Tessa and the Humming Wind

In Larkmeadow everyone sings, at the anvil and the bakery and the Sunday Singing Supper, and nine-year-old Tessa has not sung since a squeaked solo.

A girl who thinks she can’t sing finds that the whole village loves her cheerful humming

In a village called Larkmeadow, everyone sang.

The baker sang while kneading dough. The blacksmith sang over his anvil, clang-a-dang, in a voice like thunder. The children sang skipping rhymes on the green, and on Sunday evenings the whole village gathered in the square for the Singing Supper, where voices rose together like smoke from a hundred chimneys.

Everyone sang, that is, except Tessa Pickering.

Tessa was nine years old, with a sprinkle of freckles and a cowlick that refused to lie flat. She loved music with her whole heart. But she was quite sure she could not sing.

It had happened at the spring concert, when she was seven. She had stood on the stage in a paper crown, opened her mouth for her solo, and a squeak had come out, high and wobbly, like a door in need of oil. Somebody in the back row had giggled. It was only a small giggle, not meant unkindly. But Tessa had heard it, and she had never forgotten.

"I'm no good at singing," she told her mother that night. "I'll just listen."

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Quick answers about Tessa and the Humming Wind

What is Tessa and the Humming Wind about?

In Larkmeadow everyone sings, at the anvil and the bakery and the Sunday Singing Supper, and nine-year-old Tessa has not sung since a squeaked solo.

Is Tessa and the Humming Wind free to read?

Yes. Every story on RapidTale is free to read in the browser, with no sign-up and nothing to install.

How long does it take to read?

This story runs 1 chapter — most readers finish in one sitting, and you can stop and return to any chapter using the contents list.

Who wrote it?

Nimra Khan — original fiction published on RapidTale.