Giselle loved music, except for the song coming up just now.
"AND NOW WILL YOU PLEASE RISE," boomed the public address announcer, "FOR THE SINGING OF OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM."
Musically speaking, it was as if Narissa had plucked Giselle from her vegetable garden, and dropped her into the middle of a supermarket aisle. Once she knew her place was here with Robert and Morgan, she looked forward to hearing all the music this world had to offer. The radio stations were happy to oblige - rock, country, blues; she inhaled it all. She told herself she'd learn Spanish one day, after she and Morgan danced to Richie Havens' "La Bamba" on the oldies station. Her first Broadway musical was a night she would never forget. And yet, there was something odd about how familiar the tunes seemed - had someone from Andalasia made it here before? Morgan later tried to explain how a stack of compact discs worth of music could be squeezed into a device small enough to fit in your shirt pocket. But Giselle thought that picking the songs ahead of time spoiled the surprise. Besides, all the walkers and commuters she saw every day wrapped up in the music plugged into their ears looked kind of lonely. She felt a bit lazy for not coming up with any new songs herself lately, but there were just so many to choose from.
As for "The Star Spangled Banner"? Giselle could tell, from all the ups and downs, that it was not an easy song to sing. She asked Robert once where the melody had come from.
"Oh, something to do with a drinking song, I believe."
"Like '99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall'?"
The lyrics mystified her, too. Robert and Edward had both showed courage to defend someone they loved. But risking your life to defend a piece of cloth with stars and stripes on it? Not to mention how the news seemed every night to mention "bombs bursting" somewhere. She would rather hear a song about how people come to America to write new stories for themselves. But maybe that's too much to ask for a 3 minute song.
Or perhaps, she thought, America is made of stories, and the flag is just a starting point, like "Once Upon a Time..."
So Giselle heard the latest American Idol sing a story from America's past, and looked forward to adding her own story to the tale (well, she'd keep some details to herself...).
(I made a mistake describing the University of Phoenix Stadium on the day of Super Bowl XLII; the roof was closed because of rain in the forecast - P.J.)