Hi again! This is a little memory lane sort of piece, for me.

The Orchestra

It is loud. So loud I cover my ears, and drop to my knees behind the bar that, I suppose, is there to keep hapless citizens sliding down the sloped white plaster into the seats below.
It is only what Mema calls the 'warmup', she says they are making sure their instruments are not broken. 'Tuned'. I stick my head up again as it quiets, so I can peep at the orchestra, and try to find the tuba--I think any instrument that's so funny sounding must look funny, too. And it does. But I look back and see Mema's kind of angry look--like she doesn't like what I'm doing, but won't actually tell me to stop. I feel sorry, so I hoist myself back into the scratchy velvet seat and pray it won't fold up again--with me in it.
She smiles softly, her lips wrinkling a bit, and I wonder if it hurts to have all that purple on her mouth. Maybe she will let me try when we get home. I blink, and when I open my eyes the lights are getting darker--I don't know why, because the stage is still bright. A person, tiny and faraway on the stage, walks into the middle and bows. Everyone claps. I think she's holding a stick somewhere, because Mema told me about the 'conductor', who tells the people how to play their music with her hands, and that special stick. Daddy once told me it was a magic wand. I laughed at him and told him how silly he was. He was surprised when I told him how it really worked, how the conductor was making signals to everyone.

The clapping gets quiet, and I quickly stop too, just as a pounding comes, and I can only think whoever is playing must be having a lot of fun.
But when it keeps going, I realize it must be angry. The drum is being helped by a really loud thing, I don't know what, and I am frightened almost, my hand sneaks over to Mema. The drumming goes on, quieter but faster, and the music sounds like....like an army. Marching. I close my eyes and see them, lots and lots of people fighting some shadowy dragon. I bite my lip, and then look up, open my eyes as a sweet sound changes the music. The army won, I think, and they are happy. I want them to go home to their families, and I think that's what the music says. It is still loud, but the happy sound goes away...and the angry fighting comes back. I don't like it, and I watch carefully, hoping for another ending.

When it's over, I run around in the park outside, and touch the statue of a woman, with her mosaic skirt. I think she is sad looking, and I ask Mema if she is the mom of a fighter. She doesn't know, but I try to make a statue out of the dirt, to make her family again. Mema watches, and when we leave to get french fries and applesauce, there are three little people leaning against the lady.