Prompt: The first time I heard _____ I was _____.

The first time I heard Otis Redding I was sitting outside my brother’s room. It was emanating from the record player that he had constructed, shrine-like, before his window atop milk crates that held his collection. I had taken to sitting outside his bedroom window with my leg’s wedged between the banister in the hallway, overlooking the foyer. Sitting here with my legs dangling and my head cocked to one side I felt like the nucleus of the entire house. It was a vantage point from which I could see and hear the most of the happenings in my family. The youngest of four children and of particular worry to my father, I was not privy to most of the goings-on of my parents and older siblings and had to sit thus, for hours each day to keep informed.

On this day in particular, I was trying to listen to a conversation between my brother and his girlfriend. I had been busying myself trying to write a romance novel but at 10 years old I knew as much about romantic love as I did quantum physics. I had decided to conduct field research.