It was a cold November morning when Crystal arose from her bed. She was to be in her carriage for 8:30. It was scheduled to leave to take her to the Palais Garnier. She had slept in so she got ready as quickly as she could. She pinned her hair back in a loose bun and dressed in a forest green dress, grabbed her coat and her bags and caught her carriage.
It took nearly 5 hours to arrive in Paris. She stepped out of her carriage and nervously walked up the many steps of the Opera House. When she reached the doors she pushed them open to find a magnificent sight. It was more gorgeous than it was the last time she was here, seeing Don Juan. It brought back horrible memories.
The cleaning staff was hard at work cleaning in between the crevices from the carvings on the walls and the statues. 'They certainly have done a beautiful job putting this place back together after the fire.' Crystal thought.
She stood there awhile just to simply take it all in until she heard a soft voice say, "Crystal! Crystal!" Crystal turned to her left to see her dear friend Meg Giry run down the hall toward her.
"Meg, it's so wonderful to see you." She dropped her bags and hugged her friend.
"Oh Crystal, I've been waiting all day for you to arrive. We cannot talk now though. The tryouts have already begun. Your late!"
With that, Meg took some of Crystal's bags and both the young girls ran along the giant halls leading to the auditorium. It was filled with beautiful music coming from the organ. A worried look came upon Crystal's face. Meg noticed almost right away and knew what her friend was thinking.
"Don't worry about a thing Crystal, your better than that, you'll do fine. Besides, I bet whoever's playing has already made at least a dozen mistakes." Meg was trying to comfort her friend, but it wasn't working. Crystal was still very nervous for her audition.
Meg and Crystal made their way down the aisles of the auditorium and found seats in the fifth row. They placed her bags on the ground and sunk into the seats. There were many pianists there who were much older and probably more experienced than Crystal. That's what she thought any way. She tried not to think about it.
She looked around at the giant auditorium and her eyes found their way to the enormous chandelier. 'How could such a beautiful thing cause such a disaster?' she thought to herself.
As she continued looking around, she heard a familiar voice call out, "Next, Doris Harris." It was Meg's mother, Antoinette Giry. She was like a mother to Crystal for the past 3 years.
With her parents being killed not so long ago.
Madame Giry was one of the five judges deciding on the new piano player for the Opera. The old pianist recently fell ill and has been in the hospital for some time, and a new production was under way.
Madame Giry turned and saw Crystal. They both smiled at one another and turned to see Doris Harris. The 43 year old rose from her seat and made her way to the organ and began playing her piece.
When Doris had come to the end of her piece, Crystal saw something at the corner of her eye. She looked up toward Box 5, but there wasn't anything there. She dismissed it as nothing. Than she heard Madame Giry call out. "Next, Crystal Blyth".
Crystal turned to Meg with a weak smile saying, "Well, here it goes. Wish me luck."
"You don't need it, you'll do wonderful. Just pretend no one else is in the room." Meg answered smiling.
Crystal got up and walked over to the giant organ and took her seat on the bench in front of it. Her heart was racing as she could feel everyone's eyes on her.
She slowly placed her fingers on the white and black keys, her foot on the left pedal and began to play. She did not need sheet music for she wrote the music herself.
Her piece started off soft and slow and peaceful, than she began pressing the keys harder and harder, playing faster and faster. Her body moving with the music she was playing. It filled the hall and it sounded wonderful. She gently closed her eyes and imagined there was no one in the room, but her.
The song came to an end, soft and slow, just like it had begun. She removed her hands from the keys and her foot from the pedal, turning to face the judges who all had smiles going across their faces.
Crystal got up and curtsied looking up at her friend who was giving her the thumbs up sign. Crystal laughed quietly.
She began walking back to her seat beside Meg, but she stopped when something caught her eye. She looked up at Box 5 yet again. She didn't just see nothing this time!