A Cold Heart
Chapter One
The witness remembers it like this:
Shortly after 2 a.m., Baby Boy Lee exits the Snake Pit through the rear alley
fire door. The light fixture above the door is set up for two bulbs, but one is
missing, and the illumination that trickles down onto the garbage-flecked
asphalt is feeble and oblique, casting a grimy mustard-colored disc, perhaps
three feet in diameter. Whether or not the missing bulb is intentional will
remain conjecture.
It is Baby Boy's second and final break of the evening. His contract with the
club calls for a pair of one-hour sets. Lee and the band have run over their
first set by twenty-two minutes, because of Baby Boy's extended guitar and
harmonica solos. The audience, a nearly full house of 124, is thrilled. The Pit
is a far cry from the venues Baby Boy played in his heyday, but he appears to be
happy, too.
It has been a while since Baby Boy has taken the stage anywhere and played
coherent blues. Audience members questioned later are unanimous: Never has the
big man sounded better.
Baby Boy is said to have finally broken free of a host of addictions, but one
habit r ... read full excerpt from: A Cold Heart ebook
