I touched my fingertips to the window, feeling the vibrations from the music within.
Georgette stood singing on a small stage in a corner of the coffee shop connected to the bookstore. She wore a long, olive green dress and a necklace of large wooden beads. Matching bracelets with smaller beads danced up and down her forearms as she gestured half-passionately to the music.
In the years since, when I remember that night, I have the distinct but certainly wrong memory that Georgette was singing into a banana rather than a microphone. I was probably influenced by an album cover in the window of the used record store next door.
A few listeners were scattered across the room at small tables thumbing through books, but at one table a man sat in rapt attention, mooning at Georgette when she looked his way and glaring critically at the young man playing the guitar when she looked away. She had told me she was with someone. That must have been the someone.
Georgette had always dreamed of being a professional singer, and I wondered where this fit on her scale of dreams come true.
***
The night was pitch black. The moon was full, but heavy clouds obscured any moonlight. At least it wasn’t raining like it had the night before.
I’ve always hated the city, but a book signing across town had brought me down from the mountains.
Georgette had phoned to tell me about her divorce and her new chance to sing which would cause her to miss my book signing and that the new someone would keep her from spending some time in the mountains with me for now but maybe she’d come up if things didn’t work out and she would reserve a table for me if I wanted to come watch her perform.
***
A man and a woman sat at the table just inside the window from me. The woman chattered, oblivious to the music. The man glanced at a card that had been left on the table and then tossed it onto the window sill.
The card read, “This table is reserved for __________.” And in Georgette’s neat handwriting, my name filled in the blank.
***
The door opened, and a woman left the bookstore. She held the door, glancing my way, but I shook my head and she moved on. The door stayed open a moment, extending the invitation, and then it began to close slowly on its own.
A voice in the dark said, “You have some change?”
Without looking, I said, “I’m all out of flowers.”
The voice muttered and started to walk away.
I said, “Here.”
The voice snatched the five dollars of coffee money I had pulled from my front pocket.
***
The door had closed, Georgette was still singing into the banana, and home was far away.
I sat in the dark doorway of the used record store next door, but before I fell asleep, I realized just how long I’d been all out of flowers.
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Originally published April 28, 2020
Faded Houses Green 