Such a precious time spent in such a short while.
A year after my last visit on Bebop, I changed my name from "Faye Valentine" to "Eliza Grencia".
It hadn't been my real name anyway, so I could hardly feel bad. I married a billionaire, and I could've paid off the
huge debts I still carried, but I didn't. They, like the Bonsai tree and the Woolong coin I still had, were souvenirs
from my time aboard the Bebop. They were a part of me, now. It was too late to change that.
At age fifty, Eliza Grencia-Chaplain, or so my alias went, lost her husband. He had been so much like Jet
Black, even when he died, though he lacked the memories, and the senility Jet had . From the dear I inherited
his entire fortune, including his three mansion-sized homes and a girl's finishing school on Calisto, (Jupiter's moon).
I invested a small fortune in finding information on Ed, Ein, Julia, or anyone else I had seen in the living room that
day. We searched for more than eight years, with, not surprisingly, no results. I knew in my heart they were
all dead.
As I neared my 65th year I underwent a rejuvenation treatment that made me look like I was still
in my early thirties. I was asked if I would like to be cryogenically frozen and rejuvenated to my twenty
year-old form. I had enough money, and I was healthy enough. What did I have to lose, the doctors said.
" No, " I replied, "I played that trick before, and it landed me in jail."
Awhile later, I went to Jupiter. To Calisto. To the Grey Crow, where I had first met Gren, an old jazz bar.
It was still there, with a new name, probably one of the dozens of new names it had had. It was "The Jolly Titan"
now, but inside it was the same as it had always been. I sat in the same seat. They hadn't even reupholstered the
stools. I ordered a drink, any type was fine. It had been over a century since I had been "thawed", and
biologically, I was even older than that, but I looked a very rich and young forty.
I sneezed. It was so cold, here on Calisto. I heard Gren's words come back with his music.
"Take care. When someone sneezes and no one says 'take care', that person will turn into a fairy.
At least, that's what they say around here." But it wasn't Gren saying it. It was the bartender.
"Oh. You're too late. You see, I'm already a fairy." I said in reply, just as I did so long ago.
The bartender threw his coat over me.
The waitress came over and said softly "Faye-Faye." She was dressed in a pale blue uniform, and a little
Welsh Corgi sat at her feet.
"No Ed, anything but blue." I said in a hoarse whisper.
I tipped her with the Woolong coin, the token from Bebop. My token from the spirits.
She hadn't even served me.
I was seeing them all now. I was seeing them, just like Jet had. I was leaving and I wasn't going to fight.
I was sick of cheating. Sick of cheating Death. I took the man's coat off those shoulders of mine that had bore
such a weight, and placed the coat upon the stool. Those shoulders had carried more of a burden than any one
human should have to carry. Then again, I wasn't human. Hadn't I just said I was a fairy?
In the ship I changed out of my green cardigan and black leather skirt into that old yellow spandex outfit I
had never gotten rid of. I guess I thought it may come in handy, and it did. I hacked my long locks off to reveal
half a foot of blue-black shining hair. I pulled a headband over it, gathered my debts, and sat for a moment in
my ancient ship, "Redtail".
I started the engine, and rested a hand on the Bonsai tree that was surely as old as I was.
Maybe in the end it was the frigid climate of Calisto that did it. Or perhaps it was all this traveling I had
been doing lately. It might have been all the surgery, or the trauma. Maybe my body was just too old. Maybe those
memories had finally caught up with me, the phantoms of the past finally got me. Or maybe I was just sick of
living. The authorities would definitely have fun understanding my "sudden death". Nothing about it was sudden.
I had been dying since Spike did.
I should have been dead far before that.
******************
My name was Faye Valentine, and I was going home. Home to Bebop, and the best days of my life.
As I rode, I looked at the Bonsai tree. I thought of Bebop. I heard the dying old man, Jet's words slur out of my
mouth, probably because I had nothing else to hear, nothing else to say.
"So that's the secret of the universe! It's so simple."
I looked to the Bebop in the distance. The lights were on. I made up my mind to go back to the Bebop the
next day, just like I always did when my schemes failed. Bebop, that ship of the damned dreams that stymied all
of it's crew for the rest of their lives. Perhaps it didn't stymie it's crew, perhaps it gave them a place to rise up
from, it gave them a fresh start. It was like the nest of a phoenix. I smiled as I imagined the scoldings I would get
when I finally arrived.
I could almost hear Spike say:
"You mean you spent ALL your money at the RACETRACK?!?! We've been waiting for you to come back!!!
What took so long? We have supper waiting, and I am HUNGRY!!!"
"It wasn't the racetrack, it was the casino. I couldn't leave until I played ALL my cards." I argued.
A year after my last visit on Bebop, I changed my name from "Faye Valentine" to "Eliza Grencia".
It hadn't been my real name anyway, so I could hardly feel bad. I married a billionaire, and I could've paid off the
huge debts I still carried, but I didn't. They, like the Bonsai tree and the Woolong coin I still had, were souvenirs
from my time aboard the Bebop. They were a part of me, now. It was too late to change that.
At age fifty, Eliza Grencia-Chaplain, or so my alias went, lost her husband. He had been so much like Jet
Black, even when he died, though he lacked the memories, and the senility Jet had . From the dear I inherited
his entire fortune, including his three mansion-sized homes and a girl's finishing school on Calisto, (Jupiter's moon).
I invested a small fortune in finding information on Ed, Ein, Julia, or anyone else I had seen in the living room that
day. We searched for more than eight years, with, not surprisingly, no results. I knew in my heart they were
all dead.
As I neared my 65th year I underwent a rejuvenation treatment that made me look like I was still
in my early thirties. I was asked if I would like to be cryogenically frozen and rejuvenated to my twenty
year-old form. I had enough money, and I was healthy enough. What did I have to lose, the doctors said.
" No, " I replied, "I played that trick before, and it landed me in jail."
Awhile later, I went to Jupiter. To Calisto. To the Grey Crow, where I had first met Gren, an old jazz bar.
It was still there, with a new name, probably one of the dozens of new names it had had. It was "The Jolly Titan"
now, but inside it was the same as it had always been. I sat in the same seat. They hadn't even reupholstered the
stools. I ordered a drink, any type was fine. It had been over a century since I had been "thawed", and
biologically, I was even older than that, but I looked a very rich and young forty.
I sneezed. It was so cold, here on Calisto. I heard Gren's words come back with his music.
"Take care. When someone sneezes and no one says 'take care', that person will turn into a fairy.
At least, that's what they say around here." But it wasn't Gren saying it. It was the bartender.
"Oh. You're too late. You see, I'm already a fairy." I said in reply, just as I did so long ago.
The bartender threw his coat over me.
The waitress came over and said softly "Faye-Faye." She was dressed in a pale blue uniform, and a little
Welsh Corgi sat at her feet.
"No Ed, anything but blue." I said in a hoarse whisper.
I tipped her with the Woolong coin, the token from Bebop. My token from the spirits.
She hadn't even served me.
I was seeing them all now. I was seeing them, just like Jet had. I was leaving and I wasn't going to fight.
I was sick of cheating. Sick of cheating Death. I took the man's coat off those shoulders of mine that had bore
such a weight, and placed the coat upon the stool. Those shoulders had carried more of a burden than any one
human should have to carry. Then again, I wasn't human. Hadn't I just said I was a fairy?
In the ship I changed out of my green cardigan and black leather skirt into that old yellow spandex outfit I
had never gotten rid of. I guess I thought it may come in handy, and it did. I hacked my long locks off to reveal
half a foot of blue-black shining hair. I pulled a headband over it, gathered my debts, and sat for a moment in
my ancient ship, "Redtail".
I started the engine, and rested a hand on the Bonsai tree that was surely as old as I was.
Maybe in the end it was the frigid climate of Calisto that did it. Or perhaps it was all this traveling I had
been doing lately. It might have been all the surgery, or the trauma. Maybe my body was just too old. Maybe those
memories had finally caught up with me, the phantoms of the past finally got me. Or maybe I was just sick of
living. The authorities would definitely have fun understanding my "sudden death". Nothing about it was sudden.
I had been dying since Spike did.
I should have been dead far before that.
******************
My name was Faye Valentine, and I was going home. Home to Bebop, and the best days of my life.
As I rode, I looked at the Bonsai tree. I thought of Bebop. I heard the dying old man, Jet's words slur out of my
mouth, probably because I had nothing else to hear, nothing else to say.
"So that's the secret of the universe! It's so simple."
I looked to the Bebop in the distance. The lights were on. I made up my mind to go back to the Bebop the
next day, just like I always did when my schemes failed. Bebop, that ship of the damned dreams that stymied all
of it's crew for the rest of their lives. Perhaps it didn't stymie it's crew, perhaps it gave them a place to rise up
from, it gave them a fresh start. It was like the nest of a phoenix. I smiled as I imagined the scoldings I would get
when I finally arrived.
I could almost hear Spike say:
"You mean you spent ALL your money at the RACETRACK?!?! We've been waiting for you to come back!!!
What took so long? We have supper waiting, and I am HUNGRY!!!"
"It wasn't the racetrack, it was the casino. I couldn't leave until I played ALL my cards." I argued.
