Trumpet cherrystone

Robbie had taken up the trumpet! His parents seemed to think he was making rather good progress, but parents are always slightly biased.

When Robbie practised, his sister Annabelle found an excuse to leave the house. Bubbles the cat usually bore the brunt of the trumpet and could be seen fleeing the house whenever the practice commenced.

Once, when Bubbles was caught off guard, the opening notes to ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’ made Bubbles almost leap out of her skin. She belted out of the living room and ran straight through a trifle that Annabelle had inexplicably left on the kitchen floor.

Fund raising was continuing at the school for a new swimming pool and a summer concert had been organised. Robbie was delighted to have been invited to join the brass band along with his friend Nick. The dulcet tones of ‘The grand old duke of York’ were heard 24/7 as Robbie feverously practiced his trumpet harmonies.

Annabelle’s classmate, Rosie Leech was not amused. She considered herself a great flute player, but Miss Jarvis the music teacher, did not agree! Rosie had not made the wind section of the school orchestra and was not pleased.

She had made an excuse to visit Annabelle much to Annabelle’s dismay. She called round one afternoon with a flimsy excuse about pressing flowers and wormed her way into the house.

Mum had earlier returned from the shops with a large bag of blood red cherries that were as sweet as nectar. She had put them in a bowl on the kitchen table for all to share, When an hour later, they had all disappeared, Mum was furious.

She blamed Robbie and Annabelle who both pleaded innocence. She questioned Rosie who put on her sweetest, innocent smile. Eventually, Bubbles was considered the culprit and Dad aimed a careful kick at his behind as Bubbles was chased out the door in disgrace.

The next day was concert day and the whole school arrived in anticipation at the school hall along with parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters and a smelly old lady who always put in an appearance and yet nobody knew who she was.

As the brass section warmed up, Robbie’s trumpet started making some strange noises. He tried tuning it, shaking it, blowing harder, blowing softer. All to no avail. With one particularly fierce blow, he made a sort of farting noise with the instrument. Miss Jarvis looked up and smiled nervously at the audience, not realising that they all thought that she had made the noise.

Robbie was frantic, he couldn't figure out what was wrong or why his trumpet wouldn't play properly.

Time had run out. Miss Jarvis waved her baton to start the song and Robbie blew into his trumpet for all he was worth. There was a loud noise like the opening of a new jam jar. Robbie’s trumpet burst into life and the whole audience were pelted by small fruit seeds.

Seeds landed in people’s laps, Miss Gurney the head teacher took one to the ear. The grubby little lady took one home for tea, Dad took a glancing blow to the head and some even flew out of the window.

The concert was a success. Nobody could explain the fruit seeds!

Bubbles was blamed for spitting the cherry stones into Robbie’s trumpet. Rosie was incensed that her attempt to sabotage Robbie’s playing had failed. Mum went back to buying seedless grapes and about 10 years later, a cherry tree started growing on the school playing fields that nobody could ever remember being planted.

© Chris White