Day 1 Evening - I Dreamed of Santo (Pt 1)

Vas dreamed of Santo. He couldn’t help it. Home after all these years it was both thrilling and heart wrenching. The child inside wanted to run out and see all the places familiar to him but he knew it wouldn’t be like that. It all had burned, collapse or left to rot while war had raged across the galaxy.

The smell of smoke burned his nose and eyes. Not the pleasant smoke of his familiar Kreteks but the black oily smoke of bodies and buildings. He walked through the dream of a memory in a haze and watched as people running like scared cattle as gunfire pierced the air. Vas as a child didn’t live in the port town it had been too expensive for them but rather in a smaller town just outside it. Even so, it burned all the same.

He watched emotionlessly as townsfolk ran, fall then struggle to rise before falling still. He dreamed this dream many times and had long grown hard from it though clearly not past it. Purple bellies and Dirt Coats clash, crushing the people between them and under their boot heel. The people cried for mercy and none was given. Soon enough purple and brown turned red and both fought meaninglessly, forgetting why it started or what they were fighting for.

His mother brushed past him dragging a boy behind her hand gripping the boy’s wrist as if her life depended on it. She was wrapped in silk, her dress rippled like water with each stride, her hair a mass of dark heavy waves. The boy she dragged along sobbed a mix of fear and pain as he struggled to keep up, he looked as much a ragamuffin then as he did now. Vas broke into a run to catch up, selfishly hoping this time she would turn her head even a little so he could see her face one more time. He ran but could not catch them, no matter how hard it pumped his legs it was like he was standing still or right against a raging river. The harder he tried the further away the pair got.

A shot rang … the shot. He saw the women in red fall artfully into the mud, like a bird shot out of the sky. The boy howl attempting to throw himself on her, to beg her to get back up. He screamed like a wounded animal as a man grabbed him to drag him along with the heard of humanity as they tried to escape from the conflict.

Vas walked up and tried to reach out to her, to be close to her like he had wanted to as a child, to touch her dress one more time but she turned to ash all the same. His eyes stung as he struggled to keep in the sorrow in check the ash settleing on his skin. He suppressed the rising sob his eye welling surrounded by nothing but blood-soaked mud.

“Réncí de fú qǐng dài wǒ líkāi …” Vas choked his voice raw and raspy. “ … Bǎ wǒ dài zǒu, bì shàng wǒ de xīn … “ He chanted. “… Ràng wǒ chéngwéi yīkuài shítou … Ràng wǒ chéngwéi yīkuài shítou.” (Merciful Buddha please take me away ... take me away and close my heart ... make me a stone … make me a stone) He prayed over and over his voice small and strained as he sank into the mud, the world turning greyer and greyer.

The scent of roses startled back. That … never happened. He was supposed to sink he always sank.

The whisper of cloth made him turn his head.

Jacy stood there stark against the background of grey ash in blue silk and cotton, her platinum hair almost like a halo around her head. She laughed at him as if she was seen a child do something silly.

Vas’s face grew hot. What. The. Hell. One face vault to her soft bits and now she was in his dreams?! T-that wasn’t fair! That … That shouldn’t count!

Jacy put a cool hand on his shoulder and hush his embarrassing thoughts. “Get out of the mud Rooster. You’re late.” She chuckled.

“Don’t ca-“ Vas was about to shoot back irritably but Jacy interrupted by flicking his forehead.

“I’ll stop calling you that when you stop acting like one.” Jacy teased. Beckoning him to follow her with an outstretched hand and help the boy out of the blood and mud.

“That wasn’t very Jacy.” Vas mumbled the accusation.

“Well, I guess you don’t know me very well now, do you … Rooster.” She said with a sly smile, tugging him along.

Vas opened his mouth to argue but just ended up pouting instead. Damn. Dream Jacy had point. He decided to just shut up and follow before he jammed that muddy foot of his further in his mouth. The ground hardened under his feet and fog rolled in. Jacy led Vas expertly through the mist. In the distance, he could dimly see lights leading the way as they meandered foward to the Ship! He couldn’t tell when they got inside giving how thick the fog was until of course the crunch of the ground change to the clink of boots meeting metal.

The fog eased off as the music started to play. It was a classic ragtime drag, with the muffled wah wah of trumpets, a piano playing the bright tune, a double bass thumping, rounded out with the trombone, clarinet and three-piece drum set. It was a classy ensemble. The fog finally dissipated and the cargo bay of the ship revealed itself to be done up like a high-end lounge. One could hardly think it was the same cargo bay of the Lunar Veil but for some reason, Vas just knew.

The walls were painted white and silk was draped artflly around the cargo bay hiding any trace of metal, a chandelier had been added tossing back sprinkles of rainbows aginst the white walls and silk. The metal grate floors was covered in temporary wood Pergo, a stage with the band was set up next it. A bar (Of course) along with carfully placed plush white furniture laid out with dark wood tables finished the ensemble. It all looked so pristine and clean it was almost unreal. The crew was all decked out, men in tuxes and ladies in cocktail dresses. It was a hell of a sight. The captain, in a white tux and match cowboy hat and Riley in slimming classic black, made him do a double take.

They all chatted among themselves but Vas couldn’t hear anything they were saying, just the music playing crisply. It all seemed directly lifted from his childhood, the very same type of places she used to sing at between gigs at the opera house.

He turned to ask Jacy something but she was gone. Vas didn’t understand right away because everyone was accounted for so why wasn’t Jacy? The lights dimmed as a spotlight lit up the stage. Vas breath left him when he saw his mother take the stage. Granted he knew she wouldn’t look like that, he saw her as he did when he was a child. She was tall, her skin wasn’t as dark as his but just enough to be called exotic. Her eyes were still stormy blue with that no-nonsense air and her long tumble of dark hair was styled and pinned, little jewels twinkled in the dark masse of gleaming hair. She could rival even the most pretty of companions.

Vas felt like a kid again as he numbly took a seat. He forgot about the ship, Jacy and the crew. It figured only in his dreams he would finally get a first-row seat at his mothers show. A familiar tune started up and Vas leaned forward in anticipation. Hearing her sing again, it was better than any drug he tasted. It was a moment wrapped in some of his fondest memories. His mother voice bright rich and silky. He could have died a happy man right then an there.

Vas closed his eyes wrapping himself in the song. He knew it by heart he heard it so many times. He wiped his eyes and opened them to find the band and his mother gone. Everyone was gone! The song was a distant and far echo fading out in the encroaching darkness. Vas stood suddenly confused and panicked.

“Mom?” Vas called out his voice echoing. “Jacy? Captain? Anyone?” The echo growing more voluminous with each call out, the room getting darker. It felt like a solid thing, the darkness, it made Vas feel like if it got to him it would choke him. He instinctively retreated back the spotlight on the stage the only seemingly source of protection. “Anyone ... “ Vas said his voice getting smaller. “ … Please.” He said hoarsely spinning around hoping to get a glimpse of someone anyone.