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13. The Ending
Five years later.
In a pub in Xian, a man with a beard was sitting by a table, holding a
bottle of bourbon. He drank it.
"Hey drunk cat! It's your turn!"
That man put the bottle on the table, then picked up the guitar which was on
the table.
"Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome Eric." said the announcer.
That beard man entered the stage. And the audience clapped their hands.
There were some tables in front of the stage, some of them were occupied,
most of them were not.
Some of the people in their seats were looking at the stage, the others were
doing their things.
Eric plugged his guitar. It was a black Fender Stratocaster.
He then went to the microphone.
"This song is written by my friend Bob. It's called "Knocking On
Heaven's Door"."
Then he began to play. It was a reggae number.
There was no more the tight, energetic, uptempo style that he had in Cream
of Chicken. The song and his playing was slow and relaxed. He was playing
with the wah-wah pedal, and the guitar tone was much thinner and cleaner
than five years ago.
Eric began to sing.
"Ma, take this badge off me,
I can't use it anymore.
It's getting dark, too dark to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door..."
Eric, as usual, was staring at the wall opposite to the stage far away. But
he did look at the audience time to time. When he looked at the tables. He
saw something.
It was Lime standing there.
But that didn't surprise Eric. He had that illusion time to time when he was
drunk.
He just ignored it and sang the chorus.
"...Knock, Knock, Knocking on heaven's door
Knock, Knock, Knocking on heaven's door..."
"...Ma, take this gun off me,
I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel like I'm Knockin' on heaven's door... Knock, Knock, knock..."
Then he sang the chorus.
Not long after, the song ended.
Some of the people in their seats clapped their hands.
"Thank you." Eric then went down the stage.
"Eric."
Eric heard a familiar voice. It seemed that he had heard it long long time
ago before.
Eric looked to the audience. He saw Lime was looking at him.
"Jeez... I shouldn't have drank too much." thought Eric. Then he
kept on walking out of the stage.
Lime rushed to the side of the stage, in front of Eric.
"Eric, it's me." said Lime. She held his hand.
--
Eric and Lime was walking in a park, on their way to Eric's home. It was
5pm.
"So, how did you find me?" asked Eric.
"I asked many people." said Lime. "I asked the housekeeper of
the guesthouse you stayed in Japones, she said you were living in this
area."
"And then after I came here, I asked many local people, but I was in
vain." Lime said. "Until this morning I saw the poster outside the
pub by chance. I saw your name there."
"I see..." Eric said. He knew Lime had tried very hard to look for
him. But now he wanted to know more about Lime's family.
"Hmm... so how is Cherry and Bloodberry?"
"Bloodberry just married to Akashi last month." said Lime,
"And Cherry was married to Faust about a year ago. They just went to
New Texas last week with the Titanic."
"Yes I know, I read the news." said Eric. "They are now on
tour."
Eric knew that Faust was signed by the record company Pacific Records 3
years ago. The company was the biggest in New Texas. The Titanic now was the
biggest band of that time.
"How about you then? Why are you still performing in the small
pub?" asked Lime.
"Well... actually there was some record companies interested in me, but
later after they found out about my drinking problem, they turned me down.
And you know I must perform in the pub, I must try to make a living
and..." Eric was about to say he also needed the money to buy his
beverages, but of course, he stopped so Lime wouldn't know about it.
"Hmm... why you had to drink that much?" asked Lime.
Eric didn't know how to answer that question. He drank and drank everyday
with a purpose that he nearly forgot - oh yes, initially he had to drink to
ease and forget his pain, the pain generated by his loneliness and, the most
importantly, the fact that he left Lime.
Eric didn't want Lime to know about it. He then tried to change the subject.
"Well... yeah, where is your husband, Otaru?" asked Eric.
"Otaru..." said Lime. "He died one week after you left JIS."
Eric stopped walking. He was shocked. His good friend, a great guitarist,
had died.
"He died in a traffic accident." said Lime.
"What a damn shame..." said Eric, looked down, and then looked at
Lime again. "Then... you..."
"I'm still single." said Lime.
Eric looked at Lime in the eyes.
"Why don't you get married? Your sisters are married."
"Eric... I was waiting for you." said Lime.
Eric stood there, looking at Lime.
"Eric... I know you love me... and..."
"... I love you."
When Eric heard the three words from Lime that he had always longed for,
Eric felt that the burden that kept haunting him for a very very long time
was finally disappeared. Inside him now he was like the one he was five
years ago. And in his eyes he saw the place where they were standing was
actually in the park of JIS.
Eric looked at Lime in the eyes, he noticed she hadn't changed a bit, she
was just the same as five years ago.
Eric felt he was comfortable, the feeling he hadn't had for so long time he
couldn't remember how long.
Eric hugged Lime, very tightly.
"I will never, EVER, leave you again!"
Two rivers of tears ran down from Eric's eyes.
The screen was changed to the 16:9 widescreen format. The yellow leaves of
autumn started falling on Eric and Lime. You can see the screen was going up
and getting away from Eric and Lime. It is panning to the sky, with the sun
about to set and the birds were flying over.
Then here comes a background song, "I Was Born To Love You" By
Queen.
The screen faded to black and then it comes the credits.
--
Part of the credits are here, in the order of appearance:
Faust - Jimmy Page
Eric - Eric Clapton
Ginger - Ginger Baker
Jack - Jack Bruce
Cream of Chicken - Cream
Otaru - Jimi Hendrix
Tiger - Robert Plant (female version :P)
Luchs - John Paul Jones (female version)
Panther - John Bonham (female version)
The Kings - Queen
Freddie - Freddie Mercury
Brian - Brian May
Akashi - Mitch Mitchell
Rolling Rocks - Rolling Stones
Titanic - Led Zeppelin
The Otaru Experience - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Bob - Bob Dylan
The rest are acted by themselves from the original Saber Marionette J
series.
The songs are not written by me and they belong to their respective owners.
Please post a review to my story in this website, Fanfiction.net. Thank you
very much. You can post one by using the drop box at the lower left corner
of this page.
If you have any feedback to me, please email me at [email protected]. You
can call me Chungsoft.
--
Wait a minute! Check out Chapter 14 to see the alternate version of this
chapter!
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