Before The Rebirth

Concert for the Commander

One day I was on my way back in search of the Pig Mask Army commander to give him my painting, the kitten I chose was black with big yellow eyes and was already grown up. I was looking for him all over the island; then I saw in the sky, those same ships with the pig nose and the big ship, this time they wouldn't escape me, I ran seeing the sky (and ground so that the same thing wouldn't happen to me from that other day). I saw where the ships were landing, and suddenly, I saw the commander up there; he spread wings and landed from the mother ship to the ground.... HE COULD FLY! He went to what looked like a laboratory, above the front door there was a giant monstrous head as a decoration. All the soldiers came in with him, I had to wait outside. After a long time the soldiers went out talking to the commander; I heard one of the soldiers say: "Our commander, in love! Wow! you can see that even the coldest have their weaknesses". The other soldiers said to the commander: "Well, as you heard from Dr. Andonuts, as long as that crush on the singer and chimera keeper doesn't distract you from your mission, there won't be a problem, that the important thing is to control those emotions so that they don't get in the way". I was paralyzed, eyes like plates and mouth open. Singer and chimera-sitter? That's me? The commander? Fall in love? The soldiers walked past me, didn't notice me. I walked away a little and pretended not to have noticed anything, so that the encounter with him was a coincidence. I greeted the soldiers, showed them the portrait of the commander and they were impressed; then the commander came over to see what all the fuss was about; I gave him my drawing, he took it, and he looked at it for a long time; I asked him if he liked my painting; the commander rolled up the paper, looked at me and said: "Thank you"; I blushed, looking at the ground and with a shy smile I said: "You're welcome". I also gave the kitten to the commander; he took it and looked at it; the kitten purred. Finally I asked him if he had time for a small private concert, because he had missed the concert that night; the commander replied: "Tonight, you will go to Club Titiboo, you will not invite anyone, but me and some of my soldiers". The soldiers shouted in amazement, I was stunned. All the soldiers began to shout: "INVITE ME COMMANDER!" "PLEASE CHOOSE ME!" "I BEG YOU, SIR". At last, he had some free time; the masked man said to the soldiers: "Silence!". I told him that I would not forget it, I extended my hand to him, and he held my hand with a particular firmness as I looked into my eyes. I quickly went to Club Titiboo to tell the others that I will do a small private concert tonight for some members of the Pig Mask Army; they got down to work. I left the club and suddenly I thought of something; those two soldiers who were dying to see me at the concert. When I was looking for them, by chance I saw them, a soldier fighting with a cow with a anaconda neck and tail to free his companion; I ran out to help them, and as they saw me they exclaimed: "Our Heroine!"; I took some grass and brought it closer to the mutant's mouth; he began to sniff it and piecemeal he started to free the soldier. When he was finally free, the two of them choked me with a big hug, thanking me. When they took me down, I told them that tonight there would be a private concert for the commander and several soldiers and that I was inviting them; they went crazy; they asked me how the commander had let me do the concert; I told them that I asked him if he had any time, and he set the time and place himself, and I would give them his much desired VIP tickets; the soldiers jumped for joy, hugged me again and almost killed me for lack of oxygen, and left joyfully, jumping like children.

And that night, everything was ready, just like before. I entered the stage, all the tables were full of soldiers whistling and clapping; and in the front row were the commander, and my fans, the two soldiers waving little flags with my name initial in their hands (how cute they were), so I started singing all the songs from the previous concert.

After the concert, everyone came out of the club to their vehicles, my two soldier fans, ran towards me, thanking me for everything, raising me from the ground and hugging me tightly (I was turning blue), until the commander came and told the soldiers: "Enough, leave her alone. I order you to return to your vehicles. Tell the others to leave, I'll leave later, if anything happens, call me on the phone. The soldiers made a military salute and ran away, saying goodbye to me. And it was just me and the commander alone; he was silent, looking at me. I already knew everything, I no longer had to ask him what was going on; I asked him if he wanted to sit in the VIP chair for a while to conversate, he nodded, and we sat there for a while. I started talking to him. He was more a listener than a speaker; I talked to him about many things in my life, one of them for example, that roses fascinated me, that I had a little rose bush in my garden. I asked him questions, many of them he didn't answer, and a few of them he answered with a "Yes" or a "No". On the stage was the grand piano that I used to play my songs on, I wanted to show the commander a piece of music called "Gymnopodie no. 1", I told him that it wasn't mine, but I really liked playing it, when I finished the piece I asked him if he wanted to play the piano, the commander stood up slowly and went on stage; I asked him to sit next to me, and I started to teach him which keys to play; we started to play the piece for a while. When we finished, we sat in the VIP chair, I told him that he did very well; a while later I asked him which of my songs he liked the most; he replied that one of the songs he liked the most was "In Heaviside Layer". I asked him if he knew the lyrics. He said yes. I asked him to sing it. He began to sing a verse. In a low, monotonous voice. I followed him to the other verse. Then we sang half of the song together. Then I asked him what other song he liked. He said he liked "Dance in the Air". I told him to wait a moment sitting there, I went quickly to my dressing room to look for a radio and the CD where that song was, I went back, turned on the radio, played the CD, looked for the song and put it on, it was a danceable song of Adult Contemporary genre, I sat down with him on the couch to listen to it, then I thought I would ask him if he wanted to dance with me, I got up and I extended my hand; He looked at me for a few seconds, he looked at my hand and gave me his hand, he stood up, I guided his cannon-arm to hold my hips, at first I could feel him a little uncomfortable, but at the end he calmed down, we started dancing to the beat of the song, while we were dancing, I noticed him more relaxed, with his eye closed ( the other eye was hidden by one part of his helmet), feeling the rhythm of the music, he didn't move very freely, it was obvious that he wasn't used to dancing, but that didn't matter to me now.

There were times when he looked me in the eye. While i was gently releasing me from his arm and he had my hand, I made a small turn; he saw me a little confused, maybe he didn't expect it, I told him it was a dance step, a while later, the commander now knowing this, we did the same. For me it was a very special moment between the commander and me. The song ended and we sat back down on the couch. As if I had not known about this morning, piecemeal, I began to enter into the subject of love, especially romantic love, explaining everything to him in a way that made him feel comfortable. This morning I thought he wasn't much of an expert on love. When I finished speaking, the masked man whispered: "It's almost the same as what Dr Andonuts explained to me, I've never felt anything like this...............It's strange". He raised his hand and slowly put it on my face, he began to slowly caress my face, my hair; I let him do it to me, maybe I had never felt love, then he started to act a little strange: he began to breathe hesitantly, his cheeks were very red, his hand with which he caressed my face began to shake, then he took off his hand to touch his head and his abdomen with his other arm, as if something was hurting him; there I had to ask him what was wrong; the commander stayed looking at me for a few seconds, then he got up from the armchair with some difficulty, and left the room quickly; I said: "Hey! Where are you going? Come back!" I tried to reach him, but then I stopped, and I kept thinking: that tickling feeling in my stomach and chest so strong when you're in love, all that euphoria and adrenaline, all that mixture and explosion of emotions so complex, that tremendous emotional turmoil; maybe he wasn't used to it, it was too much for him.

I went to my dressing room, changed my clothes, left the club, it was a quiet night. I went home to sleep, the lights of the house were off, my parents and sisters were already asleep, I got into my bed and I kept thinking about what had happened at the club. Finally I kept thinking about how I would have liked to have wings like those of the commander, one of my biggest dreams in my life was to fly and I fell asleep thinking about it. Then I had a dream, I dreamed that I was flying, my wings in my dream were mechanical, white and the strangest thing, they had feathers; suddenly in my dream I saw the commander of the Pig Mask Army flying in the distance, he approached me and grabbed one of my hands, we started to fly holding hands and suddenly my song "Dance in the air" was played out of the blue, we were holding hands, we were doing pirouettes, etc. We looked each other in the eye. I noticed that the commander was saying something but I couldn't hear him, I could only see his mouth moving. Our faces came closer, when our lips almost touched, I heard a voice, which sounded like my mother's, I woke up suddenly and saw my mother sitting at the edge of my bed and asked me how I were doing at the concert, she told me that breakfast was ready and she left my room; I stayed in my bed for a while looking at the ceiling thinking what I could remember from my dream and also remembering at last night's event.