Theatrical Muse. Dreaming too much, lately. The birth of the Blues.

I'd like to tell you that the Blues are mine - not the mood, the music. The notes of the horn drifting and lingering, curling through a crowded room as twisty and intangible as cigarette smoke. The songs that coax out the feelings as if they were lulling a wild thing nearer to the hunters' snares. The music that packages pain as cool and sweet as a long, strong drink, sipped slowly right down to the end.

It ain't true that I originated the style. That music started in the ghettos and the honky-tonks. The Blues echoed out from Harlem and New Orleans and put St Louis on the map with the ones who know how to listen. There are Blues-songs that put dance-shoes on depression and send it out to earn its living.

I always like to hear a woman sing the blues, if she’s got the right voice for it. If I ever write on regret I’d say that one of mine’s not having had a Gig at the right time to meet Lady Day – it’s not a real regret, anyway. She had a life of sorrow and that’s an encounter that could have cost the world some music.

I’ve even heard a Slayer sing the blues! Someone sang once that there’s an infinite number of dimensions and an infinite number of combinations of events - so anything can happen. Well, it may be true enough that the combinations are infinite, but sometimes there ain’t much difference between the places where I’ve done my Gigs.

One thing that comes up a lot is when someone takes a Slayer prisoner. Now, that’s more common in some dimensions than others. If he’s into evil and he’s a fool then he’ll torture her or something. If he’s got more sense then he’ll keep her fed and clothed and exercised, but shut securely away from the world for the whole of her long, long life. A new Slayer won’t get called until the old one dies.

It doesn’t even take conscious evil to do that. A new Slayer can be a wife in a country where they don’t let them roam. In the old days there was a Nun with no way out of it. That’s the situations where the Powers may send in some kind of Operative.

I remember one of those Gigs, not too long ago – she was dark - not Harlem-dark, but a Blues-number suited her. They’d got her shut away in a barred room – an improvement on the old days, I’ve seen trapped Slayers so loaded with chains that they could hardly walk. This girl was just locked in. She didn’t like it there, though.

I never did get that girl's name, my kind don’t do things that way – but I remember the song…

"My old Watcher told me,
when I was in training,
I'd have to shape up to
make the grade,
I knew it already,
I've tried it my whole life,
but still I can be afraid.

(For Slayers are Chosen,
Elite as can be,
Why did they choose me?
The way this game is played.)

I like to cause terror,
You can't call it error,
A fight is often a thrill,
I was in the thick,
it happened so quick,
I kind of made the wrong kill,

(But Slayers are Chosen,
Elite as can be,
why did they choose me?
Remembering it still.)

I was kind of flashy
(Some say, kind of trashy,)
Not their usual kind of friend,
I went to the bad side,
Now I'm on the sad side,
Maybe, to the end,
Not sure what I wanted...
(But I lost the Mayor,
and he seemed to care...
he wasn't ...quite a friend,

He wasn't my lover...
but something was good,
wish I understood,
I wish I understood.
He wasn't my Watcher,
but something was good,
wish I understood,
I wish I understood.)

I walk in the shadows,
and only the dark knows,
the ways that I've wandered,
through the night,
It won't help to cry,
it might help to die,
Redemption isn't a right,

(Still - the Slayers are chosen!,
Elite as can be,
Why did they choose me?
When all I know is fight...

The Slayers are chosen!
Elite as can be,
Why did they choose me
to be lost in the night?
To struggle in darkness!
Unchosen is free,
why did they choose me
to fight for the light?

The Slayers are chosen!
Elite as can be,
why did they choose me?

Why can't they get it right?"

That one didn't burn, not quite.

They say anything can happen, but there ain’t a dimension I know of where my kind of operative will take a Slayer on a talisman deal – but that’s a whole other story.