"The Entertainer"

Two of three Dime Boys turned out be talentless (from their point of view). That just left one more dream to be crushed. 

“Speaking of pianos,” said Azuki as she moved a keyboard from a storage area over to an open space. The last Dime Boy pulled up a chair and cracked her fingers.

Nat Cool had been practicing piano.

“Woah, I had no idea,” Zipper said, amazed at the sight of her small friend sitting before the keyboard (was there a difference between pianos and keyboards? Zipper didn’t know).

Sue nodded in encouragement. “Same! I always thought you were all talk.”

Nat scoffed. Fortunately, her bruise had healed up enough to remove the meat previously space-taped to it. When she realized that Zipper, Sue, Azuki, Kaede, and Kyoko were all watching, Nat’s face grew red. She turned ‘round, facing the piano, and pulled her ushanka tight.

After a moment, she started.

“Wowza!” exclaimed Kyoko. “Neo-ragtime!”

Nothing could be more Neo-Romantic than neo-ragtime. The piano equivalent of jazz, ragtime was free from all that stuffy European academy rules about music. Free-flowing piano, dance hall kind of music, folksy quality, of the earth, from the people. Nat’s tongue stuck out from the corner of her mouth as she played, fingers moving deftly. The music drifted upwards through the fifteen floors of Starlight Cafe. Those on the upper floors poked their heads down the stairs to see what was up, and ended up staying for the whole performance.

Zipper and Sue glanced at each other, jaws slackening in amazement. Kyoko wagged a finger and bobbed her head. The crowd clapped along as Nat continued playing, her pace picking up, slowing down, certain reprises played with more energy than others. 

Sue stuck an arm out. "May I have this dance, sir?"

"Of course, madam."

Zipper and Sue hooked each other's arms and did a little dance circling each other. Nat was smiling throughout it all. 

When she finished, the cafe erupted into applause. Zipper and Sue clapped the loudest out of all of them. Nat, not used to the attention, rubbed the back of her neck.

Kaede arrived before the piano. Her stoic face relaxed into a smile. “That was pretty good, I’ll admit.”

“Yaho!” said Kyoko, grabbing Nat’s hands, spinning her around. “That was great!”

“We got a recording studio on the fifth floor," Kaede said. "You really should record and post a few songs.”

Nat scratched her head, then nodded. As the intellectuals walked with her to the stairs, the crowd cheered her on. Nat’s face was glowing.

But when she got halfway up the stairs, she glanced back down to the first floor. Zipper and Sue nodded - go west, young man!

Nat smiled, then followed Kaede and Kyoko up the stairs to the recording studio.

As the crowd settled down and returned to their respective floors, Zipper and Sue stepped outside, standing before the cafe on the narrow street, getting some fresh air as morning slipped to afternoon.

“They grow up so fast,” supposed Sue.

“You did good, Nat,” Zipper said proudly. “You did good.”

A harsh breeze ripped down the street. 

Sue sighed. “I guess we stunk, though.”

“I don’t get it,” Zipper said. “We worked so hard for a week, yet nothing good happened. I thought hard work gets rewarded.”

“I guess you gotta work hard for longer than one week.”

“But Nat didn’t.”

“Maybe she has some natural talent that we don’t.”

“That ain’t fair.”

“Life ain’t fair.”

“But it should be.”

Sue adjusted her glasses. “Guess we can’t solve everything. Ain’t that just the way.”

Zipper exhaled. “Ain’t that just the way…” Her face brightened. “But hey, at least we still got each other.”

Sue nodded. “Of course, together until the end-”

A man in a suit emerged from the cafe. “Magenta Sue? Hi, nice to meet you. I overheard your conversation earlier. I’m a high-powered executive at a world-renowned Japanimation firm. The Do-Nothings have set off a craze for human-created content. I believe Finger Game! may just have what it takes to be the next big hit! Waddya say we head over to the studio and discuss?”

Upon seeing his business card, Sue’s eyes lit up with dollar signs. “H-H-High-powered executive? Count me in, boss-san!”

A taxi-drone swooped down and scooped up both of them. Sue didn’t even look back as she departed with the executive.

This all happened in the span of like five seconds. Zipper stood, slack-jawed, at the now-empty street.

“Ain’t that just the way,” she repeated to herself. She moved a shoe slowly across the ground. “Didn’t even look back…I would never stop you from pursuing an opportunity, but you at least gotta look back before you go, dig? Otherwise…you’re leaving a friend all by herself.”

Zipper poked her head inside Starlight Cafe. Everyone was still talking about Nat’s piano playing. Azuki was cooking up some hearty meals. Sue was off making Japanimations.

Zipper remained outside, slowly dropping down into a depressed crouch, the kind where you bring your knees to your chest and hug them.

Gee whiz, she supposed. Everybody has Something, except for me.

What went wrong? She scrolled through the Hypernet, looking for more writing tips.

Don’t tell your audience how your characters feel, a forum said. Let the characters show how they feel. You shouldn’t tell the audience a character feels sad. Let the character cry.

“Ah, stupid Zipper,” she mumbled. “You should’ve looked up more rules before writing something.”

She gazed at a clear blue sky crisscrossed by golden Solar Sails. 

“How did this happen? I used to be so content and happy. I guess it’s because I didn’t know there was a wider world out there. Now that I’m striving for something, it’s so much easier to feel disappointed when things don’t work…I guess this is the first time I’m in a position where things might not work out. But why do they always work out for everyone else?”

Zipper hugged her knees tighter. She felt sad.