Chapter 116: The Beauty Pageant Begins

It was pitch black and Jessie Harper was feeling very nervous as she stood there on stage with her choir in the Redsands Festival Hall. Someone behind here was obviously feeling the same way as the muted comments indicated.

“Are you guys nervous?” whispered a squeaky little female voice.

“Shhhhh!” was the instant reply from another quiet little voice just next to the girl.

That was followed by another little voice saying “Yer, I’m real nervous. I’m just about shitting myself.”

Several ‘shhhh’s and ‘don’t use that language’ suddenly descended on that poor soul from all directions making it hard for Jessie Harper to suppress a nervous giggle at this funny little bit of banter...

... but then it all went deadly silent!

It was quieter than it already was for about ten seconds. That quiet moment was followed by an introductory drum roll then a loud voice booming out over the PA system saying...

“LADIES AND GENTLEMAN WILL YOU PLEASE WELCOME TO THE STAGE THE REDSANDS FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH YOUTH CHOIR!”

There was another drum roll, then the stage lights came on, then it was time for the Redsands First Congregational Church Youth Choir to perform and perform they did. The first two numbers sounded very traditional in a church choir sense but the third one exploded into a real electric rock number. Sonika Jharm had employed the services of some of the church’s very talented musicians ... guitarists and drummers and a keyboardist ... and the result was fantastic. Everyone in the audience could be seen clapping and bouncing around in their chairs like it was the opening number for a rock concert. All the choir members could see this going on and it filled them all with a new sense of courage and purpose for what they were doing. That third number then ended with Jessie repeating the first chorus of the song as a solo followed by one mighty crash of drums and cymbals to end it. The audience erupted into one massive wave of applause and whistling and shouting just before the lights went out plunging the building into darkness again and complete silence as the real show finally got under way - which was...

... The First Ever ... Redsands Teen Beauty Pageant...

By the time the lights came back on Jessie and the choir were all gone from the stage leaving it bare apart from one lone figure. This was the MC for the night and that MC was none other than Jessie’s friend...

... Tammy Maple!

When Jessie saw Tammy up there under the spotlight she gave a little gasp of complete surprise and mumbled to herself, “Well, I’ll be darned! How on earth did she keep that a secret. Tammy, you old snake in the grass.”

Jessie turned to some of her friends standing there in the wings - some of whom also knew Tammy Maple and her family. They all gave a shrug of surprise themselves. Evidently this was all news to them as well.