ソルと人形

Soru to Ningyo

Chapter 3 Plans

Olivia was in a complete panic about her older brother, Alfred. No fair warning, and then of course, there's the issue with a certain doll in their basement. "Listen Peter, I have something to do. It's urgent and I won't be back for awhile. Tell Mama, Papa, and Alfred that, but don't let them know I knew about Alfred coming home, alright?" "But why?" her younger borther inquired. "I can't explain that right now! Can you do that for me?" she pleaded with Peter. "Ok, sure, I don't mind" he agreed, still wanting to know what happened that could be so important."Thank you so much, Peter!" she kissed him on the cheek, grabbed her school bag, then ran out the door, setting off for Flavio's house. She whipped out her phone, slowing her pace a little. Quickly, she went through her list of numbers and found Flavio's, hitting the "call" button. He answered the phone. "Hey Flavi, I need you to get the others to your house now. It's important." He could tell she was in a rush, and very worried about something. "I'll call them over right now, honey, just please don't hurt yourself." I have more important things to worry about right now, she thought to herself. "Thanks Flavi, I'll be right over." She put away her phone, and picked up her pace a little more.

–

Ding dong. Olivia was waiting patiently at Flavio's door. When it opened, it was not Flavio who she saw, but his Mama instead. "Hello Mrs. Carriedo. I'm here to see Flavio." She nodded, allowing Olivia in. "He's upstairs in his room. Tell me if you two need anything." she smiled sweetly. "Yes, ma'am!" The red-head bounced up the stairs. So she's in the same situation as Flavio...Lovina thought to herself, wondering what in the world those kids had gotten themselves into. Olivia headed to the room she knew was Flavio's from her last visit. Knock, knock, knock. The door opened, revealing the blonde Italian looking a bit distraught, most likely due to being firmly held onto by Luciana, who was hugging him like a koala. "Did I...interrupt something?" Olivia giggled at the other two. "As a matter of fact you did." Luciana smirked at her. "No, you're fine Olivia..." Flavio reassured her, at this point in time not realizing that was meant to be a tease.

"So what was so urgent?" he asked the shorter girl, leading her inside his room. "Well...my brother is coming home from America..." she started. "That's great! You couldn't have told me over the phone, though?" He asked while trying to pry an unwilling Luciana off of him. "I could've but...that's not the complete problem...He is a bit...let's say curious and I just know I won't be able to keep Alice hidden from him for anymore than a few days. I have no clue how he'd react, I haven't even told my parents! What if he finds her and tells Mama and Papa, and they want to get rid of her!? What if he does something to hurt her!?" she started spouting questions and nearly crying. "Olivia! Get a hold of yourself!" Flavio commanded. She stopped and tried her best to hold back her tears. "Okay, good girl. Do you trust your parents?" She nodded. "Do you trust your brother?" "Yes..." "Then there won't be a problem, right?" "But...!" she began again. Flavio held up his hand to silence her. "If you won't trust your family with this matter, there is no way that one they will be able to trust you with it and two, Alice will be able to trust you." he instructed, very sage-like. Olivia looked down while thinking about what she was just told. "You're right, I'm sorry. I got carried away. I'll tell all of them about Alice, because I do trust them and love them." "Good girl." he complemented, patting her on the head and earning a pout from Luciana.

"No fair!" the taller girl whined. The other girl then asked "Is she always this...needy?" "Unfortunately for me, yes." the Italian began petting his doll, as she snuggled up against his side. "Now that we have that cleared up, I hope the other two won't be mad at me for calling them over." Flavio sighed. Olivia gasped, "That's right! Oh well, I can just tell Miya and Zizi that I wanted to hurry up so I could go see my brother." she giggled. Knock, knock, knock. "Well! Speak of the devil!" Flavio exclaimed as he attempted to get to his door. Olivia giggled at the fact Luciana was apparently much stronger than Flavio, as proven by him not being allowed to his door. "I'll get it!" the red-head skipped over to the door. She opened the door, allowing two [only slightly] worried friends in. "Alright, what's the big idea-aru?" Xiao asked, a displeased look apparent on his face. "Oh, ah...I just needed you over here so we could get this done before my brother gets home!" Olivia covered up with an excuse fairly well, Flavio thought. "You called us over here just for that!?" Ming Yue asked, exasperation imminent on her face. Olivia looked very "sorry". "Eheh." she giggled. As the Italian began to speak, all attention turned on him. "Now that we're all here, let's begin, shall we?"

Everyone began taking seats around the room. "First, I think we should do something to help other 'shoyus' find us." Xiao cut in, something he did way too often. "How do you expect us to do that? We can't just go tell the world. 'Hey! We've got dolls that are alive! Do you?'" Olivia nudged him in the side. "Quiet, and listen." she said. "I already thought of how to do this. We will make a club at our school; None of you are in clubs, correct?" Everyone nodded. "Good. We will name it 'The Ningyo Club'. Normally, people will think it's the 'Doll Club', as Ningyo is Doll in Japanese. However, 'doll' in Japanese is usually written differently, although the pronunciations are the same. It's a long shot, but if other shoyus find this, It'll be our ticket to some answers, if all goes well." Xiao was, predictably, the first to bring up an issue. "I don't want to be in a 'doll club'! That's for girls!" Flavio, predictably, already had a solution to that. "I'll get you whatever you want at lunch for as long as you're in this club. On top of that, if you're not in the club, you don't get any information on how to wake up your Ningyo." Xiao said quickly, "Deal," before Flavio could make any 'extra' rules. "Now that that's settled, let's get down to the details. First, we need five members to start a club, not just four. We need to find a fifth member, and that will be hard not knowing where another shoyu is." "I'll find one!" Olivia suddenly blurted out. "It shouldn't be too hard, right?" "Well, I guess not but...everyone should keep an eye out." Flavio suggested. "Right." everyone agreed.

–

Olivia was at her doorstep, it was a fairly short trip home, since Mr. Carriedo drove her. "Thank you for the ride, Mr. Carriedo!" she waved to the man in the car. "Anytime!" he smiled and waved back. She took a deep breath, then unlocked and opened the door. "I'm ho-" Before she could finish her sentence, who should come bounding to her from the other room, shouting "WELCOME BACK, SIS!" but Alfred. He hugged her in a big bear hug, refusing to let go until she said "ALFRED! I...can't...breathe!" "Ah, sorry." He smiled apologetically. "I heard you had something to do! I was so sad when I found you weren't home!" He complained, that same goofy grin that Olivia remembered from years ago plastered on his face. She smiled lovingly up at him, honestly happy the silly goofball was back. "Welcome back, Alfred!" She hugged him back this time.

–

Dinner was full of chatter and smiles that night, everyone talking about what had been going on. Olivia had been unusually quiet that night, however...

"Olivia, honey are you okay? You've been a bit quiet." Olivia's mother inquired worriedly. "Oh yeah, I'm fine!" she replied with a smile, hiding everything she kept secret from before. "I just..." she looked down at her lap, fiddling with her napkin. "I have something I want to tell you...All of you." The others looked very curiously at her. She continued "What I'm about to tell you is very hard to believe, but I can prove it's true." The red-head's parents were looking a bit worried, seeing as how in the past she had "seen" things that weren't really there; Fairies, unicorns, "Flying Chocolate Bunnies", and the like. "In the basement there is an old doll and she's alive. Well not alive, but she will be once I figure out how to use the box that Mama gave me. The music box! You remember, right Mama?" Her mother shook her head, not looking surprised in the least. "Somehow, I'm supposed to use that box-" "To wake up the doll right!?" Alfred blurted out, standing up out of his chair and looking very, very excited. "Oh..yes." Olivia confirmed.

The looks on her family's faces were not what she expected. Her mother was looking at her calmly, but as if she had something to say. Her father was still eating his meal like nothing happened. As just described, Alfred was overly-enthusiastic about the whole ordeal and lastly Peter was...amazed. Olivia's mother began to speak, "Honey, first we said not to go in the basement." "But-" She was stopped by her mother holding up her hand. "Second, your father and I already knew about this. This is why I gave you the box. The doll is yours and even though I do not like what comes with owning one of those 'Ningyo', you were destined to have her, I can't stop you." Olivia stared at her mother dumbfounded. Alfred, having suddenly forgotten about his dinner, gave his best puppy-dog face towards Olivia "Can I see her?" "May I see her." his mother corrected" "May I see her!?" he asked again. "Oh...okay..." Olivia was still trying to figure out what happened.

–

Down in the basement, Alfred wandered around picking up things and examining them as the trio trudged past all the boxes (Peter decided to tag along). "Okay, here." Olivia instructed as she leaned down to push the mirror out of the way, Alfred and Peter were waiting impatiently behind her. The red-head gestured the other two to come forward to the small peephole. "What, there's no door?" Alfred asked. "Not that I know of," came Olivia's fast reply. "Hmmm..." Alfred moved to the side and ran his hands along the wall while Peter looked through the peephole "Woah..." the younger boy exclaimed, admiring the realism of the doll. THUD "Alfred what did you do!?" Olivia glanced around for her older brother worriedly. "Ow..." came his reply from the...The other side of the wall? "Where are you?" Olivia demanded. Alfred emerged from the wall smirking, using a cleverly-concealed rotating door. "Oh!" his sister exclaimed. "Come on!" He grabbed his two siblings' wrists and led them through the door. After a quick walk down a hallway, with a few turns in total darkness, they came into a small room, the seemingly lifeless form of Alice the centerpiece of the pristine, yet gloomy abode.

"Wow..." Alfred was stunned beyond speech. Olivia was very excited and quickly brought the music box out from its wrappings. "So that's the box?" Alfred carefully looked over it, observing the intricate details. "I think there's something wrong with it though." the girl sat down and began winding the box. "Like what?" Peter asked her. "I'm not sure, but when I sing her song, she won't wake up..." she continued winding the box. "Maybe she just doesn't like your voice!" the older boy teased her, grinning. "That was rude!" Olivia retorted. The small box clicked, showing it was wound completely. "Alright her I go." the young girl took a deep breath in before releasing the handle on the box and beginning to sing. "Hey can you hear me? I called out your name. Where are you from? What is it that's brought you here?

Why won't you answer me? I swear to play nice! Isn't this fun? This game of hide-and-seek" Peter and Alfred stood with bated breath, eyes trained on Alice. "I only wanted to hear your voice. Skin that's warm. Eyes that cry. I only wanted to see your smile. Feel your touch, it's been a while." The eerie pause hung in the air momentarily before broken again by the music. "Long, long ago, I was alive much like you. Father loved me. Kept me safe and beautiful. Oh how I'd love, to dance around just once more, and these cold legs...can move...once again..." Olivia just sang the mis-matched lyrics again. Not even realizing she had done so before it happened, she quickly started to say, "Let me try again! Those were the wrong lyrics." Neither of her brothers said anything, simply standing with mouths wide open. Olivia followed their gaze to Alice, who much to Olivia's surprise, was now standing, watching them.

Alice's crystal-clear yet beautifully strong voice resounded, "Who...are you?"