"This is what music is supposed to be. Not technical perfection. Truth. This girl has more truth in her playing than anyone I've ever heard."
"Someone give this woman a record deal immediately. I've been playing piano for twenty years and I couldn't do what she did. She's a genius."
Maya's mother sat down on the bed next to her. They watched the video together, reading the comments, trying to understand what was happening.
"Someone recorded you," Lynn said quietly. "Someone at the audition."
"I did not know," Maya said. "I had no idea."
Her phone rang. Maya looked at the screen; it was an unknown number. She answered it.
"Miss Chen, this is Sarah Mitchell from Good Morning America. We would like to have you on our show tomorrow morning. We can send a car to pick you up. Would you be available?"
Maya opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her mother gently took the phone from her hand.
"Hello," Lynn said, her voice steady even though her hands were trembling. "This is Maya's mother. Can you please tell me exactly what is happening?"
As Lynn talked to the producer, Maya sat on her bed and stared at the wall. The photograph of her father looked back at her. Just yesterday, she had been a waitress who practiced piano once a week at a church. Just yesterday, she had walked into an audition expecting to be rejected. Just yesterday, her dreams had been small and quiet, things she kept hidden in her heart.
Now, everything was different: the video was spreading across the internet like wildfire; news stations wanted to interview her; music schools wanted to offer her scholarships; famous musicians wanted to meet her. All because of four minutes of music. All because she had refused to give up when someone told her she was not good enough.
Maya thought about Dr. Holloway, the stern man who had tried to send her away. She thought about how his face had changed as she played. She thought about the tears she had seen in his eyes. She had walked into that audition room as nobody: a girl in a thrift store dress with sheet music held together by tape; a girl with no training, no connections, no future. But she had not stayed nobody. She had sat down at that piano, closed her eyes, and let the music speak for her. She had shown them what simple could become when it came from the heart.
And now the whole world was listening.