Busking for Change
Fellows lost his baby-blue knit hat early in the winter. Trima dug deep into her own open guitar case and cupped coins in her two small palms as if she planned to slake her thirst with all the nickel and copper within. She presented him with a plain brown cap with rawhide flaps for his red ears, and he embraced her gray poncho to share of his new found warmth with her quivering frame. Fellows covered his little friend’s hand on the fret, and picked out a new song that steadied Trima’s fingers and warmed her spine.
Fellows found Kolomeike on a park bench with a once-bitten turkey sandwich. Kolo and his clarinet had just been expelled from Henry Sapozak’s Klezmer troupe. The turkey sandwich was the one thing he had taken with him. Kolo offered Fellows the turkey sandwich, Fellows offered Kolo a place in the van. The next day, and many days after, Fellows, Trima, and Kolo played together on the subway platform at Broad and 81st.
The PA cracked: “Next-” than fed back. Synth pushed her way through the turnstile with a borrowed pass. Her 61 key digital piano trailed behind her on a cart she’d won from a flight attendant over Grand Rapids. Fellows and Kolo spotted her, lost their notes in the space between her red hem and her black thigh highs.
Fellows and Kolo bowed under the weight of Synth’s new speakers, a gift from the owner of Crossroads. Trima fought a tangled mess of power cables. Over at the bar, Synth received their cash advance and a deal making shot of whiskey from their new agent. They were the band people came to see.
Kolo took up smoking, so he could spend a few extra minutes a day in whatever stairwell or alley Synth surreptitiously smoked. Fellows used her heavy equipment as an excuse to drop off Kolo and Trima first. Trima put on her darkest glasses and slipped into a beauty parlor, before running out in an attack of nerves, or conscience. Synth was fine.
One day Synth told them she was leaving for Iceland, asked them if they would like to come with her. Kolo immediately agreed. Trima refused.
And Fellows?
Fellows considered everything he had lost and found, and made the only reasonable decision.