Left Open
Decades. No, just time. All that had passed since inheriting this store, is time. I have not lost friends. I have not lost loved ones. I have not lost ties to those surrounding me. Everything has taken it's course, a road predetermined by Fate and Destiny. The days passed by at their appointed time, as did the lives of everyone around me. I was...I am, an exception. I take another inhalation from my pipe and stare outwardly at my garden. The rain is falling in a light mist, covering the plants just as they appear each day with a morning dew. The sun is setting low behind thin clouds, casting a pale orange glow upon everything the light can touch. It won't be that way much longer, I muse to myself. Soon the darkness of the night will crawl forwards, taking place of the safety of the day. Another thing that has not changed. People still believed in only what they could see, yet always feared what they could not. It seemed that the night did that to most people, and it provided me with many customers over the years.
My leg shifts down so that the toes of my left foot touch the damp grass. I hear the distant bell by the front door letting me know of his arrival, and I smile to myself. Things have changed, surely, for though I do no turn to greet my closest friend, I know how he is, and who he is not. He is Doumeki. He is not Doumeki. He is not the Doumeki I like to think I fell in love with. He is not the Doumeki I gave myself to so many ages ago. He is not the one whose hand I held tight to my heart as he lay dying in his bed. He is my friend, my lover, my brother, my all. I set down my pipe as he sits beside me, his eyes staring out at the garden along with mine. Sometimes I think he is trying to see what that I see, but that would be wishful thinking on his part. There was only one Doumeki who could do that, and he is gone.
"So, has anyone stopped by?"
I take in a calm breath and turn to smile at him willfully. His features were so familiar to me. If I was blind, I would know who I was looking at just by his presence.
"No, not today." I answered. We return our gaze back to the rain, the water falling from the sky seeming to slow down further and further, calmer and calmer, until it seemed as if the particles were hanging in the air before they would drift down to the Earth only when they were ready.
"Have you seen her again?"
I turned my eyes down to my left leg, watching as the small droplets of water clung to my skin. My gaze drifted back up to the sky.
"No. I have not dreamed of her since she told me I was free to leave this shop." We both remained silent. These days haven't changed either. The times when Doumeki would silently walk over to me and give me his company have not changed in the slightest, and I am grateful. I turn to watch him now, his face young and full of devoted protection towards myself, just as his father's had been. Just as his grandfather's had been. Just as his great grandfather's had haunted my mind through so many years. My throat closed for a moment, and I had to look away. I was not fast enough, though. Doumeki caught my stare and he stood, stepping down onto the wet ground to face me. He held out his hand and I took it. In a graceful pull he had me pressed against his body, the light mist clinging to our clothes as I laid my head against his collarbone.
Minutes. No, just time. Time passed us by as we stood under the darkened sky, the rain leaving us to give life to others. It was quiet. There no trickles of water falling from the trees onto the plants below. There were no insects going about their lives in the grass beneath my feet. There was Doumeki. There was Doumeki and I. We stood still, listening to the quiet. It didn't last long. A hand drifted up along my left arm to my face, and I felt my damp bangs being pulled back just the slightest. I lifted my head to stare into the eyes of my dearest, dearest friend. My my pulse deafened me when we finally connected.
Everything has changed. Everything has changed, and nothing will ever be the same again. I can live with that. I have lived with it for over a hundred years, and I will go on living until the shop has reached it's end.
There are no such thing as coincidences in this world. There is only the inevitable.
The only woman who ever loved me told me that once. Now, as I lay in the grass with Doumeki giving pleasure to my body, I smile and close my eyes to hold back the tears. One day I will leave this shop. One day I will bring everything to a close. Until then...I guess my ending is open to my own mind.