The Mississippi's Little Gift to Lackadaisy

Chapter 3

Back down in the Lackadaisy speakeasy its been about 30 minutes since Mitzi left with Anna and 10 minutes since Rocky ended his long winded story of how he attained the child. Now everyone was waiting around for something interesting to happen as tonight's surprise guest was upstairs. That was until Ms. M came back holding hands with a clean Anna.

"Uh Ms. M why'd you bring her back down here?" Calvin, or as most call him Freckle, nervously asked. "She couldn't sleep and I thought it wouldn't hurt to have her here before we open" Ms. M pat Anna's head and let go of her hand to sit at the bar.

Ivy and Rocky immediately jumped to entertain the little girl. "Do you wanna play a game?" Ivy excitedly asked, crouching down to her height. Anna slightly leaned away from the sudden proximity and nodded her head. "What game?" Anna asked, tilting her head to the side. "Well we have a couple board games somewhere upstairs or we could play tag or hide and seek-" Ivy started listing all the options with her fingers but was interrupted. "Please don't play hide and seek we can't get her lost down here" Freckle reasoned.

Ivy acquiesced with a sigh "Fine, no hide and seek". Rocky jumped in to input his opinion. "OH how about sword fighting!?" Ivy and Freckle blinked at Rocky while Anna just tilted her head more. "First off, no. Secondly, with what swords?" Ivy asked confused. "Not real swords, pretend swords! Have you no sense of imagination??" Rocky asked incredulously.

"What do you wanna do Anna?" Freckle asked, successfully avoiding the incoming rant from Rocky. Anna eyes seemed to sparkle with all the options they presented to her. "Board games first?" she asked hopefully. "Of course! And after do you wanna play something else?" Ivy asked while starting to walk backwards, after seeing a nod from Anna she turned around grabbed Freckle's arm and took off out of the room shouting "Come on Freckle you're helping me carry them down!"

Rocky and Anna were left in the dust of their departure to get the games they had. Rocky had a smile on his face as he thought of the many scenarios they could play pretend with but his thoughts were interrupted when Ms. M called for him. He knew that she would want to talk to him about his impulsive acquirement of a supposed 4 year old. Dragging his feet to the incoming lecture he turned Anna in the direction of the stage where his band mates were lounging. 'Surely' he thought 'they would make sure she doesn't get into anything right? Right'

With no clear instruction Anna walked over to the edge of the stage and watched the band. Her curious eyes traveled over the shiny metallic and stringed instruments she had never seen before. She wondered what they were for. Looking at the band members she saw that most of them were dosing or passively smoking and drinking.

Sy being the only one awake noticed her presence and kicked Zib's leg to wake him up. "We got a visitor" he announced, going back to staring at the stalactites in the celling. Zib pushed up the brim of his hat from covering his eyes and looked around, spotting the kid at the end of the stage almost immediately.

Sitting up Zib addressed the kid. "What 'cha doing?" He asked. Anna looked up from where she was staring at the saxophone that was laying next to the chair he was sitting in. "Looking" she said quietly. "Lookin' at what?" he lazily asked. She pointed to his instrument beside him. Deciding to amuse this curious kid Zib kept talking to her. "This" he said, picking up his instrument, "is a saxophone" Zib played a quick scale to demonstrate. Anna's eyes widened at the sound and a small smile pulled at her lips. She hesitated before climbing on stage to get closer to the wonderful instrument.

Zib chuckled and waved her over and she stood beside him but left a good amount of room between them. "Ever held an instrument?" he asked her. She shook her head. 'Why is she so quiet? Aren't kids that young supposed to be loud?' Zib questioned in his mind. "Hold your hands out" He told her. She hesitated for a moment but soon raised her arms waiting for what he would do next. Zib placed his saxophone in her hands and made sure she was holding it correctly. He let go of the instrument and Anna almost fell over with the odd weight in her arms. Zib laughed before balancing her, he didn't want her to drop his instrument and he'd have to deal with fixing any damage to it.

"That's how you hold a saxophone" he explained. Anna's eyes lit up with excitement as she fiddled with the keys. 'Why am I entertaining this kid? It's not like I'm responsible for her.' Zib thought, watching as Anna tried to mimic the finger movements he did earlier in his little demonstration. 'Cute kid, with the passion she has now there's a damn good chance of her being a musician someday.'

"Hold it for a moment kid" he reached over and took the mouth piece off, wiped it down, switched out the reed and put it back on his saxophone. "There, now try to make some noise" Anna looked up at his eyes to confirm what she had been told to do with excitement. When she didn't see him take it back she indeed made a noise, a loud squeak that rung throughout the speakeasy. The other band members woke up and the attention of everyone else in the room was drawn to the stage. Zib laughed at Anna's wide eyed expression after a moment she looked down in shame and embarrassment. Zib quickly stopped laughing and pat Anna's head. "Hey it's fine kid. That's what happens when you don't have the right mouth shape" Anna looked up and quietly asked "Could you show me?"

He shrugged and said "Sure". Zib then proceeded to teach Anna the correct embouchure and how to play a few notes for the next couple of minutes. 'Never thought I'd be givin' lessons to a kid I just met' He thought to himself.