For Martin

Tonight in the bar, there's a blonde woman at the piano with a glass of Scotch quietly playing a piece she can only mostly remember.

So far, so usual for a Friday night in Milliways - but for once, though the long-suffering waitrats have made sure she's very well-furnished with ashtrays, she's not smoking.

This may or may not be because she's not the only one sat on the piano stool: an exhausted young pilot is half asleep against her shoulder, listening to her play. He's also the reason she hasn't simply asked Bar for sheet music - it would take at least a moderate-sized emergency to convince her to move enough to wake him up again right now.

Against all precedent and indeed her own personality type, Kaidy has in fact considered how she'd explain this scene to her boyfriend. She hasn't come up with an answer - beyond the time-honoured 'I'll cross that bridge when I come to it' - but she's considered it, and thinks she ought to get points for that.

She's smiling faintly to herself - mainly because so is Bodhi, and that's not something he's been doing much of since she first met him. (And also because she can blame all her wrong notes on the way he's leaning against her arm.)

"I don't know if we'll get lost at sea
Or if we'll end up where we're supposed to be
Are you brave enough to swim against the tide?

Any breaking wave can lead you home
Or turn you upside down and leave you here
With no one here to hurt you
But no one there to save you
Will you risk it all?"

Please, someone stop her before she winds up playing Hallelujah.

(Again.)