Sheldon Lee Compton lives in Kentucky.  His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Keyhole, JMWW, Thieves Jargon, PANK, >kill author, Eviscerator Heaven, DOGZPLOT and elsewhere.

Girl Spotted During the Solo (November 20, 2009. Issue 11.)

There is a long lead guitar solo a half hour in, the set they are playing now. He is the singer and second guitar, so his mind drifts, his eyes scanning the dance floor, picking apart the darkness to see who might have dropped by since last break.

People aren’t listening to the music. They are playing pool or ordering drinks. On the dance floor a few couples are moving slowly in small circles. Couples or just people hooking up or just friends. He can’t tell mostly.

The girl, a tall brunette with dark eyes and long legs, dances with a much older man, her arms stiff and straight, the same way she might carry a bucket of dirty water. The man leans into her again and again and she locks her elbows. This leaning and locking doesn’t change, just repeats.

He leans in, she locks elbows, smiles and shakes her head at the older man.

The singer remembers her from last night, a moment outside the restrooms, smoky bits of flirting while waiting. He thought about her later that night, thought about her eyes and the way she caught her laugh in her throat until it escaped in her smile.

Now she dances with the old man and the singer looks for a reason why she dances at all, tries to make a connection through the last of the lead solo and drops his cue, the chorus lost, the melody looping back into itself to start again, a pitiful piece of broken music.