She blinked. “Your parents do that to you?”

mcpelandio.

The Ballad of mcpelandio

“My parents started it,” he said, sliding onto a vinyl stool. “I finished it. Added the ‘mc’ for luck and the ‘io’ for music.”

Say it slow. Say it fast. Either way, you’re already smiling. Would you like this adapted into a poem, a song lyric, or a different tone (e.g., sci-fi, melancholy, humorous)?

“mcpelandio,” he said, like it was the most ordinary thing in the world.

That night, he played the harmonica on the dock until the lake itself hummed along. People said the fish started swimming in rhythm. A old woman on the bluff lit a candle and swore she saw the stars lean in closer.