The Helpers

Helping

'Homework nights' became a regular event very quickly. No rhyme or reason, one of them would text the other with some version of it:

'You Free tonight?'

'Waaah today was the worst 😓😭'

'We're practicing if you have time.'

'I request an audience! 👑'

It didn't even mean doing anything specific together most of the time, just doing things near each other. When he stopped to consider how it began Luka was reminded how most times virtue was its own reward, but other times it paid you out in ways you never expected.

One such night she'd come with a heavy package in tow, and left it without a word when he took her home. It was wrapped in plain brown paper, with a handmade card from a scrap of the same. 'It took longer than I thought, please forgive me 😭' It was the first time he'd ever seen someone draw out an emoji.

Luka took out his phone, opened a call and hit speakerphone. While it rang he carefully removed the card, read it again, and tucked it into his wallet behind his ID.

"Hello?" her voice always started timid on the phone.

"You left something behind."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry."

Luka laughed,"Don't apologize. Shouldn't you be here when I open this though? Isn't the opening of a present part of the fun?". He fiddled at the tape on one side, sliding the knife along the edge.

"Oh no it's fine. It's not a real present, just a little organizing."

Luka could see her ducking her head in his mind as she was talking. People's songs where usually what stuck with him, Sabrina's face had stuck,"Still. Maybe I'll leave it, then you have to come back sooner."

She made a little 'oooh' of frustration and Luka grinned at the phone,"Just open it alreadyyy." Her plaintive little whine.

Luka flicked the tape with the knife to get it started then realized his audience was sound only. He grabbed the end of the paper and ripped it off as loud as he could, tearing into the paper and crumpling some in his hand for added effect. Then the knife to open the box inside and, "What is all this?" He couldn't hide his surprise.

"It's nothing special." Her voice was even smaller, but Luka's attention was split.

The first thing he took out was a green and brown ledger, crisp and new. A far cry from the spiral bound notebook he had been using. Luka opened it and inside were neat little columns filled out in black and red, all the band's finances. Part way down the first page a line was whited out. Written over the white out was 'Now you don't have to feel bad making mistakes.' Luka was sure there wasn't actually a mistake under the white out.

Next was, oof, a thick three ring binder. Luka opened it in confusion."whoa." The sound slipped out. Tabbed pages for each piece of equipment they had. Luka had kept as much of the documentation as he could but secondhand rigs rarely came with much.

It was all here and more. Luka wondered if she had ferreted it all out herself or enlisted Jul's help. Not only manufacturer and specs, but a short hand-typed faq for each piece detailing common issues and websites for more info and parts. Luka whistled as he paged through here and there.

One more thing, a scrapbook. Jul had to have helped with this. Pictures from all of their gigs. Clippings he had kept were arranged on pages. A stub from the Jagged Stone concert where they'd resolved to form the band. Luka was paging through memories when a little sound brought him back to the now.