A face in the crowd

 

It was only an accident when they met on a hot summer day at jazz in the park. Actually, Nina had never listened to jazz. Oh, she kept talking about it with her roommate and she was free and had nothing to do. So she went without her roommate since she sense her roommate thought she was staying home too much.

"It's free," her roommate told her. "Take a picnic. Enjoy the music."

Well, she picked up a sandwich on the way and took the last of the iced tea. She didn't know what to expect. Of course, there were a few old people, but they were nice and happy to see someone young at the park. 

Finally, some old guy and a few even older got their instruments going. Really, it was a lot to be desired, but Nina set down on a park bench away from the crowd and opened her bag of chips. Finally, the horns commenced and she thought there might be a duck in the orchestra. Still, it was nice to see the group on stage. She bit into a chip ever so serious just to see there was someone else on the other end of the bench. Of course, he didn't bring anything to eat. 

Naturally, she offered him something from her bag of chips. Funny, how he took one. She smiled. Before she knew it, she was sharing a tuna sandwich with him.

Cam said his grandfather played the saxophone in the band.

"It's sweet of you to be here," Nina told Cam, he was very supportive.

"I'm a music major, but I only play the drums and the keyboard."

"You're not in a band?" She asked.

"Oh, there is a jazz band that gets together around the holidays. We used to play at parties, but we haven't for the longest while." He shrugged.

"Well, maybe they need you in this band." She could even see from here the old-timer looked a little lost and really wasn't keeping up the pace on the drums, but then again, maybe it didn't matter.

"Oh, I couldn't. This is their show," Cam said. The more he talked of his grandfather, the more Nina enjoyed his company. 

Possibly, she wouldn't have liked jazz if she hadn't met Cam.