A Taste of Candor

Chapter 26

~Declan.

Before long, Chip's car rolled up in front of my apartment. We both got out of the car at the same time, and he beat me to the trunk so he could open it. As I pulled my case and papers out, I met his eyes and gave another thankful nod.

"Thanks again for the lift." I said.

"No problem." Chip paused. "Now, I just can't help but wonder what the future holds for us."

"Yeah ... back to freelancing, I guess."

"Well, now that I think of it, I'm sure I could find work pretty easy. Everybody needs a drummer. But what I really am concerned for is you guys."

I frowned. "Why?"

"The odds are stacked against you two around here. Some people will refuse to support just because of who you are. I mean, look at Mrs. Paige."

"True. We'll figure something out, maybe put a band of our own together so it's not a bunch of us by ourselves fighting to get by."

"That's a good idea." Chip said enthusiastically, "Would definitely even out some of the odds."

"For sure. Say, do you guys wanna come inside? Get a glass of orange juice, maybe?"

"You know I wouldn't turn you down; I'll ask Madden."

I laughed and waited as Chip opened Madden's door and chattered at him for a second. Then Madden hopped out, and the two followed me into my shabby apartment. Neither of them looked all too bothered by the minimalistic decor, and understandably so. We all had much bigger things on our minds.

As it turned out, I only had enough orange juice to fill two cups and trickle in a third of a cup for the last. I took the glass with the least and handed them the full ones. After a good-humored toast, we drank.

"Deck was just talking about maybe starting our own band." Chip said, filling Madden in, "Instead of us all struggling on our own to make ends meet, we could use teamwork to make the dream work."

Madden nodded vigorously. "That's a great idea! If you want piano and don't mind me, I'd have you covered."

I smirked. "I have no reason to look elsewhere."

Chip started pacing, almost fast enough to slosh the juice out of his cup when he pivoted around, but not quite. "Are you thinking a small ensemble here, or something like the Paiges' band?"

"Oh, no. Definitely something like a quartet or quintet."

"So we'll need a bass player ... what else?"

"Probably just a second horn player to back me up. Trumpet, trombone, alto ... I don't really have much preference."

Madden cleared his throat. "My roommate says he plays both guitar and bass. Now, I haven't heard him play, so not sure how good he is at either of them, but maybe I could ask him?"

"Sure! It can't hurt to try."

Chip paused his pacing for a moment to ponder something, and then he continued. "If that doesn't pan out, I have a few connections we could use. And horn players aren't hard to find around here."

"You know..." I said, "I have a hunch."

The others clearly looked like they wanted to ask what I was talking about, but didn't. I wouldn't have answered anyway. Stepping over to my coffee table in the living room where my telephone sat beside a pile of papers, I knelt beside it and rummaged through the mess. Soon, I found a pile of small slips of paper where I kept telephone numbers for my various contacts, and I shuffled through them until I found the one for Nuri Justice.