Chapter 5: I Heard Her Call My Name

When I wake up in the morning, mama

I heard her call my name
I know she's dead and long far gone
and I felt my mind split open

It's funny, ya know. How the past always manages to catch up with you. How everything you do at every moment of your life will somehow have an impact that will inevitably you feel at some distant future moment. It's not an encouraging concept. But that's how life is. And then I heard it. I heard that melody.

At first, it didn't affect me. I was a bit preoccupied, to tell you the truth. I was still attempting to grasp the awful truth of the situation. I had convinced these guys that I was not lying. Hell, maybe not exactly convinced. I'm sure they were entirely skeptical, but they had a right to be. And as I was walking into this monstrosity called The Bebop it was hard to keep it together. It was a junkyard bargain. It had to be. The next thing, they were going to tell me that this ship could actually fly. Or that it ever could have done so. But then I heard that melody again. I remember strumming away and listening for the words but then I would hear that melody. Everyone else would be singing "Old McDonald" or something, but she would be singing that melody. Completely oblivious to the activities of anyone else. There was only one word that I could use to describe such a phenomenon.

Ed.

"Suh...suh..."

"Jesus, Ed, spit it out." Faye was standing over her, inquisitively.

Ed looked right at me. She lifted her little goggle things. And she screamed.

"SIMEY!" She leapt across the room like a mad beast and locked her body around my torso. She began to whisper something unintelligible into my left ear. Was this a hug or a strangling by a circus performer? This was Ed, pure and simple. "It's Simon, it's Simon, it's Suh Suh SAAAAAI- MUUUUUUUUUHN."

Faye spoke again. All Spike and Jet could do was stare on in utter horror. "I guess you guys know each other?"

Ed whipped her head towards her female companion. "Faye Faye this is Simon. Simon meet Faye Faye. Simon is the boy who played his geeetar for penguin lady so that she would feed him. Simon is goooood at the geeetar!" And with that Ed knocked my guitar case from my paw and spilled out its contents. In an instant she had it around her. "But not as goooood as Ed!" She began to violently pound the open strings with her fist as she screamed out her melody. All of this convinced Spike to light another cig. It was gonna be a long time till he ate again.

Ed jumped from the ground to the sofa and had soon exited the scene, singing wildly as she and a healthy looking Welsh Corgi took off down some anonymous corridor. "Yeah, I know Ed. Another little job I had, this time on Earth. Worked at an orphanage or something like that. And needless to say, I met Ed there."

"Sounds about right," sighed Spike as he fell down to the couch. Face first, right into a cushion. Hangover, remember? Faye shoved her moaning partner until there was room for her as well. She paused then made some sort of little noise and said "So buddy where are we eatin'. You got 15 minutes, by my watch."

"It's a tiny diner called the Lost Star. Next to the old, abandoned suitcase factory on Montgomery. You know where I'm talkin' about?"

"Yep." Despite my vague description, Jet's tone suggested that he knew exactly where I was talking about. As if he'd lived here for years. He casually strolled off towards what I would assume to be the "helm" of this junker. I stood there as Faye turned on the television and began to furiously change channels. No chance that she was even paying attention. She was thinking.

"Hey Mr. Simon, I have an idea."

"Um...alright."

Her gaze intensified. "Whaddaya say we look up this Vance guy? I mean, to learn the details and such. It's our asses if things are off, ya know. And I'm pretty good at bein' able to tell when things are off."

She was smiling now. She had to be onto me. Damnit. I knew this would happen. It was the only thing I wasn't able to handle. So now the ride was over, even though we had barely left the ground. Oh well, fun while it lasted.

"There's no need, I know everything on this guy that could be known."

"Eh, we'll see." She coyly exclaimed. "EEE...!"

But before she could tack that D onto her yell, Ed had already barreled into the room. She was carrying my guitar, now featuring a busted E string, in one hand and a taptop computer in the other. "Wow, that's Tomato, huh. I'd never think you to be one to hang onto something for awhile, Ed. And it's been like 2 years."

"Oh, Simey. Shut up now. Faye Faye, lookie lookie at the screen. Here's Lukas Vance...the prime minister of France." Faye leaned over and squinted her eyes. Lukas Vance was 6 feet tall and 205 pounds. A young guy, nice looks, too. Blond. The CEO of the "Blue Grand Royale Hotel Resort and Casino". His bounty was 375,000 woolongs.

"Ok." She sighed and went back to her channel changing. She wasn't thinking anymore, though. I gave Ed a look of pure astonishment. She noticed this and somehow managed to leap onto my shoulders and whisper another message. This time I could understand.

"I know Simon's in trouble again. There is no bounty on Lukas Vancey, huh? Oh well, Ed made it happen. Are you proud of Ed?" I glanced up and nodded appropriately. Ed was the outlaw hacker from Earth. I privately cursed myself for not realizing this all along. She instantly leaped from my head and bounded off again.

As I gingerly placed my murdered instrument back into it's coffin of a case, I began to realize what I had just done. What we were doing. We were going to the Lost Star. Fuck. I was an asshole. Big time. What was I thinking. I hadn't even spoken to Veronica in months. I sent her some shitty letter attempting to make amends for what had happened. As if I could ever do that. Apologize. There was no possible way to do so. She probably looked at that return address first, even though it was a fake. Cale Lane or some bullshit. And she knew it was me and she tore that fucker up. She had every right to do so.

And now I was gonna show up at her restaurant at like 5 am with these rejects and their massive reject mobile. I'd knock on the door and wake her up. She never used to sleep at all, and now I was gonna wake her up. And then carefully explain how she had no option but to feed these starving bandits. And of course I couldn't pay. I really was an asshole. I just hoped she had left her fry cooker on. Otherwise, I was most likely dead.

"And oh yeah, Simon," Faye noted. "If you are really lying to us, and there's no grub at the end of this ride, you're dead. You're really fucking dead." Despite her cursing, she sounded a bit like a scolding schoolteacher. And she actually seemed completely serious. "So, do I make myself clear?"

I didn't respond to that. Her tone had convinced me that my luck had run the hell out. I lied down on the cold steel floor while the channels clicked on and the ship neared its destination: my utter doom.

And I felt my mind split open.