Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano (But She Does Love Being in Recitals) by Peggy Gifford Read Free Book Online Page A

beatinglike a bird in her chest. Or that her stomach didn’t feel purple. But it wouldn’t be true. In fact, Moxy’s legs were shaking so much that her shoes were making extra little tapping sounds when she walked onstage.
    But when the stage lights hit Moxy’s eyes—the lights were bright blue on the sides and very white in the center—Moxy felt much better. The lights were so bright she couldn’t see anyone in the audience. And the lights were warm. Their heat felt lovely on her hands.
    After she sat down at the piano bench and just before she began, Moxy turned and looked at the lights again. For just a moment her eyes got lost in them. She felt like she was having a very pleasant dream. Then Pansy began to play her part of “Heart and Soul,” and without hesitating Moxy joined her.

chapter 82
In Which We Learn
How Moxy Sounded
    Moxy’s heart was pounding so loudly that she had to pound the piano even harder than usual to be sure she was playing “Heart and Soul” correctly.
    Ms. Killingher, who was standing between Aunt Susan Standish and Moxy’s mother, put her hands over her ears. She had never heard Moxy play so loudly before. Mrs. Maxwell didn’t seem to notice how loud it was. She was just grateful thatMoxy was out there at all. And Aunt Susan Standish was snapping her fingers.
    “It has a good beat, don’t you think?” she said.
    But no one could hear her.

chapter 83
In Which Mrs. Maxwell Stops
Worrying About
Whether Moxy Will
Stop Playing “Heart
and Soul” When
It’s Over
    But before “Heart and Soul” was officially over, Moxy stopped playing.

chapter 84
In Which We Learn
the Reason Moxy
Stopped Playing
“Heart and Soul”
Before It Was
Officially Over
    Moxy stopped playing “Heart and Soul” before it was officially over for three very good reasons. They were:
The string around her neck that kept her cape on was strangling her.
She wanted to move on to the part of the show that she had rehearsed more—the bows.
She was suddenly very hungry.

chapter 85
BRAVA!
    As soon as Moxy stopped playing, Pansy stopped playing. Then they walked to the center of the stage, holding hands. Then they held their hands up in the air the way heavyweight champions do and bowed and bowed—just the way they’d practiced a hundred times at home.
    Here is a picture Mark took of Moxy and Pansy with their hands in the air.

    Naturally, the applause went on and on (or so it seemed to Moxy). And the longer the applause went on, the longer the bows went on. The bows went on for so long thatfinally Moxy was forced to put her free hand in the air to settle the crowd down.
    Here is a picture Mark took of Moxy’s hand in the air. He called it “But Enough About Me.”

    “But Enough About Me,” by Mark Maxwell
.

chapter 86
Proceed with
Caution—the End
Is Near
    After the recital came the after-recital party. It was a smashing success. Moxy could hardly catch her breath, there were so many people crowded around congratulating her—though no one asked for her autograph.
    “The only thing missing,” Moxy said in the car on the way home, “was a bouquet of roses to hold in my arms.” Moxy was in the backseat with Mark and Pansy. They were counting to see how many cupcakes were left.
    “Only seventy-five!” called out Pansy.
    Moxy did some quick math. “That means,” said Moxy, subtracting 75 from 150, “seventy-five people were watching me.”
    “Some people had more than one cupcake,” said Mark.
    “I had five,” agreed Pansy.
    “Still,” said Moxy (who had eaten four cupcakes herself), “there were quite a few people out there. The applause was very loud.”
    “You didn’t seem the least bit afraid,” said Aunt Susan Standish. She turned around to look at Moxy.
    “Oh,” said Moxy,
“that
. I don’t think I was ever really afraid. I think I was afraid of being afraid.”
    “Of course,” said Aunt Susan Standish, turning back around. “And that’s an entirely different thing.”
    Moxy