Chapter 2By the evening, Alec thought he had the latest Bruce disaster under control. He stretched his aching neck muscles as the update email sailed off to Zach. Leaning his head back, Alec closed his eyes. The sounds of a guitar floated down around him.
“Is it six o’clock already?” he asked himself. The evening was filled with people celebrating surviving another day of lockdown. Some blasted music out their windows, others shouted to one another from balcony to balcony. Somewhere above him, a neighbor dug out a guitar. The strums had sounded rusty in the first few days, as if fingers tried to remember patterns learned long ago. Most evenings now, the chords flowed much smoother, woven with acoustic slaps that spoke to a once-skilled hand.
Alec made his way back to the balcony. A quick
