Lynn
After the life support meeting, everyone kept telling me how happy they were that I came. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but it might grow on me soon.
"So glad you came today, Lynn."
"Thanks, Steven."
While we were walking outside on the steps outside the community center, we saw two police men, trying to get a homeless woman to get up from where she was sitting. Brendon got his camera out and started to film.
"Come on, get up!"
"Hey, pal, this ain't no campground, wake up!"
We all watched while Brendon for closer to them.
"Smile for the camera, officers."
That made them walk away and leave the poor lady alone. She didn't look grateful for what Brendon did, more angry, actually.
"Who do you think you are? I don't need goddamm help from some bleeding-heart camera man. My life's not for you to make a name for yourself on."
"Easy, sugar, he was just trying to--"
"Just tryin' to use me to kill his guilt. It's not that kind of movie, honey. This place is full of artists. Hey, artists, you got a dollar?"
We all stayed silent, and looked away from her because we knew she made a good point.
"Didn't think so."
She walked away, and we walked down into the subway. When we walked down the stairs, we all looked annoyed, and Max started talking.
"New York City."
"Uh huh," said Brendon.
"Center of the universe."
"Sing it, girl," said Steven.
"Times sure are shitty, but I'm sure they can't get any worse."
"I hear that," I said.
"It's a comfort to know that when you're singing the hit-the-road blues, that anywhere else you could possibly go after New York would be a pleasure cruise."
"Now you're talkin'."
We all took our seats on the train, except Steven, who stood up in front of Max, and Brendon almost fell on me sitting down while the train was moving.
"Hey, guys? Let's open up a restaurant in Santa Fe. Sunny Santa Fe. Leave this place to the roaches and mice. Max, you can play gentle drums for music. Lynn, you can make the menu sparkle with rhymes. Brendon, you can brush the sauce onto the meat. I can seat guests as they come and talk about wine."
Steven went on and on about this restaurant in Santa Fe. He's not the only one of us who wanted to escape from New York. I think we would go to Santa Fe if we had money, but like the woman from earlier said, we don't even have a dollar.
After we got off the train, Brendon said that he was late to Sarah's soundcheck and that he needed to leave. And he made me go with him. Grea-a-a-at.
After a while when the soundcheck was finished, I went outside and saw people fill the alley way, here for Sarah's protest. I walked around, hoping to find Alexa somewhere to ask her to be my date tonight.
I looked around some more, and found her talking to someone. Someone with a familiar face I knew. I walked over to her and recognized the man immediately. My old drug dealer. When Max said that times can be shitty and that they couldn't get any worse, I figured out the hard way that it could get worse.
"Hey, Alexa."
"Hey."
"Can I talk to you for a sec--"
"Hey, lover-girl. You steal my clients, you die."
"Oh, really? Didn't miss me, you won't miss her. Look around, got plenty of customers."
Alexa pulled me aside from him, and asked me what I wanted.
"Look... About last night, I'm sorry. I-I don't know what--"
"Just forget it."
"I was out of line. Can I make it up to you?"
"How?"
"Bunch of us are getting together and going to a café after Sarah's show."
"Yeah?"
"Would you wanna come with me and be my date?"
"Sure... I'd like that."
We started walking inside the performance space and we looked for Max, Steven, and Brendon in crowd.
"So you're a tough girl?"
"Heh, no, not really."
"No? That was pretty good what you did out there."
We met up with everyone else, and Max and Alexa were ecstatic to see each other. I noticed Jenna in the crowd with other people I didn't recognize, and then we heard an engine of a motorcycle. I noticed the cops on stand by Jenna told us about. We saw Sarah on the motorcycle, and she rode her way to the stage.
She got on stage, and pulled off her helmet, and shook her head back and forth to get her hair out of her face. She went up to the microphone and started to talk.
(A/N: Text in italics is Sarah singing. Play the original song right here to hear it!)
"Last night, I had a dream. I found myself in a desert called Cyberland. It was hot, my canteen had sprung a leak and I was thirsty. Out of the abyss, walked a cow. Elsie. I asked if she had anything to drink she said, 'I'm forbidden to produce milk. In Cyberland, we only drink Diet Coke'. She said, 'Only thing to do is jump over the moon. They've closed everything real down, like barns and troughs, and performance spaces and replaced it all with lies, and rules, and virtual life, but there is a way out.'
'Only thing to do is jump over the moon. I gotta get out of here. It's like I'm being tied to the hood of a yellow rental truck being packed in with fertilizer and fuel oil. Pushed over a cliff by a suicidal Mickey Mouse.
I've got to, got to, got to find a way.To jump over the moon. Only thing to do os jump over the moon.'
Then a little bulldog entered. Her name we have learned was Jenna.
And although she once had principles, she abandoned them to live as a lap dog to a wealthy daughter of the Revolution.
Ah-one-two-three.
'That's bull,' she said. 'Ever since the cat took up the fiddle, that cow's been jumpy.'
'The dish and spoon were evicted from the table and eloped. She's had trouble with that milk and the moon ever since. Maybe it's a female thing.'
'Cause who'd want to leave Cyberland anyway? Walls ain't so bad, the dish and the spoon for instance. They were down on their luck knocked on my doghouse door,
I said, 'Not in my backyard, utensils, go back to China!'
'The only way out is up,' Elsie whispered to me.
A leap of faith.
'Still thirsty?'
Parched.
'Have some milk.'
I lowered myself beneath her and held my mouth to her swollen udder and sucked the sweetest milk I'd ever tasted.
'Climb on board', she said
And as a harvest moon rose over Cyberland, we reared back. We sprang into a gallop, leaping out of orbit. I awoke singing,
Only thing to do
Only thing to do is jump
Only thing to do
Is jump over the moon
Only thing to do
Is jump over the moon
Over the moon, over the...
Moo... moo... moo...
Moo with me. Come on sir, moo with me
Moo... moo... moo... moo... Come on, don't be shy! Moo with me everyone!"
The crowd started mooing with Sarah, and she encouraged all the moos. The cops started to walk around in the crowd. People with their hands in the air were being pushed, and then they pushed back.
"Hey, hey, guys! It's okay, just be cool, be cool," Sarah said trying to reassure the audience and continue her protest.
Whistles were being blown, and glass was being smashed on the ground. Then a police man started to beat someone with a baton.
Policemen came over to where Brendon, Max, Steven, Alexa, and I were. I grabbed Alexa and put her behind me. The cops tried to get Steven, but Max pulled them off him, and then the cops had Max. Max kicked a policeman in front of her, and then Steven pulled the one on her off. Brendon was no where to be seen.
"Hey, let's get out of here!" I yelled. Max and Steven followed Alexa and I, and we made it outside quickly. We walked to the café waiting for Sarah and Hayley, and we saw them across the street while we were waiting.
I introduced myself to Hayley, this being the first time I've met her, and we all went inside.
"Hey, wait, wait, where's Brendon?" asked Steven.
"No clue. Hope for the best and wait for him? He knows we're here."
"I guess so."