We Buy: Instruments

The sign was hand-painted, the gold leaf peeling like sunburnt skin. It hung above a shop so narrow it felt like a mistake between two brick buildings. it screamed in faded block letters.

Elias unzipped the case. The mahogany glowed, even in the dim shop light. It was a beautiful, haunting thing. The woman finally looked up. Her eyes weren't on the wood, but on Elias’s hands. "Why?" she asked. we buy instruments

The note was low, a tectonic shift that rattled the glass jars of bridge pins on the shelves. Then he played a scale. Then a fragment of the Bach Suite his grandfather loved. The shop seemed to expand. The dust motes danced in time. For a moment, the debt, the cramped apartment, and the grief disappeared into the vibration against his chest. The sign was hand-painted, the gold leaf peeling