Memories
In the quiet silent seconds
I turned off the light switch
And I came down to meet you
in the half light the moon left
While a cluster of night jars
sang some songs out of tune
A mantle of bright light
shone down from a room
Come down in time I still hear her say
So clear in my ear like it was today
Come down in time was the message she gave
Come down in time and I'll meet you half way
Well I don't know if I should have heard her as yet
But a true love like hers is a hard love to get
And I've walked most all the way and I ain't heard her call
And I'm getting to thinking if she's coming at all
Come down in time I still hear her say
So clear in my ear like it was today
Come down in time was the message she gave
Come down in time and I'll meet you half way
There are women and women and some hold you tight
While some leave you counting the stars in the night
Music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin
Spike Spiegel leaned over the railing on the hangar of the Bebop, cigarette burning orange as he inhaled the smoke deep into his lungs. He stared up at the stars that flickered in the Mars sky. His mind wandered to another starlit night that felt so long ago.
He waited for her as he watched the moon cast shadows over the gravestones. She’d left him a message to meet her there, that she needed to see him. Both of them knew that if Vicious got wind of it, there’d be hell to pay.
“Spike.”
She called his name. He’d heard her approaching in the darkness, his heart stilling as she came closer. He turned to face her and drew her into his arms, his lips brushing lightly across her hair, inhaling the scent of her. They remained that way for a time, listening to the sounds of the night and their own hearts beating…
Spike sighed and tossed the spent cigarette butt over the railing. That was the last time they’d been together. He thought back to his decision to leave the Syndicate and the note he’d left her, that he’d meet her by the graveyards, not in them. He had hoped that she’d meet him halfway, and they could walk the rest of the way together. He’d waited and waited, a wet collection of cigarette butts piling at his feet and the bouquet of roses wilting in the rain. And when he lit yet another, he knew that she wasn’t coming, he’d walked all the way and there was no sign of her. He remembered the ache in his heart as he left the cemetery, that the only woman he truly loved did not have the courage to follow her heart as he had followed his. His mind strayed for a moment, and he was back in the present. His mind flickered to thoughts of Faye.
Faye was a woman who had the courage to face head on whatever obstacles were set in her path. He had no doubt of that. She had encountered tremendous obstacles since her cold sleep awakening, yet she still fought to survive. She was an annoying shrew that seemed to find pleasure in irritating him, but when they went out together after bounties, they worked as a team. They had each other’s backs and he trusted her just as he knew that she trusted him. She had proven that time and again.
He knew how she felt about him, he’d seen it in the way she watched him when she thought that no one was looking. He knew it by the way she waited up for him when he returned to the Bebop after a drinking binge, pretending to be watching some late night Earth flick. He remembered the times she’d come to save his ass, the time he’d tumbled from the cathedral window, that time when that crazy fuck had tried to off him at Spaceland. And he knew it by the care she took in patching him up after his many reckless escapades, in the gentle way she cleaned his cuts and stitched his wounds. Faye was a woman who would love fiercely and protectively, Faye was a woman who’d hold you tight and never let go. He wanted to feel that way about someone, to feel that way about her, to bask in the comfort of the love that he knew she’d offer if he ever gave his heart a chance to.
So why did his heart drift back to the woman who’d left him waiting, counting the stars in the night?
