The Curdled Master

A musician recently died, and there is testimonial after testimonial about how he was the kindest, most wonderful person. I've read a number of books about spies. Their trade secret is homework. Every action that seems to go right with a mere shrug is made possible by unimaginable hours of unseen preparation, backup preparation, and backup-backup preparation. A spy's edge over the rest of us is that they're willing to do that work, and we never expect it because we imagine we live in a world where people aren't capable of it. This musician went so far out of his way to wrong me on multiple occasions that it defied all expectation. He "put in the work" whenever our paths crossed. Was I rude to him? Did I steal work from him? Had I wronged a friend of his? Nope. My sin was that I was overly familiar and friendly with him once on a gig a very long time ago. I'd spoken to him with an easy camaraderie that he didn't believe I'd earned. That's it. Yep, that small. I noted his reaction…