Music of the Soul

"'S nice," she sighed as she sank more firmly into my cushions. She was new. I couldn't remember her form ever making use of me before. She couldn't have been among my crew for very long. Maybe Cap'n Mal had taken passengers again.

It didn't happen very often. Passengers meant hiding certain activities and that was dangerous. And difficult. The Riddick and the Jayne always complained. One with murder in his heart and the other too loudly to hear anything else.

"It is," the rumbly voice that said those words was familiar. The Riddick. Anger and sorrow to embedded in his soul to allow my comfort to soothe. Still I did like the growly man with the murder in his heart. And I would continue to try and soothe the sorrow away.

Then he folded himself down where her feet were. And he wasn't sad anymore. Oh, the Riddick was still angry. It was as though it was part of his genetic make up to be angry but the sorrow was absent. Why?

"The girl is here," the female I didn't know said in an absent tone. Had I eyes I might have blinked. Was she speaking to me or was it simply some human randomness? The female giggled. "She isn't being random. She is explaining."

The Riddick hummed lowly, seemingly unconcerned with her apparently random chatter and pulled her feet onto his lap. "Need shoes, my own," he rumbled. He relaxed like he never had back into my cushions and rubbed at her feet with one big hand.

The female giggled again. "She has clompy boots," she told him. "But she likes to feel the metal beneath her toes. It sings. I like the song. Can't hear it if my feet can't touch it."

The Riddick hummed again. "Metal doesn't sing, mei mei," another new voice said in a snarling tone. Or what he must have thought was snarling. I'd heard the Riddick and the Jayne and the Cap'n and the First Mate and even the smiley EngineerKaylee do better.

The female laughed out loud. Could she actually hear me? "She hears everything. Metal sings, brother boob. Of home and safety and adventures. She sings to the girl. She sings to the Sunshine. You simply don't hear it."

"Mei mei," the Bother Boob started but she cut him off with her laughter.

"Bother Boob!" She giggled.

"Mei mei," he tried again.

"She has a name, Bother Boob, might try usin' it," the Jayne said from across the room.

I knew I liked the Jayne.

"So does she," the girl said. "Growly. Fun." I was fairly sure I was going to like this girl more than I liked all the others. "Good. She likes you the best too. More than any other nonbreathing entity. But not more than her Riddick. But he breathes so that doesn't count."

"Who are you talking too, River?" the Bother Boob asked in an aggrieved tone.

"Secret," the girl, the River girl, said.

"Mei mei," now it was said with sadness. "The voices you hear in your head are not real. They're—"

"Are," the River girl said stubbornly. "But she isn't speaking to them. Boring today."

The Riddick suddenly tensed and even the squeak, squeak of the Jayne cleaning his guns fell away. "You bored, Witch Queen?"

Her head moved along my cushions as though she was tilting it in thought. "No," she finally said. "The River girl is lazy. She will lay here and commune with the Mother and the others until the Sunshine comes to play with her." She hummed a happy little sound. "The Sunshine has jacks. The River girl has never played jacks before."

The feeling of tension in the room seemed to ease. "All right," the Riddick rumbled and leaned his head back. "We'll be lazy awhile then."

I made my cushions more comfortable. I didn't mind them using me to be lazy. It's what I was around for.