David's Surprise
A few of us from our school jazz band put together a combo for the talent show. In this performance we were not just going to stay behind our music stands. Each segment of the song had a soloist while the others maintained the background rhythms and harmony. We were able to run around on stage forming mini-combos as one soloist finished and another began on a different part of the stage. Based on the reactions from our rehearsals we were sure our energy would be contagious with our friends and classmates.
One of our good friends, David, was on the stage crew and had synchronized some cool lighting with our music. He also set up all of the spotlights to highlight the soloists and he was prepared to follow our choreographed positions and movements. It might have looked spontaneous but almost every part of the performance was carefully planned. When we came to our final rehearsal David said he had a final surprise for us but he wanted to keep it a secret. He simply insisted that we stay on our marks during the drum solo just before the finale. We had worked out a signal with the drummer and we had four counts to get to the front of the stage once we heard it.
The final practice went exactly as planned until the surprise. We all got to our marks but nothing happened. As our song ended we heard David on the stage mike tell us to hold our positions while he figured out what went wrong. After about 30 seconds the entire stage illuminated with a brilliant flash and a deafening bang and a horrifying scream. David had loaded three charges of flash powder that were designed to go off sequentially as we hit the final three chords of our song. There had been a bad connection and the firing signal malfunctioned. When he went to check on the problem he thought he had turned off the switch from the control booth. Either he had forgotten, or somebody turned it on thinking he was ready to test it. All three cans exploded in his face.
It really didn't matter because as we all ran toward the scream we found David covering his eyes and screaming. Several teachers ran to his aid and we all surrounded him repeatedly asking if he was OK. Within moments every administrator and the school nurse were attending to him. Our biggest fears worsened as he wailed over and over that he couldn't see. Gradually he calmed down and we just prayed, not even caring whether we would have a concert. David was just trying to help us, and his generosity had cost him his sight. All night I expected the worst but hoped for the best.
The following day we closed the the talent show with our song. It was even better than we thought, especially since David was fine and he pulled off the surprise perfectly when it counted.
One of our good friends, David, was on the stage crew and had synchronized some cool lighting with our music. He also set up all of the spotlights to highlight the soloists and he was prepared to follow our choreographed positions and movements. It might have looked spontaneous but almost every part of the performance was carefully planned. When we came to our final rehearsal David said he had a final surprise for us but he wanted to keep it a secret. He simply insisted that we stay on our marks during the drum solo just before the finale. We had worked out a signal with the drummer and we had four counts to get to the front of the stage once we heard it.
The final practice went exactly as planned until the surprise. We all got to our marks but nothing happened. As our song ended we heard David on the stage mike tell us to hold our positions while he figured out what went wrong. After about 30 seconds the entire stage illuminated with a brilliant flash and a deafening bang and a horrifying scream. David had loaded three charges of flash powder that were designed to go off sequentially as we hit the final three chords of our song. There had been a bad connection and the firing signal malfunctioned. When he went to check on the problem he thought he had turned off the switch from the control booth. Either he had forgotten, or somebody turned it on thinking he was ready to test it. All three cans exploded in his face.
It really didn't matter because as we all ran toward the scream we found David covering his eyes and screaming. Several teachers ran to his aid and we all surrounded him repeatedly asking if he was OK. Within moments every administrator and the school nurse were attending to him. Our biggest fears worsened as he wailed over and over that he couldn't see. Gradually he calmed down and we just prayed, not even caring whether we would have a concert. David was just trying to help us, and his generosity had cost him his sight. All night I expected the worst but hoped for the best.
The following day we closed the the talent show with our song. It was even better than we thought, especially since David was fine and he pulled off the surprise perfectly when it counted.
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