Music: Out of the Box 26 (The Girl in the Box Book 36) by Robert J. Crane

Author:Robert J. Crane [Crane, Robert J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Ostiagard Press
Published: 2019-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 52

Jules

“I can’t believe it happened again,” Brance whined, sitting in the back of Jules’s car. His head was leaned against the window, a perfect picture of despair.

It made Jules sick just looking at the waste of flesh, waste of talent. Somehow he’d ended up with the power to make people hurt from across a room, and this little whiner was sad about it. Jules held that in, though. Instead, he said, “Every dream has its setbacks, kid. We need to practice a little more, that’s all.” He waved a hand to Gil. “Take us back to the warehouse.”

“Again?” Brance sounded like he was just a little short of crying. “Jules, it’s not working.” The sad sack looked down at his lap, and his voice broke. “Maybe we should just give up—”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jules said, letting fly with the sarcasm. Less than a day and he was already sick of coddling this weakling. It was time to put some screws to this little bitch. “I thought you wanted to be a star, but if you want to be a loser and just tuck your little tail between your legs and mosey home to your mommy and daddy back at the ranch, we can do that. Lemme get you a bus ticket.”

Brance’s mouth fell open and hung there as thoughts spun behind his eyes, most of which were obvious to Jules. The kid wanted to argue, because he had hurt feelings. Ooh, hurt feelings! Jules didn’t care; he waited for that shit to pass.

“I don’t want to give up,” Brance said, finally, and softly. “This is my dream.”

“You think any of your so-called heroes that sang on that stage you’re so obsessed with—you think they didn’t have setbacks?” Jules kept his eyes forward. “You think people didn’t tell them no? Didn’t kick them out of bars? Reject them—”

“That’s a little different than having a voice that hurts people—” Brance started to say.

“Lots of voices hurt people, kid,” Jules said. A flash of his own father came back to him, yelling at the top of his lungs at Jules and his ma. “What you need to figure out how to do is get tougher. Learn some control. Because ninety-five percent of the time, your voice is fine. Something’s happening in that other five percent that’s messing everything up.” Jules simmered for a second, let Brance stew on that. “What are you thinking about when it all goes to hell?”

Brance hesitated. “I...I don’t know.”

“Is it a note you’re hitting?”

“No.” Brance shook his head. “No, definitely not. It’s happened on songs that are radically different. It’s not a common note, or even a common range.”

Jules had an idea. “Is it a feeling?” He looked over at the kid, who was staring back at him with his face all screwed up. “Something you’re thinking about when it happens?”

“N-no,” Brance said, too shakily.

There it was. Jules had it. Something was going on there. Something—or someone—that cropped up in the kid’s head, that was the trigger..

But for now, Jules would let it rest.

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