*tenses by the smallest measure* Yeah? What about it?
*but it's a foolish question to ask, because he knows (he knows you know), and nobody who is anybody was ever supposed to put it together because nobody was supposed to hear that album (to know what he is capable of)*
*does not even notice the way his heart sinks because all of a sudden, he is too busy remembering*
[...one of those gloriously hot summer days, when you have to freeze your brain before ice cream becomes soup, and the whole city shimmers through a haze of heat. "Hold onto my hand," Grandmother says, but he can hear the most beautiful music floating toward him on the breeze. He pulls free and runs on ahead, up a stranger's porch steps, slowing to peek through the open window.]