Chapter 5 – Goodnight but Not Goodbye
One day, a long time later, I woke up and figured I'd had enough. My throat was sore from howling so I decided I was 'over' Jahna, whatever that meant, and through complaining about being the wolf-man. I trimmed my hair for the first time in a long while and got out of bed.
Without thinking I cleaned the hairs I'd dropped at night – this was a mindless chore now – so much a part of my day that I didn't notice it. When that was one I heaved a mighty yawn and bathed. I needed it, so there was no avoiding this one.
I didn't even know what time it was, but I figured it was a good time for a cup of milky stimcaff. Lapping it up I thought about Zeebub. After Jahna and the wolf thing, this was my other favourite obsession, as of today the only one I had left. It really got to me that I didn't know who he was or why he'd messed with me. My last meeting with him had put me off the idea of him being the devil – who even believes in that stuff – but I didn't have a more believable alternative. If he wasn't some kind of supernatural being, that meant he beat me at my own game, and I didn't like that.
Maybe, maybe not.
Could be he was just some old Jedi magician with a fondness for sticking his horns into people's love lives. One thing I knew was, that had been his objective – to get me alone, rather than to get me hairy. He got both though, so he had my congratulations.
A bowl of cold water set me up for the day, but I felt like something with more substance. Here at the Eisley Spaceport, substance and alcohol are interchangeable, so I started running through the options of where to go to get liquored up. I could, for the sheer poetry of it, get back to the Star Bar. The place might remind me of a certain someone, but I liked that band. I thought about it for a moment and yawned again.
I'm not sure when I stopped caring about B.L. but it started that day. He was scum, he made a fool of me, he was gone. I could have tracked him again, but then I could just as easily start playing saxophone again. That would be more my kind of thing. I didn't know how far across the deserts I'd have to go before I found one for sale, but I'd get one and maybe it'd all come flooding back. I used to be pretty good before this whole PI thing took over.
The Star Bar then. I told myself the reason I picked it out was for the band, but it wasn't. There were other places with music, and some of them didn't have a body count. The reason I picked it is that long after the tune I heard there had left my memories, six words stayed and kept making me smile. 'Come back soon, I'll be waiting.'
Sometimes, their ale was good too.