The Sigma Asset 🏳️‍🌈 (bxb)║AMBYS WINNER 2022

1: The Client

My hands stumbled gracelessly over the piano keys.

This wasn't working. I leaned over the keyboard to check the sheet music again, fingers ghosting along the keys as I read. The first eight bars on the page showed an insane counterpoint in both lines and chords, together with a crotchet pulse[1]. A few bars into the piece and my hands plain gave up listening to my brain, stopping abruptly and hanging in mid-air above the keys in protest. Maybe it got easier later.

I turned the pages, skipping to the second movement, and burst into laughter when I saw it. A third staff had appeared on the page which needed me to do octave jumps across the keyboard with both hands.

Seriously, fuck that.

Peering across the jumble of notes and staves covering the book, I could kinda see why someone would choose to play this; it demanded stamina from a pianist, and I'd need to practice hard all week to play the entire piece proficiently. I was usually a total sucker for brutal technical pieces, but this composition was nothing but a fuck-ton of unmemorable melodies which bored even me. I pushed the music stand away just as a knock came at my bedroom door.

"You busy?" Raheem's head craned around the door before he slid into the room, freshly showered and smelling like too much soap.

"Just practicing." My eyes drifted past Raheem, through my bedroom doorway and into the TV room to check for the millionth time if Miles was around. But he hadn't left his room all day. "What's going on?"

Raheem navigated the slim gap between the door and the keyboard. He began to tap keys restlessly. "Why are you laughing alone?"

I dragged the book from the music stand with a snort and tossed it onto the bed. "This piece is just way too hard to play."

"You? Finding a composition too hard?" Raheem picked up the sheet music and ran his thumb across the pages like a flip-book. "I don't believe that for a second. The new client gave you this?"

"Yeah. He's already given me two opera libretti to read before I see him again. He's so fucking annoying." So close to launching into a rant about my new client's peculiarities, I stopped myself in time. I had it easy compared to Raheem and Miles; I didn't need to whine to them. "How was your client, man?"

Raheem carried on walking his fingers in a dissonant circuit along the keyboard.

"Was he one of Miles's regulars?" I asked cautiously.

"No. Just some new guy who was put on Miles's account last week." Raheem pressed a key over and over, like the toll of a bell. "Miles is...having a tough day...so I told Cal I'd take the client. He...wasn't into me."

"Shibal[2]." I patted my mattress next to me. "Did the client complain to Cal?"

Raheem slumped onto the mattress and tucked his long legs under the keyboard. "He told me he'd call Cal tomorrow to express his disappointment," he replied in a mock haughty tone. "Dude wasn't happy with me, but he still went through with the booking."

What a fucking shibal-seki[3] client. He'd gotten his money's worth but had still taken the trouble to drop Raheem into the shit with Cal.

"What do you think Cal is gonna do?" I asked, trying but failing to hide the fear in my voice.

"I don't know, man. Last time it happened, the doctor from Central said that Miles was fine. Cal was so pissed, he said that...that..."

"What did he say, bro?"

Raheem slid tired hands down his face. "He said that he'd get rid of Miles if it happened again."

This was the third morning in a month that Miles hadn't been able to get outta bed. He'd just lain there, all glazed eyes and shallow breath, not in any state to move, let alone take client bookings. Raheem had been frantic. He'd stepped in to take Miles's clients but, as handsome as Raheem was, Miles's clients didn't want an asset that looked like Raheem.