They ate in the parlor in front of the window fan. Jim looked over the paper as he chewed. Leo finished off a hot dog and a hamburger and was reaching for another when Ryder walked into the kitchen carrying two six-packs of beer and no harmonica harness. He said Lars would be along in a minute with the TV so let’s make it fast, Young Buddy, you play and I’ll listen.

Outside, Leo sat on the hood of Ryder’s Impala. It was hot under his legs and felt good. He played “The Love Abode” for him in three separate keys, then sung and played it in two more. Ryder stood back in his short-sleeved cowboy shirt, his thin arms crossed in front of his chest, and he studied Leo’s face and hands as he played. On his exit riff Leo threw in some flutters and a couple of hand-smacks before he capped it all off as loud as his lungs and the harp would let him. Ryder went right in with instruction. Leo had noticed that the better he got, the more picky Ryder was getting with his teaching points. Today it was Leo’s left hand, his holding hand. Ryder said when he got carried away on the high notes, his pinky finger stuck out like a boner, letting precious air out of his fanning cup thereby throwing off his tremolo. “And your hand-smacks are all wrong, Young Buddy; you want to hit them on your off-notes, not the other way around. Ryder took up Leo’s new A harp and showed him what he meant. He let out a woo-wah-ing shotgun of a riff that zipped out into the trees like sound shrapnel.”You want to top ’em on the downside. That adds juice to your high notes, which can already cut through the bull. Got it?”

Leo thought that he did, though he didn’t feel up to trying it out right now. He heard a car coming down the hill and turned to see Lars’s Rambler pull up behind Jim’s Valiant. Two of Lars’s regular buddies were with him. Leo could see TV antennas sticking up in the back seat next to a man finishing off a can of beer. Lars put his head out the window as he shut off the engine. “Einstein good as you yet, Stillwell?”

“No way,” Leo said.

“How ’bout it, Slim. Should the kid keep his day job?”

“Not for damn long.” Ryder squeezed Leo on the shoulder, held the door open for the men, and followed them inside.