Forza Forte

Here comes the Sun!

A guitar chord plays, and Sunny walks through the door, "Oh hey! It looks amazing in here!" Lucas is behind the counter and looks up from his phone, "you like it? It didn't take too long at all. I've just been relaxing here listening to music since!" Sunny bounces his head to the music as he walks around the shop, "oh, is this Da Black-Man's Burden?" Lucas looks at him, confused, "Is that their name? I only chose it for the cover, but now that makes a lot of sense hearing the lyrics." Sunny grabs a few vinyl albums on the counter and puts them away. "Yeah, they're an African American rap group that stood against the hypocrisy of America's views on Black Culture while the country exploited it to their benefit." Lucas also grabs a few vinyl records, "oh, so it's like paying homage to the 1899 poem, The Black Man's Burden, by H. T. Johnson." Sunny turns to look at Lucas in a fascinated way, "exactly. How did you know that?" Lucas smiles as he focuses on placing the vinyl records in the correct alphabet order, "you know my mom. She focused heavily on my education and understanding our culture not taught in school. I used to read so many books." Sunny laughs as he goes back to the counter to grab the last few records, "now that makes sense. When it comes to hip-hop music back in the day, it used to stand for something. Why do you want to make music?" Lucas leans up against the counter with his arms folded while he stares into space, "hmm, I don't know. I've always loved music, and I want to help people through stuff as Casey Cyrus's music helped me." Sunny pauses, then glance at Lucas, "you listen to Mind over Matter?" Lucas gets excited, "of course! His music is so different. Like he didn't care about the industry standards, he just did whatever Casey wanted 'cause he enjoyed it!" Sunny laughs out loud, "you're not wrong about that! I was always a fan of that too." Lucas walks behind the counter and looks at his phone, "I also loved how caring of a person he was. He loved everyone from all aspects of life like I never met him, but you could see how genuine he was in interviews or performances like he knew how to connect with the listener and make them feel like everything is good." Sunny covers his mouth and then rubs his face before walking to Lucas. "Listen, Lucas, when making real music, it can't just be noise. It needs to have a positive message behind it if you want to make an impact. The industry is a beast. It will try to tell you to do things because of trends and money, but you need to solidify why in your heart you want to perform and stand by it no matter what. That's how you become one of the greats." Lucas looks at Sunny with a sincere smile, "hey, I appreciate that. I'm excited to see what I come up with." Lucas then squints his eyes at Sunny, "are you okay?" Sunny immediately walks away towards the entrance, "oh yeah I'm fine, just feeling a bit tired so I'll just lock up then head to bed." Sunny notices the Surge Electrik poster, "oh did Shanice come by here?" Lucas nods his head, "yeah she asked if she could put up some posters for their show coming up. I thought you would be cool with it." Sunny walks towards the beaded curtain door, "oh yeah, she's a sweet girl. Just be cautious when you go to the show. She's in a band with some knuckleheads, so don't do anything I wouldn't do." Lucas laughs as he walks to take the vinyl from the recorder player and puts it back into the right spot. "Sounds good, sir. I'll try to be a positive influence." Sunny looks back and smiles, "good job. I'll see you in the morning." Sunny walks away but pops his head through the beads, "Before you go to bed, why don't you look into the M section? You might find something you like. " Sunny winks. "Goodnight. I'll see you in the morning." Lucas thinks, then his eyes widen before rushing to the section. He searches through and finds a few Mind over Matter albums, "no way!" Lucas yells out. He starts to freak out in excitement before taking a deep breath. He flicks the switch to close the recorder player wall and sets them on the counter. "I better not burn through all these and save them for when I'm bored." He stretches out his arms before letting out a big yawn and heading toward his room. He plays some music on his phone before slowly drifting to sleep on the futon.