Prince Richardson [ INSTANT | 2027 ]

He didn’t play a song. He just laid his hands on the keys and let them remember. A chord. Then another. Something that wasn’t quite jazz, wasn’t quite blues—just the sound of a man who’d stopped being a prince a long time ago, finally finding his throne in a dusty basement, one broken key at a time.

The name sat on him like a borrowed tuxedo—stiff, formal, and a little too big. Prince Richardson wasn't a prince. He was a mechanic from East Cleveland who smelled of grease and spoke in grunts. His father, a man with a cruel sense of humor, had named him after a racehorse he'd lost a fortune on the night Prince was born. prince richardson

The car needed a new fuel pump—a three-hour job. But as Prince worked, he noticed the small things: a child’s sock wedged under the passenger seat, a grocery list written in shaky handwriting, a crack in the dashboard he couldn't stop staring at. This wasn't a rich woman’s toy; it was a broken thing pretending to be whole. He didn’t play a song

“Why’d you stop?”

“I know who you are,” she said. “I have a piano. A Steinway. It’s been in a basement for fifteen years. Needs someone who remembers how to touch keys.” Then another

“At least the horse had potential,” his father used to say.