The Rise of Rachel Stark (6 page)

What happened next still gives
Tabby chills to this day whenever she thinks of it.

Out of this slender young girl,
who might have been mistaken for a homeless street urchin, came a
powerful voice that soared across the gymnasium with unearthly
beauty.

Rachel did not sing
Unchained Melody
, she
lived it. She lived it for anyone who has ever lost a love, anyone
who has never had a love, any mother who has lost a
child.

And when she was done, no one
laughed.

Instead, they sat in silence for
several seconds. Then Tabby stood up, tears streaming down her
cheeks, and began to applaud.

The rest of the audience followed
her lead, and as the standing ovation continued, Tabby walked up
onto the stage. Tabby, who did not know Rachel Stark, knew nothing
about her, had never spoken a single word to her, reached out and
gave Rachel a hug.

Mr. Nelson, who had joined the
applause, took the microphone.

"Rachel, that was remarkable," he
said, "and I think the applause pretty much says it for me, and
that is, welcome to the Chante Chanteuses."

The applause and cheers started
again. When it was quiet, Mr. Nelson spoke.

"I think this is a teachable
moment. Some of you, a few of you, for whatever reason, thought it
was OK to laugh when one of your classmates stepped forward to
sing.

"
Unchained Melody
, if it is sung
properly, that is, sung with feeling and with soul, and with style,
can be a challenge. You can merely
sing
the lyrics, or you can bring
them up from the depths of your soul. You can reach for the high
notes, or you can play it safe. You can follow the script, or you
can create your own. That is what makes
Unchained Melody
such a wonderful
song.

"Well, let me say that it takes
courage to sing that song and do it well. And if you are a brand
new student at Chante High, if you don't know a soul, if you don't
know how things work around here, it takes enormous, enormous
courage. Could you do it? Could I? Let's ask ourselves.

"Rachel not only sang with great
courage, with her heart and soul; she not only hit the high notes
and beyond; she not only put her own stamp on the song. She did one
other thing.

"She bared her soul. She opened
herself up for all to see. She held nothing back. What you saw
today was Rachel Stark … unchained.
(
¹
See Appendix)
Would that we all
could do that when we sing."

Later that day, after school let
out and after the Chante Chanteuses had an hour-long practice,
during which Tabby and Rachel got to know each other a little, they
walked together down those same long, wide concrete steps in front
of the school.

When they got to the bottom, Tabby
said: "Well, here's where I wait for my boyfriend."

"Sheldon Beasley?"

"That's the one."

"Is he at football
practice?"

"They're done, unless they're
having a chalkboard session. But he'll be here shortly. I guess
it's too late for the bus. How are you getting home?"

"We don't live far enough out to
qualify riding on the bus," Rachel said. "But that's OK, I'll walk.
It's not that far."

"Where do you live?" Tabby
asked.

"Uh, just up the hill, past the
cemetery," Rachel said.

"Rachel," Tabby said. "That's four
or five miles."

"Doesn't seem that
long."

"Hey, Sheldon has a car," Tabby
said. "He'll be here in a minute. Wait here with me and we'll give
you a ride home."

"Oh, no, that's OK, Tabby, I can
walk."

"Did you walk to school this
morning?"

"I did."

"Rachel, that's crazy," Tabby
said. "Are you going to have to do that every day?"

Rachel shrugged.

Tabby was dumbfounded.

"You can't do that!" she said. "I
mean … I don't mean … What I'm trying to say is, it's bad enough to
walk that far every day now, when the weather is nice, but this
ain't Tennessee, Rachel! We get snow here, lots and lots of
snow."

Rachel still resisted, but Tabby
kept pressing.

"I really wish you'd let us take
you home, Rachel. Then you could meet Sheldon. He's a very neat
guy. Wink, wink," Tabby said.

"My brother plays football too,"
Rachel said.

"You have a brother?"

"He's a sophomore. Rodney," Rachel
said.

"Oh, wow," Tabby said. "Now
you
have
to let
us take you home. We'll all ride together. It'll be
fun!"

Rachel looked at the ground. Her
silence came like a subtle warning. Maybe, Tabby thought, she had
pushed things too far. She was reminded of Rachel's clothes,
something she had completely forgotten when Rachel started singing.
Rachel's family obviously was poor. Maybe, Tabby said to herself,
Rachel was too embarrassed to show anyone where she
lived.

"You could just drop us off at the
cemetery," Rachel said. "We could walk the rest of the way, if
that's OK."

"Deal!" Tabby said.

A few minutes later, Sheldon,
Bull, Jimmy and Rodney came running down the concrete
steps.

"Hey!" Sheldon shouted. "Whassup,
girls?"

After all the introductions were
made, the six kids piled into Sheldon's 1951 Ford for the ride up
to the cemetery.

"I don't think you've ever had
this many people in this old beater," Bull said. "Are you sure you
can make it up the hill?"

"We're gonna find out," Sheldon
said. "I might have to dump you out half way. You know, to lighten
the load."

"Or, more likely, to get him to
shut up," Jimmy said.

Bull turned around from his seat
in front and engaged Jimmy in a little slappy-slappy play
fight.

"Children, children," said Tabby,
sitting in the front seat between Sheldon and Bull. "Behave
yourselves."

"Yes, Mommie," Bull
said.

"I'll tell you one thing about
this old car," Jimmy said to his back-seat mates, Rodney and
Rachel, "and let this be a warning to you. Do not, I repeat, do
not, ride in this car in the winter."

"Amen!" Bull shouted.

"Because this car does not have a
heater," Jimmy said.

"Wrong!" Sheldon said. "This car
does have a heater."

"OK, but it doesn't work," Jimmy
said.

"Well, yes, there is that,"
Sheldon said.

"Plus," Bull said. "Plus. The
tires on this car are as bald as Mr. Nelson's head. If we get more
than an inch of snow, and we always get way more than that, this
car is totally useless. It gets stuck before it gets out of the
garage."

"I just might have to lighten the
load sooner than I thought," Sheldon said. "Quit picking on my
car."

"Snow?" Rodney said. "You get snow
here? Nobody told me that."

"Oh, man, do we get snow here? Is
the pope a Catholic?" Jimmy said.

"Let me out, Sheldon," Rodney
said. "C'mon, Rachel, we're going back to Tennessee."

"Nope," Sheldon said. "You can't
leave until after football season. Unless you're as good of a
basketball player as you are a football player. Then you can't
leave until next spring."

Rodney's face broke into a wide
smile.

"You know," Bull said, "as an
adherent of the Native American Drum Religion, I've always
wondered:
Is
the
pope a Catholic?"

"Hey, everybody," Sheldon said.
"Did you hear that? Bull has learned a new word. Adherent. He's an
adherent."

"I hear that he is an adherent,"
said Jimmy.

"Where did you hear that?" Sheldon
asked.

"H-e-r-e, h-e-r-e," Jimmy
said.

"You know," Bull said, "as an
adherent of the Native American Drum Religion, I've always
wondered: When you say 'hear, hear,' is it 'h-e-r-e, h-e-r-e,' or
'h-e-a-r, h-e-a-r'?"

"Depends on where you are," Jimmy
said.

"Where-where?" Bull
said.

"There-there, don't worry, little
boy," Jimmy said.

"If you're talking about rabbits,
it's 'hare, hare'," Bull said.

"And," said Sheldon, pausing for
effect, "if you're talking about ladies of the evening, it's –
"

"Sheldon!" Tabby shouted. "All
right already, you guys."

"Gee, a guy can't even have any
fun," Sheldon said. "You mean you cannot bear-bear to hear-hear
this anymore?"

She punched Sheldon in the arm.
Hard.

"Hey, be careful. That's my
driving arm. Not to mention my throwing arm," said Sheldon, Chante
High's all-star quarterback.

"Yes, do not, I repeat, do not,
mess with Sheldon Beasley's throwing arm. Driving arm, OK, but lay
off the throwing arm," said Jimmy, a wide receiver who already held
the Chante Valley Conference record for most receptions in a single
season.

"Football," Rachel said. "Are you
guys going to have a good team this year?"

The four boys suddenly became
all-business. The football team had been practicing since two weeks
before school started.

"Good, no," Bull said. "Great,
yes."

"Really?" Rachel said.

"Really," Bull said.

"Last year we were undefeated and
won the conference title," Jimmy said. "And we did it with only one
good running back – Bull."

"You need five yards, I'll give
you five yards," Bull said. "You need 50 yards, I'll give you five
yards.

"In other words, I'm a tough
between-the-tackles runner. But I'm no speed demon. We didn't have
a speed demon. But if we needed a long yardage play, we had the
best pass-catch combo in the whole state – Beasley to
Blaze.

"But this year, you know what?
We've got that speed demon. And he's sitting in the back seat of
this car. We not only have Beasley, Blaze and Evenshot, we have
Stark."

Rodney gave a nervous,
self-effacing chuckle.

"And so," Bull said, "we're not
only going to go undefeated again and win the conference title
again this year, we're going to stampede through our schedule like
a herd of wild … well, bulls."

"And that's no bull," Sheldon
said.

"I am so sick of that joke,
Beasley," Bull said.

"In this case, it's not a joke.
Normally it is, but not in this case," Sheldon said. "Your take on
how we're going to do this fall was not a bunch of … bravado. Well,
OK, some bravado maybe, but …

"I don't want to jinx anything,
but almost all of the starters from last year's team are back. They
have another year of experience under their belts. They are winners
– they know how to win. Defensive line, defensive backs offensive
line, the backfield, receivers, special teams, you name it. We are
solid at every position. There are always injuries and everything,
you never know what's going to happen. But all things being equal,
I think we are going to be unstoppable.

"And Rodney, well, I'm serious, we
had a missing piece last year, and we almost lost a couple of games
because of it. But you, my man, you are like lightning. I would not
want to try to tackle you in the open field. We're really glad
you're here. Tennessee's loss was our gain."

"Thanks, man," Rodney said. "I'm
glad to be here too."

"And if you think Rodney is a good
football player, wait till you hear Rachel sing. She is absolutely
incredible," Tabby said.

"Huh? You know, Tabby, I think
there was a slight problem … actually I think there was a major
flaw in your logic, or your analogy, or your sentence structure or
something. What you just said didn't quite make sense," Sheldon
said. "But I've known you for so long that I was able to decode the
message. Also, also, I already heard that Rachel has a drop-dead
beautiful singing voice. That bit of news spread through the whole
school like a wildfire. I can't wait to hear you sing,
Rachel."

Rachel blushed.

"Hear, hear," Tabby
said.

●●●

Tabby sighed. "I'm getting
worried," she said. "Are we
ever
going to get there?"

"Yes. We. Are," Sheldon said. "C'mon, let's
catch up to Jimmy."

They started jogging. The snow on Cemetery
Road was getting deeper by the minute.

Chapter Six

Celeste's Bad Night

"Well, let's see how she's doing," Celeste
said.

She and Benjamin went into the bedroom, where
Holly Stark had been sitting by Rachel's side, stroking her hand,
waiting for the tranquillizer to do its work.

"How are you feeling, Rachel?" Celeste asked.
"Are you awake?"