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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 163: Cooper 52
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 341
Brian wore one of his business suits to church, getting there half an hour before the eight-thirty service so the pastor would know he was present. He was introduced during the announcements break in the service, along with confirmation that he would be meeting the teen choir at eight o’clock Thursday evening, the adult choir at nine. The service ran to about nine-thirty, after which there was a coffee break for the congregants to talk, mostly gossip, but several introduced themselves and welcomed him. At ten people dispersed for Sunday school, many of the adults going home if they did not have children in attendance, and the service at eleven was much the same as the earlier one.
Brian availed himself of the Sunday School hour to tackle the music library. It proved to be in excellent order, including a roster of choir members and a record of what had been sung each week over the past several years. It was impressive, and included popular works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, plus some difficult modern pieces from Poulenc and Ives and a number of hymns arranged for choir. Deciding to start with something easy until he knew what they could do, he picked out an unusual arrangement of Crown Him with Many Crowns, set the sheet music on what was apparently his desk, and took the organist’s copy with him to let their accompanist know what he was planning for next week. The pastor introduced him to her, Mary Bligh, before the second service, and she smiled at his choice for the music.
As people were filing out through the main doors in the back of the sanctuary from the eleven o’clock service, shaking the pastor’s hand and telling him what a good sermon it was, and Brian was trying to decide whether it would be impolite of him to slip through the side door back into the church and take a look at what else he might use at the practices, an elderly woman bounced over to him and in a well-supported powerful voice said, “It’s good to meet you, Mister Barrelmaster. I’m your soloist, Margaret Smith, call me Maggie.”
Somewhere in the back of his mind it struck him that Maggie Smith was someone, but he wasn’t certain who and it didn’t matter, so he addressed the person at hand. “I’m pleased to meet you,” Brian said. “I look forward to hearing you sing Thursday night.”
“Oh, I do hope you’ve picked something I can sing,” she said.
“I’m sure you can sing anything,” he responded, hoping that would be taken as complimentary. “For now, I’m starting with something I hope everyone can sing, so I can get a bit of a feel for the choir as a whole. You sang it about six months ago, Crown Him with Many Crowns? Since you all know it, it should be easy to be ready by Sunday.”
“Oh, no, you should pick--”
“I’m sure there’s a lot of wonderful music--but I’ve already given the music to the organist, so we’re committed to this next week.”
“But--”
“I’m sure you have many wonderful suggestions of what would be good. Why don’t you make a list and drop it with the secretary, and when I have time I’ll look it over. And speaking of time, I’m hoping to get into the library and look at what else we might sing in the weeks ahead, and I’ve picked nothing for the teen choir to practice this week, and I expect my niece will want me home for lunch, so I’d better get moving. Ever so nice to meet you, Maggie,” and he shook her hand and left her standing there as he scurried to the side exit.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #518: Versers Plan. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
