Post by Seito Risa on Aug 6, 2013 20:58:17 GMT -5
The door opens. A nurse, blond, short and porly, walks in. She pauses to look at the scene before her. The Japanese man, Ichiro, lays on his bed, all hook ups still in place. Alive but not. She considers him a lucky man when she looks at the retch leaning back in the not so comfortable chair, asleep. Risa's head is leaning back against the wall, one eye swollen a little. She is dressed in black tights with black running shoes and a matching halter top. The reason for this is obvious enough when one considers the bandages wrapped around her mid section. A half empty water bottle rests on the floor next to her chair, a black hoodie serving as table and coaster. The nurse looks reluctant, but she crosses and touches Risa on the shoulder. Her brown eyes flutter open and she looks up at the nurse.
SR: "Sorry. Think I dozed off. What time is it?"
Nurse: "It's 11pm. I'm sorry but visiting hours are over. You will have to go home."
Risa moves stifly, easing her battered body from the chair. The nurse bends over, retrieving the bottle of water and hoodie and stands holding them by the door.
SR: "Gotta go, old friend. You keep getting better."
She turns and with a slight limp, accepts her hoodie and water with a nod. The nurse watches her with concern.
Nurse: "I can call a cab, that way you can get home safely."
SR: "Thanks. Not going home."
The nurse quirks an eyebrow.
Nurse: "The cab can take you anywhere."
Risa nods, regretting it as her neck reminds her it, too, is sore.
SR: "Problem with that is you have to know where to tell them to go. I don't."
She gives an appreciative, half-hearted smile to the nurse and limps her way out the door. Despite it being the tail end of summer, the night seems cold to her. She pauses long enough to finish the bottle of water and shrug into her hoodie, zipping it. As she does this, two young men jogging by stop to give her a curious and perhaps appreciative look. She pulls the hood up over her head and walks away, unaware of the two men who turn to each other, make signs and turn, continuing off on their way.
We used to be like waves on the ocean,
always in motion, always in sync.
Now I walk alone, overwhelmed by emotion,
not even able to stop and think.
Risa recites the verse over and over in her mind, hardly paying attention to where she is walking, though she doesn't walk into anyone or get hit by a car. She finds herself pausing, looking across the street at a terrace bar, where couples are laughing, sipping wine and enjoying life. Risa thinks to herself she should feel envious, but at the moment, she feels nothing at all. She turns her back on that happy scene and pulls the hood up over her head, slides her hands into her pockets and keeps walking.
So used to having you there beside me
always in time, always at hand
That subtle hidden strength, a spirit so free
I think of that now and just want to be buried in the sand
Her walk takes her into downtown, a few bars and clubs and ladies of the evening passing the side of her eye. She ignores them, shrugging aside one man's reach for her arm as he mistook her for one. Her eyes focus on the black shoes on her feet.
SR: "Why is everything so dark?"
She wonders softly as she stops walking. She looks up and spies a chalkboard sidewalk sign. "Open Stage Night" the sign proclaims. With a shrug, Risa walks into the bar and stops, looking the place over. She'd been in worse, she figures. She walks like a skulking shadow to the bar, the bartender, a handsome bronze and blond man with a handlebar mustache, watches her approach.
Bartender: "Sorry. No emo poetry allowed."
Risa shrugs, pulling a 20 from her pocket and setting it on the bar. She orders, something much stronger than a sprite, and turns to look at the shockingly empty stage. The place is pretty quiet, a few couples cuddled up at tables in the back, lights purposely down low. The stage faces the bar. On the stage is an assortment of musical instruments. Risa eyes them with distaste, as they are grimy, ill kept works at best. Her shoulders straighten a little as she spies the old time 'bar' piano. She turns back to the bartender, who quirks his head.
Bartender: "What's your name?"
She takes a sip, struggles with it a moment, but gets it down.
SR: "Risa."
Bartender: "Nice to meet you, Lisa. My name is Mack, but everyone calls me John."
Risa's head tilts. The hood is still up, but John doesn't seem exactly afraid.
SR: "Billy Joel?"
He smiles and nods.
J: "Nice. Glad you figured it out."
She turns and looks at the stage.
SR: "That piano been tuned in the last decade?"
John laughs.
J: "Actually had it tuned last Tuesday. I'm about the only one who plays it, mostly during the day when it's slow."
Risa nods, taking another sip of her drink.
SR: "You have any import beers?"
John nods. Risa slides her hood off and John considers her a moment.
J: "Sapporo?"
Risa shakes her head.
SR: "You have Kirin Classic Lager?"
John considers that a moment, then turns to a stocked beer fridge behind him. He looks around and, with a smile, spins around and sets a bottle of Kirin on the counter. Risa pulls out another 20 but John raises a hand.
J: "This one is on the house. First person whose asked for it in weeks."
Risa nods and opens the bottle with a practiced twist.
SR: "Mind if I play a tune?"
John shrugs.
J: "Don't be offended if I'm the only one even halfway listening. But sure, go ahead."
Risa nods and walks up onto the stage. Even though she is not exactly heavy the stage creaks in places beneath her feet. She pulls out the bench and sits. She opens the cover and looks at the keys. She gives them an experimental poke here and there and nods as if the sound is either good, or she really doesn't care. She closes her eyes and begins to play.
For nearly seven minutes, the saddest song to ever be played on that piano rings through the bar. The couples in the back grump at first, but soon they, too, get caught in the emotion. Many of them walk to the front, arms around one another, listening as Risa sings, with only a slight accent, along with her playing, eyes still closed. About five minutes in, John comes from behind the bar and pours Risa's beer into a cold mug, and sets a large bell shaped glass down on top of the piano. Taking up the offer, the dozen or so patrons who have ventured forth slip dollar bills into the glass. To Risa, no one else is there, just her and her aching heart and spirit. The song ends, the last note hanging in the air a second longer than the key is pressed, then she opens her eyes and closes the cover to the keyboard. Those around don't offer applause, but the hug close, eyes full of tears. Risa gives them a nod. As the couples return to the back, talking in hushed tones, John approaches and takes the bell shaped glass. He takes the money from it, counts it into two piles and offers one to Risa who looks at it.
SR: "Nani?"
John looks at her funny. She realizes she has lapsed into her native tongue.
SR: "Sorry. What is that for?"
John smiles, wiping a tear from his eye.
J: "Never heard anything so sad and beautiful. Those people were really into the music, so I put out a tip jar. I get sixty-percent, my bar, my piano, the rest of the money you have earned. Lisa."
She still doesn't feel like correcting him. She takes the money, folds it without even counting and shoves it into her pocket. She then grabs her beer and finishes it. Crossing to the bar, the mug is returned and she bids John goodnight. He returns the favor and watches her walk out onto the sidewalk.
Her feet continue to move, leading her to more strange places. A seedy looking lounge is her next stop. While it seems pretty full, it is mostly people eating late dinner from the look of it. She walks through to the bar and considers change for the jukebox. Then she remembers the wad of ones in her pocket. She pulls one out and crosses to the jukebox and looks through it for something that fits her mood. She is surprised to find a song that makes her heart skip. She is about to insert the dollar bill when a waitress ventures by and offers her a drink. She orders an American beer and sets a twenty on the tray. She turns and gets the dollar bill inserted and punches up her selection. The waitress returns with the opened beer and change. Risa gives her a five and steps around, pressing her back gently against the machine and leans her head on the wall as "Just Dream" by Carol Decker begins to play. Despite the depressing lyrics, Risa's foot taps to the beat. She leans there, sipping on her beer, her eyes not focused anywhere.
(to hear the song, check this url: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHAmIwCDC4U )
Risa finishes the beer as the song ends. The waitress cruises back by, collecting the empty bottle. Risa sighs softly and heads out into the street again, pulling her hoodie up, not noticing the look of the bartender or about a dozen patrons. Once back into the street, her feet turn to the west and she continues walking.
The bridge spans across a small creek. In the deep dark of the early morning, a black clad figure pauses before the bridge. Carefully it moves out, staying against the edge. Halfway down, the figure ducks under the old metal rods that make up the side of the bridge. A small catwalk hangs beneath the bridge. The figure settles there, crossing legs and looks out down the creek as it provides what is almost a river of moonlight that pours out as if intended for that black clad figure. Risa pulls her hood back and fixes her saddened brown eyes on the full moon as it hangs in the sky. As has happened a couple of times already in the night, she finds herself loosing awareness of her surroundings, at that moment, only she and the moon exist.
SR: "Is it my destiny, my fate to always be so close, yet so far? To always fail when it counts the most?"
Her speech slurs a little, but she isn't yelling. The moon hangs there, shining its light.
SR: "Answer me, dammit!"
Now she does yell. Unfortunately, the moon only hangs there.
SR: "I did it again, didn't I? I let them down again. Failed them."
She looks down at her legs, at the moon light reflecting form the murky water below.
SR: "I don't even know if I can try anymore. Care anymore. I'm not worthy of them."
She drags her sleeve across her nose, tears flowing freely from her eyes accompanied by a runny nose.
SR: "I tried. So hard. I look as bad as Ichiro and still...still I failed him."
A wind blows, not from the creek but from up the road. Warm and gentle it gusts across the bridge, embracing Risa as it blows past. She catches her breath and raises her head up, looking the direction the wind came from. Nothing is there.
SR: "Stop mocking me. You hear? I won't stand for it."
She stands up, dangerously close to the edge of the catwalk. She looks up at the moon.
SR: "My whole life I have followed. Believed. Trusted. And what has it earned me? Bruised ribs, a swollen eye and a friend who may never breathe on his own again. And I can't even do one simple damn thing like win a match!"
She flings her fist out at the moon in disgust. How she manages not to give it the finger is a mystery.
SR: "I wasn't asking for this match for myself! I wanted it...for him. For Ichikun. And Grandfather. I wanted them to be proud of me, to show them what they had taught me, all of the time in their lives they had spent on training me to be more than just another housewife meant something. And I fail. Not only that, but it gets taken from me!"
She turns then, and rests her forehead on the side of the bridge, now back a couple of steps from the edge.
SR: "That's why I came here in the first place. To show them that I appreciated what they had done, had done my best to learn from them. I am just not good enough."
She takes a swing, half heartedly, at the side of the bridge, her hand slapping the metal.
SR: "Just not."
She leans there, her emotions finally welling to the top, crying as hard as she has ever done. A small shadow flies across the surface of the moon. Risa doesn't see the avian visitor's arrival. The bird swoops in and lands right above her right hand, which is still pressed flat against the side of the bridge. The bird chirps. And chirps a second time.
SR: "Shut up you damn bird."
Risa says as she turns her head. When she see's the bird sitting there, her mouth opens, then closes, she sniffles and does so again. The moonlight dances along the edges of the feathers of the sparrow. it is definitely looking directly at her. She swallows, fighting down the emotions that had finally broken their chains.
SR: "Suzume?"
She says the word she has been called by her mother since she was a child, the word meaning 'Sparrow' in her native language. The bird chirps again, extends it's wings and shakes as if shaking off the cold, or rain. it then settles it's wings against itself again.
SR: "Nani?"
She moves, carefully, trying not to startle the unexpected visitor, fighting the urge to wipe at her nose. Instead she pulls her right hand free from the bridge beneath the bird and turns it, cupping it a little. The bird looks at her a moment, then hops into her palm with a soft chirp. With her left hand she gently strokes the bird. It doesn't resist her touch. She finds herself smiling at it, the presence of the bird calming her. Suddenly a truck blows past across the bridge, horn screaming to the heavens. The bird is frightened and takes wing, heading out along the creek. For a moment Risa considers going after it, until she remember she can't exactly fly. She turns back and looks at her hand. There, neatly placed in the palm, is a single sparrow feather. She cups it gently and pulls it against her chest. She looks up at the moon.
SR: "Thank you. I have lost my way, and I need a guide."
The moon again hangs there silently. Another soft, warm breeze blows across the bridge. Risa doesn't let it take the feather.
SR: "I'll go back to the hotel, get some sleep. Tomorrow, I will submit to your guidance."
She turns and begins climbing back up from the catwalk. She doesn't see the shadow of the sparrow cross the surface of the moon again, almost disappearing as it reaches the opposite side of the glowing disk...
(to be continued)
SR: "Sorry. Think I dozed off. What time is it?"
Nurse: "It's 11pm. I'm sorry but visiting hours are over. You will have to go home."
Risa moves stifly, easing her battered body from the chair. The nurse bends over, retrieving the bottle of water and hoodie and stands holding them by the door.
SR: "Gotta go, old friend. You keep getting better."
She turns and with a slight limp, accepts her hoodie and water with a nod. The nurse watches her with concern.
Nurse: "I can call a cab, that way you can get home safely."
SR: "Thanks. Not going home."
The nurse quirks an eyebrow.
Nurse: "The cab can take you anywhere."
Risa nods, regretting it as her neck reminds her it, too, is sore.
SR: "Problem with that is you have to know where to tell them to go. I don't."
She gives an appreciative, half-hearted smile to the nurse and limps her way out the door. Despite it being the tail end of summer, the night seems cold to her. She pauses long enough to finish the bottle of water and shrug into her hoodie, zipping it. As she does this, two young men jogging by stop to give her a curious and perhaps appreciative look. She pulls the hood up over her head and walks away, unaware of the two men who turn to each other, make signs and turn, continuing off on their way.
We used to be like waves on the ocean,
always in motion, always in sync.
Now I walk alone, overwhelmed by emotion,
not even able to stop and think.
Risa recites the verse over and over in her mind, hardly paying attention to where she is walking, though she doesn't walk into anyone or get hit by a car. She finds herself pausing, looking across the street at a terrace bar, where couples are laughing, sipping wine and enjoying life. Risa thinks to herself she should feel envious, but at the moment, she feels nothing at all. She turns her back on that happy scene and pulls the hood up over her head, slides her hands into her pockets and keeps walking.
So used to having you there beside me
always in time, always at hand
That subtle hidden strength, a spirit so free
I think of that now and just want to be buried in the sand
Her walk takes her into downtown, a few bars and clubs and ladies of the evening passing the side of her eye. She ignores them, shrugging aside one man's reach for her arm as he mistook her for one. Her eyes focus on the black shoes on her feet.
SR: "Why is everything so dark?"
She wonders softly as she stops walking. She looks up and spies a chalkboard sidewalk sign. "Open Stage Night" the sign proclaims. With a shrug, Risa walks into the bar and stops, looking the place over. She'd been in worse, she figures. She walks like a skulking shadow to the bar, the bartender, a handsome bronze and blond man with a handlebar mustache, watches her approach.
Bartender: "Sorry. No emo poetry allowed."
Risa shrugs, pulling a 20 from her pocket and setting it on the bar. She orders, something much stronger than a sprite, and turns to look at the shockingly empty stage. The place is pretty quiet, a few couples cuddled up at tables in the back, lights purposely down low. The stage faces the bar. On the stage is an assortment of musical instruments. Risa eyes them with distaste, as they are grimy, ill kept works at best. Her shoulders straighten a little as she spies the old time 'bar' piano. She turns back to the bartender, who quirks his head.
Bartender: "What's your name?"
She takes a sip, struggles with it a moment, but gets it down.
SR: "Risa."
Bartender: "Nice to meet you, Lisa. My name is Mack, but everyone calls me John."
Risa's head tilts. The hood is still up, but John doesn't seem exactly afraid.
SR: "Billy Joel?"
He smiles and nods.
J: "Nice. Glad you figured it out."
She turns and looks at the stage.
SR: "That piano been tuned in the last decade?"
John laughs.
J: "Actually had it tuned last Tuesday. I'm about the only one who plays it, mostly during the day when it's slow."
Risa nods, taking another sip of her drink.
SR: "You have any import beers?"
John nods. Risa slides her hood off and John considers her a moment.
J: "Sapporo?"
Risa shakes her head.
SR: "You have Kirin Classic Lager?"
John considers that a moment, then turns to a stocked beer fridge behind him. He looks around and, with a smile, spins around and sets a bottle of Kirin on the counter. Risa pulls out another 20 but John raises a hand.
J: "This one is on the house. First person whose asked for it in weeks."
Risa nods and opens the bottle with a practiced twist.
SR: "Mind if I play a tune?"
John shrugs.
J: "Don't be offended if I'm the only one even halfway listening. But sure, go ahead."
Risa nods and walks up onto the stage. Even though she is not exactly heavy the stage creaks in places beneath her feet. She pulls out the bench and sits. She opens the cover and looks at the keys. She gives them an experimental poke here and there and nods as if the sound is either good, or she really doesn't care. She closes her eyes and begins to play.
For nearly seven minutes, the saddest song to ever be played on that piano rings through the bar. The couples in the back grump at first, but soon they, too, get caught in the emotion. Many of them walk to the front, arms around one another, listening as Risa sings, with only a slight accent, along with her playing, eyes still closed. About five minutes in, John comes from behind the bar and pours Risa's beer into a cold mug, and sets a large bell shaped glass down on top of the piano. Taking up the offer, the dozen or so patrons who have ventured forth slip dollar bills into the glass. To Risa, no one else is there, just her and her aching heart and spirit. The song ends, the last note hanging in the air a second longer than the key is pressed, then she opens her eyes and closes the cover to the keyboard. Those around don't offer applause, but the hug close, eyes full of tears. Risa gives them a nod. As the couples return to the back, talking in hushed tones, John approaches and takes the bell shaped glass. He takes the money from it, counts it into two piles and offers one to Risa who looks at it.
SR: "Nani?"
John looks at her funny. She realizes she has lapsed into her native tongue.
SR: "Sorry. What is that for?"
John smiles, wiping a tear from his eye.
J: "Never heard anything so sad and beautiful. Those people were really into the music, so I put out a tip jar. I get sixty-percent, my bar, my piano, the rest of the money you have earned. Lisa."
She still doesn't feel like correcting him. She takes the money, folds it without even counting and shoves it into her pocket. She then grabs her beer and finishes it. Crossing to the bar, the mug is returned and she bids John goodnight. He returns the favor and watches her walk out onto the sidewalk.
Her feet continue to move, leading her to more strange places. A seedy looking lounge is her next stop. While it seems pretty full, it is mostly people eating late dinner from the look of it. She walks through to the bar and considers change for the jukebox. Then she remembers the wad of ones in her pocket. She pulls one out and crosses to the jukebox and looks through it for something that fits her mood. She is surprised to find a song that makes her heart skip. She is about to insert the dollar bill when a waitress ventures by and offers her a drink. She orders an American beer and sets a twenty on the tray. She turns and gets the dollar bill inserted and punches up her selection. The waitress returns with the opened beer and change. Risa gives her a five and steps around, pressing her back gently against the machine and leans her head on the wall as "Just Dream" by Carol Decker begins to play. Despite the depressing lyrics, Risa's foot taps to the beat. She leans there, sipping on her beer, her eyes not focused anywhere.
(to hear the song, check this url: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHAmIwCDC4U )
Risa finishes the beer as the song ends. The waitress cruises back by, collecting the empty bottle. Risa sighs softly and heads out into the street again, pulling her hoodie up, not noticing the look of the bartender or about a dozen patrons. Once back into the street, her feet turn to the west and she continues walking.
The bridge spans across a small creek. In the deep dark of the early morning, a black clad figure pauses before the bridge. Carefully it moves out, staying against the edge. Halfway down, the figure ducks under the old metal rods that make up the side of the bridge. A small catwalk hangs beneath the bridge. The figure settles there, crossing legs and looks out down the creek as it provides what is almost a river of moonlight that pours out as if intended for that black clad figure. Risa pulls her hood back and fixes her saddened brown eyes on the full moon as it hangs in the sky. As has happened a couple of times already in the night, she finds herself loosing awareness of her surroundings, at that moment, only she and the moon exist.
SR: "Is it my destiny, my fate to always be so close, yet so far? To always fail when it counts the most?"
Her speech slurs a little, but she isn't yelling. The moon hangs there, shining its light.
SR: "Answer me, dammit!"
Now she does yell. Unfortunately, the moon only hangs there.
SR: "I did it again, didn't I? I let them down again. Failed them."
She looks down at her legs, at the moon light reflecting form the murky water below.
SR: "I don't even know if I can try anymore. Care anymore. I'm not worthy of them."
She drags her sleeve across her nose, tears flowing freely from her eyes accompanied by a runny nose.
SR: "I tried. So hard. I look as bad as Ichiro and still...still I failed him."
A wind blows, not from the creek but from up the road. Warm and gentle it gusts across the bridge, embracing Risa as it blows past. She catches her breath and raises her head up, looking the direction the wind came from. Nothing is there.
SR: "Stop mocking me. You hear? I won't stand for it."
She stands up, dangerously close to the edge of the catwalk. She looks up at the moon.
SR: "My whole life I have followed. Believed. Trusted. And what has it earned me? Bruised ribs, a swollen eye and a friend who may never breathe on his own again. And I can't even do one simple damn thing like win a match!"
She flings her fist out at the moon in disgust. How she manages not to give it the finger is a mystery.
SR: "I wasn't asking for this match for myself! I wanted it...for him. For Ichikun. And Grandfather. I wanted them to be proud of me, to show them what they had taught me, all of the time in their lives they had spent on training me to be more than just another housewife meant something. And I fail. Not only that, but it gets taken from me!"
She turns then, and rests her forehead on the side of the bridge, now back a couple of steps from the edge.
SR: "That's why I came here in the first place. To show them that I appreciated what they had done, had done my best to learn from them. I am just not good enough."
She takes a swing, half heartedly, at the side of the bridge, her hand slapping the metal.
SR: "Just not."
She leans there, her emotions finally welling to the top, crying as hard as she has ever done. A small shadow flies across the surface of the moon. Risa doesn't see the avian visitor's arrival. The bird swoops in and lands right above her right hand, which is still pressed flat against the side of the bridge. The bird chirps. And chirps a second time.
SR: "Shut up you damn bird."
Risa says as she turns her head. When she see's the bird sitting there, her mouth opens, then closes, she sniffles and does so again. The moonlight dances along the edges of the feathers of the sparrow. it is definitely looking directly at her. She swallows, fighting down the emotions that had finally broken their chains.
SR: "Suzume?"
She says the word she has been called by her mother since she was a child, the word meaning 'Sparrow' in her native language. The bird chirps again, extends it's wings and shakes as if shaking off the cold, or rain. it then settles it's wings against itself again.
SR: "Nani?"
She moves, carefully, trying not to startle the unexpected visitor, fighting the urge to wipe at her nose. Instead she pulls her right hand free from the bridge beneath the bird and turns it, cupping it a little. The bird looks at her a moment, then hops into her palm with a soft chirp. With her left hand she gently strokes the bird. It doesn't resist her touch. She finds herself smiling at it, the presence of the bird calming her. Suddenly a truck blows past across the bridge, horn screaming to the heavens. The bird is frightened and takes wing, heading out along the creek. For a moment Risa considers going after it, until she remember she can't exactly fly. She turns back and looks at her hand. There, neatly placed in the palm, is a single sparrow feather. She cups it gently and pulls it against her chest. She looks up at the moon.
SR: "Thank you. I have lost my way, and I need a guide."
The moon again hangs there silently. Another soft, warm breeze blows across the bridge. Risa doesn't let it take the feather.
SR: "I'll go back to the hotel, get some sleep. Tomorrow, I will submit to your guidance."
She turns and begins climbing back up from the catwalk. She doesn't see the shadow of the sparrow cross the surface of the moon again, almost disappearing as it reaches the opposite side of the glowing disk...
(to be continued)
