The Jazz Man (III)
She exhaled. He was right.
This was a chance to change the way things were.
She had been living without any goals or idea of what she wanted for herself, except for playing the piano. Its sweet melody comforted her like a warm embrace.
And when the darkness grew closer, when she felt the hot breaths of the shadows, she ran away.
But to her knowledge, she hasn’t felt them or seen them recently so maybe it was a sign?
Maybe this, Ares Winter, could change her bleak and unknown future. Would that mean she could finally stay and create a home for herself? Could she never see the darkness again?
Her eyes wandered around the platform.
There wasn’t any harm in trying was there?
If it doesn’t work out, she could just run away. Start all over. She did it before so why couldn’t she do it again?
She nodded her head at the Jazz Man, [I’ll do it.]
The Jazz Man let out a howl from the pit of us stomach, shaking her arms in the air, “Then it settled! My child, we must make money for phone call to dis here numba!” he shook the card, “Aye need to feed ya! Clean ya well so thatcha stand before greatness! Come, stand.” he jumped to his feet and snagged Adolph out of his case.
Quickly she stood up along with him.
“We must play!” he shoved the saxophone into her hands and slid the dark shades onto his face.
She gave him a deadpan look, [You mean I must play.]
“O course Neewa! Shopala kitska! Why should aye play when it ya success? Ya need to earn money, child. So start playin!” He demanded and she jokingly rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
She had never seen him so excited and proud before and a smile came to her face.
She opened her mouth and placed the reed to her lips and softly blew. Her first choice of song was something she thought was appropriate; Aint no Sunshine by Bill Withers.
Immediately the soothing jazz song brought a crowd that surrounded the two.
Some Human women and men within the crowd lowly sang the lyrics while others bobbed their heads.
The man on the intercom continued to tell the folks that waited for their train to arrive to allow others to come off the train before boarding.
The Jazz Man went around with the beaten-up tin can and collected what the crowd wanted to offer.
He was happy that the minute the two of them had met, she took interest in the saxophone. He thought she was a little strange at first but still continued to teach her over the years.
After a while, she became better than he was and was absolutely ecstatic about it.
As the song came to the halfway point a thought crossed his mind. This could be the last time the two play together and he was okay with that.
The minute she finished, the two swapped and the Jazz Man played a beautiful solo that consisted of only a few measures and the crowd ate it.
Some stayed longer than they wanted to, missing their trains but felt like these shows were more special than all the rest.
Gently the Jazz Man rocked with the saxophone in his hands, his long dreads bouncing up and down, creating the iconic image that the locals all knew.
There were many shows that they played back to back, some lasting thirty minutes others to an hour. The last show lasted a good hour with jazz renditions of Fallin’, Sexual Healing, and Groovin’ before they gave one last encore with an upbeat tempo of their own madness they had been working on.
With a round of applause, the crowd disbursed and the two took a bow.
Tiredly, young music child sat down as the Jazz Man counted how much money they had made tonight.
It was enough for two phone calls and two hearty meals.
He smiled at the haul the two made tonight, “Child pack up ole Adolph!” he hollered, “Aye go make phone call to the man of fire.”
He walked back up the stairs that were no longer packed with moving bodies but with stragglers who were either like them, displaced, or catching the late-night trains.
He came to the first floor and went directly to the payphones that were lined against the closest wall to the stairs; available for those who had coins.
Smoothly he stepped over to the first one that was on the corner and took the card out of his front shirt pocket.
He inserted several coins into the slot and picked up the phone, dialing the number; 070881619. It rang a few times and with each ring his heart fluttered. Suddenly on the other end, it was picked up.
“Hello?” he heard the tired husky voice from the other side.
He had completely forgotten it was late at night and most Humans were in bed by now.
He chuckled, “Aye sorry for wakin ya is dis man of fire; Ares Winter?” he breathed into the phone.
“This is him…” his voice drifted off, “Who is this?”
“Dis is da Jazz Man of Helrit!” he snapped his fingers, “Aye call on behalf of young music child- She who cannot speak but can play da piana.”
“Oh!” Ares’s voice perked, “The young lady I met yesterday! Is she accepting my offer?”
“She is.” he confirmed and heard a sigh of relief on the other side, “Howeva, aye will give her to ya on one condition.”
“What is it?”
“Ya must show me ya eyes wen we 'eet.” he grinned.
There was a swift silence between them before Ares spoke, “Where can I meet you both?”
“ ‘morra aftanoon at da Birdge of Castro. We be dere.”
“I will be there so that we can go over the details about everything. Thank you.”
“No need to tank aye man of fire. Not yet dat is. ‘Ave a good nights sir.” He hung up the phone and turned his head to see her standing right beside him with Adolph’s case strapped against her.
She pointed at him, [You’re making sure arent you?]
He nodded his head, “O course Neewa! Da eyes are da window tu ones soul and aye specialty is da soul. And in da eyes of da blood walkers, we are monsters child....” He paused, “ ‘nd aye like to scare humans too sometime!”
[I knew it.] she sighed.
He poked her nose, “Come child, we must tell Vinen da news!” He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away.
The minute they ascended from the dreary subway station, they were met with the harsh winds that took their breath away and the beautiful lights that shimmered in their presence.
****
A/N
You can find any rendition of the songs in this story on Youtube to make it an immersive story :)