Chapter 42: The Show Part 3:

Intermission, Prelude and Fugue

July 4, 1985

[TJ smirked, “Well, Hells Bells, looks like Janet and I are gonna have to put in for a permanent transfer to the Chicago office! God knows the scenery is NOTHING like this in Pittsburgh!”

Mary was smiling at us gleefully as we smiled back.]

Dad asked what time it was. I said it was almost 3:30pm. He told us that the parents were all going to Lino’s Italian eatery in Rockford for dinner. It was right on State St., not far from Sinnissippi Park. He asked if we wanted to join them. Everyone was enthused, so Dad mentioned he would make reservations for 21. I asked why the odd number. He replied that Iris and Ray were bringing Jessica. Billy, Jamie’s brother, would’ve come too, except he was at camp.

Mom must have spread the word about our afternoon pool frolicking. Either that, or all the parents were in a really ‘frisky’ mood. If it wasn’t for the presence of Jessica, I just know the conversation would’ve been, shall we say, much spicier.

The parents were hamstrung in trying to suggest a pool party without coming up for a reason to exclude Jessica. I wasn’t the only one who thought it was humorous.

Mary’s parents, Paul and JoAnn were tittering at me, almost constantly. Jamie’s parents, Ted and Alice, kept biting their lips but were using their eyes to try and convey their interest in another pool party, ‘adults only’. Even Ray and Iris were almost giddy, mentioning to us that Jessica would be out of town for band camp the weekend after our wedding.

When Greg mentioned we should have a pool party that weekend, poor Jessica looked crestfallen. Bob however, saved the day, when he mentioned that maybe we could have a pool party instead of rehearsal dinner on the Friday before the wedding. That way Billy, Jamie’s brother could come too! Jessica’s smile lit up the room. The smiles on the parents faces confirmed my belief all the way around. The idea of two pool parties in back to back weeks didn’t seem to bother anyone.

Eventually the conversation switched to the concert. Ted and Alice, Greg’s dad and Beth along with Paul and JoAnn had no idea that the girls meant so much to us. Even though Linda didn’t say anything to Iris and her dad, it seemed to me that they knew what had happened with regards to the girl’s miraculous recovery.

Everyone of course, had heard about ‘Jonah’ making his appearance. Dad winked at me several times, assuring me that none of the parents knew we had anything to do about that. Dad flashed, to the suppressed chuckles from my group, that I had successfully ‘hijacked’ TJ and Janet from their post-concert get together.

Mom even flashed, “You kids seem to have all the fun. We bring in the fresh meat and you commandeer and barbecue it for yourselves!”

It took all we could do, to not break out in total laughter.

Just before 6:30pm, we all packed up from the restaurant and went to the bandshell. It took an eternity for me to introduce everyone to Joni, AJ, Julie and Steve.

Julie and Steve’s 16-year-old daughter, Jenny, was also there along with her boyfriend, Craig. Jessica quickly made friends with them and decided to sit with them.

At about 6:45pm, I saw Sarah.

She appeared to have a friend with her too. I waved and got her attention and signaled for her to come over and join us. Everyone was chuckling when I had to go through the introductions all over again. Sarah introduced her friend Emma, saying she was a longtime friend and colleague. She said that Emma or ‘Emmy’ as she likes to be called, was a psychologist who specialized in adult relationships and marriage counseling.

I gave Sarah a very surprised grin and she winked at me. Mary suggested that Sarah sit next to me so I could fill her and Emmy in about the girls and the extended family.

Emmy was an interesting lady. She was gregarious and funny. She wasn’t a particularly pretty woman, though she certainly wasn’t ugly either. She was just a big, extremely voluptuous lady. Did I say voluptuous? She had the most gi-normous breasts I think I’d ever seen. They had to be like 42 triple F’s with massive nipples! Even through her bra, they made finger size dents in her blouse. And just like every other red-blooded male, I was caught dead to rights, as it took my eyes forever to finally look up and see hers.

I was blushing like crazy when she winked at Sarah and said, “He’s just as cute as you said he was Sarah! It only took him five seconds to find my face, I think that’s a record!”

Both of them began giggling as my face just got redder and hotter. Mary and Linda were actually snorting, trying not to lose it. I was just glad to see that Emmy had a great sense of humor.

Ed was sitting next to Emmy and appeared to be glad her attention was on me, as it gave him license to shamelessly ogle her massive breasts. He was grinning like a loon until Gracie slapped his arm.

“Oww!” Ed complained.

Emmy didn’t miss a beat, she looked right past him and winked at Gracie, who was now snickering. “If you’re a good boy, Ed, maybe I’ll give you a show later,” she tittered.

Poor Ed looked like he wanted to die.

Soon the lights around us dimmed and the stage lights came up. I was glad to see the grand piano was oriented in such a way, that from where we were sitting, we had a perfect view of the girls faces and hands. With the top partially open, if we would’ve been sitting on the other side of the stage, we would have hardly even seen them.

The band director welcomed everyone. He smiled, turned around and immediately went into “Great Balls of Fire”, by Jerry Lee Lewis. It really set the mood for the concert. It seemed like everyone, especially the girls, were smiling and rocking back and forth to the music. Sarah smiled at me and said, “Wow, no wonder they won that competition! Not only are they good, they put on a heck of a show. Even Jerry Lee himself couldn’t rock that piano the way those girls are doing!”

At the end of the song, a spotlight shined on the girls, who took a bow. The next song was a medley of Glenn Miller favorites. It included, “In The Mood”, “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”, “Little Brown Jug” and “Moonlight Serenade”. It was cool how each soloist had the spotlight on him or her. The song lasted almost 15 minutes and featured most everyone except the girls.

Before the next song, the director announced, “This next song, is by special request. We have three vocalists. The song was made famous by the ‘Charlie Daniels Band’ but we’ve added our own special twist. I hope you enjoy it.”

Two violinists were standing by the piano along with a big guy with a microphone and they put two microphones in front of the girls. I had never heard them play this before, but knew what was coming. When the violinist broke into the introduction for “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, I told Sarah to hang on to her seat because this could get wild.

They didn’t disappoint.

As the violinists turned into fiddle players, they and the male soloist played the devil, while the girls played the Johnny part. But, instead of singing “Johnny” they inserted “Andie and Cathy”. When the girls started playing the challenge part to the fiddles, they pushed the bench away and were standing, defiantly playing their parts. I was blown away. I swear I must have swallowed 100 flies before the song was over. And I wasn’t alone. When the song ended, the crowd erupted. Sarah and Emmy were gasping and smiling too.

Sarah said, “My God, their little fingers were a blur! Their four hands were in perfect sync. I’ve never seen or heard anything like that! You’re right Charlie, those two are ‘Prodigy’ good.”

I even heard Jessica yell at me over the crowd, “There’s no way ANYONE could ever beat that! Oh my God, I am sooo bummed that our band director made us miss their show. He’s such an idiot!”

All I could do was grin at her and shrug my shoulders.

The director announced the soloists, again to thundering applause. I of course, was biased towards the girls, but the two fiddle players and the male vocalist also did phenomenal jobs.

They finished the first half of the concert with excellent renditions of “Mood Indigo”, by Duke Ellington, which featured an exceptional trumpet player and “St. Louis Blues”, featuring the saxophone section, that really gave a soulful ending to the first half.

During the intermission, Jessica came over to talk to Bob and I. She was still wildly looking forward to her DJ job with Bob. This Saturday was a wedding, with the AA club the following Friday and another wedding that Saturday afternoon.

When Andie and Cathy came running up and gave us all hugs, the conversation returned to music. Sarah introduced the girls to Emmy. The girls told everyone that the second half would be even better than the first.

“Mr. Sirocka’s gonna let us do our favorite song and even a special song at the end!”

Joni grinned, “Don’t tell them what it is dear, let it be a surprise.”

The girls giggled and said they had to get back. Sarah and Emmy were trying to get me to give them a hint. I just grinned, zipped my lips and threw away the key. I knew “Dueling Pianos” was going to blow them away! Joni was giggling at me and gave me a quick hug.

The second half was fantastic. They started off with Seger’s, “Old Time Rock and Roll”, which rocked, then a medley of songs by Chicago, one by the Eagles and one by America. The director explained that America, was all ‘Air Force brats’, who got together when their parents were all stationed in England.

He introduced the girls, saying that the second to last number was a special song that the band wanted the girls to perform. It was their version of “Dueling Banjos”, Piano style. The band members began chanting, “Andie ... Cathy ... Andie ... Cathy,” as the blushing girls kicked the bench away from the piano and smirked at each other.

Cathy started a slow, one finger passage, followed by Andie’s answer on the lower register. Then, it rapidly got faster and more complex. Their hands were crossing and they were even playfully pushing each other out of the way before each solo passage. By the end, their hands were once again a blur and even when all four hands were going at once, they were STILL crossing hands and bumping their butts into each other! ALL without missing a beat. At the end, they were given a raucous, standing ovation. Even the band members, were clearly proud of them.

It took nearly 5 minutes for the applause to die down enough for the director to speak.

The director called the girls to the podium. With one arm around each of them, he said,

“I’d like to tell you the story of these two amazing young ladies. Last year, at just about this time, I was in a quandary. The band’s piano player, who played for us for the last four years had just graduated and been accepted to Julliard on a full ride scholarship, leaving us without one of the more important members of the band. Alex, had been the glue that held us together and a natural leader since he was a sophomore. Last June, in preparation for our summer practice sessions, that start in July, I auditioned more than 20 pianists. A couple would’ve been adequate to accompany the band, but none of them were even close to Alex’s abilities.

“I was in a funk when I talked to my colleague, who directed the junior high band. I told him of my quandary and he had a funny look on his face and said, ‘I may have just the answer to your problem.’

“I frowned at him and said, ‘I seriously doubt any of your students would be up to the task, but at this point I guess I have nothing to lose. Just out of curiosity, why aren’t they playing for the junior high band?’

“He grinned at me, ‘Because I felt that, for them to be playing with us, I’d be holding THEM back! That’s why they’re not playing for us and instead are studying with Mrs. Belcher downtown.’

“I gave my friend a surprised look and he said he would bring them around on Monday afternoon to give me an audition. I was puzzled why he kept referring to the piano player as ‘they’. He explained that there were actually TWO of them and they played a four-handed piano and were actually quite good.”

The director looked at the girls and said, “He didn’t tell me they were quite possibly the best piano players on the face of the earth! So, imagine my surprise, when he came in to the rehearsal room with these two little elves. They were nervously giggling and I immediately began thinking the worst. I told them to show me what they got and they asked me, with a nervous grin, if they could warm up for a second. I said sure and to start whenever they were ready.

“Well, when they started playing a beginner’s version of chopsticks, hitting many sour notes, I wanted to just tell them to go home. They were looking at me intently, however, studying my expression, which was very close to being totally disgusted. I noticed them wink at each other and I suddenly saw my friend start grinning as they broke into the most sophisticated version of ‘Chopsticks’ I’d ever heard!

“Their four little hands had become a blur and I couldn’t detect even one sour note. When they stopped and smiled at me I was already sold. I said, “Well okay, show me what you got and they broke into ‘Old Time Rock ‘n Roll’ that literally blew my socks off! The band had been wanting to get into more upbeat rock ‘n roll and other more current songs as opposed to the classical jazz selections we normally play. We didn’t even have the music to ‘Old Time Rock ‘n Roll’, but I knew we were gonna have to get it!

“I pulled out the hardest number that the band loved to play, when Alex had been leading us. I set it in front of them. They spent about 3 to 4 minutes looking it over, just like the most experienced musicians would do. Understand, that oftentimes, most musicians will simply look at the music and try to start playing it, leading to mostly unsatisfactory results.

“I was immediately impressed that these two didn’t succumb to that. They asked me if I wanted to lead them or if I wanted them to select the tempo on their own. I grabbed my baton and felt I would challenge them by changing the tempo often. They played it nearly perfectly the first time through and never missed one of my tempo changes! Even Alex, with all his experience wouldn’t have picked up every one of the ones I threw at them. I invited them back the next day for the full rehearsal with the band.

“As the band members filed in, they didn’t know I had hidden Andie and Cathy away in my office. Every single one of them looked at the empty piano bench and sighed, as they took their seats and got their instruments ready to play. My senior trumpet player raised his hand and asked with dismay, ‘So, we’re going to try to go this year without a piano player?’

“I smiled and said, ‘Only if you don’t like the two little ladies that have volunteered to do the job for us. Would you like to hear them?’

“Every one of them were happy and anxious at the prospect of having a piano player. Just like me, however, their hopes appeared to be dashed when they heard Cathy and Andie come giggling out of the office then sit down behind the piano.

“To make a long story short, they teased the band in the same way they teased me. This time however, I thought it was hilarious to see their expressions. By the end of the day, the attitude of the entire band had changed substantially from even the end of last year. The girl’s infectious enthusiasm and unbridled joy of playing music was rubbing off on every member of the band.

“This year at the IHSA, Illinois High School Association Jazz band festival we did something that is rarely done. We took all three top honors. Best performance by a jazz band, best performance by a soloist as well as best overall with regards to professionalism.

“Because of their young ages, Cathy and Andie pushed every member of the band to play far beyond their normal limits. No one wanted to be outclassed by someone far younger than they were. All of us also recognized that these two little ladies were personally responsible for all three honors.

“Last week, at our last rehearsal, every member of the band pleaded with me to allow Cathy and Andie to play their dueling piano number. They had been practicing it off and on before and after a lot of our practices. Everyone had become addicted to listening to them as every time they seemed to add something new. I’m sure next summer, if we play again, it will be even crazier than it was this time!”

He took a very deep breath, sighed and said, “So imagine my heartbreak, when Tuesday night I learned that Cathy and Andie had been brutally run over by a fleeing criminal and left for dead. Cathy was in a coma with a crushed pelvis and a nearly amputated leg, that the doctors were insisting on removing. Andie was left quadriplegic, never being able to play a piano again. I wanted to visit them in the hospital but was told the only visitors they could have was family.

“I did the only thing I could think of and went to church and prayed. I was joined there by several members of the band and the pastor of the church. I found out, in the news, that Andie and Cathy’s parents had done the same at the hospital Chapel.

“The good Lord must’ve heard our prayers, because he sent two Angels! Two wonderful Angels of Mercy, who healed them completely, even down to the last bruise and scrape. Thanks to them, Cathy and Andie are here with us tonight. When their mother, Joni, told me that the first thing they asked was whether or not they could still play tonight, I broke into tears. She told me that the BIGGEST thing they were worried about, before the miracle, was letting everyone down!

“If anyone wants to know why God chose these two, to grant a miracle to, I would have to say it was because these two care more about making other people happy than they do themselves.