The Blues

Chapter Seven

Very rarely did El-J play his father's harmonica, gifted to him by his father at a very young age. The situation seemed to call for it, as he and Juliet sat in the Salt Lake County jail cell. The melody he played carried the typical "blues" notes. Juliet tapped her foot along to the rhythm.

Even their fellow inmate, a young Puerto Rican man, was entranced by the beat, arising from the siesta he had been taking since El-J and Juliet's incarceration. "Hey-yo, papi," he joyously called. "That's some harmony." He glanced at both El-J and Juliet and asked, "You performers or somethin'?"

"We were 'til our asses got busted by 5-0," Juliet sulked.

"I know whatcha mean," the inmate concurred. "I was plannin' on makin' it big myself, just startin' off in the streets, ya know? And then, next thing I know, the poe-leece on me like white on rice."

Juliet shook her head in disgust. "Just for bein' a street performer."

"Actually, they arrested me for pushin'," the inmate confessed.

"What's yer name, slick?" El-J inquired.

"Anthony, but err-body calls me 'Tony'," he made their acquaintance by shaking both their hands.

"Well, Tony, my bro and me haven't been arrested in six months," Juliet stated.

"It's just like our pop told us – once they get ya with the SCMODS, life as you know it is over," El-J added. "That's gotta be how they bagged us at the gas station."

"SCMODS?" Tony parroted the term. "What's that?"

"State County Municipal Offender Data System," Juliet spelled out.

The three inmates hushed as soon as they detected heavy footsteps approaching their cell. It was the county sheriff, a heavyset African-American woman of fifty years of age and five feet-something in height, bearing more makeup than a county sheriff should wear on duty and long black hair (mostly extensions).

"So, we got here the famous Blues that I've been hearing so much about on the news," the sheriff mocked with a notable gap between her two front teeth. "You kids got quite the rap sheet – even longer than your old man's. Eighty accounts of shoplifting, twenty accounts of speeding with a suspended license, and – just recently – one account of assault."

In the mention of an assault charge, El-J eyed Juliet, who shamefully hid her face with her long blond locks.

"Hope ya'll enjoyed freedom," the sheriff said. "'Cause the judge's gonna put ya'll away for a long time." She departed with a laugh that started as muffled at first, before bursting into a full-on cackle that echoed across the hall.

Soon after the laughter subsided, El-J and Juliet could hear Tony muttering, "Blues...Blues...Blues." He then snapped his fingers in recognition, looking on El-J and Juliet with more interest than previously. "I knew I recognized you two! Hijo de puta! Ya'll are the singers that've been trendin' the last 24 hours!" He was genuinely excited to be in their presence. "I'm honored to be sharin' a jail cell with ya'll!"

"Well, don't be, slick," El-J advised. "Our career was over before it started."

"Naw, don't be like that, homie," Tony encouraged. "It ain't over 'til it's over, know what I'm sayin'? All that shit that fat-cat sheriff said? Don't let it get ya'll down. I mean, look at me..."