Chapter 24
Chapter 24
N ow come on, my seconds, come on!” Struan was saying, raising his hand and sure enough, just at exactly the right time and pretty much exactly in tune, except for Wee Shugs, they all came in, gloriously splitting the melody on the downbeat of “The Water Is Wide.”
“Oh, that was very good,” said Struan. “Very good!”
He looked at them mischievously.
“I don’t suppose... no.”
“What is it, sir?” said nervous wee Oksana who had joined from Ukraine a year ago and was miles ahead of everyone academically, to some deep embarrassment, but very slow to speak up in class. But she was gradually improving. She still carried a teddy bear everywhere, called Bodhan, which was a little unusual in a P6, but Bodhan had become a bit of a class mascot, so that was fine. Struan wished she would sing out a little more, and felt concerned she didn’t appear to have many friends, but wasn’t sure at all what was best to do.
“Och no... it would probably be too much for you... the Drumnadrochit kids, maybe.”
Now they were properly stoked.
“No, no, tell us what it is.”
“Okay,” he said, reluctantly. “You know how you’re coming in on two different notes and it can be a wee bit difficult to hold in your head? But you’re doing it absolutely fine now, right?”
They nodded smugly; he’d drilled them so much that many of their parents were surprised to hear them constantly singing around the house, to the hens or during the morning milking, whilst brushing their teeth or playing on their Nintendos.
“Well,” he said. “You know we could split it again. Go three ways.”
He played three notes on the piano to form the triad chord. The kids all stared. This had not occurred to them.
“I mean, it’s high-level stuff,” said Struan.
“What will it sound like?” asked Wee Shugs.
“Well, if it’s you it’ll sound like a coo fart,” said Jimmy Gaskell, which was met by laughing and a sharp intake of breath from Oksana who loved music class and didn’t want their teacher to change his mind, even if she found it impossible to join in.
“Okay, if you don’t want to,” said Struan, pretending to pack his notes away.
“No, sir! No, we do!”
“Okay,” he said, heading back to the piano. “Right, listen to this.”
And he played the top two notes they already came in singing, then added a lower D, two tones down, which gave a beautiful sonorous closure to the chord.
“So, you go again.”
They did, and this time he sang the D in so they could hear it. Then he looked around for volunteers. He needed someone musical but not so musical he’d be removing a vital tentpole and collapse the others.
“I can do it, sir,” said Shugs, reading his mind.
He absolutely couldn’t do it, so Struan said thank you, and asked Jimmy Gaskell, who stuck his tongue out rudely at Shugs, who instantly looked like he wanted to kick his head in.
“And what about you, Oksana?” he said. The girl was so eager, but so timid, she tended to clam up when they actually started singing; she couldn’t quite find her voice. “Do you think you could do it?”
Oksana turned very pink and she shook her head mutely, clutching her bear. Anna-Lise, next to her, who volunteered for anything and everything, stuck up a chubby pink hand.
“Okay, then—Anna-Lise and Oksana, you try, with Jimmy.”
He played the note again. Then the notes for everyone else to come in on. Once he heard them all humming it, he played the intro.
The effect should have been instantaneous. Unfortunately, Shugs had decided to completely ignore the instructions, and join the low part of the song. Misjudging it completely, he sounded like a ship maneuvering through thick fog. The rest of the class groaned. To most children this would have been a moment of supreme embarrassment. Shugs, however, was profoundly unconcerned.
“What?” he said. “I nailed it!”
“You did,” said Jimmy Gaskell. “You nailed it into a coffin then buried it in the ground.”
Everyone laughed at that but Shugs still couldn’t care less. He loved to sing and that was that.
Struan glanced at his watch. It was time to wind up the lesson anyway.
“We’ll work on it again on Friday,” he said. “Oksana, Jimmy, and Anna-Lise, look the song up on Spotify and see if you can get the low note when it comes in?”
“Yeah I don’t even have to practice,” said Shugs proudly.
“And Hugh...” Struan thought quickly. “Perhaps we might introduce some percussion.”
There was a groan from elsewhere in the room.
“What,” said Jimmy Gaskell, “because he sucks at singing he gets to play the drums? How’s that fair?”
Thankfully the bell rang before Struan had to figure out that rather tricky question.
“Oh, and don’t forget,” he said, as they reluctantly began packing up—music was their favorite lesson, and after the glorious weekend there was hail going sideways in the playground. “You’ve got to bring back your camping parental forms and give your parents and guardians the kit list.”
“What teachers are going?” asked Jimmy Gaskell.
“Why, will that change whether you go?” said Struan, genuinely interested. There was a groan.
“Naw you have tae go,” said someone. “Unless you’ve got a medical condition.”
“Well, we’ve all got ADHD but they don’t accept that,” said someone else, sadly.
“We’re going on the wee plane and climbing a mountain,” said Shugs, clearly baffled. “It’s going to be braw!”
“All of the teachers would be good,” said Anna-Lise, class suck-up, and everyone else groaned again.
“Well,” said Struan. “It’s Mrs. McGinty.”
There was silence at this. Nobody was immune to the frosty headmistress, except Anna-Lise who brought her fresh cheese from the farm and talked about how the head had promised to have her to tea one of these days.
“... and, uh... me,” said Struan, and was unusually gratified by their pleased faces. Home may be tricky. Work was... work was all right. He really wasn’t looking forward to giving it up one bit.