Second Place · The Long Way Down to Morning · Pulse Beat
She came second. The jury's sheet said exceptional musicianship, remarkable control, a certain caution in the third movement. Caution. She read the word until it stopped being a word. A man from a…
She came second.
The jury's sheet said exceptional musicianship, remarkable control, a certain caution in the third movement. Caution. She read the word until it stopped being a word. A man from a concert agency shook her hand and said that second was very respectable, that second often had the longer career.
She smiled and thanked everyone. In the hotel she sat on the edge of the bed with the case unopened at her feet and understood that the third finger had been a secret she had kept from herself for months. Little slips. A trill that came out muddy. A double stop she had blamed on a damp room.
Her phone lit with her mother's name. Kochi was four and a half hours ahead. It would be nearly dawn there.
"Anika? Did it go well?"
"Second," she said. "It went well, Amma. Second is good."
Her mother was quiet a moment. "You sound tired."
"I'm fine," said Anika, and was ashamed at how easily the lie came.