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Practice Scene: Mina

Mina is another major character in the novel who is the same age as William. Since this scene also takes place before the plot begins, she's a bit younger here than she will be in the book itself.

Fighting off tears, Mina slipped out of the lunchroom, clutching a bathroom pass. Teachers stopped her sometimes to ask where she was going. She didn't like that, but Mina's parents said that she should always tell the teacher both where she was going and why. They were building a pool of witnesses so that the principal would pay more attention to their complaints. Mina wished that the principal would just believe them.

She turned left onto the hallway where the closest bathroom was. She didn't see any teachers here at all, but there was a big black piano just outside a classroom door. Mina stopped walking to stare at it.

She had heard piano music in church before the Mass began. When the pianist was the only one present to lead the congregation in song, she would always play a prelude piece so beautiful that Mina wished more than anything that she could do something like that.

She walked slowly up to the piano in the hallway, passing the bathroom door on the way without a second thought. The wooden fallboard was up, exposing the yellowing keys. Mina touched a finger to one lightly and gradually pressed harder and harder until it made the softest sound that it could make. Her hand jumped back and her head turned back to look down the way she had come from. She breathed out and touched a finger to the key next to the first one, this time pressing the right amount from the start.

She tried the key to the left of the original note, then went back, pressing keys one at a time from left to right. Do, re, mi, fa... No, fa hadn't sounded right. She frowned and pressed the key to the right of "fa". No, that was too high. She pressed "do, re, mi, fa" again and realized that the first one was too high, too. But she couldn't press "mi" twice, and that was the only key that was lower.

She stared at the keys, wondering what the little black bars on top were for. She touched one and found that it moved just like the keys. Her face lit up with a smile as her fingers pressed, "do, re, mi," and finally the black key in between the white ones that had been wrong for "fa". This one was right, she knew it as soon as you heard it.

"That's B flat," said a voice behind her.

She spun around with wide eyes. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I won't ever do it again!"

A woman wearing khaki pants and a white blouse smiled reassuringly. "Well, that would be a shame. Was that your first time playing a piano?"

"Yes," Mina said, still wondering whether she was in trouble.

"The problem was that you started on an F," the woman said as she walked over to the piano. "If you had started here, on middle C," she plunked it lightly with her pointer finger, "you could have used the white keys all the way."

She demonstrated, hitting the key she had called middle C with her thumb this time and using all five fingers on her hand. Mina watched in amazement as she did a tricky thing after the third note where she crossed her thumb over to the right of her middle finger so she could play all eight keys without lifting up her hand.

"Finding B flat is very impressive for a beginner," the woman said.

Mina couldn't take it anymore. "Am I in trouble?" she blurted out.

"No, no, of course not. I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself. I'm Ms. Raens, the piano accompanist for the school choir. I'm not actually a teacher here." She winked.

"And you won't tell any of the teachers?" Mina asked.

"Tell on you for what? Touching a few keys on a piano that the school is getting rid of anyway? This is the choir room right here." She pointed to the nearest doorway. "See the shiny new piano inside? We don't need this old one anymore. And I see your bathroom pass right there in your hand. It's ok to be a little curious. In fact, I encourage it."

Mina's shoulders visibly slumped as she relaxed. "Thank you." She turned to go back to the lunchroom before she was missed, but Ms. Raens stepped up next to her.

"Is there any chance you would like to take some lessons?" she asked. "I offer them after school."

"How much do they cost?" Mina asked.

Her tone of voice was one that the accompanist recognized all too well. She knew that no kid of Mina's age asks a question about money right off the bat unless money is tight. She spoke like a kid who didn't expect to be able to afford anything.

Ms. Raens said, "I'll tell you what. For you, I'll make them free."