La Seine

Based on the song "La Seine." by Vanessa Paradis

The streets of Paris were empty, save for the occasional rat. Pebbles went bouncing along the cobblestone, being scuffed up by boots walking along them. From somewhere in the maze of streets, music floated around. It permeated the air, blanketing Paris in joy, though the city was anything but. Death walked the streets, stalking those living. The city was a grave to all still there, if anyone was left.

The moon hung low in the sky. Her beauty reflected on the great snake that was La Seine, forever winding around Paris. The moon was crowned in a ringlet of stars and clouds, her light shining down. At the start of the great bridge, a street singer sang a song. His voice was ragged with age, closer to a whisper than to a scream. He sang an old folk song, one from before the dark days of Paris. 

She’s resplendent

So confident

La seine, La seine, La seine.

I realize, 

I’m hypnotized,

La seine, La seine, La seine.

The story was that of La Lune and La Seine, lovers in the time before Paris. They danced together, forever in love. La Seine was a beautiful woman, who gave her love to La Lune, her lover. La Lune was entranced by La Seines beauty. They played and danced in the fields that would one day become Paris.

I hear the moon,

Singing a tune,

La seine, La seine, La seine.

Is she devine,

Is it the wine.

La seine, La seine, La seine.

Every night, La Lune sang her song to La Seine, the very song this vendor now sang. They drank wine and danced till the dawn came back around, gracing the sky with light. The morning came forth with the stomping of the dawns chariot and its horses.

I don’t know,

Don’t know,

So don’t ask me why,

That's how we are,

La seine and I.

La Seine was one of the most beautiful women ever. Thousands flocked to ask her for her love, but La Seine declined them all. Her heart belonged to La Lune, and people asked La Lune how she had won La Seine’s love. She always responded with the same thing.

I don’t know,

Don’t know,

So don’t ask me why,

That's how we are,

La seine and I.

But La Lune and these men and women weren’t the only ones pinning for La Seines love. Le Soliel wanted La Seine all too himself but his sister stood in the way. So he sang his own song, pledging his love to La Seine. 

I feel Alive,

When i’m beside,

La seine, La seine, La seine.

From this angle, 

like an angel,

La seine, La seine, La seine.

La Seine heard this song, and she went to see who it was. When she saw who was singing, La Seine kindly declined his love. She told Le Soleil that her love belonged to La Lune. Le Soleil was outraged at this, and he left in a rush of fire and flame. He asked La Lune how she won La Seine’s love. And she responded how she always did,

I don’t know,

Don’t know,

So don’t ask me why,

That's how we are,

La seine and I.

So Le Soleil decided that if he couldn’t have La Seine, no one could. So one night, once the great dawn had retreated and dusk wrapped around the world in hug, Le Soleil went out into the fields. He began to sing his song again, and La Seine came to hear his song. Shocked to not find La Seine next to her, La Lune went looking. What she found would haunt her forever. She watched Le Soleil slit La Seines throat, and let her fall. As La Seine died, her blood became a river, a winding snake. It would soon become La river Seine, the great snake, the livelihood of Paris.

La Lune held her lover in her arms, weeping. Her tears feed the earth, the flowers forever to bloom around the banks of a river. Their love had once made the world go round, and in death they continued to make it go round.

I don’t know,

Don’t know,

So don’t ask me why,

That's how we are,

La seine and I…

As the song faded out, she stopped hearing the vendor. She tossed a coin into his case, he needed it more than she did. She never had a need for material things. She had lost her love long ago, to her brothers jealousy. Up on the bridge, her heart did beat, thundering around her and in her ears. But she couldn’t learn to forgive, not on this bridge. She stared down at the rushing water, her hair blowing behind her. As she stood onto the railing, her voice softly trailed out in her final song. 

“I don’t know, don’t know. So don’t ask me why, that’s how we were, La seine and I.”

She fell, falling towards her lover. 

“That’s how we’ll be, La Seine and I.”

And La Lune was reunited with her lover, La Seine. For once together in life, not even in death do they part. The water surrounded her, as La Seines arms once did. It was chilly, though La Lune assumes death was as well. 

From the edge of the bridge, the vendor sang his song. Le Soleil always regretted his decision to kill La Seine, for La Lune was sad forever after. La Seine and La Lune has been lovers in life, and he hopes they could be lovers in death. He regretted his decision, he always would. So he sang the song of their love as a way to atone his sins. 

He sang the song that La Lune used to sing, that the sky and the Earth used to sing. La Lune sang a love song older than the earth itself.

“I don’t know, don’t know, so don’t ask me why, that’s how they’ll be,

La Seine and La Lune.”