The Magical Child of Venice
On a crisp, winter morning in Venice, Italy, a young girl was listening to her mentor's lessons in his usual gruff, scraggly voice. 'We are so different from one another, yet we care about each other like any other family,' the eight-year-old girl thought.
It was true; the girl, Rin, was carefree and always wanted to have fun while her mentor, Dante, was very serious and strict. Yet Dante treated Rin like a daughter, a younger sister, and a friend just as Rin saw him as a father figure, older brother, and a friend. Whenever she needed a shoulder to cry on, he was always waiting with a towel, a warm bed, and a cup of his famous hot cocoa.
As her lesson for the day ended, Rin ran out of the door from their home with Dante yelling after her, "Don't stay with that boy too long! You'll only distract him from his work!" She laughed and waved at the scowling figure in the doorway of their three story mansion, then turned back pumping her legs as fast as her young body would allow without collapsing into a dead faint. Running along the streets as her fur cloak flapped behind her and white gloved hands desperately trying to keep her rear admiral hat from falling off, she neared the dock where the boy she was looking for was. True, you wouldn't find anyone else dressed like a character that had stepped out of a Harry Potter book, but she liked to think that her life was magical. Besides, when asked about it Dante nonchalantly said it suited her, and that was all that mattered in her eyes.
The "boy" that her mentor talked about was named Seikei and he was approaching his tenth year in the spring. Said boy noticed Rin waving at him before he dropped the fishing pole in his arms to be balancing on his heels prior to her launching herself in his arms full force. From the way she talked to or about him, it was very obvious that she deeply admired him. Seikei adored her as well and knew about her history as and orphan before Dante showed up on the doorstep of the orphanage and offered her what every orphan dreamed of; an education, a place she could call home and a family, especially seeing as how he used to be an orphan too until he was adopted by a local fisherman that lived by himself. Embracing her warmly he inquired, "How are you and Dante doing? How are your lessons? Have you improved on anything?"
Grinning from ear to ear, the excited girl could not stop the sudden flow of words that spilled from her mouth of news for her friend. "Yes Seikei! My mentor and I are great! We had so much fun on the last field trip he took me to, we're going again this weekend! I have improved on my reading and writing he says, and my lessons aren't very fun sometimes. But sometimes the servants will stand in the doorway and make funny faces so I smile when they think Dante isn't looking, but he's always looking! He makes a funny face at the servant, but all they do is smile and continue cleaning or arranging something."
Seikei chuckled as he led the babbling girl toward the series of canals mapped throughout their hometown. He wanted to take her on a gondola ride, and he knew just the person who would get a ride free of charge. He was saving up for a brilliant blue scarf for Rin on Christmas after all.
Several hours later he noticed how dark it was and walked her home, if you could count giving a piggy back ride as "walking". Thankfully Dante wasn't too angry with them seeing as how they were only kids and best friends, but he couldn't help fearing that something would happen to Rin when it got dark outside. Warning both of them that they had stuff to do in the morning, he bade both of them good night before retiring to his study. Exchanging their own goodbyes, Rin parted with her older friend in the foyer and walked up the stairs as a well known servant of Dante's offered to take the older boy home.
For the next three years, the daily cycle was the same for Rin. But as kids grow older, they sometimes tend to distance themselves from their families. And sometimes their families scold and let a few harsh words be said because they care for their children. Some children don't know any better, and may take this as a sign that their families don't love them, causing them to make rash decisions that will only cause more worry and sadness. This life lesson applies to Rin and Dante as well.
Three Years Later
On Rin's eleventh birthday, Dante was furious and wearing out the boards in the floor with all of his pacing. He had woken up and discovered that Rin had deliberately left even with knowing they had a lesson, just like any other day, and went to seek her now thirteen-year-old companion by means of celebrating her birthday. Dante had planned her birthday carefully. He would have started with his lesson to attract no suspicion, then surprise her favorite gondola ride through Venice and take her to a festival right after, complete with sweets and pastries and gifts compliments of the servants who adored her, a few from Seikei, people from the old orphanage she lived in, and Dante himself. He sighed; life had changed for him since Rin came into his life. She was more special to him than his character would allow him to show, almost like a real daughter to him. Lately though, Rin had gotten into the habit of sometimes skipping time with him to see Seikei, whom she heard would be going away for a couple of years with his father to the Caribbean to fish as well as to relax. Inwardly he admitted to jealousy, something he would never admit to out loud, but he was getting more and more irritated with her irresponsibility now. Didn't she know that something could happen to her at night? If something ever happened to her, he didn't know what he would do. Perhaps he had been too lenient when she began staying up all night after lessons with that boy, and spoiling her on her birthday did not help matters at all. Stopping his pacing before there was a very noticeable trench in the floor, he decided that they would talk as soon as she got home about her behavior. There was no point in trying to go find her as it would only result in a fight between him and his ward that would distance her even more from him, which was what he had been trying to prevent.
When the clock struck eleven, Rin hurried home as the spell of her birthday ended like that of a certain princess. Seikei hurried with her and carried her birthday present from him for her. It was a "wand" that he had made out of some driftwood he had found while fishing with a shiny blue stone at the top. It had taken a month alone to clean, shape, and varnish the driftwood into a rod shape and another two weeks spent cleaning and polishing a stone he had found while helping his father sell fish. His only reason for going through so much trouble just for a birthday present; "I wanted to make you feel like you could make anything magical. You always did believe that your life was." His reason was so heartfelt; she practically crushed him with her hug and thanked him profusely. What made them so late however, was a firework show that they had waited for all day to start. When they reached her front door, they hugged again and quietly said good-bye.
'I hope Dante isn't too furious," Rin thought as she crept to her room. Maybe her mentor went somewhere for the whole day and had plans to cancel their lesson today anyway. She wasn't the only one awake though, aside from the servants.
Dante had been up the whole night, pacing in his study, waiting to hear the doorbell. A collision of feelings welled within him with the most prominent being rage and fear. Did something happen to her during her time out? Did she purposely stay out late knowing what time it was? Didn't she have any idea about how he felt? Did she even care? His countenance grew cold when he heard his ward trying to sneak into her room. Opening the door, Rin ran into him as soon as she stepped out. He looked down as Rin stared at his torso, and then slowly turned her brown eyes into his seemingly emotionless blue ones. In a cold voice that made her shiver inwardly, "Rin. Inside my study, now."
Following him inside and trying not to look at his face when he closed the door behind her, Rin tried her hardest not to shudder or break down in tears, begging him to forgive her. His study was a large room with marble tile flooring, large windows that covered the left wall to a fantastic view that Rin couldn't bring herself to enjoy at this moment, a sturdy oak desk with a few choice books and papers, and a high chair. Striding to his desk, he faced her and looked down at her, like a judge declaring the final verdict for a criminal's crimes. "What made you think that you could skip the whole day and come home at the dead of night?" he demanded.
Tightening the grip on her birthday present, Rin gulped. It was time to face the music and told her mentor everything, even admitting that she could have waited until after her lessons were over for the fireworks to start. She noted that his usually fair hair had a tousled, uncombed look, he had five o' clock shadow on his chin, and his clothes looked as if they had been put on in the dark. That usually meant he had been worried about something, and she could only guess that she had something to do with it.
Dante's knuckles paled as he gripped the edge of his desk harder. So she had known what would have been the right thing to do instead of taking a few years off his life by making him worry. This time she had gone too far. At the mention of her birthday "wand", his eyes snapped to it and glared at the package in her hands as if it was part of its fault for making her late. He took a deep breath, and started to say what had been on his mind for the past three years. "Rin, you have been neglecting your studies for an afternoon of enjoyment with a friend. This conduct disappoints me, especially since today I had planned to take you out for your birthday and skip most of our lessons today and tomorrow. Instead, you left this morning and didn't come back until now, not only ignoring the fact that you knew we had a lesson today, but making most of the servants and I feel foolish for going out of our way and getting presents for you. Many of us were worried that something had happened to you until I had assured them that Seikei would not let any harm come to you. Your presents are in your room. As soon as you are done opening them you will go to bed and think about how you could have handled this differently. You are dismissed."
Fighting back tears that still threatened to flood, Rin nodded and fled to her room. Did he not like her anymore? He had not mentioned how worried he was about her. Was she going to go back to the orphanage? Would he pick another kid to take care of? Would she get this room? Would she get her clothes that Dante had bought for her? Would she get Seikei for a best friend instead? Would she get Dante's love in return? This train of thought was the straw that broke the camel's back, and the dam behind her eyes broke, spilling all of her tears. She couldn't even touch her presents, and decided to leave them there for the girl that she knew Dante would adopt after he left her in the orphanage. Thankfully she was one of the people who cried silently, as she did not want any of the servants to comfort her out of pity.
The next day Rin was once again missing. The only difference was she had not touched her birthday presents, the cook had not seen her come into the kitchen for breakfast, her "wand" left on the bedside table, her bags and the clothing she had gotten from the orphanage were missing. Dante didn't know what to feel. He knew he had said some harsh things yesterday, and did not mention what he had felt when she didn't come home late at night. He should have told her that she especially worried him, but he had only said, "Many of us." When she didn't come back after lunch time, he went out into the city towards the docks. Even Seikei had not known where Rin was, and apologized about last night. He volunteered to help look for her, but both males were distraught when it was seven 'o clock and they had not found neither hair nor hide of her. Dante was scared, did Rin leave him?
A month later and she had not turned up. The lights of the main rooms were to be kept on incase she ever came back. Everything in the mansion seemed desolate and cold, including the servants whose lives were changed by one child. Dante was all alone, and he didn't like it. His hair was never combed, his clothes were never straight, and he had lost a couple of pounds from lack of proper nourishment. Rin had changed his life so drastically, and he had never even told her just how much she meant to him. He had asked around the town, but it almost seemed as if Rin had disappeared from their lives. The baker who sold the pastries that she loved so much, the clerk in the bookstore that she would walk with him to on weekends, and the fishermen who sold their fish in the market where she would sometimes help Seikei sell had no idea where she was.
Not for the first time, Dante regretted all of the things he had said that night on her birthday. He wished to take them back, if only to have her come back home. Sighing through his nose as he look to the pale gray sky in Venice, he wondered, 'Rin, will you come back home to me?' Like an answer, a paper that had been blown by the wind was flattened against his coat. Picking it off, he realized it was an advertisement for an orphanage just a little ways off town. Eyes narrowed when he recognized the name of the orphanage, it had been the same one where he adopted Rin! Clutching the paper frantically to his chest he ran at a loping pace, his scarf a striking snake twisting and whipping in the wind behind him, and his coat tails flapping like wings. 'Please, let her be there,' he prayed.
Arriving at his destination, he walked through the large maple doors and up to the counter in the foyer just like he did four years ago when he was looking for a suitable child to call his own. Tremors ran through his voice as he asked, "Has there by any chance been a girl by the name of Rin who came here around a month ago?"
The receptionist, who didn't remember him since she was new, told him that there had. Her head snapped when a door opened to the left of her desk. "Ah, and here she is right now! Rin dear, do you recognize this man? Is he part of your family?"
Rin's eyes had widened, and she bobbed her head affirmatively before running to Dante with her arms open and crying. Dante caught and held her, telling the receptionist that he was here to bring her back home and would need her bags. Rin smiled for the first time in a month through her tear and whispered, "I'm sorry," in a mantra again and again. His only response was, "Shh… It's alright; I'm here to take you home."
Her bags packed and goodbyes said to her old friends, she walked with Dante back to his mansion in an awkward silence. He had asked to carry her bags, but she just shook her head and walked ahead of him. Walking through the front door, it felt like all of the loneliness and coldness melted away; the servants hugged and cried when they saw her and forced her to eat something that the cook had made with a few minute's notice. Rin smiled again and time again, and that was all Dante asked for, was for her to be home.