Chapter 5: This Sound Was All There Ever Was

It took all the willpower he had, but he avoided picking up incredible albums he'd always wanted like Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and Tom Waits' Heartattack and Vine in favour of something that surprised him.

He'd chatted a bit with the store employee and ended up with a small pile of recommendations he'd heard little or nothing of before. There was some funk and hip hop, a couple electronic selections. All good, but when he heard the first few seconds of Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra, his eyes widened.

A simple, repeated idea. Lightness. Then the saxophone.

The whole world stopped. He just stood there, motionless, afraid that if he were to move, even slightly, he'd wake up back in his Mile End apartment.

He'd never felt so alone.

Something stirred in him so deeply it was as if everything around him was simply carried off on the wind of the Pharoah. It didn't really exist. This sound was all there ever was.

The track hadn't actually ended, or maybe it just flowed seamlessly into the next, but he came to his senses and removed the headphones. The world came rushing back to him. NWA was now playing in the store. This was exactly what he'd come here for.

When he checked out, he picked up Mingus and Waits anyway.