To The End

26 London Bridges

   "London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady" Mikey bends down, so he can be eye level with me, I'm tied in a chair.

        "Let me go" he shakes his head, standing back up. He paces back and forth across the room. This white room. He shakes his head, grinning. "What beauty. So I thought to myself... Build it up with silver and gold, silver and gold, silver and gold. Build it up with silver and gold, my fair lady..."

        Two firm hands grab my shoulders. They aren't rough, though. Their hold is light, but reassuring. The grin slips from Mikey's face, and he stops singing. My limbs, they become heavy, like stone. The words spin in my head "Build it up with silver and gold.."

        The ropes just fall from my wrists, and someone takes me in their arms. They carry me away, I want to see their face, but I can't move to see. "Silver and gold will be stolen away, Stolen away, stolen away, Silver and gold will be stolen away, My fair lady." That voice...

        I am set down on a soft surface. Looking down on me is.. Frank. He leans down and whispers in my ear "my fair lady" he sits down next to me, holding my hand. "Oh, how I envied him from the start. I've always loved her, but you, Dakota. I've never felt this way." He leans closer to me, seeming to be...

        I fall out of the bed. Ow thats a long fall. "Frank!" I bang my head on the other side of the bunk, and the world goes blurry. Someone runs to me and kneels down. It's still so blurry, all I can see is them taking their shirt off... Oh lord. They wipe my forehead, which seems to be bleeding.

        "Dakota, are you okay?" It's Frank. How perfect. I shake my head. Along with the blood on my cheek, tears are falling from my eyes. He sits cross cross applesauce in front of me, still wiping the blood from my head. "Was it a nightmare?" maybe. Did I want that to happen? No. Yes, yes I did. Wait, what am I thinking, I don't like Frank like that. End of story.

        I nod. He stands up, holding his hand out to help me up. I struggle to stand up, groaning with the effort. "Wait here" he slips past me, towards his bunk. I sit on the couch for a few minutes. Frank comes back with a small bag. He sits down next to me and rummages through it. He gets an anesthetic wipe and wipes off my forehead, stinging a bit. After that, he takes a band-aid and puts it over where I hit it.

        "All better." I giggle, "you should be a doctor" he laughs, "I actually was looking in to being a.. Nurse. I had done all this research and stuff. But in the end it wasn't for me." I didn't know that. "Really?" He nods. "You never told me." He shrugs. "It's not that important." I nod. "I've wanted to be a mortician since I was like... Twelve or something."

        "That's grim, Dakota." I shrug, "not really. It's just interesting working with the corpses." He raises his eyebrow, "yes, that is grim" Ray walks in, looking happy. He sits down next to me. "Hi, Ray" he looks over at me. "Jeez, what happened to you?" "Whaddya mean?" He shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe the fact that you're eye makeup is smeared down your cheeks, and there is blood on your tee shirt"

        "Oh. I fell out of my bunk" he looks over at them. "Damn." I nod. "Oh, well... Why doesn't Frank have a shirt on?" I forgot about that. Frank explains the situation with more detail. Ray stands up, "well, at least there isn't anything going on between you two... Is there? Anyway, Gee, Mikey, and Bob want to know if you wanna go grab some food before we go"

        Frank and I nod, Ray leaves. I pull my bag down from the shelf and pull out a shirt. By the time I had picked out the shirt I wanted—my old iron maiden tee— I had forgotten about Frank's presence, and I take my shirt off so I can change.