Cherish While You Can
a Rumik World fanfiction by Ukyou Kuonji
-----
We stand at the threshold of our daughter's empty room. She has
left us, as mysteriously and suddenly as she came into our lives
a dozen years ago.
Twelve years... it may seem like a long time, but believe us, it's
never enough.
We were appoaching middle age even then, a childless couple with
very little hope of bearing and raising a child of our own.
Publicly, we were starting do make jokes about us checking stork
cages at the zoo or cabbage patches in the rural prefectures.
Privately, we were very nearly that desperate.
And then... we found her. Not quite under a cabbage patch, mind
you... more in a sort of culvert, a small grassy plot underneath
a web of highways and bridges. A little girl, about four years
old, hardly able to talk, dazed from fear and confusion. The only
thing she had with her, besides the tattered robe that she wore,
was a small brass bell, somewhat tarnished and smudged with soot.
We notified the authorities about her, and were told they would
make efforts to discover the girl's origins, but they gave her
to us until such time. They warned us that it might be a while...
and it was hard for us not to smile at that. They could take
forever, and we wouldn't mind...
We raised her as we would have our own child, and gave her the
best name we could think of: Suzuko. Beautiful child. She was
beautiful, and grew more so every day. Her beauty was enhanced
by its frailty: we were ever mindful of the fact that someday,
without warning, she might have to go back from wherever it was
she came from. With that in mind, we did our best to cherish
every moment we spent with her, as if this would be the last.
It was a ticklish thing one day when she asked us where she came
from.
"Do you mean where babies come from?"
"No, mama... where did *I* come from?"
We sat her down, and told her. It turned out she had suspected
something, if only from the fact that we had no baby photos of her.
It was just the two of us for a while and then, abruptly, there she
was at age four, right between us.
We gave back the bell that she had arrived with, and she fastened
it to her schoolbook. From that day forward, it became her emblem.
That bell meant Suzuko was near, and it was the most precious sound
in the world to us.
We watched as she grew up, from a beautiful child to a lovely young
woman. How proud we were of her! Studious, and caring to a fault,
especially to Shuhei, the neighbor's young son. They had this
special bond between them; she understood him better than even
his parents did sometimes. It was amusing to hear Shuhei proclaim
that he was going to marry Suzuko one day. Perhaps, were they the
same age, it might have been.
But such thoughts are put away today as too painful.
For today... they disappeared. Without a trace.
Someone claimed to have seen them walking hand-in-hand near the
edge of town. There was an explosion in one of the liquid petrol
tanks in the area; they may have been lost in the accident. Someone
else confirmed that she was there at the time, but in the arms of a
young man, which surprises us... we thought we knew all we could
about her, and we never knew of any young man.
Not that it matters now. All we can do is comfort Shuhei's parents
as best we can; it eases our own pain to share it with others. And
we have something to share with you, as well:
Those of you with children, remember to cherish them while you can.
They will be gone from you all too soon. Love them, care for them,
teach them the truth. They deserve no less.
Those of you without, there are friends and parents who you must
remember as well. Let their words, their faces, their smiles and
tears burn themselves onto your memory. It will be all we have
left to us someday.
Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a shrine to set up...
*****
Dedicated to my own (adoptive) parents, and our own son Dan-chan.
After all this time as a writer of exclusively Ranma fanfiction,
I seem to be going through a number of obscure series these days;
first Armitage III, then Greenwood, now this.
I guess I should apologize for writing such downbeat and didactic
stuff... or at least console you with the fact that it's quite short.
Consider it a 'bear-with-me-while-I-get-this-off-my-chest' sort of
diversion, like the Incident... I'll get back to the Greenwood series
soon enough.
Itsu mo,
Ucchan ^_^
a Rumik World fanfiction by Ukyou Kuonji
-----
We stand at the threshold of our daughter's empty room. She has
left us, as mysteriously and suddenly as she came into our lives
a dozen years ago.
Twelve years... it may seem like a long time, but believe us, it's
never enough.
We were appoaching middle age even then, a childless couple with
very little hope of bearing and raising a child of our own.
Publicly, we were starting do make jokes about us checking stork
cages at the zoo or cabbage patches in the rural prefectures.
Privately, we were very nearly that desperate.
And then... we found her. Not quite under a cabbage patch, mind
you... more in a sort of culvert, a small grassy plot underneath
a web of highways and bridges. A little girl, about four years
old, hardly able to talk, dazed from fear and confusion. The only
thing she had with her, besides the tattered robe that she wore,
was a small brass bell, somewhat tarnished and smudged with soot.
We notified the authorities about her, and were told they would
make efforts to discover the girl's origins, but they gave her
to us until such time. They warned us that it might be a while...
and it was hard for us not to smile at that. They could take
forever, and we wouldn't mind...
We raised her as we would have our own child, and gave her the
best name we could think of: Suzuko. Beautiful child. She was
beautiful, and grew more so every day. Her beauty was enhanced
by its frailty: we were ever mindful of the fact that someday,
without warning, she might have to go back from wherever it was
she came from. With that in mind, we did our best to cherish
every moment we spent with her, as if this would be the last.
It was a ticklish thing one day when she asked us where she came
from.
"Do you mean where babies come from?"
"No, mama... where did *I* come from?"
We sat her down, and told her. It turned out she had suspected
something, if only from the fact that we had no baby photos of her.
It was just the two of us for a while and then, abruptly, there she
was at age four, right between us.
We gave back the bell that she had arrived with, and she fastened
it to her schoolbook. From that day forward, it became her emblem.
That bell meant Suzuko was near, and it was the most precious sound
in the world to us.
We watched as she grew up, from a beautiful child to a lovely young
woman. How proud we were of her! Studious, and caring to a fault,
especially to Shuhei, the neighbor's young son. They had this
special bond between them; she understood him better than even
his parents did sometimes. It was amusing to hear Shuhei proclaim
that he was going to marry Suzuko one day. Perhaps, were they the
same age, it might have been.
But such thoughts are put away today as too painful.
For today... they disappeared. Without a trace.
Someone claimed to have seen them walking hand-in-hand near the
edge of town. There was an explosion in one of the liquid petrol
tanks in the area; they may have been lost in the accident. Someone
else confirmed that she was there at the time, but in the arms of a
young man, which surprises us... we thought we knew all we could
about her, and we never knew of any young man.
Not that it matters now. All we can do is comfort Shuhei's parents
as best we can; it eases our own pain to share it with others. And
we have something to share with you, as well:
Those of you with children, remember to cherish them while you can.
They will be gone from you all too soon. Love them, care for them,
teach them the truth. They deserve no less.
Those of you without, there are friends and parents who you must
remember as well. Let their words, their faces, their smiles and
tears burn themselves onto your memory. It will be all we have
left to us someday.
Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a shrine to set up...
*****
Dedicated to my own (adoptive) parents, and our own son Dan-chan.
After all this time as a writer of exclusively Ranma fanfiction,
I seem to be going through a number of obscure series these days;
first Armitage III, then Greenwood, now this.
I guess I should apologize for writing such downbeat and didactic
stuff... or at least console you with the fact that it's quite short.
Consider it a 'bear-with-me-while-I-get-this-off-my-chest' sort of
diversion, like the Incident... I'll get back to the Greenwood series
soon enough.
Itsu mo,
Ucchan ^_^