A Hot Slice of Heartbreak: Part II

Jayla did as she was told. Jazz was her favorite music.

So she practiced, man. And she dug. She dug all the cats. Dug and practiced, living eating sleeping Jazz. She took her trumpet and a duffel bag and headed west on the bus. She wanted to walk the streets Chet Baker walked on.

At famous LA jazz clubs like The Haig & Tiffany Club, she would sit in the back shadows, listening, fingertips sliding against the condensation on a cold glass of tonic water sweating a ring into the tablecloth. When she felt confident, she would hum along, thinking no one heard.

“Will you cut it down, your humming sucks!” a voice came from the room. She immediately stopped humming, and at the same time jazz music stopped. She gingerly drank her water.

Trying not to make too much of a scene, which she clearly had already, she got up from her chair - trying her very best not to scrape it along the floor she headed to the toilets. As she flung open the door…

There was a lady behind the door who had been so frightened that she dropped her bag with many spoons that made a lot of noise when they fell. After the noise, she ran out into the street in a direction she didn't even know.