The Cessna Cafe by Miller Chinle

Author:Miller, Chinle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yellow Cat Publishing
Published: 2019-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

21

Bud sat on the front porch, absent-mindedly twirling the baton as the dogs ducked, trying not to get hit, having given up long ago on catching it. It was almost noon, and he was trying to think of something that would be good for lunch, but since he hadn’t made it to the store the previous evening, his choices were limited.

His phone rang, and he could tell from the caller ID it was Howie.

“Yell-ow,” Bud answered.

“Sheriff, Howie here. Are you home?”

“I am,” Bud answered, wondering if Howie was planning on stopping by.

“Sheriff,” Howie continued, sounding somewhat excited. “Do I have some news for you!”

“What’s up, Howie?” Bud asked patiently, continuing to twirl the baton, thinking maybe Maureen had finally told Howie about the baby.

“Well, last night, after I did my usual stuff, well, you know, then I stopped by this guy’s house for a little bit.”

Bud wondered exactly what Howie meant by doing his usual stuff but didn’t ask, thinking about his visit to the Rose place.

Howie continued, “His name’s Jimmy, and he lives over on Solomon Street. Somebody told me this Jimmy guy was a real whiz at Garage Band.”

Bud wasn’t sure what Garage Band was, but he figured it might have something to do with music from the sound of it. He didn’t want to interrupt Howie, as it was a rare thing for him to be on a roll like this—maybe even a thing of wonder, Bud mused.

Howie continued. “So, I stopped by, and we went into this guy’s basement rec room and he fired up his computer and started showing me what he could do. He was making up a song and doing the background for it automatically and all kinds of other sounds, and he had a guitar, so I started playing along, and before you knew it, we were having a regular band session, but without having a band. I was pretty excited, I can tell you that!”

Howie paused to catch his breath, then added, “Man, I'm telling you we were really rocking, Sheriff, when all of a sudden we could hear some guy coming down the stairs yelling at the top of his lungs. Well, this big guy opens the rec room door, yelling something about ‘Shut it down! Shut it down! You're playing way too loud.’ But when this guy sees me sitting there, he gets real quiet. See, I was still in uniform, Bud. You still there?”

Bud assured Howie he was indeed still listening.

Howie said, “So this fellow, who I took to be Jimmy’s dad since Jimmy’s still in high school, he starts telling me what a good boy Jimmy is and talks about all the good things he does, about how he rescued this mama cat with her kittens one time, and he's just going on and on until Jimmy finally says, ‘Dad, he's not here to arrest me, we're just playing music.’”

Howie paused, laughing, then continued. “His dad looked really embarrassed, but then he told Jimmy that he used to play drums in high school.

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