It was a warm day in late summer and Aimi Susumu was driving to her parent's house with the window down. The cool breeze blew her red-brown hair off her face. It helped to relax her as she drove listening to the radio playing the latest Japanese pop. Her tiny red compact car weaved through the winding roads, guarded by mountains, of the Kanagawa prefecture towards Kamakura, her childhood home. She could see the seaside beaches of the Sagami Bay speckled with the colorful umbrellas and towels of tourists and locals bathing in the sun, along with the large academic marine research vessels floating silently in the crystal blue water of the bay. Aimi hadn't been home in over a year even though she lived just north of Kamakura in Tokyo. After college she had moved to a small but quaint apartment with a roommate and was working at a nightclub as a bartender trying to make it on her own. Her choice of career wasn't doing much with her degree in Zoology, but it paid the bills until she could afford to apply for graduate school in the United States.

Parking on the street in front of the two story older home she stepped outside of her car grabbing a large duffel bag from the backseat. Aimi picked up the newspaper and opened the mailbox pulling the mail out of its steel form.

"Is that Aimi Susumu?" An older woman called out of an upstairs woman from the home next to her parents. The afternoon sun was almost blinding. Aimi looked up happy to be wearing her dark sunglasses to make out the elderly woman's silhouette in the sun waving out at her from the window.

"Good afternoon Ms. Kanzaki," Aimi raised her hand with a slight unenthusiastic wave.

"When you get a chance, be a dear and come visit me later after you get settled. I want to hear all about Tokyo," Ms. Kanzaki yelled down with a smile on her face. Aimi nodded and mumbled an of course while unlocking the front door. "You'd think my mom had told her everything about me already after all she's practically my grandmother," Aimi grumbled flicking the hallway light on. Removing her tennis shoes and placing them on a mat next to the door, she strolled farther into her parents home taking in the familiar smell of her childhood and the changes her year away from home had brought. She dropped the duffel bag on the ground next to the stairway and set her sunglasses on the table looking at her reflection in the mirror. Her brilliant green eyes stared back at her as she pulled her hair back in a high ponytail.

Turning to walk further into the house Aimi smiled at the sight of her mother's very tidy and up-to-date kitchen. There were yellow monogrammed sticky notes everywhere. She began to peel them off of the surfaces they were attached too. "Make sure to take the trash out," Aimi read aloud on the trashcan laughing to her self. "Don't forget to do the dishes when you use them," she continued to read each note as she collected rolling her eyes. "She must still think I'm a teenager," she sighed rolling her eyes. Aimi paused and read the rather long note, four sticky notes together, by the telephone. Under "From the Desk of Yukari and Amano Susumu" the note read:

Aimi,

Your father and I truly appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule and looking over things at the house for the next week.

Aimi smirked. Why would a twenty-five year old bartender be busy, she thought knowing her mother was being over zealous as usual about her only child.

As you know, we both are currently enjoying the Fiji islands for our anniversary. As I write this I'm probably relishing some frozen beverage on the hopefully deserted beaches promised in the brochure.

Couldn't have invited me along to enjoy the beaches and the sun of Figi…nope, had to point out that it was to be their romantic get away from Japan. Not like I would have gone. I'd have been to terrified to set foot on a hunk of metal that flies in the sky, she thought a little bitterly rolling her eyes. She would never get out of Japan and see the world, not with her fear of flying.

Please feel free to help yourself to anything in the fridge. You know you are more than welcome to stay in the house as well.

We both love you very much and look forward to seeing you when we get back.

Love always,

Mom and Dad

Aimi set the note aside with the rest of the sticky notes and grabbed some bottled water from the refrigerator. Twisting the cap off she collapsed on the sofa putting her long legs over the arms of the couch. Aimi searched for the remote control to turn the television on. She pulled up on the cushions of the sofa but couldn't find the small remote anywhere. She noticed the black videotape on the coffee table and smiled. Could it possibly be that her parents actually still owned videotapes. Mom, it's the twenty-first century we use HDDVD's now, Aimi giggled. She picked up the tape and looked at the label.

"High School Track Practice – Senior Year," Aimi stated aloud. Oh, this has got to be interesting, she thought to her self half serious half sarcastically. Aimi pushed the tape into the ancient VCR and turned on the television manual. She returned to the couch and made herself comfortable.

A tall, slender blond young woman was running. Aimi could hear behind the cameraman another woman yelling. The familiar voice was her mothers.

"Hitomi, just a little farther. You can do it!" Her mother screamed. The camera turned on her mother running up to the blonde at the finish line. "You did so well," she told the girl jumping up and down around her. The cameraman zoomed closer on the pair of girls.

"Thank you Yukari," Hitomi responded running a hand through her short blond hair. She gave the cameraman a shy look and blushed.

"It's a gift for Amano for our anniversary," Aimi's very young mother answered. "Don't let it bother you," she finished looking at the camera and waving. "Amano remember Hitomi! How could you forget her," Yukari teased the camera.

Hitomi smiled and interrupted trying to act casual. "Can you believe that we are finally graduating high school this year?"

"It's so exciting!" Yukari answered. "I am going to the same school as Amano for college, Todai," Yukari paused at Hitomi's blank expression. "You know, the University of Tokyo. I can't wait It will be so much fun!" She smiled widely.

Hitomi's reaction was not what Aimi had been expecting. The blonds eyes saddened at the mention of college. "It's great that Amano and you are going to the same school. I don't know about whole college thing, you know, if I am going or not. I just want to take a break from school in general and get out in the real world," Hitomi responded her head leaning upward toward the sky.

"What a strange girl," Aimi said aloud. She seems so sad, she thought a shiver running down her spine.

The tape cut out and started at another practice session. Aimi decided she had had enough of the strange Hitomi and the other running teenagers and stopped the tape. Pulling the tape out of the VCR, that had to be at least five years older than her, she set it back down on the coffee table where she had found it and noticed the aged newspaper that had also been left on the table.

"For being a self-proclaimed woman of today, my mother sure has a lot of ancient things around here," Aimi grinned shaking her head. She noticed that the date was from nearly thirty years ago. The headline to the paper read "Newly graduated high school student and track star goes missing."

Aimi's eyes widened at the familiar portrait of the young woman from the track video. She continued to read the article aloud. "Hitomi Kanzaki, eighteen years old, went missing after graduation," Aimi paused at the girl's name. "Ms. Kanzaki had a daughter? That's news to me," Aimi continued to read the article. "Her family and friends believe her to be safe wherever she is. Police have yet to find any clues to her whereabouts. Yukari Uchida, 18, Hitomi's best friend and class mate, claims that she was the last to see her on the track the night she vanished," she finished the last sentence.

The picture of Hitomi stared back at Aimi from the front of the paper. Memories of whispers about a person called Hitomi during her childhood began to make sense. Her mother seemed sad yet happy whenever someone talked to her about the blond woman that was obviously her best friend in high school which was gathered from the video Aimi had just watched. My mother was there the night Hitomi vanished. She has to know more than she's letting on. There must be more then just this article, Aimi thought.

She climbed from her position on the sofa and walked into her parent's den. She knew her mother kept her journals in this room. Aimi pulled a box from the closet marked "high school" and looked into it. Each journal had her school year on it. She pulled out the one from her final year of high school. As she opened the book a picture of her mother and Hitomi arms around each others shoulders fell out. Aimi didn't pay much attention to the photo and quickly turned towards the end of the journal and began to read.

Dec 26th

Graduation is just around the corner. Amano and I are thrilled to be going to the same college finally. I am so in love with him.

Aimi gagged at the innocent thought of her mother. And just what is love? She thought shaking her head continuing to read into her mother's personal thoughts.

Hitomi hasn't seemed like herself as of recently. She is so depressed and unhappy. She hasn't applied to college and it doesn't look like she even wants too. I am starting to suspect that there is something more going on with her. She keeps talking about a dream she had a long time ago of this fantasy world called Gaea.

Another world called Gaea? What the hell was that girl smoking? Aimi thought Hitomi must have been a real nut case and continued to read.

I almost think there is more to the story she told us. It sounded so real but she kept assuring me that it was all just a dream. I don't understand why she can't trust in me and confide.

Aimi flipped ahead to the week of graduation. She was looking for the date the newspaper had been printed on. She paused at the first sentence her mother wrote.

March 31st

Hitomi is gone!

Aimi smiled at her detective work. Gotcha, she thought continuing to read eagerly.

Amano, Hitomi and I went to the school this evening. We were talking and laughing like old times sitting on the bleachers at the track reminiscing about our last few years at school. Then, just like the dream Hitomi had been talking about a pillar of blue light came blaring down from the sky onto the track.

Aimi reread the description of the pillar of light. "Blue light from the sky?" she mumbled aloud and continued to read.

There was a strange young man. He didn't look any older than any of us. Hitomi seemed to know him very well. She went running out of the bleachers and into his arms, like they loved each other. I didn't know what to make of it, I still don't.

Aimi absorbed the erratic thoughts of her mother's journal, something uncommon for Yukari for she was an English teacher now at Kamakura-Kita High School, which Aimi, her mother and father all attended at one time.

They spoke quickly before Hitomi returned to us in the bleachers. I asked her what was going on. That I thought this was just a dream she had. She just smiled and hugged me. She told me that it was never a dream and that I wouldn't have understood if she had explained it any other way. She then gave me her grandmothers pendent. I thought she had lost it. She said good-bye and that she'd never forget me as long as she lived. The pendent that she had given me was glowing brightly in my hand. Something it had never done, or at least something I had never seen it do.

Aimi's thoughts of the entry stopped dead in there tracks at the mention of a pendent. She pulled the necklace from her neck and looked at it closely. Mom gave me Hitomi's necklace? She thought. That can't be, Aimi said picking up the picture of the two young women. She flipped to the back to see when it was taken. Scribbled on the back of the picture was

Freshman Year: Hitomi and I at our first track practice.

Aimi's eyes widened and looked at the picture closely. Around Hitomi's neck laid a beautiful pendent attached to a gold chain. Taking off the pendent she placed it next to the picture and examined them side by side. "Oh my God, It's the same pendent," Aimi gasped gradually her attention returned to the journal and she finished the entry.

Hitomi returned to the man in the pillar of light and vanished being swept into the sky as if she were a feather. I told Hitomi's mother what had happened and she didn't seem surprised at all. All Hitomi's mom kept saying was that her daughter was finally happy and where she belonged.

The police don't believe us. They are sticking with the story of her being a runaway unable to take the stress of graduation. Even if they did look they'll never find her, at least not on Earth.

Setting the journal to the side, Aimi sat back staring at the pendent and the picture. She took a deep breath placing the pendent back around her neck. Her mother had never gone into detail about her best friend, let alone her disappearance. Now Aimi knew why. It was just something Aimi never asked about. In reality, it had been something so unusual that Yukari would have been sent to s psych ward had she kept repeating the story or even tried to follow Hitomi.

She walked back into the family room and looked at the wedding picture of her parents on the mantelpiece. Aimi noticed something that she had never observed before. Her mother was wearing the pendent around her neck. The only piece of jewelry she wore besides her wedding band. She wore the pendent for her wedding? Aimi questioned why she had never seen it before. Of course she wasn't looking for it before. Aimi touched the pendent in the picture and a flash of broken images filled her eyes.

Aimi saw everything happening in front of her as if it was a dream and she was watching from a far. Her parents were both young and dressed for their wedding. Images of the ceremony and the reception then finally the images cleared to one event. It was after the ceremony in the receiving line as they were walking down. Yukari stopped to talk with an older woman. Someone Aimi recognized.

"Yukari, you look beautiful. Hitomi would be so happy you wore her pendent. I wish she could be here to see you on your special day," the woman told Aimi's mother. Yukari's eyes welled with tears and hugged the woman tightly.

"Thank you Mrs. Kanzaki," Yukari muffled into the woman's shoulder. Both of them looked toward the sky and smiled sadly.

Suddenly, her parent's house re focused in Aimi's eyes. She was staring at the fireplace on her knees. What the hell happened? She thought getting onto her feet. The pendent around her neck glowed a bright pink and was slowly dimming. A trick of the light from the fading sun, Aimi explained to herself. Had she created some fictitious memory to appeal to her own thoughts or was the pendent showing her it's own memories. Aimi pulled the pendent from her neck and looked cautiously at it again. Closely examining it's curves and connections. It looked so normal. Her mother told her it kept time, like a pendulum. Something she found unique with the piece of jewelry but it had never placed images in her head.

"I seriously need to get out more," Aimi mumbled to herself. "I've been watching to many cartoons and reading too many trashy fantasy books," she finished shaking her head. Aimi placed the pendent back around her neck and padded to the front door. She needed to get some fresh air to collect her thoughts. Her mother was going to have to explain about Hitomi and the magic behind the pendent if there was any.

Putting her shoes back on, Aimi shut and locked the door. She had decided to go for a light jog to zone out. Fortunately she was wearing black running shorts and a pink tank top, which was her usual garb for her day off work. Aimi remembered what her mom had told her about how she should wear more dresses and skirts in order to get noticed more. "I get noticed at work Mom, it's no big deal though, I'm not really ready for a relationship," that's what she had told her mother. It had been a lie because the bar she worked at wasn't really for her age group. And she was definitely not interested in taking someone her father's age as a companion. No matter how desperate she may feel.

Thirty minutes later, her feet carried her along the common path of her high school youth. Down one street and left on another. Aimi paused in front of her mother's school. Kamakura-Kita High School stood silent; it's students away at home for the weekend. Aimi knew that dusk was approaching quickly and didn't want to be out too late past dark but she decided to go to the track and look around for anything special appeasing her own curiosities. Was it once a shrine of ancients past? Or a grave site for samurai soldiers, Aimi thought smiling at her joke.

She looked around noticing no real difference from any other track she'd been on. It was the same as she remembered it. Only now it had a story that Aimi knew she would never forget. It had never occurred to Aimi why her mother refused to be the track coach for the women's track team. She had been perfect, experience and a history at the school. Aimi knew now that it was mostly because of Yukari's past with Hitomi that had kept her from doing it, too many memories good and bad.

Aimi stepped onto the track and began a steady jog. She thought of where Hitomi would be right now and what she looked like. She thought of the mysterious pillar of blue light that carried people into the sky and of the pendent that swung gently at her neck. Aimi was deep into her thoughts and didn't notice the pink light of the pendent gaining intensity. She had rounded the track in front of the bleachers and came to a halt. Before her a bright pillar of blue light began to form. Oh my God! Aimi thought taking a step back. However, curiosity was getting the better of her. Could this possibly be real? She thought rubbing her eyes and pinching herself. She stepped into the blue light after waving her hand through it. Her feet were lifted off the track and Aimi floated up into the pillar. I can't believe this is actually happening, she thought as she looked up into the bright light. Aimi's eyes then wondered to the ground and her body went rigid. She was flying! So terrified Aimi fainted, she had found blackness before she could have any more thoughts regarding the strange events about to take place in her life.