Re: [Jukebox - Sparrow & Open]
Non. It wasn't an audition. She performed, but she did so when she wanted to, and it was self-hedonism, pleasure for itself, a thing she enjoyed. She didn't remember things, and her past was a null she couldn't run away from, but she knew what she liked, and she knew her time was a thing limited, the sands in her hourglass slipping. She knew these things, and so she lived a life she wanted, and she did things she wanted, and she avoided anything that didn't call to her, sing to her, move her. This song, it did all those things, and so she sang but, non, it was no audition.
"I sing under the big tent at the carnival," she explained, motioning toward the door and indicating the brief distance between the roadhouse and the collection of outcasts that preformed under twinkle-lights. "I'm in the hooch there. It's a lot like this, but not as expensive." There was no denying that his act, his show, was better than the one that took place on simple slats of wood built on dust and cracking ice-ground. But she loved how romantic that striped big top was. "You have drinks and animals and skill, because I can't sing like the people here, and I can't dance like the people here. But we have miracles and wonders." Earnest, because they told fortunes and futures. Eddie brought mechanical things to life, and Richard flew. It was wonder, and that was why Sparrow lived there, and that was why she would remain.
He said Britons dreamed of a better world, and she smiled. "Don't we all dream of a better world? I think everyone's better worlds are different. We're small, and we dream small, and those dreams are little and unique to each of us. There are big dreams, oui, but those aren't the ones that matter." Her laugh was scrape and husky warmth. "I'm not everyone's dream, but I don't mind being someone's dream."
The song changed, and she smiled as soon as the piano keys twinkled and tinkled. She took his hand, and she went soft and pressed curves against him. "I dance." She stepped back. "But not tonight. I have to go. I could only stay for one dance."
She smiled at him, more of those soft curves, and she stepped away and left him behind, Billie singing in her wake.