Pepper's Penance
READING AGE 18+
Ashley Zimmer is the third-generation owner of A to Z Music, a brick and mortar store severely impacted by the dot-com boom. Refusing to call it quits, she see salvation in Pepper Alverez, the lonely woman who plays beautiful, haunting music every weekend without fail at a public piano in a neighborhood park. Everything would be alright if she could only get the crowds that gather at the park, into her store.
But the agreement to play in Ashley’s store during the winter months does not come without baggage. Pepper’s sad, minor key blues riffs and improvisations come from a long list of what she sees as her past sins. Playing the piano is the only way she knows to express those feelings and begin her atonement. It is her penance.
As Ashley begins to understand Pepper, she’s faced with a choice. Does she view their friendship as a temporary business agreement, giving Pepper a place to play while getting the store back on its feet, or is it something more. And when Pepper makes things less than easy, how far is Ashley willing to go? Will she take the risk, turning a tenuous friendship into something more?
Unfold
Over the next several days, I made a habit of taking a nice long walk after closing up the store. The spring weather was beautiful and the daylight hours were getting longer. This was a fresh start, I told myself, a way to clear my head and get out into nature and into a healthy routine. Though somehow, I always managed to walk by Pepper’s house……
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