Chapter 18: The ‘What if’ Question

“Well, kids” began Mr Claxton, “that was a spectacular performance this morning. You guys were just awesome. Reverend Marsden was just so proud of us all and has even given permission to increase our allocated budget to help with our chances in the upcoming competitions. Like me, he reckons we stand the best chance ever of coming away with winning trophies in more than just one category. So once again thank you all and especially to you, Jessie and to you Carrie and Troy - you guys were fantastic. So I am hoping that you can pull all the stops out over the following weeks as we ramp up our practices from once a week to twice a week. We will also have to experiment with some much more difficult material if we are really going to stand a chance in a few months time with this year’s competitions”

All the members of the Redsands First Congregational Church Youth Choir applauded themselves and patted each other on the back at this latest announcement from their choirmaster. Jessie Harper and the twins - Carrie and Troy Pearson - gave each other big hugs of encouragement as they each knew that they carried on their shoulders a major portion of that burden to bring winning success to the team.

The choir chamber was still filled with lots of happy talking and giggling when the choirmaster gave a few claps of his hands and allowed a much more sombre look to fall over his face. All eyes turned to meet his and the mood in the room changed to a much more serious one very quickly as he looked around the room at his group of male and female singers. The age range of these choristers went from just 13 right up to 19 - a very strict age range as set by the competition organisers and held to with military rigour. This group of teenagers all looked very seriously at Gerald Claxton - their choirmaster - waiting for him to proceed.

Gerald Claxton paused for a few minutes until the whole room was completely silent then he gave a little nervous cough before carrying on with, “Now I have a very serious subject to deal with right now and one that I hope will NEVER EVER affect this group in any way what-so-ever.”

The choirmaster paused again as everyone present in the room was suddenly hanging onto every word he was saying. After another silent minute he continued in a slow and very deliberate manner.

“As many of you might or might not already know ... is that ... is that ... is that there is a rising acceptance around this country towards ... towards ... towards ... nudism. And by nudism I mean ‘social nudism’ and by social nudism I mean the kind that is practised openly in public. And by public I many people going naked in our own public streets and parks or anywhere else that might be considered a public concourse. As yet this practice seems to be mostly confined to the western provinces - down California and Oregon way. But reports are filtering in that this immoral practice has already reached the more eastern states and towns - and even here in Redsands, Georgia.”

A small amount of rather nervous giggling rippled around the room before the man continued. He looked with a cold glare at a couple of older boys pulling at their choir frock fronts in a mock display of non-existent breasts just under their clothes.