She stood alone on a smoky stage, dark eyes glittering. The only light in this dismal place. And as the spotlight shone on her kissing her golden brown skin, the band began to play a hazy melody that wrapped around her like a blanket. Her voice, as sooty as the club began to ring out.
Maybe this time, I'll be lucky
Maybe this time He'll stay
Maybe this time, for the first time
Love won't hurry away
He will hold me fast
I'll be home at last
Not a loser anymore
Like the last time and the time before
Her voice slowly began to pick up strength as brassy as a trumpet. He could feel the desperation in her voice, the sorrow, the anguish.
Everybody loves a winner
So nobody loved me
'Lady Peaceful', 'Lady Happy'
That's what I long to be
Well, all the odds are, they're in my favor
Something's bound to begin
It's gotta happen, happen sometime
Maybe this time I'll win
'Cause everybody, they love a winner
So nobody loved me
'Lady Peaceful', 'Lady Happy'
That's what I long to be
Well, all the odds are, they're in my favor
Something's bound to begin
It's gotta happen, happen sometime
Maybe this time
Maybe this time I'll win
In that final note she suddenly looked so frail, so hopeless surrounded in the smoke and pollution of this place. She no longer was the mysterious woman she had been. She was a girl, alone crying out for a dream that was futile. Just like he was. Just like all of them were. And with that, the stage plunged into darkness and she was gone. And all that was left was the smoke hovering in her wake.
He found out more about her later. She was only seventeen, small at that not cracking over five foot. Apparently the girl had been a labourer at one of the camps until a guard heard her sing a quiet tune one day. She was ripped from the only family she had left and worked in the club now. Fortunately spared from some of the seedier activity that took place in the establishment because her voice brought in so much needed money. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday she sang a selection of her choosing. So every Saturday he turned up to hear her set. She was radiant. Her voice could be rich and low, or high and soul shattering or smoky and thrilling she was everything and yet nothing at all. The tiny stage she inhabited became her kingdom that she made come alive. Her thrilling voice gave light to this dismal club. She was a siren and they were all sailors drowning in her sea.