Sweet Memories

Even if he hadn’t seen her name on one of the small markers on the broken-down shrine near the cottage, Homura would somehow have known that he had finally found Rin-rei’s home in the Underworld, and that this small shrine was her final resting place. The shrine had at least eight or ten graves of various ages, Rin-rei’s and the one adjacent to it appearing to be the oldest and most honored, being central in the plot and the most worn of all of the markers.

Unable to bear the sight of her grave any longer he rose and went to the cabin, dusting the leaves and dirt from his cape as he walked. It took a swipe or two from his sword to get past the considerable overgrowth of ivy and other vegetation that had overtaken the small dwelling. Once he was inside he saw that some of the shingled roof was gone now, consequently time and the elements had taken a harsh toll on the contents of the cottage. Nonetheless, as he stepped inside his heart clutched in his chest- it was immediately clear to Homura, beyond all doubt, that this had been her home. Her presence lingered like a trace of sweet perfume in the night air… his Rin-rei: he pictured her face as it had been when he had last seen her, at the Imperial Ball in Tenkai, just before they had been forbidden to ever see each other again. She had been so unbearably young and naive, and he had been so completely enraptured by her ethereal beauty, time had just seemed to skitter to a stop every time he looked at her.

He looked around the one-room dwelling for traces of his lost love, and as he did a picture started to unfold for him of the occupants of this cabin once upon a time. He saw several cast-iron cooking pots rusting next to the hearth in the middle of the cottage, and a well-worn large butcher block of sorts, one that had obviously seen the preparation of many meals, and perhaps the kneading of many loaves of bread. He smiled as he pictured his delicate Rin-rei becoming a farm woman, certain that with her grace and intelligence, she would have somehow adapted and done well in anything she applied herself to.

He saw a pile of leaves and rubble in one corner and poked at it with his sword, finding the remains of several wooden toys. There were broken wheels and other bits from small carts, and faded heads and scraps of clothing from dolls, telling him she had had children, at least two - probably more, judging from what appeared to be worn areas from sleeping mats delineated in the hard-packed dirt floor. Slowly walking the perimeter of the cabin, feeling like a foreign archeologist, he uncovered more artifacts, a piece of crockery here, a bent rusty scythe there, until in the opposite corner he found another item that gave him pause. It was a large well-worn wooden sandal bottom, far too large for Rin-rei’s dainty foot, or for any child’s foot for that matter.

He stood holding the sandal as it if were scalding hot but he was too stunned to drop it, his mouth agape. Her husband... of course… the other marker, the children… how stupid of him. Of course, she had had a husband – someone she had probably loved with the same sweet, gentle love she had shown him. She had borne him children, they had grown old together, they had played with their grandchildren together… how could he have not seen it?

Suddenly it was all too much for him, he flung the sandal into the hearth, and ran blindly from the cottage. He made as far as the end of the path before he stopped, breathless, his vision obscured now by the tears he had been holding back. He surrendered to them for a long anguished moment, grieving for his lost love, for the life he and Rin-rei should have had and didn’t, for his beautiful dream now reduced to somebody else’s ramshackle cottage and burial shrine and tattered rusting memories. Pulling himself together, he took a deep breath, collected a few of the prettiest wildflowers he could find, and went back to the shrine, placing them on her marker.

“Farewell, Rin-rei. I hope you were happy.”

Homura was too agitated to go directly back to Konran Castle, and have to face Zenon and Shien and their well-intentioned but painful questions, so he phased to the closest town of any size so he could get lost in the large marketplace, and just wander in quiet anonymity for a while. He was about to go into a tobacconist’s to pick up a treat for Zenon when he saw an older woman resting on a bench outside the sweet shop adjacent to it. He stopped and looked at her for a moment, trying to place what it was about her that seemed so odd, so … strangely familiar.

Rin-rei.

The woman was exactly what Rin-rei would have looked like had she lived to be about fifty-five or so – her hair was a long salt-and-pepper queue down her back, and she had many more pounds about her, which she carried well, but it was definitely her. He had to practically shake himself to keep from overtly staring at the woman, and just as he was about to decide whether to speak to her or just move on, a young girl came out of the sweet shop. She was carrying a white wax bag, and was obviously very happy with her purchase, because she was already snacking on it. She went directly to the woman on the bench, and they chattered happily.

Homura fell back in amazement against the lamppost he was standing under as he realized not only was the younger woman apparently the daughter of the older one, but like her mother she also was the spitting image of Rin-rei. The only difference in her case was that she was about three years younger than Rin-rei had been the last time Homura had seen her in Tenkai. To top it all off, the young girl was about eight months pregnant, and it was obvious that the mother and daughter were both delighted about it. The daughter sat on the bench next to the mother, munching happily on the candy, which she had apparently been craving, and they nattered away about the baby’s impending birth and their plans for baby names, clothing, and so on.

He watched them discretely for some time, and he considered speaking to them, although he couldn’t have told you what he would have said. After a while it occurred to Homura that perhaps seeing them like this was some kind of a gift from Rin-rei – some kind of sign that life goes on, and that being the case he should leave them be, happy with their chocolate and their talk of babies. Smiling to himself, he shook his head, said a quiet, “thank you, Rin-rei,” and went on into the tobacco shop.

Before heading home, he stopped in at the confectioners shop and opened up accounts for the older woman, the young pregnant woman and any children she were to have. He arranged with the shopkeeper that all expenses they incurred in the sweet shop for the duration of their lives were to be covered, anonymously of course, and that if they pressed him for the name of their benefactor, all they were to be told was simply, “an old friend.”

After purchasing a bag of a particular passion-fruit hard candy he knew Shien was fond of, Homura headed back out into the marketplace, a spring in his step for the first time in a long, long time.

~owari~