"Eve's hurt."
The honey brown-haired almost-man was not to the point where the full impact had hit him yet; ignorance was replacing fear and acknowledgement of the present situation was nowhere to be found. He was merely respecting his responsibility of informing Mush of his girlfriend's present state. There was no trembling, nor shortness of breath, nor clogging of the throat. There was more excitement in his system even than sadness upon relaying the news to his friend.
But Mush's face drained the adrenaline from his body. 'Stupid!' He could have kicked himself for the emotions taking that long to emerge. He had seen Eve. She did not look good.
He was not feeling very much like a leader now. When change happened, when something evolved, when there was a turn-over or a shift of some kind, he always found a way to control it. It was not so much that he could bend things to his will, but the changes of the past had never been so complete or irrevocable so as not to allow some compromise to be made between the change and himself. And never had the change affected so many so deeply.
Mush didn't say a word; his instincts stayed true and with no knowledge but the fact that his loved one was in need, he began running.
"She's at the lodge." Jack was almost out of earshot and Mush didn't need the information anyway. They shared one heart; how could he not know where the other half of him lay?
And lay she did. When Mush burst through the door he was not at all ready to behold her pale skin, her quivering limbs. She was shaking..
A moment later the hat was off his head and he was stumbling, completely out of control of his movements, towards her. He knelt next to Eve who was spread across the blue quilt on the sickbed.
He had never seen her like this. For the past few months it had all been rosy-cheeked brilliance and violent-scented sweetness for the two. No words could be spoken or written that would allow one to visualize the portrait of loveliness they made when together. He wouldn't have been able to describe the feelings she aroused in him, nor the childlike innocence which floated about even in the musty air during their intimacies. He wouldn't have been able to describe them to you no matter how hard his mind would work or his heart would race, faster every minute with an unfailing passion that he knew was there to stay.
Eve was there to stay with him..they were there to stay. An evil little chant sing-songed itself silly in his mind. "What happens when there's something in the way?"
What happened to the wide-eyed innocence of his beloved? What eyes were these that, instead of looking up at him now with loving wonder, were closed with a lack of expression he found terrifying?
Unable. He was unable to control himself, and reaching for her hand he smothered it with kisses. Her face was so pale and thin that he feared what would happen if he did the same to it.
All who had been nursing her fled the room, still in shock. It had all happened so quickly.
Eve with her lovely hair surrounding her, all coming loose and wild from the evening's raucous, recognized the touch of his lips immediately. Moaning quietly, she lifted her heavy eyelids. At the sight of his face she managed a small smile. "Hi," she began hoarsely.
There was no response, only a large swallow that was a brave attempt to extinguish the restrictive lump in the boy's throat.
She just kept smiling. "I was coming home from Medda's," she began, not taking her eyes off him. "There were some rough guys."
A darkness in Mush's heart came out of hiding, and as she watched his face become wrought with worry her heart skipped a beat.
"What did they do to you." The whisper barely escaped his lips and he grasped her had all the more tightly.
"Nothing," she said, sighing from the pain. "It was an accident. They had guns, and - ...well, I got shot."
'How is she not crying?' Angry tears stung his own eyes. 'How can she tell me this?'
"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time." She smiled down on him and suddenly it hit her. She sniffled and took her other hand, which had been resting on the bloody blanket covering her wounded stomach, and touched his face.
'I'll never see him again,' she thought.
"You know," her breath came more jerkily now, "there's this - song." She paused and watched a tear squeeze out from his eye. "I've always wanted to sing it, but I never had a reason to."
'What is she talking about...?'
He wasn't thinking clearly. Turning from the girl and looking around the room, he asked rather loudly, "Where did everybody go?"
"Oh, baby..." she moved her hand up and down his cheek. "There's nothing they can do for me now." And with that, Eve began to sing.
A million stars light this beautiful night
This is not a night to die
Let me sing and dance beneath the sky
I have such love to give, to give
I want a chance to live
Mush's eyes darted, touching all over her. "Eve - stop.."
Live for the one I love
Love as no one has loved
Give, asking nothing in return
Free
Free to find my way
Free to have my say
Free to see the day
"Stop it, babydoll, stop it!!"
Be like I used to be
Like a wild bird free
With all of life in me
Live for the one I love
Love as no one has loved
Give, asking nothing in return
"But you are alive!!" Much as Eve suspected, Mush was not in control of his actions or thoughts. They were spewing out of him like a gunman's bullets. Although she felt the pain of seeing her lover react this way infinitely more intensely than the pain of her bleeding insides, nothing would stop Eve from relaying this to him. Once again, she wore a smile. "Listen to me, Mush." Their eyes locked, and this was the moment. The moment of truth, when all the fears and doubts and fantasies surfaced and bound themselves to one another in both of their souls.
Though this world tears us apart
We're still together in my heart
I want the world to hear my cry
And even if I have to die..
"But I don't want you to die!" They boy, who was now a man because he had loved her, released his cry of anguish. Eve stopped singing.
"Shh, Mush...shh..." she stroked his hair as best she could, and cradled his face which was now buried in her bed covers. A pool of salt water from his overflowing eyelids had accumulated there. "I don't want to die either." What would become of him? What would become of her? 'No, no thoughts like that now.'
She struggled to lift his heavy head. "Love will not die," she proclaimed intensely, prophetically. "Love will change the world."
"I don't care, I don't care about anything! I - I j-just want you!" He desperately pressed his head against her chest, still weeping with madness and grief. "Oh, Eve..good God, Eve!" His hands found their way to her waist and he grabbed her and held her until the blood from her open wound had seeped through the blankets onto his clothes and skin. "Babydoll.." he whispered, his voice trembling.
"Mush, it's - it's - " She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. If she had been able to throw her arms around him, she would have done so with all the strength she had left, and calm him and tell him it was alright. But she couldn't tell him that; nothing was alright, and it wasn't going to be alright either. She couldn't hide from it any longer. She wanted to live.
"'You're such a strong person.'" A friend's words came back to her, here, at this hour when she needed them the most. 'Be brave, now. Go on - be brave for Mush.'
And with that, Eve of the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House looked straight at her love, lifted her head to the ceiling, and delivered her final performance.
Live!
For the one I love
Love
As no one has loved!
Give
Asking nothing in return..
Eve's legacy lived on in the ones she loved. But the one she loved the most would not live for ten days after Eve herself had passed on from this world.
There is such a thing as death from a broken heart. Some say it was lung failure; others say starvation and malnourishment; but we know, don't we? We know, we believe, that Mush Meyers could not bear a world in which his one true love was not. After all - would not the most sensible and logical of us agree? - one cannot live with only half a heart.
The honey brown-haired almost-man was not to the point where the full impact had hit him yet; ignorance was replacing fear and acknowledgement of the present situation was nowhere to be found. He was merely respecting his responsibility of informing Mush of his girlfriend's present state. There was no trembling, nor shortness of breath, nor clogging of the throat. There was more excitement in his system even than sadness upon relaying the news to his friend.
But Mush's face drained the adrenaline from his body. 'Stupid!' He could have kicked himself for the emotions taking that long to emerge. He had seen Eve. She did not look good.
He was not feeling very much like a leader now. When change happened, when something evolved, when there was a turn-over or a shift of some kind, he always found a way to control it. It was not so much that he could bend things to his will, but the changes of the past had never been so complete or irrevocable so as not to allow some compromise to be made between the change and himself. And never had the change affected so many so deeply.
Mush didn't say a word; his instincts stayed true and with no knowledge but the fact that his loved one was in need, he began running.
"She's at the lodge." Jack was almost out of earshot and Mush didn't need the information anyway. They shared one heart; how could he not know where the other half of him lay?
And lay she did. When Mush burst through the door he was not at all ready to behold her pale skin, her quivering limbs. She was shaking..
A moment later the hat was off his head and he was stumbling, completely out of control of his movements, towards her. He knelt next to Eve who was spread across the blue quilt on the sickbed.
He had never seen her like this. For the past few months it had all been rosy-cheeked brilliance and violent-scented sweetness for the two. No words could be spoken or written that would allow one to visualize the portrait of loveliness they made when together. He wouldn't have been able to describe the feelings she aroused in him, nor the childlike innocence which floated about even in the musty air during their intimacies. He wouldn't have been able to describe them to you no matter how hard his mind would work or his heart would race, faster every minute with an unfailing passion that he knew was there to stay.
Eve was there to stay with him..they were there to stay. An evil little chant sing-songed itself silly in his mind. "What happens when there's something in the way?"
What happened to the wide-eyed innocence of his beloved? What eyes were these that, instead of looking up at him now with loving wonder, were closed with a lack of expression he found terrifying?
Unable. He was unable to control himself, and reaching for her hand he smothered it with kisses. Her face was so pale and thin that he feared what would happen if he did the same to it.
All who had been nursing her fled the room, still in shock. It had all happened so quickly.
Eve with her lovely hair surrounding her, all coming loose and wild from the evening's raucous, recognized the touch of his lips immediately. Moaning quietly, she lifted her heavy eyelids. At the sight of his face she managed a small smile. "Hi," she began hoarsely.
There was no response, only a large swallow that was a brave attempt to extinguish the restrictive lump in the boy's throat.
She just kept smiling. "I was coming home from Medda's," she began, not taking her eyes off him. "There were some rough guys."
A darkness in Mush's heart came out of hiding, and as she watched his face become wrought with worry her heart skipped a beat.
"What did they do to you." The whisper barely escaped his lips and he grasped her had all the more tightly.
"Nothing," she said, sighing from the pain. "It was an accident. They had guns, and - ...well, I got shot."
'How is she not crying?' Angry tears stung his own eyes. 'How can she tell me this?'
"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time." She smiled down on him and suddenly it hit her. She sniffled and took her other hand, which had been resting on the bloody blanket covering her wounded stomach, and touched his face.
'I'll never see him again,' she thought.
"You know," her breath came more jerkily now, "there's this - song." She paused and watched a tear squeeze out from his eye. "I've always wanted to sing it, but I never had a reason to."
'What is she talking about...?'
He wasn't thinking clearly. Turning from the girl and looking around the room, he asked rather loudly, "Where did everybody go?"
"Oh, baby..." she moved her hand up and down his cheek. "There's nothing they can do for me now." And with that, Eve began to sing.
A million stars light this beautiful night
This is not a night to die
Let me sing and dance beneath the sky
I have such love to give, to give
I want a chance to live
Mush's eyes darted, touching all over her. "Eve - stop.."
Live for the one I love
Love as no one has loved
Give, asking nothing in return
Free
Free to find my way
Free to have my say
Free to see the day
"Stop it, babydoll, stop it!!"
Be like I used to be
Like a wild bird free
With all of life in me
Live for the one I love
Love as no one has loved
Give, asking nothing in return
"But you are alive!!" Much as Eve suspected, Mush was not in control of his actions or thoughts. They were spewing out of him like a gunman's bullets. Although she felt the pain of seeing her lover react this way infinitely more intensely than the pain of her bleeding insides, nothing would stop Eve from relaying this to him. Once again, she wore a smile. "Listen to me, Mush." Their eyes locked, and this was the moment. The moment of truth, when all the fears and doubts and fantasies surfaced and bound themselves to one another in both of their souls.
Though this world tears us apart
We're still together in my heart
I want the world to hear my cry
And even if I have to die..
"But I don't want you to die!" They boy, who was now a man because he had loved her, released his cry of anguish. Eve stopped singing.
"Shh, Mush...shh..." she stroked his hair as best she could, and cradled his face which was now buried in her bed covers. A pool of salt water from his overflowing eyelids had accumulated there. "I don't want to die either." What would become of him? What would become of her? 'No, no thoughts like that now.'
She struggled to lift his heavy head. "Love will not die," she proclaimed intensely, prophetically. "Love will change the world."
"I don't care, I don't care about anything! I - I j-just want you!" He desperately pressed his head against her chest, still weeping with madness and grief. "Oh, Eve..good God, Eve!" His hands found their way to her waist and he grabbed her and held her until the blood from her open wound had seeped through the blankets onto his clothes and skin. "Babydoll.." he whispered, his voice trembling.
"Mush, it's - it's - " She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. If she had been able to throw her arms around him, she would have done so with all the strength she had left, and calm him and tell him it was alright. But she couldn't tell him that; nothing was alright, and it wasn't going to be alright either. She couldn't hide from it any longer. She wanted to live.
"'You're such a strong person.'" A friend's words came back to her, here, at this hour when she needed them the most. 'Be brave, now. Go on - be brave for Mush.'
And with that, Eve of the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House looked straight at her love, lifted her head to the ceiling, and delivered her final performance.
Live!
For the one I love
Love
As no one has loved!
Give
Asking nothing in return..
Eve's legacy lived on in the ones she loved. But the one she loved the most would not live for ten days after Eve herself had passed on from this world.
There is such a thing as death from a broken heart. Some say it was lung failure; others say starvation and malnourishment; but we know, don't we? We know, we believe, that Mush Meyers could not bear a world in which his one true love was not. After all - would not the most sensible and logical of us agree? - one cannot live with only half a heart.