Monday Morning
Well no one can say the office is without decor.
Yesterday's practice was, in a word, interesting, typically surreal for one of their adventures and mainly due to the sense Nick had that they were on to something with the old Zepp number.
He showed up with his acoustic and of course she had been at her bass and little 20 watt amp probably since first of daylight and had a makeshift chord chart set up on the little ottoman in front of an old wooden folding chair.
"Thought you'd be groggy enough to want to sit for a while, but stand if you want, makes no nevermind to me, dear."
After a squeeze and brief inspection his demeanor she's too geeked to leave the bass alone and starts in before he can get set up but it's good to hear it some first. Gradually he finds a chord here and there and it takes shape. It doesn't seem to sound like the record but with her driving it, hey, hey, what can ya do, this might just work.
When she seems to go into some kind of endgame he pipes up, "isn't there some kind of motion with some of the chords?"
"Wing it." Doesn't even look his way and starts back in.
This continues about half an hour till they break for TV and sammiches but she pretends to be resistant to any advances, not that he's up to it. The vibe seems to be understood that this is a season of less carnal forms of bonding.
At some point he mentions the machine message from Deej that he hasn't had a chance to return yet.
"Isn't she at that school over in Misery?"
"Heh, yeah, Astigal...when we met up I referred to to it as Ass Tickle and she didn't seem to appreciate it."
This earns a snicker, "Well she may have a lot of reverence for the place."
"I guess....just kinda funny, she is a free spirit in a lot of ways, but her family was always pretty committed."
"You mean...."
"Church, church school, churchy stuff."
"Gotcha." And takes a bite. "Well, a lot of folks tend to stay in their mold. You are a special case Swanson, you broke through, and look what it got you."
He just grins and looks her way.
"What?"
After a pause, "I'm looking at what it got me."
"OH," and she hops up, "Close your eyes, fool, time to stretch your mind."
He complies, "alright lady but not sure my mind is very flexible at this point."
After a moment Nick feels a whiff of something in front of him, "okay."
She's holding a small, unframed painting of a beach scene, blue wave approaching from the left and a man in some kind of medieval garb confronting the wave with a sword.
After a healthy stare he offers, "Interesting."
"Yeah yeah, have you ever seen Princess Bride?"
"Oh, yeah back in high school but I couldn't really follow it, seemed kinda nutty."
"I'll bring it over some time and for a refresher, your folks might like it too, but that....him...I was thinking of the...um, the Spaniard...I am Inigo Montoya...you killed my father...prepare to DIE!".
"Yeah I'll need a refresher."
"Ain't that the truth. Anyway, one morning I woke up thinking, what if the sea had taken his father...how do you take vengeance in that situation."
Nick is given pause, raises both eyebrows to a degree. "Dayamm."
"And there ya go, sport. Why don't you take this with you?"
"I have some wall space above my desk between the shelves."
She pecks his cheek then hops up to wrap it in some plastic.
And so around 17 hours later Nick starts his week by pounding in some nails from the garage with a borrowed hammer, bottom pair at a downward angle then top pair at an upward angle to secure it just as Goody appears in the doorway.
"Decorating, Young Jedi? Glad you feel better already."
"Got an original work here, she hopes it will inspire my thoughts."
"Well hope springs eternal. Lessee....wow, not bad, pretty talented gal, she must see you as a blank canvas," as he expertly ducks away.