Another Time, Another Place
. . . fanfiction inspired by Cowboy Bebop. Standard disclaimers apply.
In another time, in another place, she might have been listening for mermaids. There would have been a beach to comb for shells, an ocean lit up by the sunrise. Ten years old and drunk on sea-lore, standing at the high-tide mark, straining for siren songs that never came.
It didn't stop her from believing. Back then.
"In another time, in another place," Faye told her drink, "good things came to those to waited." Like sweet dreams.
"In a perfect world, huh?" She wasn't too surprised when Spike strolled into the living room with an armload of grocery bags and sat down on the adjacent couch.
"Yeah." She drained the last of her beer and tossed the empty can onto the table. It bounced, and he caught it before it rolled off the edge and righted it. "It was a perfect world." She reached for another can and realized she had finished the last one. "Oh damn, I'm all out."
"Share?" He set three six-packs out on the table.
"Spike, I love you." Before she could grab the nearest pack his hand closed around hers. She met his level gaze and narrowed her eyes. After a terse pause, he moved away.
Deftly extracting a can from the mess of torn plastic and cardboard, she leaned back and pulled off the tab in a practiced move. "Tell you what, you let me get drunk and I'll sit here and tell you all the stories you want."
"Fair enough," he said.
Faye took a long swallow and stared into her drink. "In another time, in another place, the Earth was blue and brown and white from high up. Like a pretty marble in space. Not all grey and meteor-pitted like it is today."
She raised her head and looked at him. He was sprawled out on the sofa seats, blowing cigarette smoke at the ceiling. She wondered if he was still listening. Sloshing the drink around, she took another mouthful and continued. "Life was much more simple. You had friends you hung out with, you went to school, and at the end of the day you came home to your own room and a meal and a long shower waiting for you."
"In another time, in another place, there was little girl who dreamed about the horizon, about tomorrows. And she'd always loved the ocean. All of it, vast and boundless. Like her future." She paused, licking her dry lips. "Or so she thought."
"Then she learnt about the sky. And that was then the trouble started, when she left the ocean behind. At the high-tide mark between land and water. She knew then, that oceans weren't infinite. But maybe, maybe the sky was." Now she was rambling. "People back then dreamed about going to the stars. The little girl, too, aspired to touch the sky. And she got her chance."
"So she took the ship, past the clouds, into the darkness, into the stars. But then," she faltered. The aluminum popped in her hands. "Then, the Earth split and the little girl fell, into dreams of glass coffins and caverns of ice. The ocean called to her, but she could not return. When she woke up, it was a different time and place. And the boundless ocean had been lost."
"That's sad."
His voice broke her monologue. The crushed beer can dropped out of her hands. Suddenly, she didn't feel like drinking anymore.
Still facing the ceiling, he let his arm dangle over the couch, trailing his cigarette on the floor. "Does she still miss the ocean?"
"I wouldn't know," she said softly. "I'll have to ask that little girl."
"Maybe you should."
Getting up, shakily, she made her way towards the bathroom and risked a glance at him. His eyes were closed and the cigarette was burning out inbetween his fingers. If he saw her leave, he didn't stop her.
'In another time, in another place, there was little girl who dreamed about the horizon, about tomorrows.'
In another time and place, but certainly not here or now.