Bringing It Home
By Missy
TITLE: Bringing It Home
PARTS: One of One
RATING: PG-13 for one adult reference and one mildly salty word; use caution.
DISTRIBUTION: To LW, FG and Kai so far; any other archives are welcome to ask, but disclaimers must be included, my email left intact. send a URL, and provide full disclaimers as well as credit me fully. Please inform me if you are going to submit my work to any sort of search engine. Â Please do not submit my work to a search engine that picks out random sets of words and uses them as key words, such as "Google"
Please contact me in order for this story to be placed on an archive, or if you want know of a friend who would enjoy my works, please email me their address and I will mail them the stories, expressly for the purpose of link trading. MiSTiers are welcomed! Please do inform me that you'd like to do the MiSTing, however, and send me a copy of the finished product. I'd also love to archive any MiSTings that are made of my work!
CATEGORY: SOL
PAIRINGS: What do you think? ;-)
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: An anxious wait after a long separation
NOTES: Lyrics in italics by Roseanne Cash, from the song "List of Burdens", as heard on "10-Song Demos" All rights are reserved. I wrote everything between them *laughs*.
****
I'm coming home to day
To hear the trucks roar
And lock the front door
And stare into your face
The morning dawned crisp and cold, with a sort of fallish brightness that demanded an early rising. He rolled out of his bunk, literally, to the floor.
Yeah, now would be a good time to get up.
He dressed, taking a seat toward the front of the bus, eating a brown-tinged banana left over from the last good will basket they had taken in. Even though the sun was rising before them, right into his eyes, he trained his sight line to the bright green road signs looming over his head.
They grew closer together, and he thrilled with the knowledge of what that meant.
Fifteen minutes to home....
****
"But moooooommmm! Everyone wears tube tops to school now!"
"No."
"But.."
"No!" She pointed the way back to her daughter's room and, with a pout, she pounded her way back up to change. Her mother groaned to herself, remembering when rebellion meant an illicit cigarette and necking on a couch. Now it meant blowjobs in the bathroom and dressing up like that Christina Whateverlara, and it was so hard to protect her by her lonesome..
Her thoughts were cut off, momentarily, by the sound of a beach ball shattering beneath her stomping gait.
She bent, picking up the shattered pieces, hollering to her son, Christian, about his bad memory. His response was a grin, and a new magic trick. She forgot her anger as he pulled free a plastic rabbit, grinning as only a six-year-old could with intense joy.
Maggie, of course, thought her brother's trick wasn't that great, but she didn't tell him so, instead asking her mother what the square root of eight was. Laverne didn't know this, but Toni did; 2.
Everything, their mother said, seemed to come down to two.
***
I'm coming home to day
To sleep in my bed
And clear out my head
And wander 'round this place.
He watched as each sleepy bandmate disappeared into their humble homes, dragging baggage visible and invisible. They were comforted, all, by the notion that this was the end of the last reunion tour, and solo projects awaited them.
He wondered what kind of topping they'd have on their pizza tonight. What kind of science project Christian wanted to do for the Science fair, and if his being around all of the time would be a help or a hindrance? Could he stomach any of Gina's boyfriends?
He looked to the road signs, happy that there weren't any tailgaters, any shouting minions giving chase. Sometimes it was nice to be a has-been; it meant retirement at one's own leisure.
He watched the street signs as they rushed by.
"Five miles to home." He said out loud.
***
I walked around this world
Bathed in neon
And Needing no one
And empty and disturbed
The mornings always passed too quickly; none of them would be home when their father arrived, but there would be a little party later, even if she had to drag Gina out of cheerleader practice. Her eldest daughter sulked her way through the bowl of cereal she had selected, perking up suddenly when her friend's car horn blew. She blew kisses, refusing to smear her makeup, and disappeared out the back door.
Her mother took note of the fire-engine red convertible that stole her daughter off to school. Just in case.
Breakfast dishes were tossed into the sink; busses arrived to take her children away. First Maggie and Toni to the Junior High, then Christian to elementary school.
And suddenly their mother was alone.
She shuffled to the sink, running the dishes, looking over her shoulder. Only feeling a tiny bit sorry for herself this morning, wondering to herself.
Where was Lenny?
Yeah I ran around this world
It Nearly Killed Me
But you can fill me 'til
I cry like a little girl.
****
Four inches; he had all of his suitcases at the ready. A hefty tip to the bus driver and he was gone, too enthusiastic to do more than run for his home.
If I could just get there
I'd lay the whole damned world at your feet...
***
And then the sound of a bus pulling away..
I'd do anything to please you, baby
Just save yourself for me.
....And she ran for the door...
***
Their hands me the knob simultaneously, the door, therefore, wouldn't budge.
She let go. He pulled it open.
He was gorgeous. But she was a mess, being unshowered, unprepared for work.
He was a mess: he hadn't had clean clothing since Fresno. But she was gorgeous. And so he told her that.
She couldn't believe him, she started saying something about breakfast, but he put down his suitcase and pulled her up stairs. She remembered that the door was unlocked. Then nothing.
And he told her again that she was beautiful.
Beautiful. Twenty years, and he still saw her as a slinky twenty-year old.
Twenty years, and yet they lived for one another.
That is love.
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