Swallow Soap
an excerpt

Johnnie’s face burned. He knew Thomas was right, in a way. He was a pretty average guitar player, not a powerhouse like Thomas, not imbued with a latent ability to just pick up a melody and play it and never forget it, the way Thomas did. Mostly he’d learned from Charlie, who would patiently show him the chords and play the tunes really slowly until Johnnie could manage to get through the progression enough times to start working at speed. Charlie never yelled, “Pick it up!” the way Thomas and even Rex did when he got lost in a tune or started playing in the wrong key. One time, when he thought he’d a had pretty good night, he overheard Eddie asking Charlie why Johnnie couldn’t tell when he was playing the wrong tune. “Give him time,” Charlie had said, “It ain’t everyone that does this, ya know. Look at you, ya stunned prick, ya got the best squeezebox around and all you can play is “My fockin’ Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean. No wonder, lad. She wouldn’t want to be over here listenin’ to you play accordian!” As much as Johnnie was encouraged that Charlie thought he’d get better, it bothered him that Eddie, who truly could play very little, found issue with his guitar playing.