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Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Blues - Fading to Gray


Since my baby left me
Ain’t no music in my soul.
I said, since my baby left me
There ain’t no music in my soul.
She took away the sunshine
All I got left is gray and old.

I looked across the room at the singer. Head back, eyes closed, his fingers wringing sadness from guitar strings late into this night.

“You’re playing my song, brother,” I said, so softy no one heard. “You’re playing my song.”

For much of my life, I’d lived in the shadows. She changed all that. Everywhere she went, life was a blaze of color. You couldn’t look at her without being dazzled. Green eyes, red lips, flame to her hair.

I was dazzled. So dazzled, for a long time I couldn’t see. So I shut my eyes and saw all the colors she brought to our days, to our nights.

She changed my life from shadow, then changed it back again.

I used to find people. I was good at it. It’s what they paid me to do.

I found her. And I found him. I found them.

There was one last flash of brilliant red. Then my world grew dark again.

I still find people. It’s how I pay my way, now I have nothing left to lose.

I look once more at the singer. “I’m not here for you tonight, brother. No matter what you say, there’s music yet in your soul.”

I drop a twenty in his glass. “Me? I lost my soul two, three lifetimes ago.”

I drift towards the man in the expensive suit pouring expensive champagne into two much younger women. He’s the one I’m here to find.

I’m still good at it.

8 comments:

  1. Thanks, Tim. I needed to get this one in before the end of Hallowe'en. Glad you liked it.

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  2. I like this! It could be a prologue to an entire novel.

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  3. @Laura - I hadn't thought of it in those terms, but I can see how it might become such a thing. Hmmm...

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  4. Really excellent little piece. Evocative of a wider story, but still complete in itself.

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  5. Thanks, Icy. I'm warming up to the idea of this being part of a larger whole. Glad it still stands on its own two feet though.

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  6. How on earth did I miss this until now!

    I really liked this! It's intriguing and yet end perfectly and yet could be the intro to another chapter.

    You have it in the bag - it is a great stand alone and yet it also promises to be something much bigger.

    helen-scribbles.

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  7. Many thanks, Helen. I'll have to do some thinking about this - post November, that is. And see what comes of it.

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