Forever Hold Your Piece (The Scarecrow Effect - Snippet 6)

This post is part of the continuing series of snippets from my upcoming project The Scarecrow Effect. Some of these are short and others almost chapter length. They are not in order. Other posts in this series can be located by browsing the blog or by typing the words "scarecrow effect" into the search engine field.

Forever Hold Your Piece

"We're only sort of punk," Adam said.

Nigel glared.

"Look at us. Our stuff is all over the place. We don't sound punk on half the stuff we do. It's pop or emo or scream core or something."

That was the most I had ever heard Adam say at one time.

I looked at Nigel. It felt likely we were going to get getting another serious meltdown. Part of me was hoping for it for a variety of reasons including the sheer entertainment value. Part of me wanted to yell, "Push him!" and get myself off the hook here. I didn't, and that fantasy distracted me a moment long enough to have almost missed Nigel's very softly spoken retort.

"You're right," he had said.

For several very long seconds it was silent.

"We're all over the map stylistically."

It remained silent.

"Our covers are crazy, but not really stylistically punk enough. We need to work on those things moving forward."

There are crossroads moments. The moments like, "Speak now or forever hold your peace". This really felt like one of those moments. Nigel had used the words "moving" and "forward" together clearly and in context. He meant them. I really didn't know these guys that well, even considering all the recent time together, but I had to assume that the silence meant that they were digesting this in much the same way as I was.

"Speak now or forever hold your peace."

I felt like it was my piece I was holding.