Smears sits in his wheelchair, 140 years old, at the table reserved for him, at ball for his great, great grand daughter’s wedding. Senility weighing in on him, he has his lucid moments… the people of his life, infront of him now, on the dance floor… the product of a virtuous life lived well.
“Virtueeeeeeee” mumbled Smears, barely audible, out loud. No one heard him. “Virrrrrrrtuuuuueeee” Smears cried forth, barely a whisper. A small boy, wearing a patched tweed jacket, and old stained beret, with a cockney accent walked up to Smears.
“Granda Pappie, what did you say?”
“Virttttuuuuuue”.
What is this thing, called Virtue, you speak of, my great liver spotted old man? Describe it to me, how does one get this virtue you speak of?"
Smears, hearing the question, began to drift back into time, as he occasional did from time to time. So long ago, countless shores and mountains, deserts and temples. A love lost, a heart of yearning unfulfilled… a drift among the fog and waves, counting all the stars. Of seeing the world turn above the atmosphere, as the international space station burned, fragments and bodies flung everywhere… an impossible fire in the cold depths of space… just him and his arch nemesis, the Russian Monkey, the tormentor of his very existence… fighting in a brutal struggle to the death as the shuttle fell, pilotless to earth, tearing up over the shore below, seen approaching ever closer… seen through the cracks and flames. The eye patched monkey… sending chills into his heart.
A tear rolled out of Smears eye. He looked at the small, cockney boy… “Virtuuuuueeee. I will tell youuuu, a story of, a sad, paathetic mannnn, who met the right wooooman, and learned how to liveeee ag-ain. This is, the story of my life, of how I met, and won, the heart of my most beloved.”
Smears then leaned back, closing his eyes to the dancers, remembering the beginnings, and the start of our tale…