Usagi on Vacation:
"Drink to me only with thine eyes…." The melancholy vocalist stopped and sighed. He changed the angle of his pencil and continued singing. "And I will pledge with mine. La la kiss in a cup…or something like that…and I will pledge with mine." The singer sighed yet again and squinted at the product of his work for the past hour. It was a pencil drawing of a young girl with large eyes. He laid his pencil down and reverently smoothed the frighteningly accurate likeness, down to the small mole at the corner of the subject's mouth. He folded his hands in his lap and stared at the likeness, head cocked, eyes soft.
"Hello my friend from childhood. How fare you this beautiful and pristine day? Shall I fetch you a cuppa? Or maybe a blisteringly-hot cup of strong and pungent coffee will do you well. Or, I know, how about a triple chocolate sundae with three ripe and juicy cherries on top. Count them: one, two, three! How about that!" The jolly, blond-haired man clad in a dirty apron beamed down on his "friend from childhood's" head.
Another sigh from the despondent patron.
"No, Andrew. Nothing will do me well today. Nothing except the sweet and mellifluous sound of my dear, sweet Usagi. Nothing. Nothing I tell you. Nothing. Nevermore shall I be happy, for yesterday, my dear, sweet Usagi. My darling, my darling, my to-be-wife, my to-be-bride. She is gone. Gone I tell you. Never again shall our lives be blessed with her dulcet tones. Never again shall we hear the delightful pattering of her diminutive feet. Nevermore shall we hear those delicate doves of her hands beat against those 'Sailor V' games with a marked vehemence. Nevermore her maladroit yet lithe figure sweep across our parched vision, slaking our thirst like water quenches the thirst of a man in a desert, fallen, dejected, and oh. So. Thirsty. Nevermore….Nevermore….Nevermore."
The arcade was silent. So silent, Andrew swore he could hear a raven in the distance, squawking out its dirge. Andrew spoke.
"Pop corn?"
"Nah. Make that a corn chip. I'm feeling very corny today."