Inside was an old leather vest covered in band patches, backstage passes, guitar picks, and photographs of Dad performing onstage.
Then I found a picture of Mom.
She was standing beside Dad, smiling up at him as he played his guitar. He was smiling back, looking happier than I’d seen him in fourteen years.
I remembered those evenings in our living room, before everything changed.
A key lay beneath the vest.
I sank into Dad’s chair, sobbing so hard that Frank had to hold me upright.
He stayed until I calmed down, then quietly left.
As I put the photographs back, something metallic caught my eye.
A key lay beneath the vest, attached to a small tag with an unfamiliar address.
I grabbed my jacket.
I turned it over, hoping to find an explanation.
Nothing.
I searched the box again, but there was no note.
I grabbed my jacket and car keys.
The address took me to the outskirts of town, past a row of warehouses and an abandoned gas station.
I whispered.
I’d lived in this town my entire life, yet I couldn’t remember ever coming here.
I checked the address on the tag again. It matched.
“What were you doing out here, Dad?” I whispered.
I walked around the building, looking for some indication of what it was used for. There was no business sign, no cars, and nothing visible through the windows.
I tried the key.
The place looked almost abandoned, except for a clean welcome mat outside the entrance.
I tried the key.
It turned smoothly.
For a moment, I hesitated, wondering whether I was about to discover something about Dad I would rather not know.
Then I pushed the door open, reached for the light switch, and stepped inside.
It turned smoothly.
I stood in the doorway, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
The walls were covered in dark acoustic panels. A large mixing desk occupied one corner, surrounded by speakers and computer monitors. Microphones stood beside guitar amplifiers, and a drum kit sat behind a glass partition.
It was a recording studio.
“Dad?”
I stepped inside and ran my fingers along the mixing desk. Everything was spotless, as though someone had been taking care of the place.
“Dad?” I whispered, almost expecting him to answer.
Then I noticed the photographs.
They covered an entire wall, mixed with old concert posters and newspaper clippings.
I leaned closer.
There was Dad, twenty years younger, standing under bright stage lights with his guitar raised above his head.
In another photograph, he was surrounded by a crowd reaching toward the stage.
I leaned closer to a newspaper clipping.
“Local Rock Band Packs Riverside Theater for Third Consecutive Weekend.”
I read the headline twice.
I moved toward the instruments.
My father had played to packed venues. People had bought tickets to see him perform. And he’d never told me.
“Why did you hide all this?” I murmured.
I moved toward the instruments.
There were electric guitars, a keyboard, and recording equipment I’d spent years watching reviews of online. I recognized an audio interface that had once cost more than three months of my wages.
My guitar.
Then something beside the keyboard made me stop.
A battered black guitar with a small silver star sticker near the neck.
My guitar.
I’d bought it secondhand at sixteen and played it almost every day until the arguments with Dad became unbearable. Eventually, it disappeared during one of my attempts to clear out my room. I’d assumed I’d accidentally thrown it away.
I picked it up.
Yet there it was, sitting on a stand with fresh strings.
I picked it up, turning it over in my hands.
Someone had even repaired the crack near the bridge.
My throat tightened.
For the first time, I wondered whether Dad had built this place for someone other than himself.
But why would he?
For me.
But why would he? And why did he grow to hate music so much?
I lowered the guitar carefully onto its stand.
On the table beside the mixing desk sat a small flash drive.
I clicked “Play.”
I picked it up and noticed a piece of tape wrapped around it. In Dad’s handwriting were two words:
“Our Band.”
A computer stood nearby. I plugged in the drive and found a single video file.
I clicked “Play.”
The screen flickered, then filled with grainy footage of four young men rehearsing in a cramped garage.
Everyone burst out laughing.
There was Dad, his hair falling past his shoulders, playing guitar with a cigarette tucked behind his ear.
“Come on, Frank!” he shouted at the drummer. “My grandma can keep a better beat than that!”
“Then invite her to join the band!”
Everyone burst out laughing.
I laughed until my eyes watered.
The video jumped between old performances, backstage footage, and ridiculous moments from rehearsals. At one point, Dad attempted to jump off a speaker and landed flat on his backside.
In another clip, the bassist accidentally knocked over an entire tray of drinks.
I laughed until my eyes watered.
I’d never seen Dad like this. He was loud, funny, full of energy. Nothing like the man who barely spoke to me over breakfast.
Dad appeared.
Then the footage suddenly stopped.
The screen went black.
A few seconds later, Dad appeared.
Not the young musician I’d just been watching, but the man I’d buried that morning.
Dad looked down at his hands.