The violin began speaking during rehearsal, which at first was blamed on exhaustion. The conductor froze when the instrument, resting innocently in its chair, sighed and said, “Could we perhaps […]

Bart heard it in voices the way others hear pitch. A kind of emotional dissonance. At first he ignored it. Then he started writing songs about it. Observational ones. Fragments […]

It disappeared in Vancouver. One minute it was there, leaning where I left it, case with familiar scuff. Next minute not. No witness step forward. Someone said it was probably […]

He woke up calmly. That was the problem. No panic, no jolt just a soft awareness that something had been forgotten. Then the clock. Then the realization that the flight […]

A song about discipline, about holding the line, about choosing clarity over chaos. Simple enough to remember and strong enough to travel. People recognized themselves in it. That is how […]

It began as a perfectly respectable synthesizer. Oscillators, filters, envelopes. Knobs that did what they were told. A panel that rewarded intention with predictable consequence. It lived in a studio […]

He took songs literally. This was not a flaw he recognized as such. It felt like honesty. If a lyric said something, he believed the lyric. If a song declared […]

Inside the theatre, the touring acts had lighting plots, riders, and fees that could cover rent for a month. Outside, he had plastic, a pair of sticks, and a spot […]

He didn’t quit the trumpet in a dramatic way. No last note held into the ceiling. He just started answering different emails. There was a job. Reliable, which is a […]

He didn’t take revenge. That would have been obvious. The fantasy version where the past is exposed under academic lighting. He imagined those versions. Anyone would. Jill sat in the […]