the reunion band that Hendrix plays in headlines in venues neither you nor I nor anyone else on earth can reach

That comment on Nathan’s site dropped an idea in my head. Since I have nothing else for you today, here’s the result:

Vince pulled aside the curtains and stepped into the darkened room, dragging a large wheeled suitcase behind him. “Come on,” he said and waved to the person behind him.

Jeri peered uncertainly into the room. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

A soft voice sounded from the inky shadows of the room. “Of course it’s not a good idea dearie. It’s never a good idea to disturb the spirits on the other side.” A short thin woman dressed in elastic waist jeans and some sort of draped Hawiian print shirt stepped forward. Her hair was curly and gray and went halfway down her back. “But you’re going to do it anyway, because he’s piqued your interest, hasn’t he?”

“Well,” said Jeri uncertainly, “I guess he has.”

While Jeri and the woman were talking, Vince had started pulling equipment out of the suitcase and setting it up on the table. He’d obviously done this before, as it took very little time to get everything assembled.

Jeri looked uncertainly at the table. In the dim light the assembly looked like little more than black boxes and tiny satellite dishes, all strung together with network cables.

“Almost all set up,” said Vince. He turned to look at the tiny woman. “You ready for us?”

“Of course I am,” she replied. “Why don’t we all sit down?”

The small woman sat down at the table, with her back towards the wall, facing the door that Jeri and Vince had entered. Vince sat on her left, Jeri on her right. Vince handed Jeri and the woman earphones.

“Bose?” asked Jeri. “They’re awfully pricey aren’t they?”

“Trust me, you want quality for this,” replied Vince, as Jeri settled the earphones on her head. With that she heard nothing else. “Wow, he even got the noise canceling ones,” she thought.

With that, the woman placed her hands face down on the largest black box and closed her eyes. Her face relaxed almost immediately.

Suddenly, a sound like nothing she had ever heard started to come softly through the earphones. It quickly grew louder, and within a minute tears were streaming down Jeri’s face as she listened to a music like none she had ever heard before.

After what seemed like mere moments, but Jeri later discovered had been three hours, the music ended. She opened her eyes, and saw Vince and the woman taking of their headphones.

When she could finally speak, she asked, “What was that?”

“That,” said the woman, “was Mozart and Jimi Hendrix playing the latest piece composed by Wagner.”

“It was incredible,” said Vince. “Even better than Steve Ray’s playing of Beethoven last week.”

“Stevie Ray Vaughan and Beethoven?” asked Jeri. “Who else have you heard?”

“Why just about everyone,” replied the woman. “The bopper, Vivaldi–why last month we even heard some of Shakespeare’s new sonnets set to music by Aaron Copland and performed by Ethyl Merman.”

“No Elvis?” Jeri asked.

The woman looked disdainfully at her. “Of course not!” she replied. “He plays evenings at the local bar down the street. I don’t expect he’ll be joining for another ten years or so.”