Page 4 of Dark Verse

“And you.”

Zeke hands me my guitar, which had been waiting on the stand.

“Good drive in?” he asks conversationally as I pull on the strap and let the instrument rest across my body.

The weight and shape of it are at once familiar and unfamiliar. Like an old pair of sweatpants that don’t fit quite right anymore, soft and loose in some places, tight and threadbare in others.

“Let’s just say I’m glad you had this with you.” I gesture to the guitar. “It rained on me twice.”

“That’s some shit luck, the one time you don’t have the car.”

“True. But it did make getting through the city pretty simple.”

I play a chord pattern, Zeke harmonizing with me through the sequence. I notice immediately his hands are far more dexterous than mine as we play, his fingers moving like butterflies across the strings.

“How’s Billie Jo and Unc?” he asks as we play through a second sequence together.

“Good. The season is well underway at the farm, so a work truck is needed. Ma’s business is really starting to pick up too. Her orders have tripled since that video went viral a few weeks ago. Everything is tuning up well for the Kansas Knights.”

Looking at me seriously, he asks, “You including yourself in that?”

At that, I shrug. In many ways, I feel like I’m still recovering from the last few years. While the world has moved on in so many ways from all the upheaval, I’ve felt frozen. In time. In fear. In a dream interrupted.

“Feeling more myself.”

Not a total lie…

Okay. Fuck. Fine. A total lie. But I don’t correct myself aloud to Zeke.

Octavia appears in view once more as she returns to the stage.

“You’re in luck. They are still doing something on the first floor, so we won’t start for another fifteen or twenty minutes. We ran Autumn Honeybee during sound check with the sound engineer, but we have time to do it again, fit you back into the sound.”

I can’t help but smile. Via’s ability to devote intense focus to a given task is one of the things I like most about her. In many ways, she is the one who has kept the band moving forward through all these years of transition. But it also means she’s the first person to drop niceties in the name of efficiency.

“Hello, Octavia. It’s good to see you too.”

She takes a deep breath, resetting herself. Her expression softens.

“Hi, Knox. It’s good to see you. Feels like it’s been forever.”

“It’s only been a few weeks,” I remind her.

I helped them pack the van six weeks ago to begin their self-described Colorado residency.

“How’s Cash?” I ask, strumming through a familiar chord progression.

Her face pinches a little, and she mouths a silent prayer. “Out of the worst of it, hopefully. He’s breathing on his own again, at least.”

My chest tightens noticeably. Cash is one of my oldest friends in the world, and the thought of him in the hospital struggling to breathe pulls at the frayed edges of terrible memories. Hearing from Via that he’s better soothes me a little, but the worry lingers.

“I’ll go see him tomorrow,” I promise, even as goosebumps try to break out over my skin at the thought of walking into a hospital.

Zeke and Via glance at each other.

“What?” I ask them.

“Let’s talk about that after the show,” Via suggests.