originally published in Down These Strange Streets, 2011
Texas, c. 1954.
Our narrator is a black, unlicensed (blacks couldn't get detective licenses in 1950's Texas) private eye. One night Alma May, an ex-lover, engages his services. She takes him back to her place, and plays a 78 her brother Tootie, a blues singer, has sent to her.
The sound isn't the blues, but something indescribable that affects and frightens both of them. Alama May asks our narrator to find Tootie, who she's sure is in terrible trouble (nothing new) and bring him home.
The narrator sets off for Dallas, eventually tracing Tootie to an ultra-seedy hotel, where he lays around with the strange music playing, musical notes painted on the walls, and notebooks full of strange music notation. When the narrator stops the music, a gateway to another dimension opens in the walls, and a strange monster starts to enter. The music drives off the monster and closes the gateway.
The narrator takes Tootie back home, with the monster in pursuit. There it catches and takes him.
I dug the first part of this tale, with its 50's Texas setting, racial issues, and the blues. But in the second it becomes pretty mundane. Yet another in the "Cthulhu Blues" genre which periodically raises its head. This is one of the better examples, though.
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