Another Story in Which the M C is Captured by Aliens

 

"Sunset Boulvard"  -- I don't own the song.  Actually, I do have a version of it that I love to listen to, John barrowman, but what I mean is, the song is not mine.  I do not hold a copyright or anything.  Okay.

 

A "Lieums" Story

 

By Thelma Mary Caroline

 

 

 

We were captured by aliens.  You hear that a lot now a days.  People who served as slaves, served as a source of enegery.

 

Not us.  We were their entertainment.

 

It was a strict enviroment.  No one was allowed to talk to one another.  Why, I never really understood.  I guess it didn't matter.  We got along just fine, talking to each other when they weren't around, or in nonverbal ways.  We learned how to lip read, how to sign, how to talk with our eyes.

 

 

But the best way to describe our life ... the best way you'll understand.

 

I used to sing, onstage.  Show tunes, mostly.  Usually songs that I had no idea how the related to anything but life.

 

Sunset Boulivard.  From the show with the same name.  I only knew that song.  But that was the one I choose to sing.  What could really be more perfect?

 

The piano started, so beautiful, but so evil.  A clarinet took over.

 

I began to sing.

 

Sure I came out here to make my name

Wanted my pool, my dose of fame

Wanted my parking space at Warner's

 

This was the people.  The whole thing, in 21 words.  The reason people wanted out of slavery.  They wanted to be onstage.  Everyone did.  They wanted what they thought was a glamerous life.

 

But after a year, a one room hell

A murphy bed, a rancid smell

Wallpaper peeling at the corners

 

And maybe it was worse than that.  Everyone crammed into one little room, sleeping on blankets that were hardly ever washed.  But that's how it really was, at least in the lower "class."  Classes were what we lived in, divided by how well we performed.  How entertaining we were.  The only way to move up was to impress the humans in those groups.  Not the Lieums.

 

Sunset Boulevard, twisting boulevard

Secretive and rich, a little scary

Sunset Boulevard, tempting boulevard

Waiting there to swallow the unwary

 

Yes, indeed.  People got addicted to the life.  I always tried to keep my face straight when I sang this.  But it never worked.  I got angry, because it was so true.  I got so into it, I would compleatly forget the world.  I would forget the stage, and the audience, and the lights.  Everything.

 

Dreams are not enough to win a war

Out here they're always keeping score

Beneath the tan the battle rages

 

The upper class, and the lower class always fought.  Some people wanted to be in there for the lifestyle, that was their dream.  But everything was kept track of.  Every slip up.  Every wrong line.  Every little thing they could find.

 

Smile a rented smile, fill someone's glass

Kiss someone's wife, kiss someone's ass

We do whatever pays the wages

 

We smiled because we had to.  We were polite because we had to be.  It was the only way to make it to the top.  And there was no use being part of the game unless you were part of the top.  No one cared about you unless you were upper class.  Human, alien.  No one cared.

Sunset Boulevard, headline boulevard

Getting here is only the beginning

Sunset Boulevard, jackpot boulevard

Once you've won you have to go on winning

 

Addictive, I said.  True.  Just like fucking gambling.  Once you've won a hand, you have to play another.  Just to see. And even if you lose, you try again.  You try and try and try, forgetting that you have to stop.  Forgetting that you're loosing everything.  You truelly believe that the jackpot will make up for everything.  And so it was for us, dropping pennies, hoping to get dollars.  Except we forgot that it wouldn't really ever happen.

 

You think I've sold out?

Dead right I've sold out!

I just keep waiting for the right offer

Comfortable quarters, regular rations

24-hour Five Star room service

 

They accused me of trying to get on the good side of the upper class.  But really, who wasn't?  I didn't want the to say I was singing and acting because of the reward it might bring: a life close to normalacy.  But so what if they said that?  I was.  Just like them.

 

And if I'm honest, I like the lady

I can't help being touched by her folly

I'm treading water, taking the money

Watching her sun set... Well, I'm a writer!

 

And I was attracted to her.  Really.  A beautiful woman, with long curly hair.  Everyone there liked her.  But she only liked me.  And, yeah, I took advantage of that.  If pretending to be with her was what it took, then that was what I was going to do.

 

L. A.'s changed a lot over the years

Since those brave gold rush pioneers

Came in their creaky covered wagons

Far as they could go end of the line

Their dreams were yours, their dreams were mine

But in those dreams were hidden dragons

 

The place we lived, I don't really know what it was called had changed, too.  It started off with five people -- kids really -- who pushed things as far as they could, hoping that if they acted long enough and hard enough and did the best job, maybe they could go home.  Back to Earth.  But we stopped thinking about Earth.  No one had ever gone back in the years and years and years that had passed.  The best we could hope for was the best they could give.  And some how that was enough.

 

Sunset Boulevard, frenzied boulevard

Swamped with every kind of false emotion

Sunset Boulevard, brutal boulevard

Just like you, we'll wind up in the ocean

 

Suicide, I suppose, was the only way out.  No one ever grew old and died.  They all died young, either by their own hands, or because they wore themselves out. 

 

She was sinking fast, I threw a rope

Now I have suits and she has hope

It seemed an elegant solution

 

And she was like that too, nothing left to live for.  But I changed her life.  And I became part of the upper class.  Was it so wrong?  But it was so perfect for me, and so perfect for her.  Everyone should have seen it.  But they didn't.

 

One day this must end, it isn't real

Still I'll enjoy a hearty meal

Before tomorrrow's execution

 

Soon they'd convince her of what they thought truth.  Mostly the truth.  They'd tell her that I was just saying the things I said to secure a spot among them.  Mostly the truth.  I liked the girl, but I knew it wouldn't last forever.  So I took advantage of the situation, and lived life to the fullest.

 

Sunset Boulevard, ruthless boulevard

Destination for the stony-hearted

Sunset Boulevard, lethal boulevard

Everyone's forgotten how they started

Here on Sunset Boulevard...!