Page 91 of Broken Chorus

Snickering, Micah had the good graces to look sheepish. “Sorry about that. I still wake up with the dawn sometimes. Figured it would be a good time to write a letter to my old man the way Chelsea suggested. Aaron wrote his letter to his grandparents yesterday, so tonight, when we light the bonfire, we’ll toss ‘em in and hope that purges some of the shit we’ve been carrying around with us.”

“It sounds like it could be cathartic,” Hawk remarked.

“I hope so. Some mornings I wake up so pissed I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“I told you I could hook you up with a heavy bag if you wanted to try beating the hell outta something,” Cade offered. “It mostly works for me.”

“Note, he said mostly,” Micah remarked, chuckling a little. “Now, are you coming, or what?”

“Getting there.”

Micah grinned and plopped down on the table, planting his bare feet on the bench as he reached for one of the lukewarm sodas Hawk kept forgetting to put on ice. “Sure you are. That’s why you haven’t moved yet.”

“Aaron told you to say that shit, didn’t he?” Kelly grumbled.

“He may have made some comments about how difficult it can be to motivate you into action and how easy it is to get your goat when someone points out that all your intentions towards movement produce nothing but words and a whole heaping lot of inaction.

“He’s a damned menace,” Hawk grumbled. “Always spilling my secrets that way.”

“And you are still stalling,” Cade said, plucking the remainder of the six pack off the table and wrinkling his nose at it. “And these are going on ice. Damn. You guys truly do need a keeper. I’m willing to go on the payroll if they want me to. It’s not like I was in any hurry to be separated from my twin.”

“Then consider yourself hired,” Kelly said, having appeared from out of nowhere, much like Cade, or maybe it was just that Hawk had grown used to how noisy the kids were when they were racing around that he’d forgotten adults weren’t nearly so loud. Most of them anyway.

“I dub thee the band’s official roadie, which can easily morph into manager if you’re looking to take on any of the bullshit I hate doing,” Kelly declared.

“You can start showing me the ropes after Rocktoberfest,” Cade said. “That way I can help with the logistics of practice sessions, shows and still making sure all of you have time to have a life away from the music. Now come on before Aaron and my brother decide to go off in search of the electric snakes they’ve been bantering about.”

“Electric snakes?” Hawk muttered as he scanned the sand warily.

“I thought the only damned animals that were electric were eels and they were in the ocean,” Kelly yelped as he climbed up on the table and started looking around.

“Pretty sure there is a type of ray and at least one type of fish that is too,” Cade remarked, chuckling as he shook his head at Kelly’s antics.

“I never heard of a fish that could electrocute somebody,” Kelly said. “Never heard of a snake that could either! How are you standing there so calm when one could come slithering by at any moment?”

Micah caught Cade’s eye and the two of them cracked up, laughing so hard neither could answer Kelly’s question about what was so damned funny about the possibility of getting electrocuted, bit, or both.

“There’s no such thing as an electric snake,” Cade remarked, finally taking pity on Kelly, though he was struggling to smother his snickers as he spoke. “They’re shooting the shit about an Overkill song calledElectric Rattlesnake. The drums and guitar in it are killer. Aaron was playing it the other night while you were on the phone, and Declan jumped in on the drums and even threw some growling vocals in to offset Aaron. Ever since then, I dunno, it’s been a running joke between them.”

“Wish you’d led off with that,” Kelly muttered, eyeing the patchy grass one last time before easing down off the table.

Shaking his head, Cade started back in the direction of the trail he’d come down. “I just bet you do.”

Hawk finally managed to heave himself to his feet and wipe some of the sweat from his brow so he could follow, meaning Kelly scrambled to keep up, no doubt still thinking about the possibility of encountering a snake out there.

“So, how’d the whole songwriting bit get started, anyway?” Hawk asked as they walked. “Last I saw any of you, you and Aaron had taken the kids to look for fossils.”

“Which they found. Several, actually. Now they’re sprawled on blankets, coloring and listening to Aaron and Declan work out some of the pieces to the new song,” Cade explained. “That’s whythey sent me to find you guys, which Kelly saved me the trouble of having to do when he magically appeared the way you all claim I do.”

“Because you do,” Hawk insisted. “Kelly on the other hand is rarely that subtle and usually bounds into the room with all the energy of a golden retriever.”

“Yeah, I’ve started to notice that about him,” Cade admitted.

“As for how it got started,” Micah began. “Declan was sunbathing and listening to the instrumental tract Aaron recorded right before we left, and I kept thinking back to the conversation Aaron and I had in the clearing on the day of the storm. I guess fossil hunting inspired him because Aaron came back from the canyon with more than just the kids and a trilobite. He wanted to share and once he did, well, I had words and Declan had words, and even Ella suggested a word when we got stuck on one and all those words started flowing together into something truly special. Call it purging shared pain, if you will, but we’re excited for you to hear it.”

“It’s that far along already?” Kelly remarked, whistling low. “You all must have been busy.”

“We were. We’ve worked out not only the lyrics but the beat, several of the lead guitar riffs and a couple rhythm pieces too. I’ve been working on some harmony bits and we’ve all been bouncing ideas around for what tempo range we want to keep it in.”

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