Hey dad:

Sorry to disappoint you, but I never got very good on the tenor sax. I’m a piker who can’t hang with a practicing musician to save his life, who can’t even read music anymore. Whose sense of melody has been impaired for decades. 

But I’ll tell you one thing you’d be proud of: I play the hell out of whatever notes come to me, even if I don’t know what key I’m playing in 90% of the time. One afternoon, after finishing the first draft of the first chapter of a brand-new novel, I had ten minutes of the best sax of my life before my lips wore out and failed me. 

Here’s what I wrote afterwards. I’ll dedicate it to you now, though I’m not sure I dedicated it to you then.

Love,

s