The Talent Show (16 page)

“You a singer too?” Justin asked as he carefully put Elke and Lucky into the front passenger seat.

“Yeah, a little.”

Another branch fell from the tree and almost landed on the car.

“How do we get to the elementary school from here?” Justin shouted at Elke.

“The show is at the high school!” she shouted back. “They changed it. It's just two blocks away.”

Justin pushed the starter button, but the Prius didn't start. He tried again. Nothing. A brick came flying out of the sky and slammed into the hood, denting it.

“Come on!” he shouted at the car as he pounded the steering wheel.

“Why are you driving a convertible?” Elke yelled.

Justin didn't answer. He jumped out of the Prius, ran around the other side, opened the
passenger door, and scooped up Elke and Lucky again. They would have to go the rest of the way on foot. The wind was ripping at their clothes and hair.

“Which way?” he shouted in Elke's ear.

The roar of the tornado, right behind them, was impossible to speak over. She pointed, and Justin struggled to carry her and the dog.

He made it halfway down the street when there was a
whoosh
ing sound behind them. Justin turned around just in time to see the tip of the funnel touch down right over the Prius. And then, as if by magic, the car started to rise up off the ground.

“Holy—”

They could only stare. The car began spinning clockwise as it got sucked up into the funnel of the tornado like a dust bunny into a vacuum cleaner. And then, the Prius was
gone
.

“Did you see
that
?” Elke yelled, not sure if she could believe her own eyes.

“Avis Rent-A-Car is not gonna be happy,” Justin yelled back.

He turned the corner onto Maplewood Road. Elke and Lucky were not heavy, but there's no easy way to carry a girl and a dog two blocks. The
high school was in sight now, and Justin picked up the pace.

“Why is there a car in front of the school?” he asked as he struggled up the front steps.

“That's the grand prize for the talent show,” she told him. “It's a Hummer.”

“But kids can't—”

He didn't finish the sentence because Elke let out a scream so close to his ear that he almost dropped her. She was looking up in the sky behind him.

Justin turned around and looked up too. A large object was coming down, almost, it appeared, in slow motion. It looked like it might land on top of them.

“What's that!?” Elke yelled.

“That's my car!”

“Watch out!”

The rented Prius turned over once in the air, so its roof was facing the ground. And then, with a huge crash, it landed—on top of the Hummer—crushing it. Justin and Elke covered their eyes so they wouldn't get hit by flying glass.

“Something tells me we're still in Kansas,” he told her.

The sound of a Toyota Prius landing on top of the Hummer was not heard inside the auditorium, because everyone in there was still cheering. The talent show had just ended. Don Potash was being carried around on the shoulders of his friends.

Outside, Justin was pounding repeatedly on the auditorium door with his fist.

“Open up!” he shouted.

Finally, the person closest to the door, Laurent Linn, heard the pounding and went to open it.

“Who is it?” he hollered.

“Justin Chanda.”

“Very funny.”

Laurent opened the door and stared at Justin and Elke, openmouthed. He hadn't seen his old bandmate since Pendulum Dune broke up almost ten years ago.

“Sorry we're late,” Justin said.

“What are
you
doing here?” asked Laurent.

“Mary Lampert … uh … Marotta invited me,” he replied. “Can we come in, please? It's been a rough night.”

It was only then that Laurent noticed that Justin was holding a girl in his arms, and the girl was holding a dog in
her
arms.

“She's back!” he shouted. “Elke is back!”

When word got around that Elke was safe and that Justin Chanda had returned to Cape Bluff, everybody in the room went crazy. People rushed to tend to Elke, while Justin was hustled up to the front of the auditorium and brought up on stage, where Mary Marotta was holding her flowers.

“I can't believe you actually showed up!” the wide-eyed Mrs. Marotta told Justin.

“You invited me, Mary,” he replied. “Did you think a little tornado was going to keep me away?”

“You're a mess!” she said, brushing a leaf out of his hair.

“You look as pretty as you did in high school,” he replied.

She blushed. When they were in high school, he had never commented on her appearance. Aside from being in the senior class play together, they had barely spoken back then. And certainly, she had never been told she looked great by a celebrity. She didn't know what to say. So she changed the subject.

“The show is over,” she finally whispered in his ear.
“But would you be willing to sing a song, or maybe say a few words?”

Justin turned around. The crowd was on its feet, and a chant was making its way across the auditorium.

“Chanda! Chanda! Chanda!”

Justin turned to Mary.

“That little girl missed the talent show,” he told her. “She told me she's a singer. Do you think she would sing with me?”

In the audience, the school nurse was cleaning Elke up and tending to her wounds. It didn't look like her leg was broken, but someone had been dispatched to the nurse's office to get a pair of crutches anyway. Mary Marotta jumped off the stage and went to whisper something in Elke's ear. With a little urging from her mother, Elke was brought up on stage with Justin.

“Elke! Elke! Elke!” chanted the crowd.

“Will you sing a song with me?” Justin whispered in her ear.

“I was going to do ‘Over The Rainbow,'” she replied. “Key of C.”

“That works for me.”

The crowd got quiet and believe me, those two
sang just about the prettiest a cappella version of “Over The Rainbow” that has ever been sung. By the second verse, everybody was holding up flashlights and waving their arms back and forth.

And just after they finished the last line of the song—
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why, oh, why can't I?
—the lights in the auditorium flickered back on.

What Happened to Everybody Afterward?

The kids
…

• Elke Villa
  toured the world the next summer as one of the backup singers for Justin Chanda. He is now producing her first solo album. Her parents stayed together.
  

• The BluffTones
  were not kicked out of school. They got a few birthday party gigs after the talent show, but split up the next year due to “creative differences.” The other boys gave up music, but Paul Crichton plans to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston.
  

• Julia Maguire
  became the top dancer at The Fontaneau Ballet Studio the next year, and performed as a solo in
  A Midsummer Night's Dream
  . She wants to become a ballet teacher.
  

• Richard (“Raccoon”) Ackoon
  decided to give up rap music and become a poet. He is working on self-publishing his first batch of poems in book form.
  
• Don Potash
  began to write jokes and scripts and send them to famous comedians. His goal is to become a writer for
  Saturday Night Live
  .
  

The grown-ups
…

• Honest Dave Gale
  gave another Hummer to Don Potash after the first one was crushed. Then he sold all the Hummers in his lot at bargain prices, closed down Hummer Heaven for three months, and reopened as Honest Dave's Hybrid Heaven.
  

• Laurent Linn
  was hired by Justin Chanda to do the lighting and sound for his worldwide tour.
  

• Mary Marotta
  got the acting bug again. A local theater company was holding auditions for a production of
  The Music Man
  , and Mary tried out. She got the role of Marion the Librarian.
  

• Justin Chanda
  donated a million dollars to repair the damage to Cape Bluff Elementary
  School and fill the library with new books. The day after the talent show, he called up Mary Marotta and asked her if she would like to have dinner with him that night. She said yes.
  

About the Author
 

Dan Gutman
is the author of
The Homework Machine
,
The Christmas Genie
,
Nightmare at the Book Fair
,
Getting Air
, and many other books for young people. You can find out more about Dan and his books at
dangutman.com
.