Part 3
My Morning
A month after the fireworks you entered the shop for the first time. Another month passed before you returned, saying, "I need a wish."
It would be much later until the two of us sat on the garden wall outside of the apartment building, your skinny legs stretched out before you when you'd say that you were angry at the shop for selling wishes. You had wished a thousand wishes before that time, all of them important -- no doubt to you -- and none of them came true and why now did there suddenly appear a shop with a woman inside who granted them? I couldn't understand at the time. You were crying and clutching something to your chest. You're working with a woman who barters dreams, you said, as if accusing me of murder. And now you had no choice but to do as that woman said because otherwise your wish would never come true. You pulled your legs closer to you and I let you cry until you were satisfied. You looked so tall and strong compared to most girls but you were still able to break down. It seemed like a privellege and you seemed like you needed it, like you'd been holding it in for so long, so I didn't pull you to me and told you not to cry although I desperated wanted to.
As tall as you were (just an inch or two shorter than me), Yuko-san still towered over you as you said the words, "I need a wish," and she smiled. I though, her soul...
What is the soul to a girl like you? What is it for you? You aren't shallow so it wouldn't be your looks, and you aren't selfish so it wouldn't be money. What so precious to you that you wouldn't be willing to part with it without something of equal value?
"I need a wish," was all I heard before Yuko asked me to leave, and for once, I obeyed her completely. It seemed wrong to listen in on your transaction, although it would haunt me until I discovered what you had wished for, and what you had given up for it to come true.
That morning, I remember because of the lonely weak sunlight. The house was dark and empty-looking that Sunday.
A week later, as I sat on my balcony taking in the morning, I would see a moving van pull up to the side of the building. I would see strong, heavy men hauling boxes and tables and couches and hear them wheeze and haul up to the floor below me. I would see a silver Toyota pull up into the parking space that used to be empty and I would see a black-haired girl with snow-colored skin and spring-colored eyes step out of the driver's seat and I would find my heart beating so loudly in my chest that I thought it would jump out and fall the five stories down where you catch it in your alabaster hands and hold it for ransom until the day you left.