Remnant — Low-Profile Cap

The band split up before the shirt did. You have always felt this was worth remembering when anyone asks why you still keep it. There were several other records, a change of direction, and an interview in which somebody said the word difficult far too carefully. The shirt continued to be a shirt.

You bought it at the end of a night that had made your ears ring and your friend miss the place where you had agreed to meet. For twenty minutes you stood beneath an increasingly inaccurate description of a convenient landmark, wearing your new purchase over everything else. When they finally appeared, they had bought the same one.

It lives farther back in the drawer now. You find it while looking for something to wear with the patterned cap and spend a while reading a design you once knew by heart. Some of the ink has gone. The date is still there, along with enough of the image to produce a very complete account of the room.

You send your friend a photograph. They find theirs. It has survived in a different way: one small repair, a mark neither of you can identify, a neckline that has spent years making its own decisions. You compare the evidence with considerable affection.

Then your friend sends a link. The band is playing again. You look at the date, then at the shirt, and begin the practical business of finding a meeting place that neither of you will be able to misunderstand.

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