Chapter 1
The Setup
It was just after 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 7, and Moxy Maxwell was still in bed. Outside, the temperature was sixty-four degrees. Inside, a slight (5 mph) breeze was coming through her open windows. Her white curtains were ballooning up and down as the wind came and went. Four or five birds were making chirping sounds. They were not exactly the chirping sounds Moxy was always reading about in books, but they were bird sounds just the same, reminding Moxy that she had almost forgotten about the fact of birds.
It was the perfect day not to wear a hat. The perfect day to put on her new red Windbreaker with the white piping and the three felt-lined pockets and go outside and see what was up. But Moxy didn't have time.
Moxy didn't have time because Moxy had a list of Nine Things to Do Before Tonight.
Chapter 2
In Which We Learn About Tonight
Tonight Moxy Maxwell was going to make her Piano Debut at the Palace Theater. She and her sister, Pansy, who had just turned five (and still could not tie her shoes), were going to play a duet called "Heart and Soul."
Chapter 3
Moxy Plays the Palace
The Palace Theater was only the biggest theater in town. It had 2,400 seats and was the place where all the Big Broadway Musicals played when they came on their national tours. Moxy's Piano Debut was being held at the unfashionable hour of 5 p.m. instead of the more civilized 7 p.m. because a very famous Rock Star (who no one but her mother had heard of) was scheduled to play the Palace at 8 p.m.
In fact, if Moxy's friend Sam hadn't happened to have a mother who owned the Palace Theater in the first place, Moxy's Piano Debut wouldn't have been there at all. It would have been in the basement of Temple Emanuel on Lee Road.
Copyright © 2009 by Peggy Gifford. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
