His pants are buzzing as he starts practicing his scales, causing him to blat out a loud wrong note. He lets his saxophone hang loose from the neck strap while he digs the phone out of his pocket. It's her; she has not called recently, and she is not the kind of ex who calls without reason. He flips open the phone and takes the call.

"Hello?"

"Hi. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Not really, what's up?" He detaches his sax and sets it next to him.

"Well, I have some news, just thought I should tell you before you hear it somewhere else."

"You get engaged or something?"

"Ha, I wish it was that kind of news. Not, it's about Laurie, actually."

"Oh God, not again." He drops his head into his hands. "She didn't get engaged, did she?"

"Well, no…"

"She got arrested? Wreck another car?"

"No-"

"She was knocked up last I heard; shouldn't she have given birth to the devil spawn by now?"

"Well, that' kind of what I'm calling about. She had a little girl a few weeks ago-"

"That's hardly news you'd have to call me about, Jill-"

"There's more. The little girl is fine, but Laurie died in childbirth."

He does not reply.

"I just thought you should know."

"She's what?"

"She's dead."

"Wow," he sighs. "I always thought it would be herpes or a car accident. What went wrong?"

"Well, she's tiny. Being pregnant took a lot out of her. Her body just gave up after the baby was out."

"I suppose that's not too surprising, considering she was bragging about anorexia shaping her body, though she'd started eating normally again by the time I dated her."

"I have to get this off my chest," the girl on the other end blurts out. "She had so many issues and problems, is it ok that part of me is lad she won't be raising this kid?"

"What?"

"Think about it. She glorifies her time as an anorexic, she drank too much, smoked, smoked more things that I want to know about, drove horribly-"

"You forget I dated her, and broke up with her."

"But does that make it ok that I'm glad she's dead rather than a mother?"

"I don't know, Jill. If it makes you feel any better, I'm glad she's not raising this kid, too."

"Eh, that helps, but not much… Anyways, that's really it, just thought you should know."

"Yeah, thanks, I guess."