No one spoke. No one knew how exactly to approach a 19 year old girl who just blew their minds and eardrums with a rendition of a piece by Bach as done by Jimi Hendrix. She had some some rather amazing, and downright scary, things in the past. But this pretty much blew every thing she did out of the water. Jayne, still with a look of dumbfounded ness, finally broke the silence with one of his lines of introspection.

“OK. What the hell was that?”

As Simon rushed down the metal stairs of the catwalk to check on River, Wash idled casually up to the railing and smiled.

“Hendrix.”

“Shenme?”

“She was playing that song in the fashion of Jimi Hendrix. He was this legendary guitar player on Earth-That-Was. Prodigy, really. Just like her. Don’t know what song she played, but it’s still kick ass. I particularily liked it when she picked at the strings with her teeth.”

“Her teeth pickin notwithstanding, how the Hell did she learn how to play like that?”

As Wash told the Captain and everyone else about the guitar she showed him and the music he had on the ships computer, Simon looked over River to try to get something of an answer to what she just did. River was still frozen in place, with her head arched back, her knees flat with the floor, her fingers locked in place and a look of transcendence on her face. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open and she looked up at Simon.

“You like?”

“What’s that?”

“Do you like it? I spent the last two nights recording the tracks, arranging the phrases the way Jimi would have, and learning how to pick at the f-string with my two teeth without breaking the rhythm. The least you can say is that I was merely adequate.”

“Merely adequate? Mei mei, that was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen you do! The form, the discipline, the way how you managed to add a psychedelic touch to the violas and the bases, and replaced the brass with an acoustic that soared. I’m so proud of you.” Simon leaned in and hugged her, despite the Allen One getting in the way. River smiled again and hugged him back.

“All because of you, I am.”

“Hey. What about me?” Wash interjected. “I’m the one who turned you onto Hendrix, and pretty much 20th century rock and blues? Where’s my hug?”

River then got up and rushed up the stairs to give Wash another hug. After giving him a good squeeze, she bounded up the stairs to the kitchen.

“I’m starving. Let’s eat.”

Everyone looked at each other at this, which Mal interrupted. “Well, you heard the gal. Let’s chow down.”

As Mal lead the way up to the kitchen, each of the crew members began talking to each other about this recent revelation of their most mysterious crew member.

“And to think I helped her get her like that. Hey, maybe I could quit this piloting and become her manager.”

“Not gonna happen dear.”

“Well can I at least get some drums so that I can join in?”

“We’ll see honey.”

“Wow. Whod’ve thunk our little River can do so much with that thing.”

“I could. When she was a kid, our parents tried to train us to be musicians. It was supposed to help broaden our intelligence and metal capacity. I could never play an instrument without making it sounds god-awful. But River could pick something up, and in twenty minutes, have it mastered like a virtuoso. Ten minutes later, she’d be bored with it.”

“Well maybe she wasn’t just being challenged enough with it.”

“Inara, she was able to play Rachmaninoff on our piano before she started kindergarden. Her arms weren’t even long enough to reach the keyboard. This is…this is something totally unfathomable.”

“So she can play a guitar. Fuck-a-doodle-do. Ain’t much of a prodigy if all she does are covers and imitations. When she comes up with her own material, then I’ll consider it. She’s still a moonbrain to me.”

“I’m surprised at you, Jayne. Man doesn’t often see a moment of pure transcendence and oneness with the universe crystallized in one of the most amazing performances that you or I will ever see. Almost like hearing the voice of God.”

“Well, I liked it when she played it with her teeth.”

As the remaining crew members piled into the dining area and put their rations of protein and dried goods on the plate, River was already playing an accompanying piece over her headphones. Most of them didn’t take notice as they sat down at the table. Breakfast was never a favorite part of the crew’s day. While the food they normally have around was better during lunch and dinner, it just tasted a little harsher in the early hours of morning. Many times one of the crew members has asked why with the sudden burst in cash they were still stingy on food. Mal had his usual stock answer that food was a little lower on priorities of “things we need money for”, delivered in the tone that dared any sane man to challenge Mal after that. But the question still persisted. And it was Simon’s turn to ask the question.

But as if Simon opening his mouth was a cue, River pulled out her headphones, and played a chord on the strings with a loud, bluesy tone.

“Wellllllll, you wake up in the morning…” she belted in a Southern, cigarette addled tenor. “Ya hear the work bell raaaang…” and then repeated the same chords again. “And ya marchin to the taaable…..you see the same damn thang.” The whole crew fell silent again as she sang and played. “Ain’t no food upon the table…there’s no pork up in the paaaann.” With every repeat of the chords, the intensity of each note rose. “But you better not complaiiiiin, boy” She sang while staring directly at Simon, which made the others laugh slightly. “You get in trouble with da man.” She plucked at the same note as she gave a knowing glance over to Mal, who was trying to maintain a serious face, but had the makings of a smile on his face.

The base accompaniment kicked and River began to sing the chorus, as Wash used the knife and fork as drumsticks on the oak table. “Let the midnight special…..shine a light on me…..Let the midnight speeeecciall….shine a everlovin light on me.” As the second repeat of the chorus kicked in, River exploded with the guitar, playing a first guitar bit that blasted the melancholy of the crew out the airlock.

“Y’all a call Miss Rosie.” She sang, directing her attention to Kaylee, as if she was singing about her. “How in the world did ya know. By the way she wears her aprooonnn, and the clothes she wooooore.” As River crooned, Kaylee was practically blushing from the attention she was getting. “Umbrella on her shoulder…..piece of paper in her hand…She some to see the guvnaaa..she want to free her maaaaaaannnn.” As she repeated the chorus of the piece, Kaylee blushed even more as she gave Simon a good hug. What she sang could fit with them and what happened between them. And it was then that Kaylee truly understood River’s new talent.

“Oh if you ever in Houston…ya better do riiight..Ya better not gamble….and ya better not fiiiiiight.” She directed her attention slowly towards the rest of the crew, as if she was warning them. “Oh the sherrif’ll grab ya…and the boy’sll bring ya down. The next thing ya know, boy…oh yer prison boooouuunndd.” While some of the crew took it too seriously as a literal warning, others simply took it as a cautionary bit of advice wrapped up in musical prose.

As she repeated the last line of the chorus for the last time, she belted out “light on me” as long as possible. That look of transcendence and ecstasy that was on her face in the cargo bay was on her face again. She slammed her right hand down on the strings one last time, and finally broke. She sat back in her chair and gasped out of exhaustion as the crew clapped their hands in admiration. Even Jayne had a strange look of admiration on his face as he finally saw some worth in that moonbrain.