Second Life: Dumping the Scum novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: Recital
The hall was emptying around us.
Ushers were picking up programs from the pews.
Somebody up in the balcony was still filming.
I thought about the question for a long time.
I thought about a boy on a dorm stairwell at nineteen, playing my song badly and grinning.
I thought about seven years of kitchen tables.
"I did," I said. "For seven years."
He took a step toward me.
"You never once asked me how a song ended," I said.
Then I turned around and walked off the Ryman stage with my guitar.
I didn't look back.
Hudson was waiting at the bottom of the stage-door stairs, out of breath from running down from the balcony.
He didn't say anything.
He just held out his hand, and I took it, and we walked out into Broadway together.
The honky-tonk across the street had the doors open.
The whole first floor was singing "Ten Percent."
At seven the next morning the tire shop's air gun went off under my bed.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Second Life: Dumping the Scum are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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