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The Right Lightning Rod
The others were enthusiastic about the song Jim was making and they spent the afternoon working on it. However, it was an awkward while for them, caught in the crossed fire of Jim’s temper and Sean’s mocking indifference. So they felt relieved when Sean’s phone buzzed and he just dropped the sticks to stand up.
“Whadda fuck you doing?” Jim asked. “We’re in the middle of the fucking song!”
Sean circled the drums to grab his stuff. “You gotta pick me up before seven,” he replied, turning off Jim’s amp again. “So move your ass.”
“Oh, right,” said Tom, putting his bass down. “Deb booked you guys for that fancy gala.”
Jim left his guitar, snorting and cursing under his breath before gifting them with another theatrical exit. The others turned to Sean for some kind of explanation.
Sean shrugged. “She’s leaving tomorrow,” he said, and wa
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The red carpet ended at the building’s fancy gates, and right past them, in the large, luxurious lobby, more reporters lay in wait, from outlets willing and able to pay for a better access to the celebrities in attendance. Silvia hesitated, seeing that whole new swarm of cameras and microphones and lights.“Let Jim handle them,” said Sean, nodding to the other end of the lobby.Jim met her eyes and nodded, swallowing his laughter because she couldn’t quite tell what nightmare was worse: facing more reporters or being left alone with his brother.She couldn’t help another chill when Sean rested a hand on the small of her back to guide her among the people. However, they’d hardly taken a couple of steps when someone behind them called out, “Silvia?”They turned around, surprised, to find another woman.“Cecilia?” said Silvia in disbelief.Sean’s eyebrows jumped up when Silvia hugged the woman, both of them laughing and patting each other’s back.Jim didn’t see it, busy with the reporter
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“Hurry up or I’m calling a cab!”“Bet you’re dying to do it, you chicken.”“Please, Jay!”Silvia finished raiding the master bedroom one last time, to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything.“Jay!”“Coming.”She snorted and went to canvass the ground floor. She was just done when Jim came down the stairs in no hurry.“Can we go before I have a heart attack, milord?”“Cool down, woman, we have plenty of time,” he said, grabbing her duffel bag on his way to the front door, where she waited with her rucksack. He paused at the doorway to poke her nose. “Really, such a rush to leave me.”Silvia wasn’t about to explain she was always that upset whenever she had a bus or a plane to catch, so she just scowled at him and followed him out.“Got everything? Tickets, passport?”Silvia ch
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That was just great. The flash flood had reached the Interstate, forcing the incoming buses to turn around, so the service had been cancelled until further notice.She felt a sudden urge to smoke. Considering it was pouring, the bus station staff overlooked those nicotine addicts with a little survival instinct left, and allowed them to smoke at the entrance hall, indoors and safe from the wind and the rain. She gave her luggage a concerned glance: rucksack, duffel bag, guitar. Why the hell had she kept the guitar? Only a few people remained at the bus station, but hard statistics dictated that a single person was enough to snatch all of her things away. She realized that was a third-world thought. Was she not in “The Shiny City Upon The Hill”? Just in case there was another third-worlder around, she asked the man at the nearest ticket booth if he could look after her stuff for a while. “I’m leaving in fifteen minutes, ma’am,” he warned. More than enough. She lit a cigarette as s
No Return Godzilla's Night Off
That was just great. The rental had broken down in the middle of the storm and of nowhere.He cursed his brother’s idea of renting that ranch to spend their ‘creative break’ away from spotlights and paparazzi. But he cursed louder his own idea of renting a car at Fargo airport, instead of taking a bus and meeting his brother at the bus station near the goddamn ranch.He checked his phone again, in case a stray miracle had given it back any coverage. Damn. It was as dead as it’d been since he’d driven deeper into the countryside and the storm. He looked out the windshield, but it was pouring so hard, he could’ve had frigging Godzilla right in front of the car and he wouldn’t see it.However, he was pretty sure he’d spotted lights up ahead before the damn car broke down, when the wipers still worked. According to his brother’s directions, that should be the bus station ten miles south of the town near the ranch.He had no way to know how far it was, and the wisest thing to do was hunker
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She sat down in the gap with her back against the coffee machine, face to the glass doors. That way, she even had room for the guitar on her lap. She could hear the old man humming My Way from the gents’.She wondered what she should play, tuning the strings. Most of the songs she knew were sad love ballads, not exactly the best choice for the occasion. Maybe bringing the guitar wasn’t such a good idea, and she should just burn out what battery her phone had left. That made her think of the music she had in it. She smiled. No Return’s songs were nothing like tender, and she knew enough of them to keep herself entertained for a good while.Lucky her, she had many of the rare acoustic versions, so she wouldn’t need to improvise some lousy adaptation. She’d taken about a year of guitar lessons, but she’d had to drop them long ago, so she wasn’t that good at playing.Her fingers slid over the metallic strings, looking for a chord. There it was, the beginning of Break Free.She didn’t look
No Return One Coffee
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No Return Wash Away
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