Backfire

She began to play Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin’s magical, exuberant, full-bodied, passionate masterpiece. No one who heard it would think an eleven-year-old girl was playing. Slowly, drawn inexorably into the music, Molly began to breathe again and she wondered if maybe she couldn’t fly after all. She knew every chord and every run by heart, she’d heard Emma play it so many times. When Emma struck the final chord, she sat quietly for a moment, something Mrs. Mayhew had taught her to bring her back and calm her racing heart, before she eased off the piano bench and turned to face the audience. She bowed.

Molly leapt to her feet, clapping madly, hearing the audience’s huge applause as they rose in a standing ovation. If Ramsey had been able to, he would have jumped to his feet along with his beaming wife, and Savich, with a wildly clapping Sean in his arms, Sherlock, and Harry and Eve, but he knew he’d probably tip right out of the box and make a mess of it on the people below.

Emma bowed again as the applause continued, with shouts of “Encore!” She seated herself again at the Steinway. She played variations on a medley of Christmas carols she herself had written, from “Oh, Come All Ye Faithful” to “Silver Bells,” which lifted every spirit in the house. When she stood to bow again, the audience rose once more to applaud. Rossini presented her with a deep bow and red roses. Emma looked directly at her father, held out the roses to him, and gave him a bow.

As if choreographed, everyone in the audience turned to look up at his box. The applause, if possible, grew even louder.

When, at last, the audience settled into their seats, there was a single stark instant of complete silence. Sean’s little boy voice rang out, loud and clear, from the last seat in the mezzanine to the dressing rooms behind the stage, “Emma, you’ve got to marry me!”

P.S.

Within an hour of the end of the concert, photos and videos, with sound, appeared on YouTube showing Judge Ramsey Hunt’s box in Davies Hall in San Francisco, Sean in his father’s arms, nearly falling over the railing in his excitement, yelling to Emma. Within hours it went viral.

To escape the media, Savich and Sherlock took Sean to Disney World in Orlando. Unfortunately, a little girl recognized Sean, jumped up and down, and screamed, “Marry me, Sean!” and it started all over again.