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

14: McKays

Wednesday ended with no news from the Embassy.

Erica Choi told me and Gloria in a super-sympathetic voice that they were still looking for Eomma. I trudged back to Will's place having thoroughly earned the right to bake up.

Clicking my vape pen to life between chilled fingers, Will's windbreaker keeping off the worst of the gusts, I was glad that it was a cold day because the roar of the ocean was fortissimo. The crash of the waves washed away thoughts of airports and embassies and medical school even before I'd gotten high.

Shivering and listless after an hour of watching the waves pound against the beach, I headed back inside and made a few turns around my bedroom. Watch TV? Sleep? Buy more THC?

The jazz method book was still lying there on the floor where I'd left it the previous Sunday. Leafing through it, I landed on a page on how to use the minor pentatonic scale over dominant chords. The example showed a few bars where the scale had been applied to different notes of some typical jazz chords. I tried to imagine how it would sound. Pretty good. Kinda bluesy-jazzy. But why did it work? The scale was missing the one note that defined the harmony: the third.

The theory didn't seem to match up with how I imagined the sound to be. Like something new had been created from the absence of notes, something that couldn't be perceived on paper but was so clear in the sound. Again, I found myself wishing that I had a keyboard to test why the scale sounded good.

Fucking jazz.

I pushed the book back into the bookshelf, covering it with a puzzle. There wasn't room in my brain for piano anymore.

Wondering if the fire at Seven had made it to the local news, I switched on the TV to find a local news anchor describing new policies set out by California's Senator.

"Today Senator Gomez visited fire-fighters who had tackled the recent forest fires in southern California. She announced a ten-million-dollar package to support environmental recovery and revival of the local economy after the fires devastated the San Diego region. This is Senator Gomez's first major spending announcement since her closely-fought victory in the recent state by-election, following the death of Senator William Graz."

William Graz.

My head jerked toward the TV. William Graz. The news report played footage of a jolly-looking woman in a hardhat peering up at blackened trees, then the weather forecast for Arenosa County started. I switched off the TV.

"William Graz," I mumbled into the collar of William Graz's windbreaker.

That was why the name was so familiar. That was why I was convinced that it was already in my brain. I wasn't into politics, but I should have instantly realized that Will was the son of a California Senator.

As if it had been an incantation, Will bustled into the living room, shedding electrical equipment and cables.

"Will, why didn't you tell me?"

Will stilled at the door, a huge crease appearing on his forehead and his eyes bulging. "Tell you what?"

"That your Dad was William Graz," I said, pointing at the TV with both hands as if I was having a séance and Will's late father had just appeared on the black screen. "I'm sorry for your loss," I added.

Will didn't reply, and busied himself winding electrical cables in the corner of the living room. "I thought you knew," he said, eventually. "I mean...my name is William Graz."

"I really need to take more interest in politics," I muttered to myself. "But still, you should have told me that your Dad was a Senator! How cool that your Dad must have been the most powerful man in California at one point!"