Chapter One
September, 1967. Detroit, Michigan
Aaron Kantro follows his colleagues through the labyrinth of the nightclub’s kitchen and out the back door. A waft of cool air hits his face as he steps onto the concrete platform next to the loading dock. His sweat instantly begins to dry and he can see steam misting from the other musicians’ tuxedos. It’s the band’s third break. They will play one more set of forty five minutes. Then their work for the night is done.
There are nine or ten people gathered around the rear entrance to the club. They are either jazz fans who want to hang out or they are so loaded they don’t know how they got there.
A man with his shirttails dangling from his suit stumbles into Aaron. “I wan’ shake your hand,” he announces. He extends his unkempt digits and then pulls his hand away as if to recalibrate his arm’s trajectory. Aaron, when he puts his hand out to respond, feels like an idiot. He puts his hands in his pockets and hopes the man will go away.
“I tell you somethin’“, the man says. “You play some drums for a white boy. Some fuckin’ drums. I close my eyes, can’t tell the diff’rence. Sound jus’ like a real drummer.” He tries again to extend his hand and stumbles across his own feet.
“Excuse me”, a young lady says as she passes between Aaron and the drunk. She wants an autograph from the legendary saxophonist, Zoot Prestige. Aaron’s boss transfers a cheroot from his hand to his mouth. He leans down to inscribe his signature into the lady’s little book, while trying to keep his eyes averted from the cleavage that is so conspicuously thrust into his face. Aaron notes this little drama and loses his anger. Zoot Prestige is just too funny. Aaron quietly moves behind the imposing figure of his boss. The drunk rambles away, talking to himself.
Aaron is the only white person beneath the scalloped awning. There are perhaps ten white people in the club. It bothers him more than he likes to admit that he longs to see other white faces. It has been his decision to play jazz, and his brand of jazz carries him to black clubs in black neighborhoods. Sometimes, the moment he walks into a place, he feels the air freeze with racial tension. Sometimes he is scared. The only way through it is to play the music.
As the little throng disperses, Zoot butts his smoke in the sand of an ashtray. He steps off the concrete pad and walks across the lot towards his car.
After waiting about thirty seconds, the group’s organist, Tyrone Terry, follows the lanky figure of his boss. Aaron waits another thirty seconds and follows his colleagues to the cream-colored Continental. This precaution seems a little silly but there are probably narcs in the club and Aaron has to admit that it is pretty obvious what’s happening when three jazz musicians get into a car and don’t go anywhere.
Soon the men are engrossed in the ritual of the pipe: lighting, inhaling, holding breath, exhaling. It’s cozy in the Continental’s plush interior. Air comes sighing through the upholstery’s leather seams as the musicians’ weight compresses the seat cushions. Zoot and his side-men are settling down, recharging their nerves for the next set, the last set. It is one o’clock in the morning.
“She wanted you to look at ‘em,” Tyrone says to his employer.
“I know,” responds Zoot, “but it seems so…I don’t know…un-chivalrous to put my nose right into a lady’s cleavage. Besides, it’s redundant. I seen titties before. Wan’t nothin’ special about hers…they’s just….”
BANG! There is a huge sound, an explosion. The men’s bodies react instinctively. They duck, and their arms rise to cover their heads.
The car lurches as a man dives across the hood, holding a pistol in his right hand. His legs swim wildly as he fights to stop his momentum. Whatever tactic he has in mind, it isn’t working. The car’s sheen and finish turn the hood into a sliding board.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” In the back seat Aaron curses loudly without thinking. He has never before heard a gun shot. In spite of this fact, he recognizes the sound. It is rounder, weightier, and more final than the sound of a firecracker.
The man on the car’s hood waves the pistol frantically. Slithering to get his balance, he clutches at the windshield wipers and misses. Gravity and car wax slide him across the polished metal until he lands on the ground. The pistol fires as he hits the gravel. The bullet penetrates a tire with a loud hiss.
The man springs up and disappears among the ordered rows of vehicles in the parking lot.
Zoot Prestige holds a finger to his mouth, slides from under the steering wheel and drops quietly to the floor of the passenger seat. Zoot doesn’t want to get shot. Zoot doesn’t want to be a witness if somebody gets shot. Zoot doesn’t want questions. Zoot doesn’t want any dealings with the Poe-Leece!
Aaron scrunches onto the floor of the back seat until his arm rests on the hump of the drive shaft. Tyrone, on the other side, is hoping to disappear via the flawed logic of an ostrich. He is pulling his little pork-pie hat over his eyes.
A voice shouts, “I’LL KILL YOU MOTHERFUCKER!”
Two more shots are fired from the opposite corner of the lot. Two sparking ovals of muzzle flash light up the windshields of Cadillacs and Thunderbirds. A man’s face appears, pressed to the window of Zoot’s car. His cheek is distorted against the glass, with an eye like a panicked horse. His quick breath steams the window only inches from Zoot’s face. With a slight turn to the right, Zoot becomes a virtual nose-to-nose mirror image of the man with the gun.
The enraged shooter doesn’t see the human being an inch from his face. He raises his snubby revolver over the top of the vehicle, fires twice without aiming, and runs to cover behind a black Eldorado. The wind has changed. The shots are barely audible.
“Sheee-it!” Zoot grumbles, “I hope nobody messes up my short. I paid three hundred bucks for this custom paint job.” The immaculately polished car is long and sleek as a submarine.
A voice shouts, “HEY LOOK HE’S OVER THERE!”
Bang bang bang! Flashes light up the musicians’ faces. Guns are all over the place. Aaron looks at Tyrone. The keyboard player has twitched and spilled a pipe full of burning marijuana into his lap. He brushes and pats frantically to prevent embers from smoldering through the pants of his tux. Thrusting his hands into his pockets he makes a basket to prevent sparks from spreading onto the seat or the carpet. Aaron produces a handkerchief and helps contain the disaster. Tyrone is feeling little stings of fire burning their way into his palms. He is tossing the embers back and forth as he jumps and wriggles all over the tiny floor space behind the driver’s seat. When the young musicians’ eyes meet they realize that they have entered the realm of the completely absurd.
Confessions Of An Honest Man Description:
Artists often come from troubled families. Aaron Kantro passionately wants to be a musician but his mother opposes his dreams. She harasses her son to ensure that he won’t get what he wants. What’s wrong with this woman? Why does she turn her family’s life into a reign of terror? It takes some time to see what’s driving Esther Kantro’s behavior.
The classic Hero’s Journey begins as Aaron storms his mother’s blockade. He has won an important scholarship to study music. He’s only nine years old but he finds courage and learns the art of deception in order to take his prize. The battle is the first of many that Aaron and his siblings must fight. This novel explores a fifty year slice of life through the eyes of the Kantro family. Along the way we pass through high school in the 60’s, The Summer Of Love, meet Jimi Hendrix, fight in the Soviet Afghan War and make the arduous journey from addiction to recovery.
