Chapter Twenty-Six
“The first thing that Dad is going to say to me is, ‘Why aren’t you practicing?’ I just know it,” Eroica stated.
AnnaMaria, John, their children, and Eroica were on their way to the airport to pick up Dr. and Mrs. Karloff Hamilton. They were coming to visit for two weeks. It had been almost a year since Eroica and AnnaMaria had seen their parents, and a lot had happened in that time. AnnaMaria had a new baby, and Eroica had graduated from music college.
AnnaMaria was excited for her parents to see their first granddaughter. Eroica was not excited for her parents to come to the piano competition. She wasn’t sure how well she was going to handle everything, and her father was an element she couldn’t control.
“Eroica, you have been practicing nonstop. This will be good for you. Give your fingers and your brain a rest. You’ll most likely benefit from it.”
John was right. Eroica had been practicing herself into a tempest. There were so many different pieces that she had to have down perfectly. Plus, she had to keep up the Schelling Concerto. There weren’t enough hours in the day to get through it all. Dr. Fife was confident that she was ready. But he wasn’t the one that had to go in front of judges and an audience and play it all.
“Dad just makes me so nervous,” Eroica sighed.
“Don’t worry, Eroica. John is going to monopolize Dad’s attention every time he forgets and calls me Annie.”
“I have got to remember. We don’t see your parents that often, so when they come to visit, it’s hard for me to always call you AnnaMaria. It’s so formal.”
“See, Eroica, you’ve got it made,” AnnaMaria laughed.
As they waited at the airport for the plane to come in, Eroica’s mind was filled with memories of her parents. She remembered a time when she was fourteen and her father had entered her into a piano competition. She didn’t want to do it, but he had helped her along. Eroica had played really well and was confident that she would win. She knew that no one else had played as well as she had. Still, she came in third place.
Eroica remembered feeling hurt and frustrated. Her father was not angry, though. He taught her that life was just that way. Sometimes she would win, sometimes she wouldn’t. What mattered was how she felt in her heart. If she had played her best, then she had won, no matter what the judges said. If she hadn’t played well, then no trophy was going to make up for her mistakes.
Eroica met her parents with new determination in her heart. She would play the best that she could to show herself and her parents that she had finally learned what they had been trying to teach her all along.
“So this is my new granddaughter,” Eleanor Hamilton cooed as she scooped Holly into her arms.
“Eroica, it’s so good to see you.” Dr, Hamilton gave her a hug and a kiss, while Charlie and Joshua clamoured for their turn. “Shouldn’t you be practicing?”
“Annie, get the camera out of the diaper bag,” John hurried in, with a quick glance at Eroica.
“John, you haven’t changed a bit,” Dr. Hamilton scowled as he hugged John and slapped him on the back. “That’s a fine new baby you have. She sounds like a coloratura to me.”
Holly was squawking away at the sight of an unfamiliar face.
“Eroica, where is your friend, Mark Wallace? I am looking forward to meeting him. We have had several nice chats on the phone.”
“He’s at work.”
“Of course. Some people do that for a living, don’t they? I’ll meet him soon enough, I’m sure.”
“We have quite a bit of luggage this time,” said Mrs. Hamilton.
“Oh, yes,” Dr. Hamilton joined in. “We brought two harpsichords. They are boxed up very well, and should be well-preserved. I want to unpack them as soon as possible.”
The Hamiltons had to rent a moving van to get the crates to AnnaMaria and John’s home.
But seeing the delight on their girl’s faces made it all worthwhile.
“I hadn’t considered that this harpsichord wouldn’t fit in your house, Eroica,” her father said as he and John set up both of them.
“Eroica can keep hers here until she has a better place for it,” John promised.
Eroica sat down at her new harpsichord and played through some baroque dances. This was just what she had wanted.
“Here, Eroica, play some of these.” Her father handed her a pile of Bach cantatas, and for the next hour she accompanied him while he sang in German.
“Aren’t you two ever going to end? Dinner is ready. Come have something to eat.” AnnaMaria and her mother had set the table with a feast’s worth of food.
“What is the schedule like for the piano festival?” Dr. Hamilton asked as soon as the prayer had been said.
“We can go over all of that tomorrow,” Eroica said. “You and Mom must be tired from your long flight.”
“Your father is never tired. He never has jet lag. I quit trying to keep up with him years ago.”
“Come now, Eleanor. You are the one that always has projects going—president of the choral society, on the board of the opera company, secretary for the voice teachers’ association.”
“I at least know when the day is over.”
“I think she got you there, Dad,” AnnaMaria laughed.
“Your mother is always right. That is what has made our marriage work for over twenty-five years. Eroica,” he once again turned to her, “When does the festival begin? When do you play in front of the judges?”
Eroica knew that she wasn’t going to see much more than a piano keyboard while her parents were here. It was just as well. This piano festival would entertain her parents more than anything else would.
“It starts in a week. On Monday, beginning at nine o’clock, all fifty pianists play for the judges. I am scheduled to perform at two-thirty. Then at seven o’clock that evening, twenty-five names will be announced, and those twenty-five people will go on to Tuesday’s competition.”
“What happens on Tuesday? Do you have to play required pieces?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t look past Monday.”
“Eroica, you can’t be serious.”
“Dad, I’m not going to make it past Monday. Even if I do, I don’t want to think that far ahead. Dr. Fife says that I’m ready, and he knows what I need to do. If I make it to Tuesday, then he’ll instruct me on what to perform.”
“That sounds like a good, solid plan,” her mother broke in. “Karloff, I think that Eroica has everything under control.”
Dr. Hamilton looked pensive for a moment, but at last he smiled. “It sounds as if you know what you are doing, Eroica. Keep us posted on when and where we should be, and we will be there cheering for you.”
Eroica was saved more questioning by the ringing of the doorbell. It was Mark. Eroica had asked him to come over and meet her parents when he was finished at the music camp.
“You’re just in time for dessert,” John greeted him. “Come on in.”
Eroica instinctively went to Mark so that she could introduce him to her parents.
“It’s about time that I met you,” her father bellowed. “We should be old friends with how much time we have spent talking on the phone.”
Mrs. Hamilton watched Eroica through all of this. Of course Mark must be in love with her daughter. But did Eroica love him? That was her first concern.
AnnaMaria had made strawberry pies for the occasion, and when she put them on the table, Charlie and Joshua went wild with anticipation.
“John, will you please take these boys outside and let them eat their dessert on the picnic table?”
“But AnnaMaria,” her mother protested, “They didn’t eat their vegetables.”
“They are so excited about seeing their grandparents. They’re not going to settle down long enough to eat vegetables.”
“They are so adorable,” their grandmother sighed, as John ushered them, bouncing, out the back
door.
Eroica was relieved that Mark had come. The focus was on him now. Instead of being grilled about how and what she had been practicing, her father asked Mark as many questions as he could think of.
“I must admit,” he finally concluded, “Anyone who can get Eroica to enter and follow through with an international piano competition is quite amazing. You have done a commendable job of getting Eroica out of the practice room and into the performance hall.”
“Oh, I didn’t do it. It had to be Eroica. She’s the one that decided that sharing her talents was more important than keeping herself safe in a practice room.”
Dr. Hamilton seemed pleased with this. But Mrs. Hamilton was going to spend more time observing Mark Wallace before she made any such declarations about him.
“Now then,” Karloff Hamilton announced in his voice of command, “It has been a long day, and Eroica either needs to sleep or practice. Which is it?”
“I was going to go back to the music college and practice on the stage. It’s so much different than the practice room. And I don’t want to touch a piano tomorrow. It is Sunday, and I am taking a break from the piano.”
Dr. Hamilton scowled, but he did not interfere with her Sabbath day. “Mark, are you going with her?”
Mark knew this was not a question. “Yes, of course.”
“Good. Don’t let her stay up too late.”
Just that quickly, Dr. Hamilton had ordered the evening and had sent everyone to do his bidding. Mark and Eroica went back to the school, and everyone else cleaned up dinner and went to bed.
Heartstrings Page 26
