Kirk Carter@ Chew Bear Productions@ Copyright 2015
HOLY STRINGS
It was a cold wintry morning in New York City, as Jennifer eagerly packed her Cello into it's carry case. She was a senior at Julliard and had placed 5th out in her final recital, which barely qualified her for the New York Music Commission's annual annual charity drive.
She was allowed for one day to play her instrument amongst the certified musician regulars down in the bowels of the subway system. Her chosen charity was Saint Anne's Orphanage. She had pledged to raise $2500 dollars toward the cause. Getting down to her selected placement, she was to sit between stairway #1 and #2 off the "A" train. Wearing a flowing Chiffon dress, proper heels, and a white rose in her hair, she unzipped her case and began to pluck her strings for tuning.
She started with "Hark The Herald Angel Sing", then segued into Bach's "French Suite #3", then back with a rendition of "Jingle Bells" and so on. Business seemed good, as her case had accumulated about $700 by lunch time. Some people would hustle by dropping a 5 or ten dollar bill, and still others would actually stop, gazing on Jennifer's angelic qualities...she was a stunning woman, but her artistic style, her fingering and bow balance was simply amazing!
And then it happened, quite out of the blue, her "E" string popped at the beginning of Handel's "Messiah". She became frustrated at first, trying to work around the problem with unstructured sixth chords and improper phrasing, then to just simple notes. Her concern about the situation was starting to show, her admirers were not stopping, fewer and fewer bills were falling into her case...she was starting to get worried!
She became increasingly overwhelmed and beside herself. At one point, she actually stopped, undid the broken string and literally tied it back together. It actually made the sound even worse. It soured and lacked any resemblance of harmonic voice...the stress was overbearing...then, she simply stopped.
She made an unconscious cross to her forehead and ask God to forgive her. She asked to "Please let Sister Anne know how hard she had tried, but she had no money for new strings, it was her heart to play, but her tools and resources had failed her."
She sat in silence for a moment, picked up her bow and attempted "Silent Night", this time in "G", no chords, just a basic skeleton notion. Suddenly, a pair of feet in Sandles appeared in her cast down vision. She attempted to raise her head to see who it was, but all she could make out was a hand that seemed to glow, come to her fret board and seemingly grasp it. Holding the instrument in their hand for a second, the hand withdrew, leaving behind brand new strings, the instrument itself was also in perfect tune. "Simply amazing!", she thought.
She tried to speak, move her head, show emotion, anything...but she was watching all this take place as though watching it through a thick window where no one would hear or see her repeated request to identify themselves. No sooner had the new strings miraculously appeared on her Cello, but the vision of Sandles was replaced with a pair of common tennis shoes, connected to a smiling boy who immediately asked if she was okay?
Looking at the boy, she realized that he appeared to be about the same age as she was. She could only smile, as he gazed back saying, "Could you place something please?"with a smile, with a sense of passion to his tone of voice, "Hey, could you play that Peanuts song, that Charlie Brown thing...the one Linus plays on Christmas...can you do that on that thing?"
Jennifer smiled, completely overjoyed with everything that had just happened, his presence seemed to sum up many miracles that had been given to her, just out of no where, under the strangest of circumstances. She smiled, "Of course...it's one of my favorites too!"
And with that, she looked down, trying to lock down her notation, and with a B flat index she proceeded to play. Da, da dat, dah, dah, dah, da, da dat, etc. She looked up briefly to see his
expression, but he was gone, seemingly just vanished. She didn't stop playing however, as a crowd had generated around her, all in simple amazement at the brightness, the clarity of her notion, with an unusual strength and volume she had never witnessed, at least not from her hands.
As the night came to an end, one of the security guards came over to assist Jennifer with disassembling her little stage area, making sure she safely picked up her property. "Miss Jennifer, you did okay tonight...never heard anybody play like you do...you got magic in them fingers, you surely do girl!" Jennifer smiled, "Well, thank you so much...and for helping me and everything...that's very sweet of you...but I think I can manage."
The security guard taking note on what was in her collection bag, and he gasped, "My goodness, sake's alive, somebody must like you, somebody an awful lot Miss Jennifer?"
With that Jennifer looked in the Cello bag herself seeing not one, but two large 1 pound bars of gold. She was now trying to catch her breath, as she put her hand out to touch these rare golden commodities, never having actually seen one up close. The trip back to her dorm was a long one, but she made it.
After she ate some dinner, she went through the coins, and the cash, and of course those gold bars which she figured were at least 50 thousand dollars each, still shaking her head as to how those items appeared to start with!
When the final tally was calculated, she had somehow managed to raise almost $260, 000. Over ten times what she expected to receive for Saint Anne's Orphanage. As time past, the Parishioners had decided that they would extend the Orphanage and actually added a whole wing, calling it Jennifer's Row, in honor of her efforts to raise the funding. There was a festive reception in her honor, it was all quite lovely, and she even spoke a few words, even admitting to herself that she still couldn't understand the miracles that had occurred that night she played in the subway.
The miracles continued when the New York Philharmonic had gathered to establish contracted placements for the Spring rotation, Jennifer was offered 1st spot Cello in the string assembly. She would go on head to teach music, and even to this day, always wonder the miracles alluded to her that day, in belief, she saw God at work, in her presence...an event that would stay with her forever, as she dedicated herself to God's work for the rest of her life!
Kirk Carter
12/16/2015
She tried to speak, move her head, show emotion, anything...but she was watching all this take place as though watching it through a thick window where no one would hear or see her repeated request to identify themselves. No sooner had the new strings miraculously appeared on her Cello, but the vision of Sandles was replaced with a pair of common tennis shoes, connected to a smiling boy who immediately asked if she was okay?
Looking at the boy, she realized that he appeared to be about the same age as she was. She could only smile, as he gazed back saying, "Could you place something please?"with a smile, with a sense of passion to his tone of voice, "Hey, could you play that Peanuts song, that Charlie Brown thing...the one Linus plays on Christmas...can you do that on that thing?"
Jennifer smiled, completely overjoyed with everything that had just happened, his presence seemed to sum up many miracles that had been given to her, just out of no where, under the strangest of circumstances. She smiled, "Of course...it's one of my favorites too!"
And with that, she looked down, trying to lock down her notation, and with a B flat index she proceeded to play. Da, da dat, dah, dah, dah, da, da dat, etc. She looked up briefly to see his
expression, but he was gone, seemingly just vanished. She didn't stop playing however, as a crowd had generated around her, all in simple amazement at the brightness, the clarity of her notion, with an unusual strength and volume she had never witnessed, at least not from her hands.
As the night came to an end, one of the security guards came over to assist Jennifer with disassembling her little stage area, making sure she safely picked up her property. "Miss Jennifer, you did okay tonight...never heard anybody play like you do...you got magic in them fingers, you surely do girl!" Jennifer smiled, "Well, thank you so much...and for helping me and everything...that's very sweet of you...but I think I can manage."
The security guard taking note on what was in her collection bag, and he gasped, "My goodness, sake's alive, somebody must like you, somebody an awful lot Miss Jennifer?"
With that Jennifer looked in the Cello bag herself seeing not one, but two large 1 pound bars of gold. She was now trying to catch her breath, as she put her hand out to touch these rare golden commodities, never having actually seen one up close. The trip back to her dorm was a long one, but she made it.
After she ate some dinner, she went through the coins, and the cash, and of course those gold bars which she figured were at least 50 thousand dollars each, still shaking her head as to how those items appeared to start with!
When the final tally was calculated, she had somehow managed to raise almost $260, 000. Over ten times what she expected to receive for Saint Anne's Orphanage. As time past, the Parishioners had decided that they would extend the Orphanage and actually added a whole wing, calling it Jennifer's Row, in honor of her efforts to raise the funding. There was a festive reception in her honor, it was all quite lovely, and she even spoke a few words, even admitting to herself that she still couldn't understand the miracles that had occurred that night she played in the subway.
The miracles continued when the New York Philharmonic had gathered to establish contracted placements for the Spring rotation, Jennifer was offered 1st spot Cello in the string assembly. She would go on head to teach music, and even to this day, always wonder the miracles alluded to her that day, in belief, she saw God at work, in her presence...an event that would stay with her forever, as she dedicated herself to God's work for the rest of her life!
Kirk Carter
12/16/2015
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