The Concert

Short Story

By Vanessa Griffen

IT was the sleepiest part of the day, the first lesson after lunch, when the sun fell across the floor near the windows and the air was hot. The class of girls, so recently chatting noisily, ducked their heads quickly over their backs as Miss Renner entered the room.

She glanced at the bent heads and decided that just this once, she would not scold them.

“Girls,” she said, instead, in a bright voice, “I have good news for you.”

Immediately the bent heads lifted, the exaggerated postures relaxed. She waited for pin-drop silence, then let the news fall among them like a sweet given to a child.

“A famous quartet is arriving in Suva next Friday. I think it would be very good for us all to go along and hear them.” She waited to see their reaction. There were murmurs of excited approval, happy smiles were exchanged.

“It’s not often that we get a chance to hear good music here in Fiji,” Miss Renner went on, in a slightly regretful voice. “So we must make full use of this opportunity.”

She sat at her desk, looking at the girls in an oddly searching way.

There was a tiny silence. The class felt that something was required of it, and, not thinking what it was, they felt slightly uneasy.

Miss Renner broke the silence by telling the girls about the quartet, and where they were from. While she talked, her attention was brought to the garden outside, brilliant in the glare of the sun. The carefully mown grass was a bright, bitter green, and the tall croton bushes were bright too, with red, yellow and green intermingled in their leaves. She remembered briefly, and again with regret, that the roses and chrysanthemums that she had tried to grow had died. The soil and the sun had reduced them to stunted stems whose greenness vanished as the sun shrivelled them, “Girls,” she had been saying, “you cannot really know what good music is, until you have listened to the great composers.”

The scrub with their colourful leaves, the clumps of bush fern, and the festival red and orange of the hibiscus, seemed to dance in the sun.

Miss Renner’s gaze shifted past the brilliant sunlit colours, to the dark green shade of the bush.

“You may like to listen to the music on the radio, but you must also listen to other types of music,” she continued, her eyes seeing the tangled undergrowth of the bush, “if you are to become more cultured.”

The girls listened in silence. Some of them were also gazing at the natural luxuriance of the bush and garden. The hot afternoon made them very sleepy but they were dying to ask Miss Renner questions about their trip. All through her talk, they were wondering how to, and making signals to each other across the room.

At last, Miss Renner paused, and looked at the class. One girl put up her hand.

“Yes, Akata?” She smiled, for Akata was one of her favourites, although she tried to treat them all fairly. The girl was tall, neat and well mannered, and she spoke English beautifully.

“Miss Renner, when will we be going to Suva on Friday? What time . . Quickly, the other voices joined in.

“We going before tea, or after?”

“Who’s all going?”

“How much we going to pay?”

Miss Renner smiled, and held up her hand for silence.

“We’ll have an early tea at 5.30, and leave at 6. Only the Seniors will be going and the prefects will be in charge of you when you are getting ready. We must all get togethei quickly and quietly and remember,’

Miss Renner paused, and raised hei voice for emphasis, “at the theatre everyone must be on their best be haviour. No talking or giggling, anc only clap at the right time.”

They all looked forward to the trip. To leave school and travel intc the busy city, where cars sped past people crowded out of cinemas, anc the shops held tantalising goods be: hind shining glass, was exciting; Especially after the isolation, th» order and quiet of the school.

Friday came and the tea was ♦ noisy affair. Miss Renner gave up: and regarded them all with straineo benevolence. Getting into the bus the girls pushed and chattered, all eager to get on and be gone. Then 1 were muttered messages to “Make

sure you get the back seat!”, but at last Miss Renner ushered them all onto the bus.

The girls were rather in awe of her tonight. They were surprised at her appearance. She was wearing a pale pink dress, and a string of pearls with earrings to match. The soft colour was flattering, and with a light scarf covering her hair, she looked almost pretty. The girls whispered about her in the back.

“She looks nice tonight, eh?”

“Yeah. Can’t believe.”

“Man, don’t spoil. That dress is a lovely one.”

Miss Renner got into the bus last.

There was a tiny smile on her face as she took her seat behind the driver.

She was excited too.

IT was a long dusty trip, but the girls enjoyed it immensely, despite the jolts and bumps. The bus was somehow an isolated unit, carrying them all through the dark clumpy shades of the bush on either side, lighting up only a patch of the gravel road ahead, glancing briefly on the trees. Eventually, the gravel became black with a long white line in the middle, and street lights appeared on either side. They all sat up, blink ing at the bright lights of the city.

Suva was not new to them but they still stared at the shops, the dashing cars, the self-confident city people.

The city, with its bluish street lights, was so strange after the school, the bush, and the isolated darkness of the journey.

The bus swung round the drive and parked a short distance from the Town Hall. The girls, dusty and dishevelled, were eager to get off the bus. Miss Renner once more checked them and organised them into an orderly group. They walked through the shadowy car park, up to the big entrance, quiet and rather wide-eyed as they were ushered into the bright light. It was the first time they had come there. The tiles, a discreet black and white, gleamed immacu lately, and the lights shone white from behind long elegant cylinders of glass. They had not time to notice more, for an usher, formal in a suit, indicated the stairs with a slight impatient movement of his hand.

The stairs were beautiful. They noticed that as soon as they felt their footsteps hush in its soft depths. A few of them looked at each other and grinned happily. ‘Nice!’ and a shake of the head, was all they could do to show how impressed they were.

At the top of the stairs, the excited group moved into the polished foyer,

and into an atmosphere of cigarette smoke, murmurs of conversation, the soft pastels of evening gowns, the black and white of suits. Miss Renner paused, and looked around quickly, then she led them over to an empty corner. They all followed, whispering to each other and frankly taking in all around them. They had to walk through large groups of people, and there was the whiff of perfume and cigarette smoke, and the soft rustle of skirts, as people moved aside to let them through.

In their corner, the girls looked about them, talked, laughed behind their hands at something said. The foyer took in most of their interest, and they could not stop admiring the tiled floor, and the clever arrangemerit of the lights. They were lost in their observations and chatter, and did not notice the occasional glances being cast their way. Miss Renner, talking to some other teachers, soon did. She turned and frowned at

them and shook her head. The girls smiled back sheepishly, then lowered their voices. The cigarette smoke grew thicker and more people arrived. rpHE girls took in the long pale A gowns, elegant shoes and gloves, quietly formal jewellery. But the way some people behaved soon began to amuse them more. There was a tall bald-headed man in one group, who was smoking a pipe and talking very animatedly to a middle-aged woman in black. Every time he made an expansive movement, with his hand, the girls broke into sup pressed giggles. At one stage, he in advertently hit someone, and one girl broke into a particularly loud spurt of spontaneous laughter. There was a pause in the conversation of the people nearest them, then they resumed talking, but Miss Renner was already making her way quickly towards them.

“Girls” was all she said, reprov

ingly, and she led them into the theatre.

It was dim inside for all the lights had been turned off, except for the lights set high in the ceiling. The stage was half-lit, showing up the chairs and black music stands that had been placed there and highlight ing the folds of the thick drawn-back curtains. The people were sitting quietly, waiting, and watching every one else walk in. After a while the sidelights began to flicker, and people went to their places more quickly.

Then the lights went out completely.

There was an expectant hush. Two yellow spotlights pounced on the musicians and encircled them as they walked onto the stage. A burst of clapping greeted them and continued till the solemn black-suited figures had seated themselves. A man came forward and began to introduce them to the audience, saying how honoured everyone was to have them there to play that night. He talked for quite some time, and could not be heard very well, yet everyone appeared most attentive and strained to hear what he said that caused faint ripples of laughter in the front. Finally, he ended, there were bows, nods and brief smiles from the musicians, a long silence while they fiddled with their instruments, and then, the music.

MISS RENNER was rapt, and leaned forward in her seat, eyes fixed on the stage, fingers gently tap ping the programme. After the first half hour, the girls’ attention began to wander and only when the music got very loud and clashing, did they listen again to what was being played.

Then, the violinist began to amuse them. He had long hair and played very energetically, his head jerking low over his violin, hair falling in his face. There were a few nudges and giggles, which were immediately stifled by a brief, cold stare from the woman in front. They subsided into a pleasant sort of boredom, some girls openly slept, while others fanned themselves with the programme and looked about. The music was soft, slow and sad, and most of them settled down in their comfortable leather seats to doze.

A sudden sound like a hundred birds flapping about aroused them.

The clapping went on and on, the black-suited figures bowed many times, then went backstage. The lights flickered on for interval. The people in front of them broke into enthusiastic discussion in hushed tones, and Miss Renner sat back in her seat and smiled contentedly.

She turned to the girls.

“Are you enjoying yourselves?”

she asked, smiling and looking around at them. “Isn’t the music wonderful?”

“Yes, Miss Renner,” a few said shyly, and the others just smiled, and nodded too. They did not like to show that they had not been listening.

Miss Renner looked at them un certainly, then said, “You may go and buy refreshments if you wish, girls.” They were all glad to get up.

It was a relief to get out of the solemn almost sacred silence that had descended once the music began.

After interval they returned to their seats refreshed, and determined to listen to the music. The people around them paid strained attention to the music, their faces fixed almost immovably on the stage. The girls tried to do the same, but the music grew slow and thin again, and they gave up and slouched in their chairs, trying to make themselves comfort able. They were in a reasonably

comfortable state, when the class sleepy-head, Mereoni, spoilt it all.

She was half-paying attention, looking at the clock and trying not to doze off. At that moment, the slow music stopped abruptly. Mereoni woke up, blinked, and with relief and without thinking, she clapped. Once. The reverent silence of the listeners made it sound as loud as a thunderclap.

The silence itself seemed to catch its breath. Then the people around them began registering shock in all their different ways. There were annoyed murmurs, and sniffs of dis gust, and a few heads turned slowly around to cast one pained, dis approving stare, before turning back to face the stage. There, in the yellow light, the musicians played on. calm and unperturbed.

The girls had never felt such a quiet devastating wave of disapproval and for a few seconds were stunned into silence. Miss Renner sat stifl and furious in her seat, Mereoni sal with her hand clapped over hei mouth, horrified. Then secretly, in evitably, the girls remembered ho\* funny it had been. They looked ai Mereoni, and at each other ant began to shake with silent laughter In the silence, with the delicafi music filling the air, they laughec helplessly, trying desperately not t( make any sound. With their laughter they quite ruined the solemnity o the whole affair. But the mush played on, and the rest of the peoph once more remained silent, intent listening.

MISS RENNER had told them hov disappointed she was with al of them, and her cold angry voice re mained with them as the bus drovi through the city. The girls were al silent, staring out of the windows Outside the city limits, the bus begai to drive faster, and soon there wen no more street lights, and they hi the rough gravel road. The bu bumped along, the dark clumps a bush closed in on either side, thi wind blew freshly against theii faces. The girls began to sing. Un self-consciously, naturally, they brok into song, and their strong youm voices rose, and were then lost, t; the rushing darkness and the busi outside.

All the way back they sang, am only when the yellow headlight picked up briefly the bright crotot leaves of the school garden, did then voices die down. It was only whe! they were silent that Miss Renne realised that their singing was beautJ ful. But then, she thought, again witf that same feeling of regret, they’n only Fijian songs.