The Boy Who Can Sing Day!

He was six when he first let his beautiful voice chirp out into the middle of My Country Tis Of Thee and midway through the song everyone else in the class stopped singing and just let Malcolm take it away. He didn't realize he was doing a solo until the very end of the song he opened his eyes and saw the whole homeroom staring at him, their mouths hanging open. His teacher's hands hung heavy at her sides, her eyes were wet. Malcolm was about to apologize when she went running out the door.

From that day on, the whole school district was priming Malcolm to ride his voice outta that town. "You have a gift, Malcolm," the world-wise custodians would say to him. "Build upon that gift and make greatness. It's your responsibility." Malcolm wished he didn't have quite so beautiful a voice, so that just a little less might be expected of him.

By junior year, Malcolm had fallen in love with Maria Bobst. What Malcolm didn't know was that his best friend Chipper also loved Maria, had loved her since elementary school. Chipper was doomed to take over his father's drywall business following graduation. "After graduation" was a phrase Malcolm and Maria chose to avoid because they knew it was just a long way of saying goodbye. Chipper was pissed that even though Maria knew she had no future with Malcolm, that he'd never take her with him when he gets out, she still chose to stay with him. So today, Chipper's going to swing a length of pipe at Malcolm's voicebox. Chipper's going to say, "You two deserve each other" right before he does it. In the coming weeks before Malcolm speaks his first word, he's going to hope that his voice has been destroyed forever so that he can stay with Maria and shrug off all that was expected of him and just live a quiet little life listening to someone else's songs.

Happy The Boy Who Can Sing Day!