SEEDS OF NIGHT


Oh, my darling
We're meadowing now
Oh love is bold
In the cricketing fields
And a sly part of night
Gets down to get up
Oh bright light
Sing me a song
On and on

-The Cave Singers


It's a dark and stormy night. No, really.

The sky and sea are black, and the fog is thick this side of port. Spike finds this sort of darkness unsettling. He starts to worry about straying from his path and falling off the dock instead of onto the ship.

The sound of a match being struck startles him. Faye's eyes, more gold than green in fire's light, peer into his. She touches the flame to the end of her cigarette. Has she been standing right in front of him this entire time?

"I thought you might need a porch light. A guy could lose his way home on a night like this," she says with a practiced air of casualness. He finds her proximity disarming, and her concern suddenly touching. She eyes him carefully.

"You afraid of the dark or something?" she asks. She lights another match and holds it up between them, smirking.

He grins and shakes his head.

"No," he replies. He approaches her slowly and blows out the match between her slight fingers.

She's been standing right in front of him this entire time.