The Prologue

She stared at herself in the mirror as she pinned up her long hair. Her roots were showing again, she noted. Have to run the brown colour through it again in the shower. Not that it looked bad, but more people might recognise her if they knew her natural colour. Finally satisfied, she lifted the wig from the block and manoeuvred it into place. Gray hair pulled tight into a bun, and already it had changed her appearance, even as she held it in place with grips. Picking up the brush, she dipped it into the paintbox and began to apply shadows and lines. Tilting her face first one way then the other, she added dimension, hollowing out her cheeks, making her forehead more prominent. As last she sat back, an elderly woman looking at her from the glass. She nodded, a small smile lifting one corner of her now thin lips.

Someone knocked. “Janith?”

“Uh huh?”

“Five minutes to curtain.”

“Thanks.” She stood up and smoothed the plain brown dress over her hips. “Showtime,” she whispered.

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Act I - Ezra

“Just you make sure you keep in touch.” Mrs Cobb straightened Jayne’s collar for the fifth time.

“I will. And you be letting me know how you are. Use the Cortex screen I got ya, even if it’s just to leave messages.”

“We could have used the feedstore’s.”

“Don’t want you having to go all that way just to speak to me.”

“No, well. But you shouldn’t have spent your money on us.”

“Weren’t that much,” Jayne said quickly. “And it was Kaylee boosted it so the signal’ll go further.”

“Thank her for us, then.”

“I will.”

Mrs Cobb ran her hand down her son’s face, as if trying to memorise it. “And you be good.”

“Ma, I ain’t a kid no more.”

“You always will be to me. And it don’t mean you don’t have to be good. Don’t forget, as soon as you get that little girl to say yes, you call me. I’ll arrange the biggest wedding this planet’s ever seen.”

Jayne felt a tug at his insides. “Ma -”

“Now, you just promise me.”

He looked down into her