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Editorial Comment - ' V X\ V'\ -T % II J? % <.;.d 1 •>V F ■•Jd &is& e BfeOi Send Help. I've been kidnapped and am being held hostage in a Christmas carol factory." Maria looked quickly over her shoulder, then rolled her message into a tight scroll and stuck the paper into v an empty water bottle. She twisted the cap into place and, with another quick glance behind her, she walked to the balcony. She heaved the bottle as hard as possible and watched it summersault in a lazy circle and land in the surf about a hundred feet below the mansion. Taking one more look to make sure she had not been seen, Maria Maria ran back inside to the room that had been her prison for most of the last few weeks. , Not that it looked much like a prison. The room was more like a fancy hotel suite, complete with sofa, writing desk, bed, paintings on the walls and fresh flowers. And there was also the piano. A Steinway grand, to be exact. It rode like a whale on the thick waves of carpet. Maria sat down at the piano bench and tried to make sense of everything that had happened over the last few weeks. Her hands absent-mindedly arranged a few notes into the vase of a familiar chord. A minor chord, to be precise, because Maria was homesick and sad. Two weeks ago, the day had started out the same as any other in Maria's little town of Oak Ridge, Ontario Maria woke up late, as usual. She wolfed down her breakfast, as usual. She arrived at school two minutes late, as usual. School was uneventful. Maria hurried home for a snack of hot chocolate and an apple. Then, as usual, her Mom made her go and play for at least an hour before she practised her piano. That's right. Maria's mother had insisted that her daughter watch cartoons or read horror stories or just play with her friends after school. Otherwise, she would have spent far too much time practising the piano. Unusual? Perhaps. But not for Maria. She happened to be a musical genius. Since before she could speak, she was fascinated by bells, whistles and any other kind of sound. She could hear a symphony symphony once and remember its every detail. She could play Bach before she could read. Blindfolded, she could name any note you might hit on a piano. And she could accurately name the notes and intervals she heard in doorbell chimes or in train whistles and even the beep- beep sound made by trucks backing up. On the day of Maria's big adventure, she had read in her. room for an hour, before starting to practise. When she practised, she began with her usual exercises, scales and studies because she wanted to get the boring stuff out of her way first. Then, she resumed her work on a string quartet that she had been composing for the past week. Maria had run out of music paper. And, being an independent sort of 12-year-old, she snuck out the back door without telling her Mom that she was going to run downtown to get more paper. That was the prelude to the adventure. Then came the kidnapping. The police chief had solemnly warned Maria's Mom to be extra careful about keeping an eye on her talented daughter because there had been an odd string of abductions abductions around the world. It seemed as though, one by one, many of the world's most famous and talented musicians musicians had been disappearing without a trace. The case had baffled police forces everywhere. And, although Maria Maria wasn't exactly famous yet, her talents were well known among serious musicians. Professor Vivace had wept when she played him the Moonlight Sonata at age six. Sir Hugh Adagio, the famous conductor with a face like a stone lion, had cracked a smile and handed her a whole bag of peppermint patties when he heard her play Bach. And her first music teacher had turned three shades of pale when Maria came appeared at her second second kindergarten keyboard class and proceeded to play the entire year's repertoire. Maria scoffed at the notion that she might be the target target of whoever was kidnapping famous musicians like Sir Hugh or Professor Vivace. But, a cold shiver ran down her spine when she saw a strange car following her home from the music store. And an odd little man -- a dwarf, actually -- jumped out of the rear passenger door and approached her. Continued on Page 7