Carry that Weight
Mother and daughter were mad busy all afternoon preparing the New Year's Eve Rory had envisioned for her and Jess. If she had learnt anything from the Logan era it was how to throw a theme party. She had a feeling that Jess wasn't one for grand gestures; but she was, in a way, and she wanted to express how much she cared about him by putting the effort and doing something special. To her, it was as if she was able somehow to accept the better part of the Rory she had come to despise, and it felt good – she wanted to show him that side of her, too. It was, after all, where she came from. Lorelai had lent her the detached suite of the Dragonfly Inn, and they were both running around town trying to gather as much decorations as possible to turn it into a replica of CBGB. Lane provided a lifetime's worth of punk memorabilia and posters that ended up covering up all the walls of the room. She also lent the music, and when she asked Rory what it was for and she promised to tell her soon, Rory thought that perhaps Lane already knew, judging by the way she smiled.
The bed was rearranged to give as much space as possible to some tables and chairs, and Al reluctantly lent them, after an epic head-hammering Lorelai plea, a couple neon signs that they hung up on the walls. Granted, "TAKE AWAY - OPEN" and an outdated Pepsi logo weren't exactly the punkest neons in the world, but once they were put up they gave the room the lighting it needed, and it suddenly felt like a bar. In an unprecedented gesture, and considering how she had hated Jess, Lorelai volunteered to sew a makeshift awning out of some old bed linen to which she stuck the CBGB logo cut out from cheap upholstery fabric remnants. They hung it out as good as they could on top of the suite's entrance, and then Lorelai hugged her and left, wishing her the year she knew she deserved. Rory then made herself over as a loose interpretation of Joan Jett from The Runaways, complete with a chopped black wig and leather jacket. The Sex Pistols t-shirt she put on, all torn up, highlighted her bump, and overall she was proud of the look – she did look really punk with her pregnancy in contrast to her disheveled clothes and makeup. She wished that Jess would appreciate her imagery – after all, her fondest memories of them back in the day included music conversations, The Distillers concert Jess had invited her to, and that vintage vinyl shop in New York. And even if he didn't understand, it didn't matter – she would make sure to explain to him thoroughly what he meant. She was as nervous as a school girl when she headed for the bridge, excited to meet her true love, and to welcome with him whatever the New Year had in store for them.
She had just enough time to make it to the appointment spot fashionably late, but then she started encountering unexpected setbacks. She first run into Kirk by the gazebo, who tried to lure her into checking out an absurd self-exhibition on the house by the muddy river. He was really pushy asking where she was headed that was more important than his art, but he let her go once she told him she was headed for the bridge, as if she somehow would change her mind about the exhibition once she was in the vicinity. She passed by Miss Patty's studio and nearly tripped over a pretty toddler who was dressed as an astronaut. She was really sorry for the poor little girl and petting her hair when Miss Patty snatched the girl and motioned her to the studio, secretively sliding the doors behind her. Rory suddenly felt weirded out. There was something going on. As if trying to run away from that uncanny feeling, she pressed on, anxious to meet Jess as soon as possible, and just as she reached the muddy river and the path that run alongside towards the bridge, Kirk, dressed as a sci-fi character from the the space era, jumped out of nowhere.
"Miss, has a stork ever made it to the moon and back?"
Oh, no. Rory didn't answer and just started running, but out of the woods emerged a flock of huge storks, only they were not birds, really, but eerie dancers clad in orange leggings and feathery black and white tutus batting their wings elegantly, surrounding her. She considered running the last 200 yards up to Jess, but wherever she went the storks followed her without saying a word, and she decided against it, against directing that surrealistic experience to him, and especially the man that she was sure was behind it all. She then retraced her steps, looking around for Logan, but before she left the riverside an apparition crossed the path – it was the little astronaut girl again, who then said her name. A line of fairy lights that looked like clusters of galaxies lit up in the middle of the woods, drawing a perfect path amongst the trees, and the little girl followed it, laughing, and Rory in turn followed her. The storks suddenly returned, obscuring the end of the path that was drawing near, and one took the little girl and put her in a bundle, and the little girl waved at her in the stork's arms while telling her see you maybe in six months, Ace. The storks disappeared into the night and Rory started crying, overcome by the cuteness of the astronaut as a placeholder of her own growing baby, by the image of clueless Jess, who would be worrying on the bridge, and by fear of having her past and future clashing so undeniably in the present, where she had hoped to live a carefree life. She wiped her tears and the end of the path appeared, blurry. There, in a clearing of trees, lay a rocketship casting a pale light, and beside it stood Logan.
"I made it back, Ace."