Chapter 40: Break

I could feel the prickly residue haunting us as we settled into the studio though. At the bottom of the golden sense of the music between us, there was the rocky underbelly, like a rough stream bed sharp against your feet. Underneath the lyrics and melody, the melding of the chords into flow as we experimented with new beats and jazzy combinations, there was that unsettled sense of disquiet. It clung to us like brambles as we tried to move past it. And eventually, I couldn't take it anymore.

I stopped playing at the end of a long improv session, bouncing off each other, alluding to songs we knew and riffing on them in the chord progressions. The sense of warm golden strength between us hovered like warm mist. Through that brilliance, I met Sy's eye.

"I think we should talk about what you said," I broached bluntly. "I know it was the heat of the moment and all that. But when my uncle was saying all that about the war, and you said you didn't believe it was really happening…What did yo