Shutter by Rhonda Laurel

channel the vibe her customer wanted for the frame. Once she prepared her working station and threw on the radio, which was usually on a local jazz station, she was a dynamo. She warned him in advance that she didn’t usually stop unless she got a customer or her grandmother called.
    “How often does your grandmother call?” he quipped.
    “Every other day. It used to be every day until she got a boyfriend.” She smiled as she sketched.
    “She has a boyfriend?”
    “Yeah. His name is Arnold. He owns a chain of dry cleaners or something like that.”
    “So what does this Arnold look like?”
    Lucy pulled out her phone and showed him a picture. “She sent me this one last week.”
    Antonio chuckled when he looked closer. “Are they parasailing?”
    “Apparently he’s as crazy as she is. But I’m glad she met him. Nana has been alone too long,” she said with a sincere smile.
    “When did your grandfather pass away?” Antonio said.
    Lucy had to put down her sketch pencil and think about it. “Let’s see. I was twelve when my grandfather died. So my mom eventually convinced Nana to live with us and then my mom and dad died two years later.”
    “Your parents are dead?” he said quietly.
    “Yes. Killed in an automobile accident coming back from the city one Saturday night. They were celebrating their sixteenth wedding anniversary. My mom was a dancer, a ballerina. And my dad was a musician. He played the bass guitar in a jazz band. Ever heard of the Melodious Five?”
    He didn’t know why, but that name sounded really familiar and he couldn’t remember. Wait a minute… Lauren’s dad played in a band called the Melodious Five.
    “Did he play with a man named Carlton Thompson?”
    “Yes, he did. He plays the sax,” she replied.
    “Carlton Thompson is my sister-in-law’s father.”
    “Really? What a small world. I go see them every time they are in the area.”
    “Does that upset you? Seeing them play without your father?” he mused.
     
     
     
    Lucy let out a heavy sigh. Thinking about her mom and dad always made her feel weighted down on the inside. It had been twelve years since their accident. The memory of them dressed for an elegant evening was burned in her brain. Her mother had looked radiant that night. Lucy had helped her mom get ready that evening and she remembered everything. Her mom’s light humming, the two of them going through her mom’s jewelry box, her mother giving her a story for every piece her dad had bought for her.
    “Lucia, you have to promise me when you marry one day, that you will do it for love. I married your dad because he and I shared something that was more precious than money or status. He told me that he may never be rich, but he’d always make music that I could dance to because he knew dancing makes me happy,” her mother had said and affectionately kissed her daughter.
    Lucy remembered how embarrassed she had been that her mother shared that with her. She knew nothing about love then, other than her crush at the time, Kevin, had yet to call her. She couldn’t even imagine in her wildest dreams what her mother really meant then and she still couldn’t now.
    “Lucy?”
    Had she zoned out again? “Sorry. I used to avoid them but then I would see their posters everywhere or one of their old songs would come on the radio. I finally gave in and decided my dad wanted me to go. And now I can’t imagine not seeing them play. You know my dad was the musical director for the community theater for years and my mom was the choreographer. I spent most of my childhood there. I can still feel them there sometimes.”
    “They are with you always, Lucia,” he said in a soft tone and smiled at her.
    “So what about your parents?” she said, ready to change the subject.
    “My mom lives in Jersey. I think she’s dating someone and that has me horrified. My father died about five years ago but he’d left my mom and us way before that,” he said stoically.
    “So, why