She watched her daughter on stage and she couldn't quite control her face. The solo had been at the end of the piece and her daughter had hit it — really hit it, the note that had been giving her trouble for six weeks — and then kept going into the run without bobbling, without flinching. In the audience her mother was dabbing her eyes without any pride in having dry ones. She clapped until her hands stung. When her daughter came out after the concert she hugged her and said "you did that, you did that, you did that," and her daughter was embarrassed and glowing at once, the way kids are when the thing they did was actually good.
