The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
Third in my Anonymous Series about the nameless characters of the 'Verse. The purpose being to salute them and tell their tales. Secondly, I hope you'll be able to guess who the character is and where you saw them. Rated PG for adult themes
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 2005 RATING: 9.0 (PG) SERIES: FIREFLY
A/N: I keep feeling that this one is missing something but I'm uncertain as to what. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. If you are interested in the first two of the series, you can find them easily by clicking on my profile name. If you already knew that, my apologies.
Her name is Franny Castenedas or at least she thinks it is. Occasionally there is a woman in her dreams who is addressed as Mrs. Castenedas. There is no face attached to the name, no particular emotion, but she’s decided that it’s her mother. Why else would she dream of this woman? She knows for certain that her given name is Franny, the memory of the nun screaming the name and the beating is quite clear.
She doesn’t recall a church, but the many figures shrouded in black make her confident that they were nuns. She starts singing to herself.
Blue Sun loves the little children
All the children of the worlds
Red and yellow
Black and white
They will keep you warm at night
Blue Sun loves the little children of the worlds
A strong smell assailed her nostrils and she buried her face into her sleeve as she looked for the cause. It was coming from the floor. It was coming from the man lying on the floor. She knew he had been dead but there was nothing to be done about it. She had ignored him for the past day or so, doing her best not to step on him. She was one of the many who didn’t have the rank or strength to fight her way to the ventilation shafts where there was more room. Apparently the others had smelled it as well, for there was a grumbling and cursing as the throng attempted to move away. For once she had enough room to sit comfortably. She almost felt grateful to the stinky thing.
They had been in the cargo hold for near a week. The stench of unwashed bodies, overflowing commodes and general malaise had effectively camouflaged the process of decomposition. They were all at one level of decay or another: rotting teeth, weeping sores, lice-ridden rags that barely hid the diseases of malnutrition an
And the attention to detail that you put in the story is amazing, the sights, the sounds, the smells(the smells especially). Out of curiousity, were the slavers the same ones we saw at the beginning of "Shindig"? You made me really care about your characters, I felt bad that she couldn't reach that red scarf. Also, the "Blue Sun loves the little children" song, very chilling.
I think I see what you mean about something missing, the end of the story leaves you with all sorts of questions about what happened to her. Who were the figures in black beating her. What had she done, or who had she angered to make someone go to the trouble, the risk, and the expense(and it would have been expensive to make her disappear that way). It would have to be someone very rich and with a very personal grudge taking satisfaction in the knowledge of what happened to her or conversely someone concerned enough not to want her death just her absence, as I can't think the money of her sale would cover the plastic surgery costs to hide the fact that she was famous. Mr. Casenadas? And the Alliance would probably have just imprisoned or killed her. If it was a ring that kidnapped and enslaved people, they would take anonymous nobodies of which the Firefly verse abounds, and the mention in the bulletin would have been a tiny unnoticed missing person report. Unless I'm reading this wrong and something else entirely is going on which wouldn't be the first time that happened. Maybe a couple of half remembered sentences of dialog that wouldn't have made sense until the end of the story could clear this up.
Needless to say, I loved reading this and will be reading your other works, and looking forward to the ones you will write in the future. The man Simon saves in "Ariel", the crew of the S.S. Walden in "Out of Gas"(what happened on Ita moon), Marcus and Nathaniel Grange from Safe",or what is the story on Mrs. Rance Burgess, could everyone have an interesting backstory. The possibilities are endless.
Thanks so much for the kind words and thoughtful review! It made my day :) You found some great subtext that I hadn't even thought of and that is exactly what I was hoping for. I wanted to the reader to come up with reasons for all the little holes in the story and find their own dots to connect. Regarding the slavers from "Shindig," I hadn't even thought of them, I hadn't even really seen these people as slaves but more along the lines of indentured servants such as were brought to The Colonies in the 1600-1700s. They could be slaves, she may have at one time been a slave. Or perhaps she might have actually been the "real" Franny Castenedas who had pissed off the wrong people. I want everyone to decide for themselves who she is but more importantly I wanted her to be remembered. I shall add your suggested characters to my list, I had completely forgotten about all those you mentioned!I loved your thoughts and I truly hope that I can also look forward to more of the same with my other stuff!
BEB
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