TM 170 Time

[singindemonhq]

I guess you’ll think this should be an easy subject for anyone who masters the portals - bopping through the worlds, waltzing between the dimensions. Some of them think I can twist the times to suit me, but that ain’t quite it. Time passes slow in one dimension and fast in another – and there are stories of portals through time, but one secret that ain’t too well-kept is that nobody masters the portals, not really; there are twists and misroutes and an infinity of things that can go wrong - and nobody masters Time.

The best anyone manages is to get to spend some time the way they want.

For some reason this subject has me remembering a time when there’d been too many bad Gigs - before I did one that had a twist in its tail. The plots don’t always run to the script an audience might expect, of course, but this time I maybe surprised the directors myself.

The talisman wearer was a spoilt, bad-tempered type who thought she was a beauty and I figured the Gig was likely to be the worst bit of a bad century. I’d known the girl for 30 minutes and it felt as though I’d disliked her for 30 years.

The family were in the line-up for the big finale and then her aunt stepped forward and said she’d summoned me. Now, that's probably plot-twist two, but the reasons sometimes differ. The girl promptly wanted to know why she'd done it – which was maybe a fair question; the Aunt said,

“For a happy ending, I wanted to buy you what I never had.”

“Beauty?” the little charmer snarled, and she put a hand to her tumbling blonde hair and preened. After that I was watching the Aunt. She wasn’t ugly; she had good bones but she had a worn, tired look, her hair was that mixture of black and white that humans call grey and her black dress leached the color from a fair skin that was crumpling with the years – I’d seen that before, by then. She was blanching with fear as she stood there. I knew she’d seen a burning and I could feel that she expected to dance herself and was resigned to her ending, when I said,

“Why did you call me?” She didn't spare me a glance but looked straight at the girl and said,

“Fleur, I was there when you were born. I’ve loved you like my own child. I always tried to give you what I could. You know your father wants you to marry Pierre, but he’s a soldier. Do you want to end alone? I’ve watched you all your life, I want you to be happy. I don’t want to see you end like me.” And she stepped forward and started to sing,

Time.

“Time enough to look and learn,
Time enough to cry,
Time enough to learn the rules,
As the time goes by,

Time enough to learn to run,
Time enough to play,
Time enough to learn the roles
You will one day play.

Time enough to look around,
Time enough to sing,
Time enough to find a mate,
Time is on the wing,

Time enough to choose, you say?
Time to test and try?
Don’t you understand the way
Time begins to fly?

Time to touch and feel, perhaps
Time enough to taste,
Do you think a living thing
Has time enough to waste?

Pray for time to till the field,
Time enough to sow,
Time enough to see the crop
First begin to grow.

Pray for time for harvest home,
Pray for time to reap,
Time to rest a weary bone,
Time enough to sleep.

No more time to look and learn,
No more time to cry,
Time to watch the sunset fade,
Time enough to die.”





Her voice was quiet and depressed and she hardly moved from first to last. There wasn’t much of a life for widow in that society and she’d been worked harder than they might have worked a slave. Slaves were worth money.

Used up, I thought. She hadn’t the energy for a hot number. She hardly had the energy to sing.

It’d been a long, hard century and, by the time midnight struck, it’d occurred to me that I needed a rest as much as she did - and I have the right to take the summoner. I nodded to the Minions and one of them snapped the chain off the Talisman wearer’s neck as the Portal opened – and I as stepped forward I took the Aunt’s hand and swung her in with me as we went through.

It was almost a gesture of rebellion and, when the Portal accepted her, I guessed that she’d barely qualified on a technicality. I was wrong there, not for the first time. Some humans have a lot of comeback and a bit of luxury can work wonders.

It wasn’t a happy ever after - but there was time enough.

Muse, Sweet the Singing Demon,
Fandom, BTVS,
Words, 858.