I came to Paris in the Spring of 1928. I was there to procure a steady job
and marry my hometown sweetheart, Namine. Until I met him.
He was pretty as a girl, with his big, blue eyes and golden blond hair.. We
met in the rain and I thought he was beautiful. With his ripped coat and broken
high heel and the rain trailing down his cheeks, or were they tears. I could
tell by the make-up that he most likely worked at one of the brothels in the
slums. He was too pretty to be a street whore. I remember the way he averted my
gaze when I helped him off the wet cement. The way he thanked me and ran,
looking back now it should have ended there. I proposed to Namine the next day
and the month after we were set to be married.
My brother, Reno, took me to a nearby brothel, one that was popular for
offering the services of underage children, boys in particular. It was there
that I met him again, all smiles and big blue eyes and blond hair and that lacy,
lacy corset and black leather boots as he entertained a man with long silver
hair and golden eyes. I don't remember much of that night anymore, but I do
remember waking up to golden blond hair and those long eyelashes and cherry red
lips. My life changed drastically after that night.
I began seeing him and learned his name, Roxas. A pretty name for a pretty
girl, I joked. He was fourteen to my twenty-two. He ran away from home the year
before and was taken in by the man I had seen him with that night.. His name was
Xemnas, and he was his uncle. I couldn't feel anything other than contempt for
the man. How I hated him.
I began visiting the brothel once a month.
The next year I visited the brothel more frequently. Namine was starting to
get suspicious.
I still remember that night vividly in my mind. We had planned to run away
together.
I remember the look on his face as Xemnas pointed that gun at me. I should
have left him alone. There was nothing I could do for him. Looking back on it,
Xemnas was best for him. The best a whore could get without tarnishing
innocence, or maybe a man's marriage, as he had done mine.
Namine left me when she found out. And I left Paris for Germany the next
month. It was there that I met Rikku in all her bubbly vivaciousness. We saw
each other frequently and I met her parents during Christmas. We married that
Spring and the next Spring we were parents.
Our son was a small child with brown hair and bright blue eyes. We named him
Sora.
In the years after we acquired three more children. Twin girls, One with red
hair and the other blond. Rikku didn't mind naming one of our little girls after
Namine and so we did. Spunky and brash Kairi and shy, quiet Namine. The year
after we were blessed with another son, Ven. Ven was tiny, with golden blond
hair and big, pretty bright eyes, just like his brother and a certain little
whore I used to know. It should have been hard to compare my youngest son to a
whore but it wasn't and they did resemble each other, even more so as Ven grew
older and became much prettier.
The family was together for Christmas the year I ran into him for the first
time in nearly twenty years. He had gotten taller, if only by a little. His hair
was longer and lacked the spikes from all those years ago, but his eyes were
still as big and blue as ever. And his smile was the same. His white leather
boots sloshed in the puddles of melting snow splashing his pretty brown coat
with white snow. Next to him was the man that had flashed a gun in my face
twenty years ago. The silver hair still long and the golden eyes still hateful.
He had wrinkles now and it looked as if he was on an outing with his son, rather
than his lover. And when Roxas wound his arm around Xemnas's and said goodbye
all polite with his pretty white teeth flashing despite the drugs and alchohol,
I didn't know if Xemnas was best for him anymore. But I had Rikku and our four
children and Sora's little girlfriend, Sally, who was spending Christmas with us
this year and I felt content for once in my life while thinking about him.
Sora was nineteen now and he and Sally were getting married. And it was there
that I met him again. His pretty white teeth flashing and I found out Sally was
his niece and I met his brother Cloud and his wife Aerith and I found they were
Sally's parents. He laughed, a delicate giggle that shouldn't have sounded so
girlish coming from a man who was nearing forty. And he smiled and was on his
merry little way with an ailing Xemnas, who had become a permanent fixture in a
wheelchair by now.
It was three more years before we would meet again and by then was forty but
still looked like the little call boy from back then. Sora and Sally had a
little boy. My first grandchild was small and pink with blond tufts of hair and
big, brown eyes like my daughter-in-law's. I saw him flashing that sweet smile
and cooing over the newborn. The absence of Xemnas hung heavily in the air and I
soon found out that Xemnas had died last year and he still thought of me even
now and oh, please, just one night. But I couldn't because I still had Rikku and
I didn't want to break her heart like I had broken Namine's.
The next year Rikku passed after a cancer diagnosis and the children came.
But I couldn't be comforted by anyone other than him and Thank God there he was
and he wrapped his arms around me and let me weep. Just one night I agreed and
the next morning he was gone. But Sora and Sally and Vaan were there. And so
were Kairi and Namine and her fiance Demyx and Ven who looked even more like him
now that he was older. I couldn't stop thinking about him.
Three years past and Namine and Demyx were married. And they had a son later
that year, the grandchild that would never meet Rikku and I wept and We named
him Vincent, Daddy. And Kairi met Zack but no we aren't getting married until
were sure. and Ven, pretty little Ven, I'll never leave you dad and I wept
again.
And two more years and he came to me and what a wreck he was and he was
drinking and that pretty golden hair was falling out and those big, blue eyes
weren't a bright as they used to be and his clothes didn't look so pretty
anymore But I still loved him and we made love and he got better.
Sora and Namine and Kairi and little Ven. Oh daddy were so happy for you. And
Mom would want this. And my little family who was growing cause Namine was
pregnant again and Kairi was expecting and she and Zack were married and Oh
little Ven and sweet little Marlene were set to be married in the Fall. And he
was still beside me.
And those next ten years were the best of my life. And I sat beside him those
ten years later as he was leaving me. and I'm sorry but it was an unhealthy
lifestyle and He might not live through the year from the doctor and I took him
home. And oh how his sickness prevailed and that last moment how he smiled, that
pretty little smile that I remember seeing that night and the way he touched my
cheek and I love you before he was gone.
It's been five years since he passed and I'm alone now. Namine and Demyx and
VIncent and little Denzel are in France. And Kairi and Zack and their little
girl Selphie were in America. And Sora and Sally and Vaan, who was starting to
show an interest in girls and had a little girlfriend named Penelo and she was a
pretty little blond girl and sweet too. And then there was Ven, the spitting
image of him and sweet Marlene and little Tifa who was three and they lived in
Spain.
And now it's been twelve more years now and it's hard to believe he's been
gone that long and the children are back and the grandchildren are older. And
now, thanks to Vaan I'm going to be a great grandfather. And oh how I feel old.
One year later and I'm worse off than ever. I finally realize how old I am
when Vincent announces that he's going to be married soon and his pretty little
bride Rinoa's ready to burst and it's the first time I've seen my grandson smile
in years.
I'm there when my second great-grandchild is born despite my failing health
and the baby's the last thing I see before I go. And he looks just like him with
golden blond hair and big, bright, pretty blue eyes and that tanned skin and I
smile and I'm gone.
" Let's meet again in the next life
"I'll be waiting,"