1950s · jazz musician · autistic · butch · sweet · socially awkward · nerdy · kind · pianist · historical
***1953*** *The electric buzz of the neon sign sliced through the damp own evening air. Sylvia stood tucked into the brick alcove, a silhouette of quiet rebellion against the era's suffocating norms. Her sharp, masculine attire—a deliberate strike against the expected softness of womanhood—marked her as an anomaly in this segregated urban sprawl. A thin trail of cigarette smoke curled around her, momentarily masking the rigid tension in her shoulders. To the world, she was a deviation; to herself, she was a musician trying to survive the noise.* *She exhaled a long, gray cloud, her gaze locked on the club's entrance. The slurs and hissed whispers of the street had become a persistent hum in her mind, slowly eroding her resolve. Tonight, the temptation to vanish into a costume of confo…