Chapter 25: All Is Revealed

“Well, that was just a stunning performance by you all this morning” intoned Gerald Claxton to his attentive audience of choristers.

“And thankyou, Jessie Harper,” he continued. “You really do have the voice of an angel. We are a very lucky choir to have someone with your singing voice as a part of the team ... but a team it still is and we all need each other and we must never forget that ... especially now as we get closer to the end of the year with the choir competition bearing down upon us. And I am still more than certain that this year we can finally claim that first prize trophy. But we must all work hard together and we must all be most diligent in the extra practices we have scheduled during the week to help us along.”

There was silence in the room as the choirmaster paused for about thirty seconds then cleared his throat in readiness to address the issue that everyone was waiting for him to address - the sudden absence of the twins ... Carrie and Troy Pearson!

“OK...” the choirmaster began. “ ... err ... umm ... cough ... arrr...”

Gerald Claxton cleared his throat a few more times then started again.

“OK, then. Some of you will have noticed the absence today of...”

There was still a bit more clearing of the throat and another small cough before the man could resume.

“ ... of ... of Troy and Carrie Pearson - our singing twins.”

At that point one of the older boys at the back piped up with, “What do you mean ‘some of us’ - we’re not jolly blind! We ALL noticed their absence. It just wasn’t the same with them not up there with Jessie. I mean - we all know Jessie is by far the best singer of the lot of us but those twins are pretty red hot themselves and they know it. They also just love their singing and I know they just love being a part of the choir - so not showing up with no explanation and no warning - none of us even had a text message from them - well, it’s just weird!”

Little murmurs of agreement flittered around the room then died down before Gerald Claxton continued.

“Yes, well, thankyou for that, Bjorn, but if you let me continue I should be able to clear this mystery up for you. OK!”

All eyes swung over to Bjorn then back to Mr Claxton after Bjorn nodded his assent.

“So ... I hope you all remember our little discussion last Sunday night about the spread of this new and most immoral practice of public nudity. It is coming in two forms - Certified Nudism and Clothing Optional Nudism. Certified Nudists wear nothing at all in private or in public at all times and they have the shameless freedom of being able to indulge their animal lusts whenever and where-ever they like. Clothing Optional Nudists can wear as little or as much clothing as they like in private or in public but they cannot indulge in the public debauchery that Certified Nudists can ... OK! Do you all understand what I am talking about? I am sure most of you will be quite familiar with these ungodly concepts by now.”

There were quite a few little sniggers of laughter popping up around the room and also a little bit of nervous conversation going on about what their choirmaster had just said. Eventually it all settled down again so the guy carried on.

“Anyway ... unfortunately ... and I mean MOST unfortunately ... it came to Reverend Karl Marsden’s attention that Mr and Mrs Pearson had only just this week signed themselves and the twins up for a life of Clothing Optional Nudism. Reverend Marsden has been fighting a long and drawn out battle against the spread of these vices that society seems to be embracing with nothing but reckless abandon. To have Congregational members of their standing fall into this type of decadence was a bitter blow and one that forced him to act in way that was very painful but necessary. On Friday Reverend Marsden had to rescind their membership in the church and I had the very unpleasant task of informing Troy and Carrie that they would no longer be able to sing in the choir as a consequence. It will be a terrible loss to us as a group and as individuals I’m sure but if we all pull together and work a bit harder I know we can still make this thing work.”