No one spoke. No one knew how exactly to approach a 19 year old girl who just blew their minds and eardrums with a rendition of a piece by Bach as done by Jimi Hendrix. She had some some rather amazing, and downright scary, things in the past. But this pretty much blew every thing she did out of the water. Jayne, still with a look of dumbfounded ness, finally broke the silence with one of his lines of introspection.

“OK. What the hell was that?”

As Simon rushed down the metal stairs of the catwalk to check on River, Wash idled casually up to the railing and smiled.

“Hendrix.”

“Shenme?”

“She was playing that song in the fashion of Jimi Hendrix. He was this legendary guitar player on Earth-That-Was. Prodigy, really. Just like her. Don’t know what song she played, but it’s still kick ass. I particularily liked it when she picked at the strings with her teeth.”

“Her teeth pickin notwithstanding, how the Hell did she learn how to play like that?”

As Wash told the Captain and everyone else about the guitar she showed him and the music he had on the ships computer, Simon looked over River to try to get something of an answer to what she just did. River was still frozen in place, with her head arched back, her knees flat with the floor, her fingers locked in place and a look of transcendence on her face. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open and she looked up at Simon.

“You like?”

“What’s that?”

“Do you like it? I spent the last two nights recording the tracks, arranging the phrases the way Jimi would have, and learning how to pick at the f-string with my two teeth without breaking the rhythm. The least you can say is that I was merely adequate.”

“Merely adequate? Mei mei, that was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen you do! The form, the discipline, the way how you managed to add a psychedelic touch to the violas and the bases, and replaced the brass with an acoustic that soared. I’m so proud of you.” Simon leaned in and hugged her, despite the Allen One getting in the w