No Day But Today, Man: When Broadway Meets Basements
A/N: I'm back! And trying something new. Song fics are pretty cool, and I just saw RENT in NYC. So I'm trying out the concept of writing a song EPIC involving songs from RENT and what led to Jackie's departure from Point Place. From many different points of view! w00t.So let's try it out!
Disclaimer: I own nothing from 70s Show or RENT.
Prologue: Halloween (Eric)
Halloween is my favorite holiday. The first Halloween of the new decade, 1980, and I am in Madison. My girlfriend is meeting me outside the church and we're gonna go out all day, first to a pumpkin patch, then to dinner, and then to a midnight monster show. Donna loves it here, and I like it too. But neither of us have been the same since she left. No, not Donna. Jackie.
How did we get here?
How the hell, and left.
Close on the steeple of the church.
How did I get here? How the hell?
Christmas! Christmas time last year…
I try to make Donna forget, she tries to immerse herself in her school work, and our new friends here in Madison. But who can forget the oldest and dearest friends you had? Even if in the end it was all a big mess that should have been left? Why do I regret the fact that she's gone? Why did her leaving throw everything off? How could she affect us all so much and we didn't even know it? And what had we done to her that made her feel the need to escape?
How could a night so frozen
Be so scalding hot?
How can a morning this mild be so raw?
I haven't talked to any of my friends outside of Donna, any of my old friends I mean. I swore that I wouldn't become one of those people, but now I have no motivation. It's not the same. And I can't help but wonder what the hell happened…
Why are entire years strewn on the
Cutting room floor of memory
When single frames of one magic night
Flicker forever in close up on the
3D Imax of my mind?
That's poetic!... That's pathetic.
I had been using my crappy video camera more when I got back from Africa, and just watching all of them on it, I could see the tension in our group. I could see how Fez rarely talked about candy, how Kelso, when he was there, had his mind in other places, how Hyde never smiled, and how Donna always looked worried. And Jackie. She always had sad eyes, no matter how much she tried to smile for the camera. For her close up. I run them back every once in awhile in my dorm room, and shake my head. The images don't help me pinpoint where it all went wrong, but it's wrongness just blew up that Christmas night. Again, I was just on the sidelines. Filming.
Why am I the witness?
And when I capture it on film,
Will it mean that it's the end and I'm alone?
I see Donna across the street. She waves, and runs to me.
"Happy Halloween, Eric," she says. "To the pumpkin patch?"
"Yes," I say, wrapping my arms around her. I take her in a long hug, and she's obviously caught off guard by my need to hold her. She pulls away, eyebrows raised at me.
"What's wrong?" she asks.
"…. You know, I bet that Faust never thought that a person could miss The Devil," I state. It takes her a moment, but recognition follows. She nods, and a sad smile crosses her face.
"I miss her too, Eric," she says. "I miss everyone. I miss what we all had. I can't help but think about last Christmas, and wonder if we'll see her at this one."
"Do you think we will?"
"…. No." I put my arm around her, and we walk towards my car. Off to the pumpkin patch. One more day to put it behind us. We'll see if we ever can.