Saturday, November 28, 2015

FADE IN, ARENA, VANCOUVER, CANADA

The arena is filled with people. The headliner is Michiko Takahashi, the fourteen year old singing sensation who has been setting music fans a’twitter for nearly nine months now. The people gathered in this arena are looking forward to her show, but tonight there’s actually more buzz about her opening act. The news media, which had been following the case of the two nine-year-olds, Paul Clare Macon and his girlfriend Paula Claire Akron, had been all set to tell the public all about whatever the family court decided, but there had been a terror attack in France and all other news fell by the wayside. But these are fans, and they find things out, and they know what the court said: until further notice these children aren’t allowed to be within a thousand feet (305 metres) of each other. And yet, somebody is opening for Takahashi, and nobody else has been announced. So as the stage goes suddenly from dark to light, the audience is looking to see who is revealed

Who is revealed is Paula, back in her sundress and sandals, standing all alone on that big stage. The band is behind her, as always, but there is no cute little boy standing next to her, and it just doesn’t look right. There is applause, but it is muted, almost sad

PAULA: Hello everybody! Um, most of you know why Paul isn’t here. If you don’t know, well ... well we’ve been in family court a lot, and a judge decided that we can’t be closer to each other than a thousand feet (305 metres). And we can’t talk. No phone, no e-mail, no text, no smoke signals no nothing. No, I don’t know why. But it could have been worse, and it’s only for however long it takes to bash out all this legal stuff. However long that takes. We’ll be back together again, I just don’t know when

The audience is listening, every word. When the child isn’t talking, you can hear a pin drop. When she is talking, many lean forward, unwilling to miss a syllable

PAULA: But you guys, you fans, you’ve been so good to us. We talked about you before the, the separation. We decided that no matter what, you get your damn concerts!

Paula thrusts her little fist into the air, and the crowd explodes in applause. There are a few tears, too – that these children could be going through this and think about the fans is pretty touching

PAULA: And this is a concert! So, let’s have some music

The band begins to play a familiar tune: “Hey Paula.” And Paula herself simply stands there during the time that Paul would be singing if he were here. What would be his vocals are instead represented by notes from the keyboard. When it’s Paula’s turn to sing, her gifted voice quavers a little. When Paul’s part comes again, and he isn’t there, the little girl bows her head and can be seen to be shaking a bit. When she sings now, her voice breaks, and it’s pretty obvious that she’s trying, and failing, not to cry. By the time the song ends it’s a bit hard to understand what she’s saying. The applause goes on and on and on, out of appreciation but also because the audience is determined to give the nine year old girl as much time as she needs to recover. They finally fall quiet when Paula holds up her hand and smiles

PAULA: Thank you. I thought I wasn’t going to cry. I wasn’t crying in rehearsals anymore. But it’s OK; none of my other songs are going to be done as half-duets. And I’ll be OK. The next song is “Everlasting Love.”

The disco music begins, and while the child’s voice quavers a few times, it doesn’t break and she doesn’t cry. She sings the whole song, no replacement keyboard, but then the song was originally written for one singer. A few words are changed: instead of singing “Yes I’ll be your bride” she sings “Yes I’ll be his bride.” The crowd cheers loudly when she is done

PAULA: That’s what Paul and me ... Paul and I, that’s what we have: everlasting love. It’ll be OK

Paula stands tall, takes a deep breath, and opens her mouth. She shuts her mouth and turns around to look at the band. A couple of notes play, unsynched, and then stop. Chanming Han, saxophonist, walks over to the little girl and the two can be seen to be talking, but they are not heard as Paula holds the mike away from herself. The two nod and then return to their places. Han holds up one hand and counts on his fingers one, two, three. Paula and the band come in together on “I Feel Love.” This is a song which Paula is used to singing alone, with her boyfriend not even visible. She sings it as flawlessly as ever. She actually looks happy. The crowd lets her know that they, too, are happy