All Six Strings

Ahh! 'She' Speaks!

The Eight Bar had filled up quickly, vary quickly. It wasn't even dusk before the stragglers began milling about outside the front door. The Major Third had a new set of three original songs and a cover for their audience that evening and Blakes excitement was palpable.
"Okay my darlings! Here's a little number we like to call 'goodnight Vienna'!" he announced to smatterings of polite applause and a few whoops.
Their song began and Aurora remained focused on the neck of her instrument as this track was written with the lowest guitar string tuned down to a low D. Though it only involved the use of a single finger for all the basic power chords, the different arrangement this created required more of her attention.
"And I was made to be hiiiiigh-ai-aihh. I can't tell you why, I'm trying not to cry when you take away my hiiiiii-ai-aihhh!" Blake warbled with his own husky, bass-heavy voice, mouth almost kissing the head of the mic. Chris tapped the snare and the symbol sparingly with what Aurora liked to call the brush sticks. The effect was pleasing and Aurora made a mental note to compliment her two new friends on their composition as the song meandered through its bridge.
Their next and last song was one Aurora had personally composed and arranged, for the most part. It was called 'Run' Chris had added some flourishes and turnarounds here and there at her own discretion and Blake had added some of his own characteristic syncopation to the majority of his bass track and the effect turned the track from a slow soft-rock number to a song with a jazzy flare Aurora liked a lot. It was an effect that she thought couldn't be achieved has she herself written composed and the track solo.
"And now the damage done! And now my demons won. You held the gun. And now we're done. I gather up the pieces of my shattered heart. And I run" they sang together the chorus line in a rough three part harmony. Aurora smiled widely at the effect, with the lows and the highs from the front man and drummer respectively bookending and holding up Auroras untrained minor third degree.
As the song ended, the front man took a humble bow and Aurora doffed her guitar and glanced at Chris who clutched both the sticks in one hand and held them up above her head, grinning and glowing as the audience applauded, a resounding sound that took Aurora by surprise. They caught each others eye and Chris preened, getting up from the drums and reaching for a water bottle sitting beside the amplifier and unscrewing it, panting. Aurora watched her tip the bottle up and gulp great mouthfuls of its contents hungrily. Once she was done, she looked at Aurora and grinned widely. Aurora placed their guitar carefully in its a-frame and advanced on Chris as she saw Chris was about to speak.
"You wanna go grab us a drink, on me yeah?" she asked, handing Aurora a twenty. Aurora glanced at the bar, at which there was a milling crowd of patrons and nodded, flitting off the stand and toward the bar, twenty in-hand.

"Hey, what can I get ya" asked the barkeep, a curvy woman sporting blonde dreadlocks wrapped in a chunky crochet headband. Bangles and beads jangled from around her wrists and neck and she shifted from one foot to the other as though afraid to stop moving.
"Two pints of largar and a dry martini, please" Aurora said, handing her the twenty of Chris'. The barkeep nodded and began preparing the drinks. Other people working behind the bar were fluttering around and almost through each other, cutting limes and lemons and preparing cocktails on request. People sat at and leaned on the bar, talking and drinking happily. Chatter and laughter generated a cacophony around them that would have been quite cheerful had Aurora been able to make any sense of it. While they waited, they came to lean on the bar and thought for a moment how relieved they were to notice that not one person appeared to see or notice them. They began observing the others at the bar. A hulking man with a shaved head fiddled with an unlit cigar and a woman with eyebrows pierced giggled like a tinkling bell at a joke someone with their back to Aurora had made, a martini teetering in her unsteady hand. Aurora saw Chris on the drum riser talking animatedly with Blake who had his back to them. They let their eyes rove upward to the pictures on the wall above the shelf laden with bottles.
There was a line of aged photographs of bands who had also graced the humble Eight Bar stage. The one at the car end of the line was faded, grainy and black and white. It depicted a foursome consisting of a bassist, guitarist, drummer and keyboardist happily gigging, two of them sharing a microphone. In the frame at the closer end, two men sat on stools, each with a guitar and one with a harmonica mounted on his shoulders. Their eyes were closed and Aurora saw the bright multicolored lights washing out the fading picture. They guessed it may have been from the seventies, or early eighties, judging by their clothing and the poor quality of the picture. Aurora found their eyes roving slowly over the rest of the pictures, they saw one they recognised in the middle and their eyes flew to it. It appeared to show their friends Chris and Blake sharing a stage with a muscular bloke playing a handsome holowbodied electric guitar strapped with a handsome leather belt. The man's hair curled and ringleted about his shoulders and his shirt billowed at his armpits. The strangers expression spoke of unadulterated joy, the grin that was frozen on his face made his dark eyes twinkle an Aurora presumed that this bloke playing with a past version of their two friends must be the illustrious Dylan. As Aurora stared at the picture, they searched Blakes face and saw that he too looked happier than Aurora personally had ever seen him. His face grinned and blushed and his eyes crinkled as they stared at the guitarist in misty-eyed admiration. Aurora found their own eyes examining the picture more closely and saw written between the lines of the unheard song, a kind of love Aurora had yet to come to know. A kind of love they had only glimpsed. It was a love that asked no questions and sought no answers of either party. It was a kind of love that transcended arbitrary labels and categories. They could see it flowing like an electrical current between their eyes as they gravitated toward each other. They quickly found themselves absorbed in the picture of a familiar group in a familiar moment that felt distinctly alien to them. As though they'd had fallen into it, time seemed to crumble away. Aurora saw the recently deceased ghost of local musical success glistening like a mirage through the picture, written into the very lines of the occupants faces. It was almost palpable and they found themselves smiling as they gazed up at it.
"Here" said a voice to their left and Aurora yanked their attention away from the picture. It was like they were being dragged backward through a lense, to reality. Two foaming honey-coulered pints and a clear olive-laced martini stood ready before them. They took the drinks precariously between two small hands and made their way back up to the drum-riser and to their two friends.
"Thanks Aro. Blake was just saying your song was a big hit. That kid over there" Chris pointed toward one of the people standing beside the door, "said the last track would sell us for a CD if we made one" she told Aurora sipping the pint they'd given her. Aurora followed the gesture and saw the young man she spoke of, listening intently to a shorter man who was speaking into his ear. Both of them leaning lazily beside the front door.
"Ahh. Well, gongrats, because that song isn't just my work. You both messed around with it enough that it's as much yours as well. It's by The Major Third" Aurora said, sipping the martini and grimacing in exaggerated disgust at the taste of the vodka. "Uhhg, excellent!" they grunted.
"Here here!" Chris barked, tipping her glass cheerfully. Aurora grinned at her and watched her eyes as they roved over their own shoulder and widened. They saw Chris swallow a mouthful of beer and nurse it close to her chest, a tight-lipped, impish smile contorting her mouth.
Aurora swivelled about to come face to face with the woman from the back of their first audience. "Ohhhh!" she blurted out.

"Hi. I'm Delia. I saw you some weeks ago" said the woman.
Suddenly Aurora was acutely aware of two things. The first was that the woman was incredibly attractive. Her black glasses framed a pair of crystal blue eyes. Ribbons of mahogany brown hair cascaded in waves down her shoulders. Her lips were full and glossy and parted to reveal white chicklit teeth and she wore a much more casual white T-shirt tucked into a high pair of acid washed jeans. A belt accentuated her waist  and the whole picture sent waves of desire Aurora couldn't possibly name up and down their spine.
The second thing was that they'd forgotten how to speak.