Songless New York

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Jack who loved to sing. In fact, he loved to sing so much that he decided one day that he was going to go to New York to sing on Broadway.

He quickly packed his bags, got on a plane and flew to New York City, New York. The first thing he did when he got there was walk up to a theater, knock on the door and as soon as someone opened it he sang out, “I want to sing for you!”

They slammed the door in his face.

This was not what he expected, but he decided he would just try the next theater. Again, he walked up to the theater, knocked on the door and when they opened it sang, “I want to sing for you!”, but again, at this theater and the next and the next, the doors were slammed in his face.

Finally, Jack sang his “I want to sing for you!” song at a little off-Broadway theater in the basement of a doughnut shop, and the owner didn’t slam the door. The owner, a young man named Cole, hushed him saying, “sshhh!!! You can’t sing in New York anymore!” “Why?”, Jack asked. “Because the governor passed a law saying that all people who sing in New York from now on will be put in jail!”

“What?” Jack cried, “He can’t do that! We have to go talk to him!”

“I’ve tried talking to him,” said Cole, “but no one will go with me.”

“I’ll go with you!” Jack said proudly, “We have to convince the governor to let people sing.”

Without further talk, Cole and Jack made their way to the governor’s palace which was on the far end of Central Park. They climbed the many steps and went inside the huge front doors. Looking around inside of the Governor’s palace, they discovered it to be very beautiful, and when they talked their voices echoed.

“This room,” (oom-oom) said Cole, “is very nice.” (nice–nice).

“Yes,” (yes-yes) replied Jack, “I like it too.” (too-too). “We should sing in here!” (ere!-ere!)

And they did. Together in a very nice harmony they sang, “Twinkle, twinkle little star.” (tar-tar-tar), “How I wonder what you are.” (are-are-are). The notes and words echoed and filled the giant space of the palace with beautiful tones, but before they could continue singing the palace guards grabbed them.

“Hey!” said the biggest and ugliest of the guards, “you can’t sing in New York anymore!”

“That’s right,” said a slightly less big and slightly less ugly guard, “And you definitely can’t sing in the palace!”

“Take them to the dungeon,” said the last guard, who actually could have been quite handsome except that when he was seven years old he made an ugly face and it stayed that way for the rest of his life.

The guards carried Jack and Cole down several flights of steps to the dungeon of the Governor’s palace. The guards threw them roughly into a dark, dank cell and slammed the door with a brutish round of laughter, the ugliest one saying, “That’ll teach you to sing! They’ll be no singing here!”

Jack and Cole couldn’t see anything but the dim glow coming from the tiny window of the cell that let in only one tiny, single ray of sunlight.

“Hi.”

The voice scared them so much that they bumped their heads together (which did NOT feel very good). They fought back tears as the voice continued, “Sorry, your eyes will adjust soon and you’ll be able to see us. My name’s Riian and this is my sister Izzy. They threw us in here for singing, too.”

As Cole and Jack’s eyes began to be able to see in the dark and their heads stopped throbbing, they saw the two girls in the corner of the dungeon cell. The four of them talked about their favorite songs for a long time. Finally, Izzy said sadly, “I want to sing.”

“Wait a minute,” said Jack, “Why don’t we sing?”

“Yeah,” Cole agreed, “why not? They can’t throw us in the dungeon again!”

With Izzy and Riian in agreement, they began to quietly sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, first all together and then each of them singing different parts. The guards started yelling at them to stop, but as Cole had said, what could they do? They couldn’t throw them in the dungeon more than just once!

Outside of the governor’s palace, right next to the tiny little window in the dungeon, people started to hear the voices of the four brave children singing. Those who heard were so excited that the music was coming from the palace that they began to sing themselves. Soon others heard the new singers and joined in, the pattern continuing until the whole city was singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in one giant, eight part chorus that could be heard all the way in New Jersey!

The sound and music was so big that the Governor himself came out of his palace to tell everyone to stop. He yelled with all the strength he had, “Thtop! Thtop it! Thereth no thinging in New Yo-ahk!” The Governor had a very high pitched voice that included a rather nasal quality that made it sound very silly. The people who had heard him stopped singing and said, “Governor, we’ve never heard your voice before! You should sing soprano for us!”

“What? Who, me? Do you really mean it?” the Governor responded, “I’ve alwayth wanted to thing, but nobody’th ever athked me before. I would love to!” And the Governor began to singing a beautiful descant as the chorus enlarged singing “Like a diamond in the sky”. Or “thky”, as the Governor would say.

The Governer changed the law so that New York could sing again, and Jack, Cole, Riian and Izzy were let out of the dungeon to sing many songs with the governor that echoed through his palace that day. The people of New York were so grateful to the four children that they moved Cole’s “off-Broadway” theater from the basement of the doughnut shop and put in the middle of Broadway, making it the only truly “on-Broadway” theater in New York.

Jack, Cole, Riian and Izzy perform in that theater five nights a week these days, in very funny musical comedy about lisping Governors, big palaces and stars up in the sky. Sometimes during the Saturday matinee the Governor himself makes an appearance to sing about flowers in June. Everyone who sees the show thinks it deserves a Tony Award.

The End

And so I eat my words...

I said I would never blog, and that I didn't even like the idea. Apparently I've changed my mind.

My intent is to use this blog as a place to post my thoughts as I finish books, and also as a place to post the stories that I make up for my kids.

Here goes.