Hope in Those Squeaky Clean Eyes

(inspired by this lyric snippet from Bowie's Teenage Wildlife)

Blue skies above

and sun on your arms

strength in your stride

And hope in those squeaky clean eyes


I set a mug of mint tea in front of Jareth. "You clearly need a pick-me-up."

He pressed his fingers to his temples. "This is beyond tea, Sarah."

I sat down as my cat Beast nuzzled his wrist. "Beyond the love of a good cat?"

That got a brief smile. "I'm afraid so."

I sipped my own tea. "You've set the destruction of the universe in motion again?"

"Worse."

"You're on course to become irrevocably evil in the near future, have managed to exile yourself here in the interim, and are then going to destroy the universe?"

Beast flopped belly up and Jareth began to absently rub him. "That's closer to it."

"Mmm. Well, whatever it is, we'll get through it."

He made a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. "How do you do it?"

"One step at a time. Like we always do when trouble rears its head on a Tuesday afternoon."

"I mean, how do you continually have hope that you'll prevail?"

I smiled. "Occasional heroine prerogative. Besides, history shows that we pretty much always prevail. So the weight of evidence is on my side."

Moments passed, with Beast purring into the silence. Jareth looked up. "Did I ever tell you how damned lucky I am to have found you again?"

I grinned. "Maybe once or twice, mostly regarding my tea and my cat. Meanwhile, why don't we start with the current tale of woe and go from there?"

He nodded. "Well, it's like this…"