The Band

On Friday after school Jo let Evan play at school with his buddies while Vivian and I hightailed it to her musical dance class. On Karen's advice I got myself this lovely cup of herbal tea and settled down to read my book on the peaceful porch of Casa de Luz while Vivian learned to do whatever she does at the Adderley dance school. By the time we fought traffic after class and got back home I noticed that it was past 5:30. I had spent the last two and a half hours bring a chauffeur. I planned on asking Vivian if she was interested enough in singing and dancing to carry on with this class the next year. But no time now. 

We rushed back out the door to the Black Star co-op to meet Jen and Travis and company at the TCS happy hour. The beer was good, the conversation even better, but the food took forever. The kids had ordered a chicken tikka and it was nice but once they had inhaled it, they were still hungry. We were faced with the prospect of another long wait if we ordered more food there, so instead we decided to stop at Stinson's by the house for a quick bite before bed.

At Stinson's we sat out on the porch with our drinks and watched a three-piece band tune up.  Vivian is inordinately interested in the base and the base player noticed that and invited her over to pluck some strings. Then we sat back down and enjoyed listening to half a dozen blues and R & B songs that the band played. Evan curled up in my arms. Vivian was beginning to look tired. We decided to head home. 

And the harmonica player asked Vivian if she wanted to sing a song and before I could react Vivian had crawled under the table in front of us and was with the band. "What should I sing?" she asked melodiously into the microphone. 

"Little boat" yelled Evan from my arms. And the band shrugged and told her to start singing and that they'd find the tune. And so Vivian belted out "Fight Song" in its entirety and did a pretty good job. Jo and I didn't have the sense to video it because we stood their with our jaws hanging, enjoying the moment. The crowd gave her a huge applause. The band asked her to join them every Friday evening. And we went home.

While the kids were putting on their pajamas, Jo told Vivian that it was a very brave thing to go out in front of all those people and sing. And Evan made sure that he got to share the credit too because he was the one who told Vivian what song to sing. And I kept my thoughts of Vivian possibly discontinuing her musical dance class to myself.

After the kids went to sleep I walked back to Stinson's to listen to some more music. When the band took a break they walked over and said that they would be better prepared and learn how to accompany Vivian in that song and if I would be kind enough to teach her a couple of blues songs. And they were kind enough to let me a take a photo. That's Gabby, Mike and Chris - Vivian's friends from the band.