AS IF THE SEA SHOULD PART
Ashley
Gentle rocking of my yacht and Maisie's soft purring; that's what I call leisure. My apartment has become more like a storage now, a warehouse for books, instruments and equipment. I prefer to hang out here, on my beautiful sloop I've recently purchased. She hasn't been to the ocean yet; so far I sailed her only on lakes St Claire and Erie. Not even Huron yet.
- Maisie, do you want to go on a trip to Canada?
She looked at me and blinked slowly with both her eyes, which meant yes. Of course, you do. I call her Maisie because she's a-Maisie-ng. She's my best non-human friend and I can meow around her all I want, she doesn't mind. Actually, she replies and we have those weird conversations. I love her so much. As much as I do Jenny.
I haven't been on long voyages yet, let alone around the world, because Twelve Bar is doing so well and I don't want to leave it. Jenny doesn't want to invite any other musicians over, she says it's our thing and she's right, but it made travelling more difficult. We figured we'll have to close the place down when we go on holidays, the way Italians do and not give a damn. If you go to Italy in August you might be disappointed, a lot of places are closed down for the whole month and you walk around like an intruder in a ghost town. We can do that too, but I guess we're just not ready yet. We're so psyched about our thing and the way it's developing that we stick around.
It started with just a couple of people coming over, probably out of boredom but I prefer to think it was curiosity. We were doing it! Nineteen years old, both of us, trying to make it in the big wide world. We redecorated the warehouse to an extent but we left a lot of it as it was to preserve the genuine, industrial feel. We love it so much we didn't change much over this decade. It's been ten years now! Wow. We should celebrate. I'm trying to talk Jenny into sailing away with me but she's uncertain about leaving the club alone.
- Hi Jen!
- Hi honey, how's it going?
- Splendidly. Guess where I am!
- I don't have to guess! I bet you're on the boat.
- Correctomundo! Maisie's with me and everything, why don't you join us?
- I just might, but not yet. Get load of this!
- What's up?
- Guess how much time it took to sell all the tickets to your gigs this week!
- I don't know...
- Nine minutes. Can you believe it?
- Fucking meow!
- Yes, honey! You're a star! You should go big!
- You mean you don't want me around anymore?
- Of course I do, stupid! I just don't want you to waste your chances. You have so much potential!
- I told you what I think about going on the road. I don't care!
- You don't care about all the money and fame you can get?
- No, I don't. Fame is fool's gold and in terms of money, I got everything I need.
- If that's how you see it...
- That's how I see it.
- Good for me!
- Good for you!
We gave it a little laugh and the tension was gone.
- It wasn't Mr. T just now, mind you.
- Oh yeah, you're getting so much better at handling him.
YOU ARE READING
Neutrino Blues
AdventureMatty remembers his grandfather, his childhood guru, a great musician. The conflict was that Matty longed for fame while his grandfather didn't care. As a result, Matty is torn between his own and his grandfather's ideals. He chose to stick to his g...
