"Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright"

-"Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles

The Crumbs would never forget the time they turned on BBC radio to find a new station, Radio 1, playing all of the latest and greatest pop music of the day.

They listened to Flowers in the Rain–the very first song that Radio 1 ever played–in silence. They didn't tap their feet or hum along because that type of thing wasn't done at funerals.

That was what this was–a homage to what had passed, an acceptance of a thing now dead.

After the song ended, they got up, and went about their day, feeling its emptiness as they did so.

Many more days passed like this, in somber idleness. They didn't know what to do with themselves and a part of them was scared to move around too much, lest they be noticed by the authorities.

The police had had their names in their ledgers for years now. It was only a matter of time before someone came and evicted them from their home.

Even though Bash and Smiley technically owned Wolgemoth & Sons, neither one of them was old enough to obtain legal permits to dock at the marina.

So they were forced to live in the shell of their old lives.

Without the radio, having to row back and forth to the docks felt less like a sacrifice to be made in the name of piracy and more like a mockery of what they used to have.

One night in late October, Syl and Bash sat in the wheelhouse, snuggled close together since the heat wasn't working.

Smiley lounged on an armchair and Kathy was scribbling a letter to Jim on the coffee table.

Jim had gone back home to the States, but he and Kathy had been exchanging letter after letter nearly every other day.

All the lights were off, except for the one above the stove, which cast a warm yellow hue around them.

Syl's head rested on Bash's chest and she said, "Do you want to know something?"

"Sure."

"This isn't so bad."

"What isn't?"

Syl shrugged a shoulder. "I thought losing the radio would be the end. But it's almost like I've gotten used to not having it."

Bash didn't want to agree, but it was true. After the emotions of losing the station wore off, he found himself on a precipice. And itching desire for something new. He would have stayed in radio forever, but now that that wasn't an option, he had his whole life ahead of him.

"What do we do now?" Smiley wondered, his voice mystical, knowing that none of them had an answer.

"I don't know, but I rather like it here. Right now." Kathy licked the edge of her envelope and sealed it with a kiss.

Bash smiled even though none of the Crumbs could see it.

His grin faded as another thought came into his head. "There's something I wanted to talk to you all about."

Syl sat up to face him and raised an eyebrow.

"My birthday's next month."

Smiley squinted. "Congratulations?"

"I'll finally be eighteen in November. I've been thinking that I'm tired of living in fear of the truant officers. Smiley and I always planned on me becoming his legal guardian once I was able to, but I was talking to Martin Beckett at the Snake and Sparrow the other day. He said there might be a chance I could become the legal guardian over all three of you."

Everyone sat in stunned silence. Bash couldn't tell what Syl was thinking by her blank expression, so he went on, "It'll be easy for me and Smiles since we're related. And Syl's almost eighteen with no other family to intercede. Kathy might be a little tougher, but...well, we'd have to get permission from your uncle, Kath."

Everyone turned to look at Kathy. Her expression was dark, but there was a determined set to her brow.

They knew that getting permission from her uncle meant having to actually go see him in person.

After taking a moment to think about it, Kathy said, "I'm tired of living in fear too, Bash. If you really think I'd finally be free from my family, then I'll do anything."

"Do you think he'd say no?" Bash asked.

Kathy shook her head. "No. He might ask for money, but he can be easily bought, I'm sure of it."

Bash smiled. "Brave of you, Kathy. Syl?"

Syl wouldn't meet his gaze and twisted her hands in her lap. "I don't know if I would be comfortable having you as my...legal...?"

"Legal guardian?"

She nodded.

Bash sat up straighter. "It's not like I'm adopting you. And it'll only be until your birthday in May. I just...we can't lose any more. If those coppers come up and split us apart, then where would we be?"

Syl bit her lip, knitting her eyebrows together.

Finally, she said, "Alright."

She settled contemplatively against him again.

"We also need to find a way to make money," Bash went on, absently twirling a lock of Syl's hair around his finger. "The government would never allow me to take custody of anyone with our finances the way they are now."

The Crumbs were quiet for a long time.

"We need to keep doing concerts," Smiley said.

Bash frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean it's all we've got going for us. You saw how many people came to the last one. I say we try and do it again instead of sitting here moping about the station."

Bash couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before. He'd been so busy trying to put music behind him that he hadn't even considered the possibility of music being his future, just not in the same way it had been before.

"You know what?" he mused. "Maybe we will. Put Wolgemoth to good use while she's still afloat. We'll charge for tickets and see how much we get."

"We could start playing weeknights in the Snake and Sparrow," Syl suggested. "Any venue we can."

Bash's heartbeat quickened with excitement. "I like that idea."

Kathy rested her cheek on her fist dreamily. "I've missed my drum set."

Smiley got up from his chair, looking alive for the first time in weeks."We'll bring out the costumes Kath made, print more flyers, get booked on every stage in London."

"And if Bash becomes our legal guardian," Kathy said, "then we won't have to worry about the police."

"Let's put on some music," Smiley suggested, bounding across the kitchen like a little kid and grabbing the record player from the shelf.

"Wait," Bash said, jumping up from the couch. "I bought a brand new record a few weeks ago. The LP isn't even supposed to come out until the end of next year; it's a miracle I even got my hands on it. I was going to give it to you all, but then everything happened with the station and I forgot about it."

Bash ducked into his secret hiding place in between the pantry and the stove and pulled out a glossy new record.

"What band is that?" Syl asked curiously, squinting at the black and white picture.

Bash examined the cover. "I dunno. Something called Led Zeppelin."

"Who?" Smiley asked.

Bash shrugged. "Let's play it and find out."

Once the music started, The Crumbs began to dance. The air was electric with possibility, with hope, with a future.

This future was uncertain, but hadn't it always been?

Life, they began to realize, was full of unexpected heartbreak and change. It was full of joy and sadness, love and loss. That was how music was made. Why it was beautiful.

Music, for The Crumbs, was an anthology of everything that made up their everyday lives. The moment they sat at their instruments was when they could begin to tell their story. And even though it often felt like the devil himself was playing the kazoo in their ears, nothing could distract them from embracing life as it was and how it could be.

So The Crumbs laughed and danced and twirled each other around despite everything going against them because it turned out that they weren't the crumbs of society, after all. They were the foundation of a new generation.

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