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Something always felt wrong about the callouses on his hands. It must have been a ridiculous thought; when Gunther couldn’t keep it in his head any longer, the words made Auruo’s lip curl up on one side and down on the other.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” his friend asked, leaning against the doorframe almost as if he was afraid to step into the immaculate room.
Gunther looked down at his hands. They were soft and young-looking but for the callouses that adorned his fingers; it had taken years of hard work to create them and keep them. But sometimes it struck him as odd.
“I’m not sure,” he said softly, a finger tracing one on the opposite hand. “They just feel wrong, somehow. Like they shouldn’t be where they are.”
If eyerolls could be heard, he would have certainly heard Auruo’s. “What’ve you been spending all these years learning the guitar for, then?” he asked from the doorway. “If you want callouses somewhere else I’m sure my mom’d let you take a hoe to all the weeds in the garden. Then you’d be a walking callous for a few weeks.”
Gunther offered him a small smile. “I’ll pass,” he said. “Though if she really could use the help…”
“Nah, nah, I was messin’ with you. Why else you think she had so many brats, huh?” Auruo scuffed the toe of one shoe against the carpet. “Now hurry it up,” he muttered. “Your loitering over your callouses isn’t getting us to the nursing home any faster. Did you wanna do something for your grandparents or not?”
“It’s their 60th wedding anniversary,” he said. “It’s a big day.” No one had thought his grandma’s health would let them celebrate it together: not the doctors, not the family. But she was still there with her warm hugs and her baking knowledge, and that uncanny ability she had to make his grandpa laugh from the bed right next to his. “I wanted to play their favorite song for them.”
“And I promised to sing. Just this once—but ain’t nobody gonna hear any of it from here. So let’s go sing some sappy ballad or whatever.”
“It’s not too sappy, I promise.” Gunther got to his feet and lifted his case, smiling a little. “Anyway…sorry about that. It was probably nothing—just an odd feeling I get sometimes…”
“Like when I think my feet should have thumbs,” Auruo said, “but they don’t. But they should, right? Instead of ankles or some shit.”
Gunther was not sure what to say to that, so he made a show of jingling his keys as he pulled them from his jacket pocket instead.