Song for this chapter: “Jungle Drum†(Emiliana Torrini)
Epilogue
The package, premium express delivery, marked private, no return address, arrived on a lovely day in May 2014. She’d never received a parcel at work before and was somewhat perplexed at who’d send such a bulky box to her company’s address. All her friends and family knew her home address.
When she opened the box, she had to sit down. Sit down, gasp, hyperventilate, and generally struggle not to black out for a good ten minutes.
The package contained her missing notebook – the one Chris Pine had stolen at the “Jack Ryan†premiere in London – an air-tight, sealed container with two wonky, crumbling cupcakes that sported sloppy frosting in blue and bright yellow, and a card.
The card was simple cream-colored cardboard. Nothing fancy, nothing cheap.
On the front, a neat note read:
This notebook has developed a narrative thread.
On the back, someone had added in a different, edgier handwriting:
and an ending with vegan cupcakes.
Eventually, she managed to scrounge up the courage to open the notebook. Whatever misadventures the notebook had survived, it had definitely come out worse for wear. A bit battered. Used. To her horror especially the second part of the notebook appeared rather well-read and worn, the corners of the pages round and soft from being thumbed through regularly.
There was an oil stain on the cupcakes recipe she didn’t remember. And it looked as if the notebook had lain open at the page with the Star Trek story titles (entering orbit/so wise we grow/strive seek find yield/post tenebras lux) in front of a window for weeks. The lines were faded, the ink not as dark as the song title on the previous page.
And at the very back, next to Chris Pine’s name, a second signature had been added:
Z. Quinto
Author’s Notes
“This notebook has developed a narrative thread†is an allusion to the story “D:†by leupagus, rageprufrock.
Well, that’s it. My first foray into the depraved depths of explicit RPS is over, and the notebook has been returned to its rightful owner, slightly worse for wear and with distinct delusions of grandeur (but what can you expect of a kind of kinky plot device?).
I hope you had as much fun reading the story as I had writing it. If you are into “Star Trekâ€, please check out my epic AU “The Resilience of Hopeâ€.
Cheers,
Juno
“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche