AN: Well, I started my "Birds of a Feather" series, and then I got locked out of this site. For six months. Six looooong, excruciating months. My muse left me for a sculptor in New York, so while I am sort of timeline-formatting/retrofitting for a new story, I have this. It has been in my head for a while, and for now it is all I have. Happy Holidays, one and all.

MEMORIAL

She strode through the crowded alleyway, desperate in her search for what she needed before the ship had to leave. Not that Serenity could take off without her pilot, of course. But River didn’t want to inconvenience the crew…There! She could feel her target’s train of thought again, eager and anxious for a day of good business. She turned another corner, and there it was.

Lee’s Religious Wares was a modest stand in a back alley of Persephone’s Eavesdown Docks, and Mr. Phillip Lee was dedicated to bringing holy comfort of every kind to the people of the ‘verse. He saw a young woman, of late teens or early twenties, striding purposely towards his stand. A customer, actually seeking out his stand?! Phillip was delighted. The young lady tucked her black hair behind her ear and picked up a wooden cross and a bible. She put money on the table, mysteriously exactly the right amount, and was gone.

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She carefully put the glue tube down, and gently placed the cross on the wall above the bed that had once belonged to the late Shepard Book. She had it placed with mathematical precision and excellence. Not a hair to either side. She then picked up the Bible that she had bought, and before she set it on the table she penned in her best writing:

In loving memory of Shepard Meria Book

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River sat at the pilot's seat, staring at the black. It was so big. More than she could hold, and she wasn't stupid enough to try. She already held too much. The console alerted her to space trash floating calmly in Serenity's path. River quickly moved arou