Chapter one: Time to Go Already
Meryl: Vash left the car for us. He was pretty determined to go on alone, for now, and I let myself
submit to his wishes. The car was pretty beat up from some incident yesterday he hadn't filled me
completely in on—probably it had to do with Cain. Filling me in on his past was enough revelation
for one day, I guess. I was in the driver's seat, ready to go, when Milly came out, dragging
Wolfwood's heavy cross all by herself. "Help me put it in the back seat," she requested.
"You're not—"
"Mr. Vash said it was mine now so it's mine now and I'm not leaving it behind."
I helped her load it in the car, then she got into the passenger seat. We had only drove a few feet
when we passed by the church yard. "Wait! Stop!" Milly cried out.
I tried not to sigh as I stopped the car. Milly clambered out and ran to her Nicholas' grave. She
hugged the wooden cross marking it. "Nicholas, we have to leave now," I heard her say. "We have
to leave your body behind…" Here she—unconsciously, I think—ran her hands up over her two
breasts as though remembering some intimate moment she and Nicholas had shared. She sighed.
"But, Nicholas, I know your soul lives on, and if you want to come with us in spirit, you're always
welcome." She kissed the wooden cross, at the spot in the middle where Vash had carved
Wolfwood's name. "I'll see you again someday. I know I will."
Then she trotted back to the car, but before she fully got in, I cried out, "Wait!" She looked at me
curiously. "I need a turn, too," I explained, scrambling out of the car and running to the grave.
"Mr. Wolfwood," I began, somehow shy. "Nicholas. I understand now. You were trying to protect
Vash and I the only way you knew how. I've forgiven you. I'm really sorry it ended this way,
without us even being able to speak once more. Well, um, maybe I'll see you in the afterlife
someday?" As Milly had done, I kissed the cross where his name was etched. "Goodbye, Nicholas D.
Wolfwood," I said, running a finger under the letters of his name.
I trotted back to the car. Milly was smiling—I assume she was happy that I, too, was paying my
respects to the man she had loved. "Okay, let's go find Mr. Vash!" she exclaimed. "We won't let the
same fate happen to him!"
"So, it's not our jobs you're so worried about," I realized. "It's him."
"Meryl, I don't want you to lose your man, too!"
"My man? I'm not in love—"
She glared at me, her arms folded.
"Okay," I consented. "I love him more than I love my own life. You're right."
She smiled.
So we drove on, two gal pals on a road trip.
Milly: Darn right I wasn't going to let Meryl lose Vash! But, you know, I didn't want to lose Vash,
either. He was a dear friend and we had something special going between us that many males and females
can't have—it's always romance and sex or nothing with them. With Vash and I, we could keep it
platonic, and yet, there was a deep bond between us.
Meryl wondered why I was so intent on seeing her enter a romantic relationship with Vash. "I thought it'd
be too hard for you to bear," she confessed as she drove.
"I know, I only had Nicholas for a moment. But I don't regret it. I don't want you to miss your chance
with Vash, and to see you happy would make me feel better."
"You're being so brave," Meryl remarked. "I don't think I could be that brave."
I smiled wistfully. "Put on a brave face and the rest of you will follow!"
"Your sister said that?"
"No, I thought of it this morning."
I wished there had been time to lay about and mourn Nicholas, but there wasn't. Life could be so hectic in
those days. Nowadays, they're nice enough to give you a few days off to recuperate from your loss.
The car broke down, but thankfully near a town. The town we had just left. Tonim Town.
There were other cars here and there, but we had no idea how to hot-wire a car. "We're going to have to
hoof it," Meryl decided. "I'm afraid you're going to have to leave the cross behind."
"Well, if he could carry it through the desert, so can I!"
"Milly!"
She was right. I had to be sensible, just as I was demanding she be. Vash's life may have been depending
on us. I prayed there would be a solution.
"What's that?" Meryl asked.
"What's what?"
"That noise. It sounds like thomases braying."
That was odd, because we had not noted any sign of life in town, except wild birds. But no people, and no
domesticated animals.
We followed the noise to a deserted stable, and let ourselves in. In a row of stalls were four thomases.
"When everyone else was lured out of town, they must have been stuck," Meryl guessed.
"We can take two of them, and let the rest go free! At least then they might have a chance for survival."
"Exactly my thinking. Let's find some gear and saddle up."
Thank you, Lord, I prayed.
Melinda: What happened when the Insurance Girls found Vash was not a happy reunion. He had to
choose between saving their lives and sparing the life of the cruel Legato Bluesummers. And thus it was
that Vash made his first kill. He was so traumatized that he fell into a prolonged, yet restless, sleep.
Besides that, he had been wounded from a fight with another Gung-Ho Gun, Midvalley the Hornfreak, and
the girls were forced to tend to him in the next small town they could find.