Widowed a Year, I Masked Up and Took Both of His Brothers novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: One Hand
Vince's POV
I opened the case at one in the morning with Celie on my piano bench, and my good hand was not steady.
Tommy was at the yard, meeting a truck.
He had kissed her at the door of the Blue Heron and told me, "Be good," which from Tommy is a whole speech.
The hinges squeaked.
The velvet inside had gone gray with three years of dust, and the horn lay in it, dull gold, exactly where I had laid it.
"Hello, old girl," I said. "Sorry I'm late."
"You talk to it," Celie said.
"I talk to everything. It's a problem."
She smiled and said nothing.
She had been quiet and certain since the lake, and I had not figured out yet how to talk to her.
I wiped the mouthpiece on my shirt and wet the valves with oil from the bar.
My right hand did what it could.
The first finger and the middle finger still go down clean.
The ring finger does not bend to reach the third valve, and it never will, so I play around it.
I have known that for three years, and I had not once said it out loud to anyone who was not a doctor.
"I can't play it all anymore," I said. "Half the tunes I know need that third valve."
"Play the half you can," Celie said.
"It'll sound terrible."
"Vince."
I put the horn to my mouth.
The first note cracked in the middle and came out in two pieces.
I took it down and laughed, and my eyes stung, and she did not look away.
"Again," Celie said.
I played it again.
It came out ugly and small, and then the second one came out clean, and the third took the air out of the whole room.
I played the slow tune my mother used to hum over the dishes, the one with no third valve in it at all.
I played it all the way through, and my lip shook.
When I finished, nothing in the club made a sound.
Celie's face was wet.
"That was beautiful," she said.
"It was a little flat."
"It was beautiful."
I lowered the horn and stood there with wet eyes, and for once I had nothing to say.
"Come here," she said.
I went.
She took the horn out of my hand and laid it on the piano.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Widowed a Year, I Masked Up and Took Both of His Brothers are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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