From his heavenly vantage point, Jack looked down on the busy ninety-fourth highway. He began to fly along its path, slowly zooming closer and closer to the ground until he was level with the traffic, all the while heading northwest across the vast plains.
He continued for some time, retracing the route that he’d once travelled. Here was the faux industrial steamworks, there the elevator that lifted vehicles from underneath the shallow water filling the maze of causeways underneath. He entered the house at the behest of its owners, amazed at all the objects that could have held, or might still hold, significant meaning. He continued onward.
As he neared his destination his perceptions became grounded. The car he was now driving tried and failed to make it up the muddy embankment that ran alongside the highway. He waited for the car to halt before gently nudging the gas for another try. This time he succeeded and merged back onto the busy highway. The car he’d been driving was now a long and narrow motorized skatebord with a steering column.
After furtively glancing over his shoulder at a similarly open-aired vehicle behind him, Jack realized that its driver meant to hijack his own vehicle. Several others watched as the male closed on Jack grabbed him firmly.
“No, don’t do it, DON’T DO IT,” shouted Jack in a panic. “If you try, I’ll just grab you and we’ll both go tumbling down the ditch, I swear, don’t even try it!” The man only smiled grimly. Jack grasped the man’s shirt and started pulling as he continued to shout. But his panic was unnecessary; the man left, and Jack continued on his way.
He pulled into the busy cafe. The smallish business was built in such a way that made it appear both man-made and natural, like an organic extension of the forest around it. The outward facing wall was nonexistent, the shop relying instead on a series of tiered and offset natural barriers to give it an intimate yet spacious apperance. Inside, patrons sat or stood chatting or engaged in other activities. Up front, an eclectic band of musicians that Jack recognized played faintly celtic tunes on a myriad of instruments. This was why he was here.
It was now the second year he’d attended this event, and it was proving to be just as bittersweet as the first. Most of the musicians in the band Jack felt he’d known at some point, but he could no longer remember their names. They had faded from his life, as he had theirs, through some sort of unspoken mutual apathy that Jack couldn’t help but feel responsible for. It was only at rare events like this one where these sublimated feelings were the focus of Jack’s thoughts, which was ironic because he felt vaguely that they were the primary reason he even attended, as a lame attempt to make some effort. Combined with this distress was a strong desire to play with this band, a jealousy that compelled him to prove himself, despite the clear lack of invitation. It would all be okay if he could just get up there.
He listened for a time until the band took a break, when he meandered up the front and sat down in one of the chairs on the small stage.
“Hey!” said a young man, turning towards Jack with a glimmer of friendly recognition.
“Oh, hello!” replied Jack jovially. It was clear they didn’t know each other’s names.
Jack sat onstage for a time, looking out at the other musicians milling around the cafe, some talking, some playing. His gaze lingered on a brown-haired girl bowing a simple melody on a fiddle.
The band started playing again and Jack left the cafe in a funk. He walked down the stairs and explored the warmly-lit and ill-planned mall with a tall, amusing fellow. All the while, his thoughts lingered on the cafe. He desperately wanted to return and bid farewell to some of the musicians, but felt that nothing would come of it. His musings were interrupted by Borrora, one of the girls from the band.
“Hey, Borrora, are you guys finished?” asked Jack.
“Yeah, we just got done,” she replied.
Jack hurried back to the cafe where most of the musicians were crowded around a computer screen. He once again sat on the stage, scanning the crowd for people he could say goodbye to. Spotting the brown-haired girl from behind, he hurried to get her attention.
“Hey, I just wanted to - “ started Jack, but she turned around to reveal herself as someone else.
Onstage, yet another girl had picked up a violin and started to play a famous baroque melody. The other musicians, though they were done with their set, began gravitating back towards the stage, drawn by the melody. Jack was overcome by a powerful urge to play.
By the time the girl had neared the end of the slow introduction, several other musicians had joined. As she played the final cadence, Jack noticed that an important suspension was missing.
“Hey, is that a viola?” Jack asked the girl, pointing to a stringed instrument on the floor. She nodded assent, and Jack picked up the instrument. He was delighted to find that it was actually a violin, if a slightly small one. He sat down next to the girl and joined her from the top of the piece, both of them playing the melody by heart. Everyone had joined in to form a full ensemble, and Jack’s spirits rose.
They they finished playing the introduction for the second time and put their instruments down.
“Hey, were you guys using music?” someone asked Jack and the girl. They both shook their heads. The questioner raised her eyebrows, impressed.
