Some tunes need more wobbles than wins before they sound this happy.
Mira had been practicing the accordion for eleven days, which was long enough for everyone in the house to develop an opinion.
The white cat approved.
This was encouraging until Mira discovered that the cat also approved of vacuum cleaners, thunderstorms, and an empty cardboard box.
Still, an audience was an audience.
Every afternoon, Mira put on her yellow bear hat, sat beside the sunny window, and practiced the same troublesome tune. The beginning behaved beautifully. The middle wandered into unfamiliar neighborhoods. The ending occasionally arrived before everyone else.
Mira kept playing.
Behind the old washbasin, two white mice had begun attending regularly. They brought cheese, which made their intentions difficult to classify. Were they music lovers having a snack, or cheese lovers tolerating the music?
Nobody asked.
On the twelfth afternoon, Mira reached the difficult part and missed three notes.
The cat opened one eye.
She tried again.
Four wrong notes.
Both eyes opened.
The mice stopped chewing.
Mira frowned at the accordion. Apparently, the instrument had been practicing too, but unfortunately it had chosen a different song.
She started again.
This time she did not chase the mistakes. She simply continued past them. One note stumbled, another arrived slightly crooked, and then something curious happened.
The difficult passage came.
Her fingers remembered.
The melody crossed the room without bumping into anything.
Mira stopped.
The cat looked disappointed.
Behind the basin, one mouse slowly lowered its cheese.
Mira played the passage again.
Perfect.
Then once more.
Perfect again.
She grinned and launched into the entire tune with such confidence that the cat closed its eyes and the mice resumed dinner.
The next afternoon, Mira returned to the window.
Same yellow hat. Same accordion. Same audience.
She opened the music book and began practicing the troublesome passage again.
The smaller mouse stared at the larger one.
They had apparently misunderstood the arrangement.
Success, it turned out, did not mean the concert was over.
It only meant tomorrow’s mistakes needed somewhere to begin.
Livora Gracely 
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