A Spectrum Story by Marion
Woods
Captain Blue took the last garland down from the Amber Room walls and
waited for Symphony to walk towards him, folding the brightly coloured tinfoil
into a neat square, suitable for packing away.
She came close and took the last section from him, and stood
looking down at the item in her hands.
“That’s the last one,” he said, glancing round with satisfaction. “I
think we’ve done a good job, even without the others.”
They’d done it all; although Scarlet and Rhapsody had originally
promised to help, when duty called they’d had to cry off. The three on-duty Angel Pilots were out on a
mission - flying security for Captain Scarlet and Captain Grey as they escorted
the World President back to Futura. The
President’s visit had been a hastily arranged affair, to offer him maximum
protection from the latest Mysteron threat.
Captains Ochre and Magenta had dealt effectively with the
potentially lethal bomber and were, even now, co-ordinating the scan of the
World capital to ensure the threat was well and truly over.
It meant that Cloudbase was almost devoid of senior officers.
It also means,
Blue thought happily, that I get Karen to
myself for a while.
He reached out a hand and touched her chin, lifting it gently so
that he could see her face and frowned to see the sadness in her
expression. She kept her beautiful,
moss-green eyes lowered, refusing to look up into his.
“What’s wrong, älskling?”
he asked softly.
She shrugged, bit her lip and shook her head.
“Karen?” He waited. He could wait for a long time and she
couldn’t resist ending the silences between them.
She turned away and walked to the box to pack the garland
away. Blue followed her, saying
nothing.
She put the lid on and made a show of looking around for the tape
to seal the box. Anything but meet his
gaze. He handed her the tape and the
scissors and in silence they sealed the box.
This was as long as she’d ever resisted revealing her woes.
He decided to call her bluff.
“I’ll take this to the storage bay and go and get something to
eat. It’s getting late and I have to cover for Scarlet’s night duty in the
Control Room. I doubt any of them will
be back till morning. Have you got
extra duty too?” She nodded. Blue rolled his eyes at her continued
silence. “You going to the Room of
Sleep?” he prompted.
She shook her head.
“Okay. Well, I think I’ll
catch forty-winks there. Even Doc Fawn’ll
have to admit, that with our current depleted numbers, I have a valid reason to
use it. I’ll see you tomorrow, I
guess?”
She nodded.
He resorted to an emergency strategy and drew her into his arms,
bending his head for a ‘goodnight’ kiss. He tasted salty tears on her cheek.
“Karen, honey, whatever is the matter?”
“I can’t help it,” she mumbled against his broad chest, shaking
slightly with this unknown personal tragedy.
“Help what?” He cast his
mind over a range of potential calamities.
“Have you gone overdrawn? Again…”
She pushed him away. “No, Stupid!”
“Okay then, I give up. You
obviously don’t want to tell me what the problem is, and, for all my talents,
I’m not a mind reader, so I might as well just go. After all, it’s more than likely there’s nothing I can do,
anyway.”
He waited for her response.
Symphony said nothing and kept her eyes fixed on the floor.
Even Blue’s near legendary patience was almost exhausted before
she did – finally – raise her eyes to his.
A large tear trickled from her left eye, and she raised a hand to brush
it away.
“Älskling…” he said with
such tenderness that her resolve crumbled and she confessed:
“I miss them, Adam. I just
miss them…”
“They’ll be back tomorrow, Karen…”
She flounced away. “Not
the others! I mean my Dad and my
Grandfather. It’s my birthday, Sky, and
not even my Mom’s sent me a present. Oh, I know you gave me one – and it’s
lovely - and Dianne and Paul did too, but that’s not the same. It’s like my family have forgotten me. On top of that, the whole jolly Christmas
thing is being packed away into boxes for another year – and I can’t help
remembering all the good times we had at home over past Christmases and New
Years. And how everyone made such a
fuss of today, so that I didn’t feel as if it was my fault Christmas ended on
my birthday.”
“Yeah, you’ve mentioned that before. Kids get weird ideas, but you’re all grown up now, älskling, you know that your birthday’s
got nothing to do with it.”
“Of course I know! Jeez, Adam, it’s not like you to be so
obtuse.”
“I guess we all miss the people we love at this time of year,” he
admitted. She nodded and sniffed. He went and wrapped her in another embrace. “But, while we can spend it with someone we
love as much, it can’t be all bad,
can it?”
She shook her head and sighed, comforted by the strength of his
arms and the open affection in his voice.
“No, it isn’t bad. No time
I spend with you is ever bad, Sky.”
“Even when you hate me?”
“I never hate you. You exasperate me, but – if I’m honest – I
adore you all the same.”
He chuckled. “You have no
idea how comforting it is to know that.”
“Oh sure, like you didn’t know it already…”
“Hey, even I - Mr. Self-Assured of Boston - cower under your wrathful eye, älskling.”
“You? You don’t even
blanch at facing Mysterons. Am I worse
then them, Sky?” She simpered up at
him.
“I’m not in love with the Mysterons.”
She giggled. “Who are you
in love with?”
“You know full well what the answer to that question is.”
“So, tell me…”
Happy to see her smiling again, Blue feigned reluctance.
“Well,” he said, “I – that is, me, Adam Svenson, codename Captain
Blue of Spectrum – I…”
“Yes?”
“Well…” he paused. “Do I really have to do this?”
She nodded emphatically, smiling.
“Oh, all right. I, Adam
Svenson…”
“Yes – go on!”
“I-”
The door to the Amber Room snapped open and Colonel White came
in. He stopped suddenly on seeing the
couple’s intimate embrace, and glanced with exaggerated interest around the
room.
“Ah, you have taken the decorations down. Good work, you two,” he said, studying the
denuded walls and pretending not to notice as the couple sprang apart,
identical blushes sweeping up into their cheeks.
“Yes, sir,” Symphony gabbled in embarrassment. “We thought we’d better, it’ll be tomorrow
before the others get back and it’s supposed to be bad luck if you miss the
date, or something, isn’t it?” She
looked at Blue for confirmation and back to their commanding officer, before
drawing a deep breath and asking, “Was there something you wanted,
Colonel?”
She couldn’t believe he had come all the way down to the Amber
Room simply to check up about the decorations.
“Well, I… I just wandered down to wish you happy birthday,
Symphony,” White admitted, feeling his own cheeks start to flame. “And to deliver a package for a friend. Your mother sent you this gift through me,
so that you’d get it on the right day.
She asked me to wish you a very happy birthday, Karen, from her and your
grandmother.”
He held out a small, brightly wrapped box.
“Oh – oh thank you, sir!”
Symphony skipped over to take the box and opened it under the
benevolent gaze of the two men. Amanda
Wainwright knew her daughter very well, and the box contained a selection of
expensive chocolates and, buried amongst the wrappers, small silver charm in
the shape of a delta winged plane.
She held the charm up for their inspection, exclaiming in delight,
“She remembered, Adam. She remembered!”
Blue examined the charm carefully. “That bracelet of yours is
already a lethal weapon in its own right,” he commented. “It must weigh
pounds.”
“It’s not for wearing, not really. Not any more,” she explained.
“My grandparents started it when I was just a girl. They always used to
give me a charm for the bracelet, as one of my presents, on every birthday.
Since Grandpa and my dad died, Mom’s tried to continue the tradition, because I
still like to get charms for it. She
must’ve searched high and low for this one.”
“I believe she did,” the colonel said. He had been roped into the search as well, but wild horses
wouldn’t have made him confess to that.
“I shall go and put it on with the others straight away, and call
Mom to thank her. I really thought she had forgotten this year.” She looked up at the colonel. “Thank you, sir, for acting as postman!”
“My pleasure, Symphony. I
would have delivered it earlier, but we were rather busy with the Mysteron
threat.”
“Yes, of course. I
understand.” She gave both men a
dazzling smile. “I’ve had a wonderful
birthday.”
Blue grinned back and reached out to touch her cheek. “I’m glad of that. I don’t like to see you upset.” Symphony’s body leaned towards
his as if she was being sucked in by his personal gravitational field. Her lips parted as her face lifted to his…
Blue started to lean forward to meet her -
Colonel White cleared his throat.
“Happy Birthday,” he said, noticing the momentary shadow of
confusion and disappointment that crossed both faces.
“I’ll take the decorations to the storage bay,” Blue repeated and stooped
to pick up the box in order to hide his discomfiture.
Colonel White moved to gaze out of the window over Cloudbase’s
runway, seeing the distance glimmer of the rising stars and the repetitive
flashes of the base’s lights. He
watched the couple leaving in the reflection that covered the huge picture
window, and smiled as he caught Blue’s murmured farewell words to Symphony.
“I love you.”
The young woman smiled. A
piercingly sweet and deliriously happy smile.
As the door closed behind his officers, White turned back to his vigil.
And do you still
think I don’t know that? he thought, smiling to himself.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
My thanks to Chris Bishop for posting this 'snippet' at the
last minute.
And 'Happy Birthday, Symphony'!
Marion Woods
06 January 2008
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stories from Marion Woods
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