Brass blazed, strings sang, and timpani boomed the finale to Venet’s Concerto, but when the orchestra lulled for the star instrument, there was silence.

The xylophone player lay unconscious under a fallen stage light.

“Don’t move him,” said the conductor. “He might have percussion.”

Not even the piccolo player laughed.

E. M. Eastick is an Australian writer currently living in Colorado.