A Team Christmas concert

Volvo River High School had its Christmas concert last night, under the direction of Madame Rousseau. She is an opera singer and the former wife of the Dean of the music school at the university, 30 miles away. When they divorced, she moved to a cabin near Memphjus, the county seat of Periwinkle County. Somehow Katrine Hamlet, the Principal of VRHS, persuaded her to teach music on a provisional certificate. Madame Rousseau gets more sound out of 16 voices than most college choirs. Unfortunately for balance, only 3 of the voices are male.

VRHS is the smallest HS in the state, at 64 students, 29 of them boys. 28 of the boys play on the Class A state championship high school football team. 2 of the chorus boys are also on the football team. Neither Principal Hamlet nor Madame Rousseau dared voice it, but they hoped the team would not go too far in the playoffs, because the football boys could not practice for the chorus concert until football season was over.

The Swedish Autos did go far, however, all the way to the state championship game, and beyond. [The teams are not officially The Swedish Autos, but they have been called that for so long, no one remembers if they are officially named for a color or a big animal or an ethnic group.]

That left Matt Gakstatter as the only male chorus member. Matt is the bass. The football players are tenors. Matt, however, is in a wheelchair. He has been there so long, he cannot stand up at all, even on crutches. Matt has a lovely low voice, but he can't project, and VRHS can't afford a sound system.

The tenors had only one rehearsal, yesterday afternoon before the concert last night. Madame Rousseau said, in her exotic accent, which is sometimes French, sometimes German, "Alright, you two, big shot football players, prove how strong you are, and stand on either side of Matt, and hold him up so that he can project." Neither a QB/CB nor a C/DE is going to admit he can't hold up a boy like Matt, so they did, the whole concert. Matt sang like he had never sung before.

Everyone told him what a terrific singer he is, what a great voice he has. Everyone wants to affirm a kid in a wheelchair. Matt didn't care about that, though. All night long he thought about how Dustin and Adam held him up, about their wavery unrehearsed tenors that probably only he could hear, and he said to himself, "For once, I was on the football team."