This story is neither quirky or dark, my usual themes, but you know what they say: “departure from the norm is the spice of life.”
Here are a collection of other stories around this picture.
Copyright Roger Cohen
It probably would have failed anyway. Who would want to hear a double bass duo anyway? Quadruple Bass, we called ourselves.
I claimed Grandpa’s old pride-n-joy. My brother had to save up three years for his instrument. Practice breaks were filled with lofty plans of concerts, tours, autographs. He talked; I listened, smiling.
His sickness killed all that. My last performance was when I lugged both behemoths up to his third-floor hospital room and tried to play both simultaneously to make him smile.
They just sit there now, but sometimes I think I can hear them hum to each other.
The Green-Walled Tower 