J udith Lawson settled into her regular place next to Tom. She looked around the room. Everyone was bundled up against the cold. A light somewhere above was flickering and buzzing with an angry waspy sound.

Tom already had his book open to the first song.

"Hi," she said, "have you already warmed up?"

He nodded, "You should try to be on time."

Before she could answer, Greg, the choir director, tapped on his podium.

"We'll begin on page one" he said, "It's an old gospel song. Fast and expressive."

Tom reached over and tapped briskly on the bottom line of her book. "It says, 'Ladies only sing,' and on this page it says, 'Men only sing,' Okay?"

"So"

"You have to sing with the ladies."

"I'm no lady," she purred, "I'm a tenor."

Tom rolled his eyes and looked away."

She could feel her jaw tighten. She looked down at the music. There was no way she was going to sing with the "Ladies."

"Okay folks" said Greg, "Listen up. I want all the women to sing bars forty-three through fifty. That includes the women tenors. Does anyone have a problem with that?"

Judith looked at Pam, the other woman tenor. Pam raised her eyebrows and shrugged. She said nothing.

"I do," Judith called out. Everyone turned and looked at her.

Greg peered at her over the top of his glasses.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Well, I'm a tenor, and I don't sing with the ladies!" Oh shit, she thought, that really sounded lame.

"Well it's because I would have to change octaves back and forth."

She forced a laugh and hoped that Pam would back her up. The room was still. Greg looked at her, disapproval on his face.

"Judy, it's only for seven bars. Surely you could manage that?"

She felt a flush of anger. "Then I'll just skip that part, I'll just not sing at all."

Judith saw the shocked faces around her. Why did I do that, she thought. God I look stupid. She pushed her anger down and slouched in her chair. She looked at the music. She knew that she could sing alto and second soprano, but she wanted to sing tenor. What a stupid thing to get steamed up about. She glanced around the room. All attention was on Greg. She wondered if anyone would even notice what she would do. She knew she would have to apologize to Greg. She didn't want to sing with the women.

When they came to bar forty-three she sang softly with the other women, but she sang the tenor line.