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feeling he'd been missing. There was no sense of wrongness, as there had been at Nadine's gig.
Everything was copacetic: completely satisfactory.
He looked at the other men on the stage. Their eyes were closed, as if they were in a trance.
Maybe it was, in a way, he thought, continuing with his own playing. He started fingertapping wildly,
hammering down on the frets, all over the neck. It seemed that no matter where he played, it fit. He
went into a double-string fingertapped run from the twelfth fret down to the third that sounded like a
classical guitar riff.
He was mad, he was crazy, he was in love. He was having more sheer fun playing than he'd ever
had in his life. He went on jamming for what seemed like hours, but when the song finally ended on
Elijigbo's signal, it felt all too soon. He was drained, but exhilarated.
Elijigbo put his bass down. There was a serious, concerned look on his face. "Slim," he said. "I
have to go and think about what just happened. You tell Progress that my people and I will give any
help that's asked of us." He laughed, and it was a comforting, mischievous laugh. "I don't think I'd
want to miss what's going to happen at that festival." He and the men who'd come with him walked
silently out of the building.
Slim reluctantly put the little guitar back on its stand and walked over to the table, waiting for the
judgment. Nadine stood, walked over to him and kissed him, holding him tightly against her. If
lovemaking could be contained in a kiss, Slim would have sworn it lived in that one. He had what he
though of as an orgasm, taking place entirely in his mind and heart. Nadine broke the kiss, breathing
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heavily, and moved to stand by his side. He put his arm around her small shoulders and looked to
Progress, waiting to hear what the old man would say.
Progress looked up at him curiously, then looked back down and shook his head.
"Son," he said. "I can see, now, I've underestimated you. That was I don't know what that was.
Never heard nothin' like it. Do you realize you almost called up the deep power all by yourself?"
"I didn't mean to," Slim said. "I didn't know I was doing anything. I was just playing for me and
Nadine."
"I know you was, son. That's the way of the power. It just comes. But I gots to say, I didn't have
no idea you had that much in you."
"I did," Nadine said proudly, patting Slim's head.
"Nadine, girl, this is the man you called a long-haired fool," Progress said. "Now you say you
knew? Girl, you lyin'."
"I am not," she said. "I could tell. I just didn't think I liked him. I didn't like him having so much
when I can hardly use what little I have."
"Girl," Progress said, his eyes narrowing. "That's your own fault. You scared of it, that's all. You
got to forget that. You're a part of this, too. Separate what you do from who you is. You still gots to
come home and eat spaghetti with your daddy, now and then. Get over it. You can't keep buttin' your
head out on a stoopin' post."
"Listen, folks," Slim interrupted, made uncomfortable by the direction the talk was taking. "Can
we postpone this and get out of here?"
"Yes, Daddy. Would you mind driving us home to get the van? I'd like to take Slim to my place
and spend the night there. I bet he looks real good when he's cleaned up. Is that okay?"
"It's fine with me," Progress said. "Long as you be careful. We gots the people we need, so there
ain't much doin' till the festival's set up. You two go on and enjoy yourselves. But watch out, you
hear? We ain't seen the last of the Vipers yet. Not by a long shot."
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14
Human freedom depends not only on the destruction and restructuring of the
economic system, but on the restructuring of the mind. New modes of poetic action, new
networks of analogy, new possibilities of expression ail help formulate the nature of the
super session of reality, the transformation of everyday life as it encumbers us today, the
unfolding and eventual triumph of the marvelous.
Paul Garon, Blues and the Poetic Spirit
My baby gets unruly, thinks she can stop a train,
Hold up her head, stop the lightning and the rain.
Johnny Shines, "Black Panther" (unreleased version)
Nadine's apartment was a surprise to Slim. It was neat and clean and attractive, filled with books
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