[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

wishing because you might get what you wished for. Well, now it looked as if he'd gotten it. This it
was too far inside to be comfortable. He'd lost his home, his world, everything he owned except his
guitar and the clothes on his back. He wondered too, if his kitties were still okay without him.
But there was Nadine, and there was Progress, both as a friend and a teacher, teaching him the
true blues. And it looked like, scary as it might be, there was going to be some fun and adventure, as
well. Maybe it was a fair trade, after all, he thought, stepping into the shower.
Yet there was something weird and awful too, as if he'd just caught a whiff of a ripening corpse.
Something close but faint. He couldn't pin it down, but he felt it right here in the bathroom. Probably
his imagination, but
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
He was going to ask the others if they smelled anything here, but since he couldn't actually smell
anything himself, he let it go. They had enough to do without concerning themselves about spooks he
tried to dream up. But whatever it was had sent an ugly chill of horror through him.
Later, driving into town, with Slim sitting by the window this time, he said, "Progress, talk to me
about the blues." Maybe that would take his mind off the phantom in the bathroom.
Nadine snorted and elbowed him in the ribs. Progress just asked, "What you want to know, son?"
"Everything. I dunno. What's it like to be a star?"
"Star? Son, I'm just another Tejas guitar player. Oh, I got somethin' different to say with my
music, I guess. But I have to keep it in its place. It's a gift. It's all a gift, and I have to keep givin' it
back all the time or it goes away. If I start believin' it's all my doin', it'll be my undoin'. So I commit
myself to doin' the most I can with the gifts I have, so's they can do as much good for as many people
as they can.
"Comes right down to the bone," he said, sighing, "I likes to fish. I veg out. Sit there with the line
in the water, thinkin' of riffs. It's the most relaxin' thing. I go into my own world and think of lots of
riffs. Yessir, pretty soon now, when we get the Gutbucket back and I see you and Nadine gettin' along,
I'm gonna pack it up and head down on the Brazos. Do me some real fishin'.
"I'll just get in my old pickup, throw some clothes in the back, drive cross country. Get me two
good poles and lay down on the fishin' bank. Might could drive my bus, could I ever get the time to fix
it. Put a cookstove in it, cook right on the river, catch 'em and cook 'em. That be the life. Course, I'll
keep a guitar or two around, practice a bit, write some songs, maybe play a gig now and then."
"Oh, Daddy," Nadine said. "You know you'll never retire. You can't give it up."
"That's what you say, girl. Might be I have me some different ideas."
"How'd you come up?" Slim asked.
"Whoo, son! You wantin' to know ancient history. Lessee. I growed up with the blues. Never
knew nobody that didn't when I was a kid. It was just the natural thing, porch players sittin' around
doin' it all the time. Back then, us kids made guitars out of cigar boxes and saplings. We'd use strands
from wire whisk brooms for strings. We couldn't play much of nothin', but we'd get a sound, you
know. Later on, my mama and daddy got me an ole guitar from the pawn and I started learnin' to play
it."
"You just had to ask, didn't you," Nadine said, poking Slim once again.
"Hush up," Progress said. "The boy ain't heard it before, even if you has. Anyway, son, when I
was, oh, 'bout twelve, I guess it was, McPhail's Medicine Show come through town, sellin' medicine
for rheumatism, arthritis and everything that ailed you. He liked to have him a little show, and he liked
to have a home boy for that, so I played and sang a little song and he paid me five cents and all the
medicine I could use. I swear, my mama had bottles of that medicine till her dyin' day. Made me take
it when I was poorly, too, which made me get right back up on my feets.
"Later on, me and my buddies put a little band together. Wasn't but three of us, and when we
started out we didn't know but three songs. But we played 'em fast, medium and slow and we got over,
somehow. After a few years of that, I met Rosie, like I told you, and everything else just growed out of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]