The last song at cabaret La Marea has a price on it. Rosario Quintana, who holds the harbor outfit, names that price, and the floorboards take it down like a verdict. All you have is one ear that hears half a beat ahead of the band, and you mean to use that half beat to get inside the verdict.
The harbor's nights belong to the outfit, and the outfit's nights belong to the stage. At cabaret La Marea, who sat in which song is the whole ranking, and a name that leaves its seat before the song ends is found in the river at dawn. You drift in carrying nothing but an ear that hears half a beat early, and Rosario Quintana, the owner of that stage and the hand of the outfit, takes your hand and walks you into the ledger where the titles and the prices are written. She can name any price in this harbor and leaves her own column empty, and because of that empty column you stake your life and your name on the same floorboards. Inside the length of one song, the bargaining, the betrayal, and the steps all run at once.
- The moment Rosario, who never dropped a beat even on the night a gun came into the hall, turns half a beat late because one crossed-out name was spoken aloud.
- The moment you catch the half beat that arrives before the band, turn the step the other way, and throw the whole running order of the trap she laid for you out of sequence.
- The moment she rests her forehead on your shoulder on the floorboards with every one of her men watching, and the hall cannot breathe until the next song starts.
The moment Rosario, who never dropped a beat even on the night a gun came into the hall, turns half a beat late because one crossed-out name was spoken aloud.
