-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Barba [mailto:rob@mitsukai.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 5:04 PM
To: FFML
Subject: [fanfic][MKR]Caught Between Worlds, Fifth Symptom: Lost Child
(Part One)
Ja ne,
--Rob
rob@mitsukai.com / mara@megami.net
AIM: mitsukaicom ICQ: 121804090
Mitsukai! - http://www.mitsukai.com
"Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real."
- Tupac Shakur
====
CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS
Fifth Symptom: Lost Child
A Magic Knight Rayearth story by Rob Barba
Magic Knight Rayearth is copyright several people who don't really bother
too much if I'm doing this or not. Fortunately, those people live in Japan,
where they care much about their fans, so they don't try to sue the hell out
of them like their greedy American counterparts. Personally, I don't make
enough to be able to pay for one of their lawyers' power lunches, so let's
just say I respect them and give them their due here, ne?
-=(*)=-
The moon over Seattle tonight was one that was an absolute rarity in
astronomical terms. A true blue moon, as it was called, it was no simple
second appearance of a full moon in one month, but due to atmospheric
conditions was actually colored blue, much like the more common (yet still
rare on its own) red hue of the sackcloth moon. Said to happen
approximately once every forty years or so, the moon was said by many to be
magic, to have powers in it that defied convention and ensured that
wonderful, mysterious events occurred. That's what the legend said, anyway.
The truth was that it was still a beautiful yet rare phenomenon. Yet
sometimes, magic did happen, and when it did, the results were, to say the
least, magical, especially so on this quiet night in May.
One such place where the light of the moon touched up on was a darkened
plain in a nearby suburb. The plain had been there for the longest time,
more correctly called a park, a special kind of park; a memorial park to be
precise. This sort of park was generally devoid of life during the day and
especially so during the evening. But tonight would be much different than
the normal night. After all, tonight was the night of the true blue moon,
and as the saying went, many things happened on that night.
In a tiny section of the park, the ground shook. At first, it wasn't a big
deal, but a second later it shook again, much stronger. A few more minutes
went by before the ground exploded and a shaft of white energy ripped
towards the sky, clods of dirt and grass carried in its wake. After a few
seconds the lightshow subsided, leaving only the park again...and the hole.
A slender hand reached out of that gaping maw, bursting into the brightness
of the evening light, far more luminescent than that of the earthen pit
below. Looking a bit pale, the hand scrambled for purchase for a few
seconds before digging into the dirt and clamping down as hard as possible.
A second hand came out to assist the first, and a minute later, a figure
crawled out of the ground, white as a ghost. Gathering some rags of some
kind around it, the figure looked around in confusion and worry, whispering,
"Cold...so very cold...where am I? Why am I here?" Nothing further to add,
the being began to walk slowly and unsteadily as though learning to walk,
dirt sloughing off the body in crumbles as if the scene were of a snake
shedding its older skin, to appear in the newer one. Unclear of its
position, it headed in what might have been south, seeing the cityscape of
downtown Seattle in the distance.
-=(*)=-
The light visited other parts of the city as well, such as a thrift store in
section of town not very far away from the cemetery. The Grandmother's
Attic thrift store, like many of its kind, was a collection of rundown
knickknacks and secondhand furniture that was run by a non-profit agency.
Lower-income families found many of the refurbished items to be low priced
and just within their budget for them to afford; while collectors paid top
dollar for some of the more collectable castoffs; the prices they paid would
go to a good cause, so in the end everyone profited.
However, there were some things that couldn't be fixed, or things that
nobody wanted: ugly couches from the seventies, old toys or, ones deemed no
longer safe to use; discarded or broken record players and 8-track tapes,
and the like. For those, they were placed in the back room of the store
over by the delivery and cargo entrance, waiting their turn to be recycled
or properly disposed of. For a heavily overworked, mostly volunteer staff,
there wasn't really much time to devote to contacting the recycling or
disposal companies for a specialty run, so the piles mostly grew until the
city (via a public health inspector) suggested that it was time to do so.
At the moment, the pile was relatively small, as the last run had been just
a couple of weeks before. In fact, the pile was small enough that no one on
staff had bothered to try to separate the items yet. Amongst the items was
a rocking chair broken beyond repair, two old lamps that wouldn't work
despite the best attempts of electricians to fix them, and one beat-up old
doll that somehow gotten thrown into that pile instead of the ones for toys.
The pile sat, unbothered and no harm to anyone, alone in the dark, serenaded
by a couple of crickets and framed in a beautiful beam of moonlight that
seemed to bless the pile as if to say, for just this one night, it was
special.
There was an unusual glow around the pile for a second, followed by
coughing. The coughing turned into groaning, as though someone was
seriously sick, and a few seconds later, retching followed as a woozy voice
declared, "I think I'm going to be sick." With that, the doll pulled itself
free of the pile, growing in size until after a few seconds, it had taken on
the form and fashion of a young human girl.
The newly alive doll squinted, trying to adjust to the light, but found that
it was of no help. "I can't see well without my glasses," the dollgirl said
to herself, as though the mere sound of her voice was proof of her own
existence. Looking down at herself, she noticed that she was nude, and as
Eve after the apple, she felt shame for her nudity. "Wha-what's happening?
Where am I?" There were as many answers available as there were clothes on
her back, and neither one was of no good to her.
Leaving the pile behind as a bird left the nest, she walked into the main
part of the store. Since there were no valuables to speak of, and all the
money made during the day was taken to the bank promptly upon the store
closing, there was no need for an extensive security system, which meant she
was free to walk about unmolested. After about an hour or so, she managed
to find herself some serviceable, if currently out of fashion, clothing and
a pair of old eyeglasses that were close enough to her prescription that
allowed her to move around in a much easier manner.
During this time, the girl managed to find out a bit more information about
her new life. "Seattle? America?" she asked herself rhetorically, unable
to comprehend that she was in the place that she just named. It seemed so
out of the pale, so far left field of what she expected, that she almost
refused to believe what the documents near the cash register were telling
her. After a few more minutes of investigation, she found this to be so, if
only because no other information proved otherwise.
Fearing that something had seriously went wrong in the universe, she decided
to leave and face her fortunes in the outside world. She felt bad about the
apparent theft of the clothes (although unbeknownst to her, had the owners
of the store seen her nudity, they would have given her much more than just
those threads) though she promised that if she had the chance, she would
make it up to them somehow. With that vow taken to heart, she ventured into
the dark Seattle night, seeking her purpose.
-=(*)=-
Night also found the Shidou home in the affluent Seattle Hills district, and
in particular the elder Shidou children, sitting on the back porch, enjoying
each other's company in the midnight hour. At the moment, it was just
Hikaru and Lance awake, as Hikari was asleep, her head in her older sister's
lap, too tired to stay awake but not wanting to leave her loved ones,
especially on this, one of the last nights they would have together.
"Lance, I wish you wouldn't go away," Hikaru said, her voice holding genuine
emotion and love for her older brother.
Lance merely sighed and took a drink from a can of soda he had in his hand.
"'Karu, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later. My finals are
done, and the graduation ceremony's happening in a couple of days. I'll be
home for a few more months, then in August I head off to college down at
UCLA." He looked at his sister, and there was as much warmth in them as she
held for him. "'Sides, it's not like I'm disappearing off the face of the
Earth, you know. I'll still be home for the holidays and such."
"I know," she replied, her voice still sounding disappointed. "But I need
your strength, big brother."
"No, you don't. You don't need to lean on anyone for support anymore; even
Dr. Choi said so. You've been given a clean bill of health, and you don't
have to worry about anything. Your situation made you stronger in so many
ways, ones that no one can understand, as though that accident and your
breakdown opened up talents and abilities in you that you never knew you had
before. I mean, you missed nearly two months of school, and not only have
you managed to catch up, you're now ahead in your credits that you could
advance directly to your senior year of high school and skip your junior
year if you wanted to."
"Never happen. I won't leave 'Kari behind," she said, reaching down to her
twin and gently brushing the hair out of her eyes.
"See?" Lance answered. "You'll do better than fine. Trust me." He placed
a hand on her hair, mussing it like he did when they were just kids, in a
time that seemed so long ago and far away.
But Hikaru wasn't quite done yet. Taking his hand in hers, she said, "What
about Allison? Have you two thought of that?"
Lance was quiet. "We broke up two days ago. Before you say anything, let
me finish, please. I love her very much, sis, and she loves me. At this
stage in life, I would love to marry her and spend the rest of my life with
her. But college changes a person radically, and what's good for us now
might be poison four to six years ahead. I'm going to UCLA; she's looking
at staying nearby, most likely over at Washington State. I don't know what
the effects of hundreds of miles away and months apart will do to us, but
we've agreed to let each other go for the moment."
Hikaru's eyes welled. "But it's not fair! You two are so perfect for each
other, and...."
"I know it's not fair, believe me. But it's life. The trick about life is
that you either have to beat it at its rules, or find a way around them. If
you can't, then you have no choice but to continue on. What Allison and I
are doing is just that. If we still love each other years from now and can
put a life together, I'd love that. But I just don't know." He looked at
Hikaru and pointed out, "Believe me, if I could have it as easy as Rick and
'Kari, I would. But Rick's got his own problems - his grades weren't good
enough to get into a university, so he's stuck at the community college."
Hikaru nodded. It was a good thing for Hikari in the short sense, as it
allowed her to remain with her boyfriend, but for how long? Both Shidou
sisters were already looking at colleges, and it would be hard enough for
them to stay together, much less the loves they had in their lives. That
was the dance of life, Hikaru knew, but that didn't mean she had to like it.
And in fact, she had to admit to herself that she didn't.
"I mean, c'mon, have you and Eric thought that far ahead? Granted, it's two
years away, but the fact is, it's only two years away."
"He wants to marry me," she said in a dreamy voice, "and I want to marry
him. Maybe it's just that feeling that people get when they're so in love
that they can't think of the future just yet, or maybe just the overly
dreamy imaginations of a girl in love, but something tells me that it's so
right being his wife." She looked at her brother, and looked troubled for a
second, as though she wanted to ask him something.
Lance picked up the inference in a second. "How many times?"
"Beg your pardon?"
"How many times have you slept with him? Granted, I'm not mad, though I am
a bit disappointed," Lance said, voicing his concern. "I haven't yet; I
thought you'd wait as well."
"We haven't, and that's the truth," Hikaru replied, blushing slightly at the
new topic, "although *I'd* be lying if I said we didn't come close once or
twice." When he raised his eyebrow at that, she confessed. "The first
time, I, uh, spent the night at his place. His parents weren't home since
his dad was on a road trip, and well...."
"I'm not going to say anything to Mom and Dad about it, but I'd rather you
not do that again," he said.
"I won't, I promise. The second time was when his parents invited me to go
with them to Chicago. We were in the private Jacuzzi at the hotel, and
we...explored a bit, but...I got cold feet."
Lance nodded. "I guess that's natural; I'd be lying if I said Allison and I
didn't come close ourselves once or twice, and both times only because we
didn't have protection. Look, you're nearly an adult, and it's not really
my place to tell you what you can or can't do, but I *will* add that I don't
think I'm ready to be an uncle yet. Hell, look at Europa - *she's* a
perfect example!" Both of them laughed, enough so that it woke up Hikari.
Sleepy eyed and yawning, the younger twin lifted her head off Hikaru's lap
and half-mouthed, "Y' guys're too noisy, but I love you both." With as much
energy as she could, she hugged her older sister, with Lance embracing both
of them soon after. Just as they did that, as though God chose to
choreograph the moment, a shooting star pierced the sky, racing down from
the heavens on a course to the Pacific, miles away.
"Quick, someone make a wish," Hikaru said. In response, Hikari closed her
eyes for a few seconds, murmuring enough that both thought she'd fallen
asleep again. But then she opened her eyes and smiled. "I hope I get my
wish."
"What'd you wish for?" both elder siblings asked in unison.
"I wished that we could all be together. I don't ever want us to be apart,"
Hikari whispered.
Hikaru hugged her sister closer. "I'll always be here for you, 'Kari, an'
so will Lance."
"I know, I know, but it doesn't hurt to have a little extra insurance now
and then, doesn't it?" the ponytailed redhead said, smiling with love in her
eyes. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to turn in, and maybe
we'd all best do the same, especially you, Lance, since you an' Dad have to
go pick up our grandparents at the airport in the morning. G'night."
-=(*)=-
That night Hikaru dreamed, imagining herself in a far and inhospitable
place. The sky was darker than she'd ever seen it, lit only by the
occasional lightning racing through the clouds. While the sky appeared
ready to drop a flash flood's worth of water onto the ground, the cracked,
parched, and arid land appeared not to have seen rain in the better part of
a century. Against the stony gray sky, a jagged bolt against the otherwise
unblemished horizon, was the remains of a castle that seemed titanic in
proportions even as far away from it as she was.
"That's the home of the Pillar," a voice declared, "or at least it was,
until you changed everything. Until the day you grasped an ability that was
never meant for mankind, Shidou Hikaru. Though you never intended any of
this, this is all your doing."
Hikaru didn't have to ask who it was, or even, for that matter, bother with
acknowledging the other's presence. "Go away, Nova. You're not wanted.
You're not even real. I don't believe in you." Hikaru raised her arms, to
symbolize the blasted landscape around her. "None of this is real, it's
nothing but something I'll wake up from in a few hours or so."
"Is that so?" Nova said, arms crossed and one hand delicately balancing her
chin. "Well, if this is a dream, then how about you and I-"
"*Not* on your life, real or otherwise!" Hikaru snarled, hiding her
embarrassment from the words she knew her dark alter ego was going to say.
Nova shrugged. "Can't blame a girl for trying. But since you're so
concerned that this is all a dream, that none of this is real, what if I
were to tell you that right at this very moment, dreams are walking the
Earth, that figments of your imagination are more real than you can possibly
imagine?"
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Hikaru asked, stepping forward as her
hands balled into fists. Imagination or not, she was not going to put up
with this.
"You'll see," Nova said, blowing her a kiss before disappearing. The elf's
final words before she vanished completely, her voice barely carrying on the
wind, was, "By the by, say hello to Umi for me, wouldja?"
Before Hikaru could come up with a scathing reply, she found herself sitting
up, wide-awake, in her bedroom. Rubbing her eyes and wondering for a second
if she was in one of those weird "dream in a dream" situations like she'd
seen so many times on TV, she turned and noted the peacefully sleeping form
of Hikari in her bed. Taking a look at her alarm clock, she found that the
time was only 7:30, and that it had been, for the most part, been a quiet
night.
The silence lasted a few seconds longer, when Priss all but bolted into the
room. "Girls, I need you to get up and we need to get going now."
At their mother's words, Hikari began to rise from the euphemistic grave,
muttering, "Mom, it's a Saturday. What, did Grandpa and Oba-san arrive at
the airport early?" Hikaru, already sitting up in bed by coincidence,
looked at her mother's face and knew something was wrong.
"We have to go over to the Ryuzaki place, girls," Mrs. Shidou answered in a
voice that implied very much that she didn't want to be admitting this news.
"There...was an incident last night."
"An incident?" Hikari's bed exploded into a blossom of fabric as the
younger twin moved out of her bed immediately. "Is something wrong? What
happened?" Hikaru, in the meanwhile, felt an ice-cold spear rake down her
spine. The Ryuzakis had already lost Umi; what had occurred now? Was
little Mutsumi hurt? Did something happen to either of the adults?
Priss Shidou merely looked at her older daughters, not really sure of how to
explain what had transpired. Finally, she realized there was no real easy
way to say it, so she turned to her twins and spoke, her words disquiet and
unnatural: "I just got a call from Keiko. It seems...I guess there's no
real easy way to say this. There was an incident at the cemetery where Umi
was buried and...."
"What?" both girls asked in unison.
"Umi's plot is empty. Someone robbed her grave."
-=(*)=-
(("By the by, say hello to Umi for me, wouldja?")) Nova's words rang in
Hikaru's head thirty minutes later as she was seated in the Ryuzaki's living
room, watching over both Emily and Mutsumi. Due to her earlier incident, it
was decided that it would be in Hikaru's best interest if she didn't get the
full news, though she already had enough of an idea of what was going on.
Hikari promised she'd give the details to her sister, but Hikaru knew
better. Not that her family would deceive her, but she knew that they'd do
their best to shield her from more pain regarding Umi. ((Umi...what did
they do to you? Who would have the nerve to do something like that to
you?))
As though by an angel's guidance, Mutsumi, still too young to understand
what was going on, went over to Hikaru and sat on her lap, kissing her on
the cheek. "Onnesama, please don't be sad," the young girl said. Emily
cued in on this, thinking something was wrong with her sister and joined in,
putting her small arms around Hikaru.
Hikaru smiled; leave it to the younger ones to bring her emotions back up.
"Oh, you two...." She cooed, hugging both girls to herself. With Umi gone
now, there would be no one for Mutsumi except for the Shidous, and Hikaru
and Hikari long since promised they would be there for Mutsumi whenever she
needed it. "You two are just the most adorable things in the world, you
know that?"
"Th'n can you take us to the movies?" Emily cooed, giving Hikaru her best
Bambi-eyed look.
Hikaru gave the girls a sunny grin. ((That sounds like a great idea. I
need to get out of here anyway, or else my family, loving as they are, will
practically coddle me to death.)) "Well, if you two really behave, I think
we can squeeze some ice cream into the deal as well, okay?" The exuberant
amount of hugs and kisses the young woman received immediately was a
testament to the surety that her idea would succeed.
At that time, the doorbell rang and before anyone moved for it, Hikaru
called out, "I'll get it." Hearing no argument, she moved to the door,
right next to the Seattle PD officer whose partner was in talking to the
Ryuzakis and opened it. "Yes, can I help you?"
"Sure, know any breathtakingly beautiful women around here?" a young man
asked. He would have continued on, save that Hikaru silenced all further
conversation with a kiss for her loving boyfriend. As they broke their
kiss, Eric replied, "You know, I knew there was a reason that your father
called me and asked me to come out here."
"Oh?" she asked, raising a brow. She was going to have to have a talk with
her father on that. Clef just adored Eric, but Hikaru wasn't too eager to
have too many restraints put on her life at this time...at least not more
than she was dropping on herself. "Well, it saves me the time from stealing
Mom's car, then, and since you've come here, you get to help me do my dirty
work." She quickly explained her plan and why; to this he greatly agreed.
"Good. Lemme tell the parentals, and I'm sure they'll agree to it."
Eric nodded as his girlfriend braved the danger zone that was the living
room. Looking at the two younger girls, he grinned and said, "Hey, you'd
better get ready to go, so we can make sure that we get the good seats at
the movies, okay?"
"You mean the dark ones that no one looks at so you and 'Karu can kiss?"
Emily said with the innocence of a child. Mutsumi merely looked at him and
wondered what that meant. Eric, completely stumped, had no idea of how to
answer the question put before him.
-=(*)=-
"C'mon, Allison, you're not going to do anyone any good being completely
drunk," Rick said to the moving lump in the back of his ride. "Trust me, I
know what that feels like, and having a hangover at nighttime ain't a great
thing."
"I d'n c're," a blurry and female voice slurred from the back of the van.
"I don' care an'mur." Rick turned a corner slightly sharper than he
intended and something bumped in the back of his vintage-early-90's minivan.
"Oooowwwtttcchie...."
"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "Look, it's not the end of the world. Lance
still loves you and just because you two decided to stop seeing each other
for the moment doesn't mean it's over between you two, right?" He heard
silence, and shouted out a repeated, *"Right?"*
"Then why did he leave me if he loves me?" the drunken Allison managed to
somehow say without slurring. "'T's 'ca'se I'm not bea...be...sexy en'ugh."
"And being drunk off your ass isn't helping much, either," he drawled.
"Honestly, what the hell were you thinking, drinking that much at Elaine's
party? You *know* you can't handle that much joy juice. Hell, I'm not sure
even *I* can...and that's saying a lot!" ((Not to mention that not only are
we both underage, but the fact that our significant others can be
straight-arrowed enough to give preachers a run for their money.))
The very drunk Allison Danvers tried to sit up in the van again, but fell
backwards, slamming her head on one of the seats in the back. Between her
tears and her inebriation, she breathed, "Lanssss...why don' yu lov' me
an'm're?" The answer suddenly came to her, though not the correct one, as
she turned over and announced, "I thi'k I'm gunna b' sick..." and began to
retch in the backseat.
Rick heard that and felt uneasy himself. "Aww, c'mon, Allison, I just had
the car cleaned the other day and-" Too late, she began to answer nature's
call in the far back of the van, which she'd at least had enough sobriety to
make it to before performing her technicolor yawn. Rick turned around, very
worried about his friend; he remembered reading about Jimi Hendrix and all
those other rock stars who choked while drunk, and he wasn't going to let
that happen to her. 'Sides, she was going to have to live to pay for the
interior cleaning of his ride, after all. "Hey, Allison, you okay?"
A single hand waved up very unsteadily from behind the last row of seats as
a muddied voice blurted, "Oooookaa."
"That's good," he said, feeling better, and returning his attention to the
road, "'cause I wouldn't have to-- *LOOK OUT!*" Rick spun the wheel as
much as he could, hitting the breaks and nearly tipping over as he swerved
at the last possible second to avoid hitting a pedestrian. As he passed her
by, he got the merest glimpse of her face for just a second, and thought,
((Kinda cute, but really, she needs to work on the clothing issue. Looks
like she's been watching one too many episodes of "That 70's Show".))
Rolling down the window long enough to shout back "Sorry!", he drove on,
hoping he could get Allison back to her place and find some excuse to
explain her drunkenness to her parents. If he was lucky, she might only be
grounded for a month, and they wouldn't smell the slight beer breath he had.
If someone, like a cop or whatever, pulled them over, they'd be in stuff so
deep, industrial cranes wouldn't get them out of it.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" the living doll screamed at the receding
van, wondering what he was doing on the wrong side of the road. It took her
a few more seconds to realize that she was in America, and she'd been in the
wrong; they drove on the other side of the road here.
((Here? But other side of the road as opposed to where?)) the doll asked
herself, the faintest glimmers of a life she'd known before and only seemed
to recall now through a stained glass of memory. Fragments of a torn
recollection sifted through her newly-sown mind, incomplete and hazy images
of a smiling redhead, a blue-haired girl in trouble, a man screaming for
help, a woman licking blood off her hands with glee that bordered on the
inhumane...
The doll shut out those memories once more. They were painful, buzzing in
the back of her head and vague, as though they refused to come out. There
was something about all of it, though, that reminded her of why she was
here. Not sure if she was imagining things, the doll continued to walk on
down the street (though on the right side this time) in her search for the
light and her reason for being.
-=(*)=-
"I hope the girls are okay," Lance confided to his father at the airport,
commenting on the news of what had happened to the Ryuzaki family.
"'Specially 'Karu. That's going to hit her hard."
Clef agreed, nodding. "Son, you'll find that in this world, there are a lot
of things that'll make you cringe. We've been fortunate enough not to see
many of those things, but your grandfather has, and I'm sure graverobbing
isn't one of them. There are some crimes that can't be forgiven." Clef put
out his cigarette, looking at the eldest of his brood. "But yes, I agree
with you. Hikaru's had a horrid year by many counts and this is not going
to make it easier by any stretch of the imagination. But your sister's
strong; she'll last this incident and come through it with flying colors."
"I think so too, Dad," Lance agreed, "but it still doesn't prevent me from
worrying." He would have added more, but the reason for them being at the
airport arrived, coming through the gates. "Hey, here they come!"
Stepping off the jetway and onto the arrival area of the airport, fresh off
Aloha Airlines Flight 3218, was Hikaru T. "Harry" Shidou, Sr., widely
decorated hero of WWII and Korea. By his side was his supportive and
iron-willed wife, Hizashi Shidou. The elder Hikaru had already had a long
series of adventures behind him, amongst them the fact that he'd enlisted at
the all-too-young age of fourteen the day after Pearl Harbor had been
bombed. Since that day, the Japanese-American farm kid from the sugarcane
fields of Hawaii had lived a life few had dreamed of, losing a fianc�e in
occupied Japan to disease, eventually marrying her kid sister. During those
years, he worked his way up from a slick-sleeve private in a war few men
survived to a highly decorated Army Lieutenant General, a man so well-known
for his prowess on the battlefield that even General McArthur himself had
once said, "I'd rather have a man like Harry Shidou watching my back than a
whole division!" It was said that when Harry retired from the Army in 1981
after forty years of service, President Reagan himself had said that an Army
without Harry Shidou was an Army that had "lost its samurai soul".
Regardless of his fame, life had not been easy for Harry and Hizashi. Harry
always seemed to go from one world crisis to another, while the Japanese
woman had to adjust to live thousands of miles away from home in lands she'd
been brought up to think were the realms of barbarians. Nonetheless, they'd
both persevered, and though everything had come late to him and her (his
third child, Clef, had not been born until Harry was at the ripe old age of
41 and Hizashi a still-beautiful 26 it would still be another 23 years
before the unintentional but no less loved birth of his final child,
Europa), their lives had become a testament to how love let them survive the
chaos that had been the mid-twentieth century. Since then, he and Hizashi
had presided over a wonderful family full of delight and successes: eldest
child Emi was a professor the University of Hawaii; the next child, Taro
(who went by his middle name, Duke), had followed in his father's footsteps
and was a lieutenant colonel stationed in Germany; Clef had taken the route
of author; and the baby, Europa, was an engineer in Europe. Though life had
been hard to Harry and Hizashi Shidou, the rewards of it had been much
greater than they'd ever hoped for.
"Hey, Pop, Oka-san," Clef said as he went to embrace his parents.
"Hey, son," Harry said, smiling with a twinkle in his eye. As Clef turned to
his mother, Harry addressed his grandson. "Heya, champ, ready to make the
big time?"
Lance grinned. "Hey, if 'Ropa can do it, I'm sure I can."
"I believe so as well, my grandson," Hizashi said as she moved over to give
Lance a hug. "Oh, you have no idea how proud your grandfather and I are of
you. You've done so well, and to earn a scholarship at UCLA...that is so
wonderful." Hizashi smiled demurely, ever Japanese even at the ripe old age
of 68 and after living the lion's share of her life out of her home country.
"To think that soon you'll be in college just makes me beam with pride."
"Thanks, Oba-san," Lance replied, bending down and giving Hizashi and hug
and kiss on the cheek. "Need help with the bags, Grandpa?"
Harry scoffed. "Lance, I'm a born an' bred Army man. I don't need
mollycoddling of any kind." However, he nodded and said, "I'd appreciate
it, though, as that way your father and I can talk." Lance nodded and went
to the baggage claim to retrieve their bags, Harry looked at Clef and asked
bluntly, "How's Junior doing?"
Clef smiled inwardly; because Hikaru had been named after her grandfather,
Harry had since taken to calling her "Junior", something that Hizashi
thought was unseemingly for a young woman...even though, technically, she
was Hikaru Jr. "Pop, 'Karu's fine. Tom's staff gave her a clean bill of
health and she's more than recovered."
Hizashi looked sorrowful. "I'm so sorry we couldn't be more of a help for
Hikaru-chan when she needed us. Emi-chan is also sorry that she and her
family couldn't make it as well."
"I know, believe me. Both sides of the family have been beating themselves
up regarding 'Karu's accident. Duke called me personally from Weisbaden to
apologize that Army duties kept them there; Emi must've called a dozen times
to make sure everything was okay. On the other side, Priss' parents had a
guilt trip like there was no tomorrow, but political life in Washington kept
them busy, so they could only come out when Congress wasn't in session. Tom
felt a personal obligation to help, and he had to literally move his family
out here to do so. As for Europa, well, she was the only one really able to
come out here; her plan, foolish as it was, was the key to bringing our
'Karu back to us." But as he led his parents to the car, waiting only a few
seconds for Lance to catch up, he added, "But I do have to admit, you and
Pop's idea of giving her the family sword was brilliant."
"She deserved it," Hizashi answered. "That sword has been in the Hino
family since time began, and passed down from warrior to warrior. With my
own father having no sons to leave the legacy to, the only choices he had
apart from it being confiscated by the Occupation government was to donate
it to a museum or to keep it in the family by using it as a dowry. When
your father saved your grandfather from being accosted by other occupation
troops, combined with the fact that he was of Japanese blood, made him the
perfect choice to carry the sword." Hizashi sighed. "And to think that my
sister wanted to sell it, but she died before she could convince either my
father or Harry. It was a hard choice since we were bankrupt by the war,
but I think in the end it was the right one."
Clef nodded. "Well, Oka-san, I'm glad that you married Pop instead of Aunt
Hinata, or else I wouldn't have been born. Though, I have to admit, it
would have been nice to meet her. You and Pop have always spoken well of
her."
"Your father truly cared about my sister, and he always thought me like a
little sister as well. When Hinata...died...your father was heartbroken,
but he agreed to your grandfather's request that he and I should marry.
Personally, neither of us were comfortable with that decision at the time,
but those were still in the days of arranged marriages." Hizashi tilted her
head just so, and for a moment it seemed as though she was far away, back to
being an eighteen-year-old girl being told she'd have to marry her older
sister's fianc� in her place, a person she considered like a brother. "It
took us a long time to get used to the change in our relationship, but as
you can tell, we've adjusted, and in the end I've never found cause to ever
regret my father's wisdom...or Harry's love." Back to the present, she
turned back to her son. "Speaking of which, have the girls found anyone
suitable? I want what's best for my little girls, you know."
Clef laughed. "Every parent's nightmare - I remember how much you gave me
grief when I was with my first girlfriend." Talking on about everything and
catching up on news, the Shidous headed towards Clef's car.
-=(*)=-
The pale girl took a chance to sit down on a bench, looking around at
everything. This place was so bizarre, so unreal...yet it felt somehow that
she'd been here, and yet, she hadn't. What was that word she learned in her
French classes? Jamais vu, the feeling that you hadn't been there, even
though you had. Or was it the opposite; that she'd never been here before
yet she knew this place like the back of her hand? It was all so confusing,
and the questions and confusion weren't clearing, instead sinking even
deeper into her mind like the fog that settled over Boston the one time she
and her parents went-
((Wait a minute. I've never been to Boston,)) she thought, ((or have I?))
It was all so confusing, and there was no one around to answer her
questions, no one that could even give her a slightest hint of reality. Who
was she? Where was she from? Was she like that one character in the
Beatles song, "Nowhere Man", a walking enigma on the Earth? About all that
she knew at the moment that she was cold, female, and probably in serious
need of a bath, if that smell blaring in her nostrils was herself. All she
wanted more than anything right now was a hot bath, a change of clothing,
and a real big hug, especially if it was someone like her mother, or her
best friends-
That was the part that hurt the most. That she couldn't remember her own
name was painful enough, but that those who loved her were nothing more than
vague shadows barely hanging on to the farthest edges of the blackout in her
mind hurt the most. Did she have a boyfriend? Were her parents still
alive? What kind of person was she?
"Who am I?" she asked herself, knowing there would be no answer. And that,
she knew, was the biggest problem of all. With that, she broke down,
crying, unable to take the pain in her heart and the coldness of her own
soul. She was not only a nobody, but at this rate, she was pretty much a
literal Nobody. Alone on a park bench, despite the frivolity around her of
children flying kites and boys playing sports, the pale girl felt more
cordoned off from society than she'd ever been.
In fact, she was so absorbed in her depression at the moment, she didn't
hear the person walk up to the bench and sit down next to her. "Hey, what's
wrong, cutie? Boyfriend troubles?" The pale girl looked up and stared at a
girl probably around her age or so. She had light-hued red hair, its length
curling around her face, framing it as though she were an angel. But no
angel that the pale girl could ever recall wore wraparound shades that
obscured the eyes, a white tubetop that looked like it was practically
painted on, a very revealing - *very revealing* - leather mini, and a pair
of pristine and expensive white tennis shoes. "Lemme guess: you caught the
motherfucker sleeping with another girl and he kicked you out of the
apartment, right?"
The pale girl shrugged, wiping the tears from her eyes. "No, it's not that
at all." She began to speak, but held her tongue, not sure of how to
explain how she got here or the fact that she didn't know who she was.
After all, for a second at the very beginning, she felt as though she was
crawling out of the ground as if she'd been buried - as if she was...dead?
The pale girl shook her head at that. She wasn't dead, she couldn't be?
Still sitting there and waiting for an answer, the stranger seemed to make a
pack of cigarettes appear from nowhere, then snapped and somehow lit it?
The pale girl blinked in surprise as though she were imagining things, but a
split second later she saw the remnants of a wooden match hit the ground.
Not looking at the girl, the stranger took a long drag, then puffed out the
smoke and replied, "My Dad taught me a few magic tricks when I was a kid.
I'd offer you one, but you don't look the type that smokes. Frankly, if I
can be blunt - which I will be, anyway - you look like a Daddy's girl that
just got in trouble for the first time and has no idea how to get the hell
out of it."
Rubbing her eyes, the pale girl replied, "Sorta."
The stranger removed her shades, and the pale girl got a good look at the
other girl's eyes. They were red as rubies, not the normal reddish-brown
that her best friends had - ((Why can't I remember their names?)) - but
also far colder and calculating, as though she were seeing through her,
inspecting a steak in the meat market. Her face, fully revealed, somehow
seemed so familiar, as though if a dream, a faint memory that had just risen
a bit more through the murky depths of her brain. "So, let me guess again:
your boy knocked you up, and now you have no idea what to do, you've been
sleeping on the streets because Daddy's Little Girl's too afraid to go back
and tell Papa that his little baby's been doing the Horizontal Bop?"
"No! It's not like that!" the pale girl replied, her voice breaking.
Realizing that she could turn away the one person who was offering her help,
she lowered her voice and answered truthfully, "I...have no home. I don't
remember who I am."
"Oh, is that all? You make it sound as though it's a major problem. That's
hardly worth the bother." With another magic flick of the wrist, the girl pr
oduced what appeared to be several twenties in her hand, and within a
second, placed it in the pale girl's. "Here, take this and get yourself
some clean clothes. And a bath." Still looking at her, she pointed
southeast, adding, "Then head in that direction. I have a funny feeling
that what you're looking for will be over there. Also, take this." A small
white card with a phone number appeared in her pale hand. "If you don't
find a place to belong, you can always stay with me. Believe me," the woman
said with a purr, "I can be *very easy* to get along with."
The girl counted the small wad of cash. ((Three hundred...?)) "I can't
take this...I have no way of paying you back!"
"Don't worry. Think of it as a loan...or just maybe," she said, looking the
pale girl over with a gaze that was predatory, "advance payment
for...services...to be rendered later. Just take care of yourself and I'll
come looking for you later. Until then, taa!" Slipping on her wraparounds
again, she left the bench and walked off, saucily moving her body with just
enough flair to get the attention of every male in the park. Within a
minute, she'd rounded the nearest corner and was gone.
The pale girl looked at the money, then at the place where the other had
been. It was both fortuitous and creepy, and that girl had looked at her as
though she were simply something to be devoured, to be consumed and subsumed
within. Was this the warped world in which she would have to live her life?
Indeed, was any of this life?
(("Head in that direction. I have a funny feeling that what you're looking
for will be over there.")) Moving that way would take her farther away from
the center of the city, towards the suburbs. Was that truly where she
needed to go? Did she have a family there? Parents, brothers, sisters?
Her best friends? Would there even be the chance person that knew who she
was, and what her purpose was for? The stranger thought so, and though it
was laughable at best, it was still better than being Nobody. Finally
deciding on her course, she left the bench, moving straight as the crow flew
towards what very well might be her path to restoration.
-=(*)=-
"This is really unfair, Mom!" Hikari told her mother as she chopped up some
lettuce for a lunchtime salad. Right now the ponytailed redhead was
internally raging between wanting to cry and wanting to scream, feelings she
knew that Hikaru felt. "Why Umi? I mean, this isn't anything that should
happen to anyone, but why Umi?"
They were still at the Ryuzaki residence, and Keiko was in her bedroom,
having passed out from the strain. A slightly more composed Daisuke had
decided to take the rest of the interview to the den, which the police
agreed. Although she'd have to recuse herself from the case due to her
friendship with the Ryuzakis, Priss would keep on top of this for everyone's
sake. "I don't know, dear," she replied, her voice very solemn. "Some
people are just ill and don't think of others. I don't think this was
intended against Umi or her family, but I promise that the police will get
down to the bottom of it."
"I hope so," the ponytailed redhead replied, her throat catching on a sob.
"Umi was the best friend a girl could have, and her death tore us all up,
'specially 'Karu. She's deserved her rest and to think that someone won't
even give her that in the afterlife is just wrong." 'Kari set aside the
lettuce and started working on the tomatoes, trying to concentrate at the
task at hand.
"Don't remind me," Priss pointed out. "I feel helpless as it is. I'm sure
even your father and brother do as well."
"Yeah, they're not going to take that very well, either. An' this is some
seriously bad timing, considering that Lance's graduation is next Friday.
An' while Grandpa and Oba-san didn't know Umi well, I think they'll be a bet
upset by this."
Priss grew a wry smile on her face, the kind she had when she was
formulating a plan. "You know, 'Kari, you just gave me an idea."
Hikari looked at her mother? "I did?"
Priss nodded. "We need to get Daisuke and Keiko out of here for a while,
and I'm sure they could use some company. So, maybe we should have your
grandmother talk to them. I'm sure she'd enjoy the chance to dispense some
motherly advice, and the Ryuzakis might be a little more comfortable with a
little old Japanese lady than contemporaries."
Kari nodded. "That just might work, Mom. You know, I'm glad you got the
idea from me. After all, I *am* your most brilliant child, you know." When
her mother groaned good-naturedly, the redhead continued with, "Ah, the
price of genius that I must pay."
"Okay, Einstein, then you continue with making lunch while I go call your
father. This isn't going to be easy."
-=(*)=-
It was a trial for the doll to walk. She felt slightly gangly and
unbalanced, and much of it had to do with the fact that she couldn't see
very well as to where she was going. She was walking down the street, not
really sure of where she was going, but knew that somehow she was going to
come across some sort of help, the key that would be critical to-
Someone grabbed her arm. "Excuse me, miss? Do you wear glasses?" The
person speaking to the doll was just far enough away to be blurry to her
eyes, but she could barely discern reddish hair, reddish eyes, and a female
face. She was wearing some sort of business clothing, and was carrying
something rectangular and flat, like a clipboard.
"Um, yes, yes I do, why?" the doll inquired, wondering exactly what the hell
was going on.
The stranger smiled. "Perfect? How would you like a free pair of
eyeglasses?" A second later, she added, "No catch, you don't even have to
give your name or any information. Really! You see, I'm an optometrist,
and my office is trying to go for the Guinness record for most pairs of
glasses made in a day. I need about 460 to break the record, and right now
you'd be number 285."
"I'd really like to, but...." The doll paused, thinking about it. The
woman *did* say that there were no catches, but there were other slight
problems, like she didn't have her prescription on her, or a means to pay
for it, either.
As though reading her thoughts, the woman cooed, "Don't have your RX on
file? No problem! I can get your vision test done in a couple of seconds,
no time flat, and just because I'm trying to get this record, no cost for
that either! How's that sound?"
The doll bowed slightly. "Thank you very much!" she said, feeling relieved
about the solution to at least one of her problems; with that positive note,
she followed the woman into the store. By a stroke of luck, part of the
doll's dilemma had been removed, and with a little more luck, she'd be able
to move on to whatever the next step would be, on the road to wherever she
needed to end up.
Walking slightly ahead of the blonde, the woman thought to herself, ((Man, I
hope these idiots get their act together and meet up soon! I'm wearing out
my magic skills trying to organize all of this.)) Wiping a scowl off her
face before she turned to face the blonde in the really tacky 70's getup -
where the hell'd she dig those rags up, a thrift store or something? - she
commented, "Right this way please, miss!" in as chirpy and sugary a voice as
she could.
((Hikaru, you're really going to pay for this, I swear you are....))
-=(*)=-
At the mall, the two younger children contented themselves with cones of
Baskin-Robbins, bouncing up and down with joy and thrilled that they were
going to see not only one, but two movies! To this, they were practically
moving around their seats like the children were heavily rocket-powered.
And from Hikaru's view, considering how much sugar and caffeine was in two
scoops of Chocoholic's Delight, her nuclear-fueled assessment wasn't
probably too wrong.
((Then again,)) she noted, taking a dainty bite from a banana split that
she'd gotten for herself, ((maybe we all need to be OD'ed on sugar for a
while. The kids won't have to deal with the news about Umi. And maybe
neither will I.))
As always, Eric picked up on his girlfriend's bad vibes and started. "You
know, no amount of banana splits is going to take away the pain, 'Karu. I
wish it could - I wish *I* could - but that's something that you've got to
get over."
"Sometimes I don't think you understand," she hissed in a whisper, trying
not to be too annoyed at his patronizing, while at the same time trying not
to disturb the girls, who were fortunately seated at another table close by.
"Umi was my best friend! I'd known her for years and years - she was
practically part of the family!"
"No, you're right, I *don't* understand. *You* had a best friend growing
up. *I've* never been that lucky. Being a baseball brat, we've moved from
town to town, more times than I can remember. Though I was born in San
Diego, I've lived in several other places; name a major league ball town and
I've probably lived there. I've never really been close to anyone at all,
until I've moved here.
"'Karu, I know you, 'Kari, and Umi were practically inseparable. I can't
begin to imagine how much it hurts." He reached over the table and took his
hands in hers, looking at her firmly. "All I know is that something
happened today regarding Umi, and that you're in pain, the sort of pain that
you tend to want to brood over and ignore everyone."
"I don't brood," she replied testily.
"You do brood, cutie, and as much as I'm always here for you, I can't stand
it when you push me away like that. You're not alone, Hikaru, you shouldn't
have to be, even though I can tell that you want to be, more than anything?"
"You're my boyfriend, not my psychoanalyst," she said, really getting
annoyed about the whole thing. "I'm done with that, remember?"
To her surprise, he released her hands and shot straight up from his chair.
There was no look of anger in his eyes, but she could tell he wasn't very
happy. "Well, if you want to be alone so much, the girls and I will leave
you to your brooding." Moving away from the table and tossing his near-full
shake in a trash bin, he went to the younger girls and said, "Hey, 'Karu's
got some things to do, so since the movies don't start for another thirty
minutes, wanna go to the arcade?" Within seconds the trio had departed in
the direction of the arcade, leaving a bewildered and sullen Hikaru to sit
there, eating a banana split in self-directed anger.
((Way to fuckin' go, Shidou, she chastised herself. Piss off your boyfriend
and make the girls worry, whydontcha? You brought them out here so they
wouldn't have to worry about the news regarding Umi. Brilliant plan; now
they're probably worried about you, instead.)) She lifted another spoonful
of strawberry shortcake ice cream to her lips, but suddenly found that she'd
lost her appetite for her favorite flavor.
She shook her head, not believing what she'd done. ((Umi, I miss you. I
really, really do - but would you get offended if I moved on without you?))
She remembered the words on that snowy December, about her carrying on
because she had to, but it didn't...somehow, it didn't feel right. ((Umi
and I had a bond, something that I think was different from what 'Kari and I
have. It was something indescribable, like I had in the Dreamtime with
her.)) Her own personal shorthand for the delusions that had been in her
mind, the Dreamtime was more nightmare in nature to the redhead, but
fortunately now something that she'd accepted only as imagination and not a
Kafkan version of life. ((But if I don't let go, then I'm going to fall
again sooner or later, and I don't know if I'll have the strength to get up
a second time.))
Fortunately, an interruption prevented further inward debate on the subject.
"Hikaru?" Hikaru looked up and looked at Mr. Culpepper, the two owner of
the antique store where she was getting her blade restored. She actually
preferred to work with him instead of his assistant, Mr. Yamata, as that man
always seemed to think that Hikaru's sword was actually his. There was also
the fact that she found him to be a nice enough older gentleman who'd
happened to serve under her grandfather when he'd been in the military.
"Oh, hello, Mr. Culpepper. Fancy meeting you here." He saw the look in his
eyes and knew instantly that her own woes would have to take a backseat at
the moment. "Are you okay, sir?" she asked, offering him a seat.
"Well, I always come here for lunch; the bentos over at Tokyo Palace Ramen
are just too good to pass up," lifting a bag of what was clearly his lunch.
"But I spotted you over here and wanted to let you know that your sword's
ready for pick up."
Hikaru arched a brow at that. "I thought your assistant said it wouldn't be
ready until mid-July." A warning flare lit at the back of her mind; had
something gone wrong with her blade?
"It pains me to say this, Hikaru, it really does. I had Jack - Mr. Yamata -
fired and arrested. He was taking many of the antique swords we restore and
replacing them with counterfeits he ordered from Spain, quite good ones too,
from an objective standpoint. He'd almost gotten away with yours, but I
caught him on the phone with his dealer. I informed the local police, and
they took it from there. I'm glad that we stopped it in time, but in the
meanwhile," he sighed, clearly distraught by these turn of events, "I feel
as though it was my personal mistake, you understand."
Hikaru nodded. "I'm sorry to hear that, sir. I hope it's not affecting
your business."
"No, and for that I'm glad - most people realize that Jack was doing it
behind my back, and between the two of us, he's the swords expert; I only
know other kinds of antiques. But the fact is that I'm now stuck with four
replicas of your sword."
"Four?"
Culpepper nodded. "Apparently, he was planning to sell yours on the black
market, give you one of the copies, and sell the others as authentic swords
to dupe people. Since then, I've had my binder redo the replicas in
different colors and type of binding in order to tell them from your actual
one, but I've no idea what to do with them now."
"Why not sell them as replicas?"
"No, I can't do that. Your family didn't authorize it, and even still, they
were created for ill purposes. But," he said, with a new thought on his
face, "perhaps I can give them to you as a way of making amends?"
"Well, I don't know what I would do with four swords, but I can use the
other three for practice," Hikaru admitted. "But won't that cost you?"
"Not as much as losing one of my most important customers due to the
greediness of one of my employees. Besides, they're based on your family
heirloom; they should be yours. Just let me finish up my lunch, and we can
go downstairs and finish up with this business. Oh, also needless to say,
I'm not going to charge you for the restoration to the swords."
"Well, I appreciate it, sir, though I have to figure out what I'm going to
do with extra swords; maybe I'll teach my sister. But thank you very much,
nonetheless." It was fortuitous and rather odd that she ended up with all
the extra blades, but to be honest, it was probably better that she did,
rather than her sword ending up in some private collector somewhere far
away, having gotten her sword illegally. ((Grandpa and Oba-san would be
pissed if that happened; the Hino sword, Tenkagatana, has been in the family
for ages.))
Realizing that she was probably going to need some help carrying it, she
reached for her cellphone, to call Eric. She had to make up to her
boyfriend, and she was probably going to need an extra pair of hands to
carry the blades. But most of all, because she loved him and she needed to
tell him so.
-=(*)=-
"There. Feeling any better?" Rick asked Allison as he gave her another
bottle of water. He'd read somewhere that one of the best ways to beat a
hangover was to stuff the other person with as much water as possible.
Granted, he'd always thought the "hair of the dog" method was much better,
but hey, it probably didn't work for everyone.
"No, but I'll manage," she said in response, gratefully taking the bottle
and downing a couple of aspirin. "By the way, where am I?" She looked arou
nd the room, noting that nothing looked even remotely familiar - or at least
she didn't recall her room being this much of a disaster zone, or the Bob
Marley, Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam posters on the wall. Also, why the
hell did the room smell, well, like a guy?
"Um, you're at my place," Rick said sheepishly. "I took you to your place,
but, um, your mother...."
"Don't. Let me guess: I've been kicked out of the house until I sober up,
and when I do get home, I'm going to be grounded until the next millennium."
Both of Allison's parents were completely dry and would be furious as hell
that their daughter had gone out and gotten wasted, despite their endless
sermons on alcohol.
"Got it in one," Rick replied. "I have a change of clothing for you in my
sister's room; you can stay in Kate's room tonight, since my parents are out
of town and she's over in college on the East Coast, but I think you'll want
to go back to your place on Sunday night and face the music. Fortunately,
they think that you'll probably be staying at the Shidous, so I'll have to
call 'Kari, 'Karu, or Lance to cover for you, so...."
"Whatever," she replied, sitting up with a headache. "I deserve this
hangover, I really do, don't I?"
"For acting like an ass, yeah," Rick replied honestly, "not to mention
trying to drink me under the table, which would never happen anyway. What
the hell were you thinking, Allison? Granted, me an' Lance have been best
buds since kindergarten, but he's not worth dying of alcohol poisoning
over!"
Allison looked at Rick with the gaze of the damned...or the very hung over.
"I've lost the man I love, Rick. It hurts, like my heart got ripped out of
its cavity, and all I feel like doing right now is sinking into oblivion."
"Christ, Allison, you want oblivion, go listen to the Cure. Spare me the
melodrama and listen to me: Lance is hurt just as much by this as you are.
Trust me. It's not something he wanted to do, but he did it for you."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better? He's my one true love!" she
said, half-shouting her words and instantly regretting it as it echoed in
Rick's room, assaulting her ears in turn.
"Okay, let me tell you a story. There was once a guy that my sister just
loved and adored, went by the name of Edward MacDougal. Ed and my sister
were deeply in love with each other, had been through all of high school.
Well, when they graduated, Kate went off to college, while Ed joined the Air
Force and got stationed overseas; Korea, if I remember correctly. Well,
though she burned a candle for him like no one else I've ever seen - my
sister is *such* the incurable romantic - it didn't work the same in
reverse. About a year after they went their ways, Ed sent my sister a
letter saying he was calling it off because he was going to marry a Korean
girl. Lance was here with me when she got the note, and my sister was in
tears for weeks, let me tell you.
"The fact is that in a few months, Lance is going to UCLA, while you're
gonna be here at Washington State. Lance loves you like there's no
tomorrow, but he also remembers that incident, I'm sure. You know as well
as I do that people change - how many relationships have you seen break up?
The way people care for each other changes over time, and while there's a
chance that you and Lance will have the same feelings for each other years
down the road when it's time to get married, there's also a larger chance
that you won't. You two will be too far away and I don't think I need to go
further.
"But let me assure you, this wasn't an easy choice for me. "Kari's told me
a couple of times that he's just not been himself over the whole thing. The
guy loves you and wants the best for you, believe me - I know Lance, and he
wouldn't have done this if it werent' the right thing for both of you. But
sometimes doing what's right isn't even remotely what's easy, and you know
the Shidous; the whole family's so hard-wired on doing what's right that the
word "wrong" probably isn't in a dictionary in that house."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She flopped down on Rick's bed and said,
"Hey, thanks for watching out for me."
Rick flashed her a smile, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "'S
cool. To be honest, Lance probably would have done it himself, but he
skipped Elaine's party on purpose."
"He did? Why?"
"Probably because he knew you were going to get drunk off your ass and were
going to do something you might regret. Of course," he added with a grin,
"That's why I went to the party, too. I mean, you don't actually think I'd
want to be around Elaine Bradshaw and her fashion victim clique, do ya?"
Allison chuckled. "You have a point." Pausing for a second or two more,
she sighed and asked, "Hey, I'm hungry. You have anything to eat?"
Rick not-so-elegantly shrugged. "Naah, I've just been going down to the
usual places: Pizza Slut, Taco Hell and Mickey D's. But if you've got the
dime, I've got the ride. 'Sides," he added with a wicked grin, "I know an
auto detailing place nearby where I can get vomit stains out of the van."
When she looked at him with an embarrassed shock, he nodded sagely, "Yup,
it's that bad."
Allison took the hint. "Okay, let me take a shower and change clothes and
then we can go get some food, get your car cleaned up and find some suitable
gift that'll get me out of trouble with my folks. Besides, maybe I can find
something that'll change Lance's ideas about us." She looked at her friend,
and there was a bleary determination in her eyes. "I want to prove to him
that love can weather anything, can even practically come back from the dead
if it needs to."
Rick nodded with a boyish expression. "Thatagirl, Allison. Follow me, and
we'll get you to the shower."
-=(*)=-
To be continued in Part 2....
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