was expecting him to ring me on Wednesday and Thursday and why hadn't he?

He was too embarrassed he told me and he was going to meet with me on Saturday so he didn't want to be a nuisance but his Mom had told he had to ring me.

He was really sweet and I hadn't minded, in fact I had figured that this is what he'd do, go all shy and bashful but I teased him about it and told him I had been hoping to hear from him but it was nice of him to ring now. We had a short conversation with me making most of the going and him chipping in with the odd comment but mainly ,"yeah" and "oh OK" as his contribution. I hung up after making him blow me a kiss and looked at Mom who had been standing silently listening. She was grinning and so was I. Yeah Adam was the one.

Saturday arrived and I went over the songs a few times ,singing quietly to myself then just got on until it was time to go. The car park was packed, its usually fullish but this time we had to go right to the end to get a park and I wondered if there was a sale on or something. When Mom and I finally got into the contest area I got the answer; it was packed. People saw me and cheered- want to know how that feels? Fan tas tic that's how it feels.

I went behind the stage and signed in.

'Thank goodness you're here, we've had so many people asking if you'd be singing today. You've got Adam, Adam..."

'Fairly," I told her firmly.

"Adam Fairly accompanying you today. The band loved your voice last time Hon, I know they were looking forward to playing behind you today?"

"Oh I don't mind, All Alone am I and Where The Boys Are and the first one we do a little slow."

"I'll tell them and thanks."

I waited for Adam and he turned up just ten minutes later. Having the band play with him was fine and he went over to talk with them. I watched as he told them how he wanted it played, the key it was set in, what effect he wanted from each instrument and these grown me in their forties were following him and nodding with what he told them. So that was us all set but, of course, it was a contest so no certainties, someone fabulous might choose today to show up. They might but Troy wasn't going to.

The contest got underway and the acts were really good; one girl did River Deep Mountain High, another did Torn, a guy sang Reason To Believe and they were all really good. I sat with Adam holding his hand. He was listening intently to each one and every time he would focus on the singer and shake his head, after the act he would whisper where they had gone wrong and I know its awful but hearing him cheered me up no end.

After two hours it was my turn and it was unbelievable, the crowd cheered as Adam and I went on stage, There was a TV crew there and they had bullied there way up close, camera phone flashes were going off all over the place and I hoped I wouldn't just fall flat on my face. Adam was in charge, he went over to the musicians and went over the way they would play and they followed him intently. He came to me and got me to stand exactly where he wanted then he hugged me, kissed me on the cheek and whispered," lets do it."

I was listening to his piano for when to come in but the other instruments gave it a much richer sound and I felt the power building up in me; I was in the my own world in the song as I had been before and I sang it better than any time previously. The other acts sat at the front on the left of stage and I saw forlorn looks on their faces; they had given it everything and wanted to do well but they could see I was going to top them. Everyone else stood or sat silently watching and listening. We finished and again the place erupted. The applause went on and on. I went forward and took a bow then I held my hand up. The applause died down to silence.

'Thank you so much, we're going to do another song for you if that's alright?"

Loud applause and people shouting "yes!" at the top of their lungs. I held my hand up again.

'Its the old Connie Francis hit Where the boys are," I turned to look at Adam" I'm not sure where the boys are but I know where my one is."

He blushed and tried to hide in the band but the chant went up "kiss her, kiss her, kiss her." I wiggled my finger at him to come out the front and he finally did.

'Don't you want to kiss me?" I teased him as he went bright crimson.

He took me in his arms and held me in a romantic pose with him holding me up and kissed me-it morphed into a french kiss and when it finished he said "yes" into the microphone to great laughter then went back to his key board and again he was in control.

The backing for Where the Boys are was fantastic and I had to really belt it to compete. We finished and again the crowd erupted with the applause going on and on. The other contestants came up to me after the winner,um me, was announced and congratulated me while I was able to tell them all how well they had sung and their time must surely come.

Well the last week's performance had been recorded by someone and posted on you tube. Along with the TV crew were talent scout from the major studios and the upshot was that that evening Adam and I had recording offers to go over and a manager to pick We didn't rush and I'm happy to say we got it right. Our lives changed with tours, studio recordings Promotional work and so on to keep us busy. We got engaged three months later and married six months after that, my late Grandmother's birthday- that made it a really special day for me.