Hello you! Here is a quick scene sketch I whipped up for you this evening. Enjoy!
—
“It’s beautiful.”
Payton laughs.
“I mean it. Not like your other songs. It’s real, I feel it under my skin. With the headphones—wow.” Her shape wavers on the edge of his vision.
“Shit Reagan.”
“What?”
“Shit.” Payton closes his eyes, leans forward; breathes out.
“What?”
Can she say anything but ‘what’? A slow twang fills the silence between them. Payton’s aching voice whines out from a pair of clear dome-shaped speakers on his desk:
But I have so much to say…before you fade away…
She looks down and grinds her heel into the ground. “Jeez Payton, do you want me to stay for a little while?”
“No—no…You were on your way out? Just go.” Payton waves Reagan out of the room then turns the music up. Payton hears the sound of heels leaving over wood. “Wait! I—cha—…”
“What?”
He grips his hair. “You’d just”—he tries to shake it out of his head—”you really care *that* little?”
But I have so much to say…before you fade away…
“Stay?” He says. “Just for tonight.”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Is it fixed then? Whatever made this impossible for you, is it fixed now?”
“What needs to be fixed will take time. This isn’t healthy anymore Payton.” She turns to leave, stops, takes out a receipt and scribbles something on its back. She holds it out; Payton slips it out from her fingers and examines it with care. “It will feel all right soon.” She squeezes his shoulder. “I really think so.” Reagan leaves. Payton cries into the slick strip of receipt. His back heaves in time to his tune.
But I have so much to say…before you fade away…
