During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at the people watching me and saw my Daddy smiling and waving. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't afraid anymore. –Cindy (age 8)
Harmony held her beginner's piano book tight to her chest. Biting her lip, she looked out from behind the large red curtain as she waited for the boy playing a song to finish. Glancing around, she looked at all the people watching intently with their video camera's poised to capture the moment of their child's debut in the musical world. Wiggling in her dress, she adjusted the skirt so that it wasn't crooked.
Her Daddy was in the crowd, three rows back. He'd tried to get a front row seat, but they'd arrived a little later than some of the other families. She noticed he was looking at the program and bracing his own camera to record her.
As the boy finished, he took a small bow and walked toward the opposite end of the stage. Counting to three in her head as her teacher had told her, she took a step out in her gold sandals that matched her dress. The piano was tilted at an angle so that the crowd could see the left side of her body. After opening her book she took one last look at the audience, something her teacher had instructed her not to do.
Squinting through the bright lights, she spotted her father easily. He had a bright smile on his face and was waving at her. That eased her stage fright a little bit. Bracing her hands over the keys, she repeated the notes in her head. She'd played the song so many times that she didn't even need the book. C, C, G, G, A, A, G, F, F, E, E, D, D, C…
She could almost picture her daddy singing along, "Twinkle, Twinkle, little star…" It was the most common lullaby he'd sung to her as a toddler. Even though her Mom wasn't here, she appreciated that her Daddy had come. That was the main reason he'd brought the video camera, to show Gabriella later.
When she finished her song, she stood up and took the appropriate curtsey and waved back to her father. Walking off the stage, she practically skipped to the waiting room for the rest of the show. Smiling, she felt relieved it was over but a little excited that she'd been able to do it perfectly in front of so many people.
/
"Harmony!" Troy shouted as he saw his daughter sifting through the many people crowded in the lobby of the theater his daughter's piano recital had been in. The parents and children were all reconciling and drinking punch and eating cookies. His little girl ran at the sight of him and jumped into his arms. Lifting her up he pressed a proud kiss to the top of her head, "You did great sweetheart."
"Did you get it on camera?" She questioned and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I did. It was absolutely perfect," Bending over, he let her feet hit the ground. "Mommy's going to be so sad she couldn't come."
"Did Annelise have the baby yet?" Harmony knew that the reason her mother hadn't come was because Annelise, the teenager that Troy and Gabriella were adopting their second child from, had gone into labor unexpectedly two hours before the performance.
"Not yet," Troy ran his hand through her hair, "Mommy said it might be a little while still."
"Am I still going to Grandma and Grandpa's tonight?" Harmony was excited to be able to spend some time with her grandparents, so far she was Gabriella's parents only grandchild.
Troy laughed, knowing she was excited for limitless desserts and candy, "Yes, you still are."
"And then when I come home, the new baby is going to be there?" She questioned. Troy and Gabriella had done the best they could to try and prepare for the new baby but Harmony wouldn't get the full effect until their second baby was brought home.
"Yes," Troy responded, for the most part Harmony seemed fairly excited for the arrival of her baby brother/sister.
Walking over toward the table of cookies and punch, Harmony spoke up, "I think it's going to be a girl."
Troy chuckled at her statement, the birth mother had decided on not finding out the sex of the baby, "What makes you say that?"
"I don't know, I just think it's going to be a girl," she shrugged her shoulders up, "Do you think it's going to be a girl."
"I have no clue," Troy liked the suspense of waiting, they hadn't found out the sex Harmony before she'd been born either. "I'll be happy with a boy or a girl."
"Mommy said she thought it was a boy," Harmony spoke.
"She also thought you were going to be a boy," Troy had to admit, after months of Gabriella walking around claiming the baby was going to be a boy, Harmony had popped out and he'd been shocked of Gabriella's wrong prediction.
"That's silly," Harmony scrunched her nose at the thought of being a boy as she chewed her cookie. "It's okay if it's a boy, I like them too."
"Really now," Troy knew that at the age of six, she wasn't into boys too much but this was the first time she'd revealed that she didn't mind them.
"Yeah, well, you're a boy," she pointed at her father, "And I like you."
"Good point baby girl," Troy motioned toward the door, "Should we head out? Maybe we can stop by the hospital and see mommy before you go to grandma's house."