A tear escaped from the corner of Xing's eye as he gazed upon the faded polaroid he held in front of him underneath the solitary desk lamp that provided all the illumination in the room.
Three of them---Xing, Katy and Karen. K²X, they had called themselves. A picture taken back in the late eighties at one of the gigs they had just played at. He played keyboard. Katy was on the guitar and provided vocals, while Karen was the drummer. It was a bar that a mutual friend owned. They were performing there as a group for the first time, despite having jammed with each other for a while before that. There were some minor equipment set up issues, but those were quickly resolved. Everything went well. They played a fixed set, then took some requests here and there from the patrons. Everyone had a wonderful time. Then the polaroid was taken.
Xing rubbed his thumb gently over the faded smiling face of Katy and felt emotions welling up in him again.
Ten years.
It had been ten years since that polaroid.
Katy was the best vocalist that Xing had ever heard sing. Her voice spanned different genres as K²X experimented to find their sound. Power ballads, progressive rock, even metal screams---Katy could deliver them all. On the guitar, she wasn't as impressive, but was still of acceptable quality.
Xing and Katy, they had a thing for each other. Each knew the other, but neither would make the first move. Karen was pissed sometimes, but she understood the delicate balance required to keep K²X together. Three was an unstable number---prone to shifting sides with a majority oppressing a minority.
Karen was a first rate drummer who was mostly self-taught. In another life, she was an unassuming researcher working at one of the many branches of the national lab. It was her idea for the K²X---she had been friends with Katy and Xing separately for a while before thinking of introducing everyone together to jam.
Ten years...
Xing held the polaroid tightly in his hand, his tears flowing freely now, his other hand resting on the legs that would never move on their own again.
It was horrific. He couldn't remember exactly what happened, except for a sharp and persistent pain and fainting from it. When he next came to, he was already lying on a bed in the ward of a hospital, with police officers attempting to take his statement. He was loopy from the sedatives, and it was only much later when he learnt that he was not going to walk ever again.
He asked for Katy, then Karen, but no one would tell him what had happened to them. He screamed, he pleaded, he yelled, he cried, but to no avail. The doctors tranquilised him as much as they could, citing his need of rest, while the policemen would lounge about, always eager to interview him, but never having the medical clearance to.
Ten years.
Xing thought time would heal the wounds he had in his psyche, but it didn't help at all. He hadn't wanted to look at that last polaroid of K²X, but felt guided by an invisible hand to do so. Now that he had looked at it again, he couldn't help but feel the same strange sense of loss that he once felt a long, long time ago.
Xing placed the polaroid on the silver ash tray that he had in front of him, already half-filled with the legacy of many burnt out cigarette butts. He whipped out a lighter from his shirt pocket and struck the flint with a smooth motion, aiming the flame at the corner of the polaroid.
The relic of a time past caught the flame and burnt itself up into a crisp, its ashes falling silently into the ash tray.
