章 14: Chapter 14

“Is this a genuine Haynes? 1928 or ‘29 perhaps?” he asked.

“You’ve a good eye. I bought it from an estate sale in Massachusetts a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize at the time there’s a problem with it.”

“What? It looks in fine shape.”

“It’s the hole.”

“The hole?”

“Yeah. The one you blow into…”

His cocky expression clearly indicated that the “bad boy” within him had already formed several lewd comments. But he turned back to the flute instead of voicing them. “The embouchure, you mean?”

“I guess. Anyway, it has a small nick in it, and I’m worried it might not play correctly.”

“May I see it?”

I happily removed the instrument from the display case and handed it to Gray. He ran an index finger over the problem area and shook his head. “Typically this shouldn’t have any impact on response time. What you really need to check is to make sure there aren’t any leaks.”