“Maura never lets me walk past a performance without stopping to listen, just for a minute,” Nina said. A small audience had already gathered around the musicians, swaying and tapping their feet to the score.
“What about dancing?” Amie smiled, beginning to roll her shoulders and swing her hips subtly.
Nina instinctively tensed, her arms crossed in front of her. “No, thank you,” she said.
“Come on,” Amie begged. She tugged gently at her sister’s arms until Nina relented, her body slackening, easing its way into an uncoordinated groove, still somewhat inhibited but a great improvement.
And the two sisters rocked back and forth within the crowd of dancing spectators, all of whom were briefly grateful to be transported to a time when the strings really were just a group of beautiful instruments.
Javier
After the September debate, Javier hoped that Jack would bring it up himself: the fact that his uncle had touted the sob story of his short-string soldier nephew on the national stage. As if it were something to brag about. As if it were his story to tell.
But Jack returned to their apartment the day after the debate, and he never even mentioned it. Javi wanted to believe that Jack was simply preparing to discuss it, perhaps even conferring with his family about Anthony’s behavior before approaching Javi with a solution. But after several days of skirting the subject, Javier was fed up with the silence.
He decided to ask while he and Jack were at the boxing studio. Though Jack had stopped most of his combat training after revealing his “short string” to the army, he still suited up in gloves and headgear each week to help Javi as a sparring partner.
Javi was practicing his punches against the strike shield Jack held up. “Are we ever gonna talk about what your uncle did at the debate last week?” he asked.
“Yeah, that was a real dick move,” Jack responded in between jabs. “Even for him.”
Javi waited for Jack to say more, but the gym was quiet, save for the smacking of Javi’s gloves against the padding.
“Well, did you talk to him after?” Javi asked.
“He’s not exactly easy to get ahold of right now.”
“Then what about your aunt? Or your dad?”
“I guess I just didn’t want to make a big deal about it.” Jack shrugged from behind the shield.
“But it is a big deal!” Javi said. “I wish you would take this more seriously.”
“Well, I’d rather not call any extra attention to my string,” said Jack. “For obvious reasons.”
“I just don’t want your uncle using my string to get himself elected,” Javi said, beating his own chest with his glove. “That’s my life. He has no right to use it.”
Jack sighed, nodding. “I know, Javi. You’re right. He shouldn’t have done it. And I’m sorry that I haven’t had a chance to talk to my family about it,” he said. “I’ve just been dealing with everyone texting me and calling me, asking if I was the short-stringer he was referring to that night. And now everybody wants to talk to me about it, but I really don’t want to talk to any of them.”
Javi couldn’t believe how self-centered he sounded. Jack hadn’t been the one on the floor of the chapel, worrying about his family, praying to God through tears.
“Wow, I’m sorry, man. I had no idea you were dealing with so much shit,” Javi said bitterly. “It must really suck to be a short-stringer.”
Jack shook his head. “You know that’s not how I meant it. The only reason I hate talking to these people is because it makes me feel like such a fucking fraud!” Jack threw his strike pad against the wall, startling a few other boxers across the room and reminding them both to lower their voices for fear of being overheard.
Javi knew that his friend had been struggling with the switch. That morning Jack was wearing a T-shirt with his high school mascot on the front, and Javi realized that it had been a while since he had last seen Jack wear anything with the army logo. Javi was glad that Jack was at least feeling something, that their actions weighed on him, too. But Javi still wanted to shake Jack’s shoulders, snap him out of his funk, make him realize there was so much more he could be doing with his time.
“I just don’t see why you’re letting your uncle get away with this,” Javi said. “With everything. All of his anti-short-stringer crap.”
Javi was struggling to fend off his anger, until he remembered what he had recently seen online, a few tweets that confirmed Anthony Rollins was in the room when the STAR Initiative was born.