Primo shrugged, grinning. “In my opinion? No.”
Luca whirled to me. “Goddammit, Max.” He was smiling, so I knew he wasn’t actually upset. He turned back to Primo. “Show me.”
We tagged along the two of them as Primo took us to a room in the back.
“Please, take a seat,” he said to Ben and I, gesturing at the couches.
Luca took a seat on a stool with some space around it.
I sat on a loveseat and Ben plopped down next to me.
Primo excused himself to go get the guitar, while Luca smiled at the photos on the wall. There were bands and musicians smiling with guitars bought from here. Then he pointed at one near the wall opposite us.
I got to my feet and went to look. Luca when he was maybe nineteen, holding a brand new guitar. He wasbeamingin a way that told me everything I needed to know. He’d signed the photo and added a tiny smiley face in the corner. Gods, I loved him.
I went back to sit with Ben, knowing he’d take a look at the picture once he got up.
Primo came in with a guitar case. “So, this one is, like I’ve said, special. I made it myself, finished around New Year’s.” He spoke about things I couldn’t understand as he opened the case and handed over the guitar to Luca, who took it, looking almost reverent.
Luca placed the instrument on his lap and caressed it so, so carefully. “What’s the catch?” he asked, glancing at Primo before ever touching the strings.
“Look at the back.”
Luca lifted it and tilted it away from himself, squinting at something.
“It’s made from The Tree,” Primo explained quietly, his smile almost a smirk as he waited for Luca’s reaction.
Luca gasped, his fingers twitching enough for the guitar to jostle before he caught it again. “No way?”
“Try it out. See how it sounds.” We heard the bell above the door and Primo excused himself.
“What’s the significance?” Ben asked when it was just the three of us.
Luca, still holding the guitar like the work of art it was, turned it carefully so we could see. There was a pattern on the shiny wood, but it looked as if it was natural, not man made.
“The Tree is this giant mahogany some loggers found in like the sixties. It was so big, they couldn’t even fell it at first. Anyway, there’s a whole story about it, you should definitely Google it. But long story short, it’s unique. The pattern is from a genetic defect, or that’s the theory. It’s considered the best tonewood in the world.” He stroked his fingers over the pattern. “You can get a decent acoustic guitar for a few hundred dollars. Something like this… well, I think it adds on at least two zeros, maybe a bit less since it’s not completely made out of it.”
It blew my mind that an instrument could cost that much, but at the same time it made total sense.
Then he started to play, and even I could understand how special this was. There was a beauty in the sound I hadn’t expected. Like something… so resonant and pure that for some reason a song I knew—one of Kaiju’s hit ballads—made tears spring into my eyes.
Ben grabbed my hand and I could tell he was feeling the same.
Luca didn’t need to sing. It was as though the guitar was doing that for him.
When the song came to an end and the final notes faded, he lifted a hand to wipe his cheek, then gave us a watery little smile.
Primo stepped in the room, took one look at us all, and chuckled quietly. “I see you’ve found your new friend?”
Luca nodded. “Yeah. I….” He stopped to clear his throat and wiped his cheeks again. “I think I’ll call her Betty.”
Primo smiled. “Betty sounds good to me.”
He sat down to listen to Luca play for a while longer, then Luca glanced at the clock over the door. “We gotta get going, right?”
“We still have some time, but maybe we should get to the airport early, just in case?” Ben smiled.
“Right. Who knows how the traffic will be,” Luca agreed, and ever so carefully put Betty into the hard case that was also fancier than any I’d ever seen without being ostentatious.
