Cloud's Reminiscence

I remember Nibelheim.

Not so clearly anymore. I remember the green of the grass and the brown of the dirt roads, and how tall and thin the Nibel Mountains stretched up, like a thousand swords pointing at the stars. But I don't know the street names anymore. I don't remember how many houses separated me and Tifa. Everything is shifting and warping. The gingerbread fascia on all the houses blurs and dribbles like wet paint.

I remember the water tower, though – this huge thing in the middle of the town square. It had red-brown trimming, like all the houses, and on Wednesdays it made big slurping noises as it pumped up water from underground. Our parents still called it the well, although I had seen a picture of a well in a book once, and this was nothing, nothing at all like it.

This was seven years ago. It must have been early autumn, because I could still leave the house without my coat. I just had my green tunic and britches. My hair was still long enough to tie at the back – I must have been fourteen. Not yet a man.

I was sitting high up on the water tower, with my legs dangling down towards the ground and my back to the big metal basin that housed the water.

I was starting to really think that she wasn't going to come. I stayed up there for a while. Maybe, even if she didn't come, I could have a nice time up there by myself. I'd watch the stars and do all the thinking I hadn't been doing recently.

The stars didn't hold my attention. I kept looking down at my feet, and the ground, and looking around for her.

She did eventually come out of her house, in a blue dress and sneakers. She was really slow coming up the ladder, though, and I kept watching my feet dangling there forever.

"Sorry I'm late," she said when she got up there.

I felt sad, for some reason. Really sad. I couldn't say anything.

Tifa sat beside me. "You said you wanted to talk?"

Yeah. I did.

"Come this spring," I said. "I'm leaving for Midgar."

She didn't say anything for a while. Her feet dangled nearby.

"A lot of boys are leaving," she said.

I needed to stand up. I did. "Well, I'm not like them," I insisted. "I'm not just going to find a job. I'm going to join SOLDIER. I'm going to be the best there is. Just like Sephiroth."

"Sephiroth…" she repeated. I knew she would be impressed.

"Yep."

"But," she said. "Isn't it hard to get into SOLDIER?"

"It'll take a lot of training. I probably won't be able to come home for a while."

She lifted her legs and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Will you be in the newspapers if you do well?"

"If I do well I'll be a hero," I looked out over the blurry town. "What else would a newspaper write about?"

Above the peak of Mount Nibel, a shooting star ripped across the sky. It's still clear as daylight. "Hey!" I said without thinking. Bright lights always scared me.

Tifa saw it too. "Ha ha! Make a wish."

"I already am."

She smiled. "Me too."

We waited to see if there would be another one. Sometimes, in late summer, you could see dozens of shooting stars in one night.

We waited for a long time.

"Looks like we only get one," Tifa said exactly what I was thinking.

I said, "My mom says that shooting star wishes are only useful if you chase them. That's why they have tails."

"You wanna be a famous hero."

"I'm gonna be. What did you wish for?"

"To be rescued."

That confused me. "Can't you climb down by yourself?"

She laughed. "To be rescued one day. If I need to be."

Oh. "You can't chase after that."

"I don't know…" she held her knee up to her chest. "Promise me something."

"Huh?"

"If you get really famous, and I'm ever in a bind, you'll come rescue me, all right?"

"What?"

"If I get in trouble, you rescue me. That means we both get our wish."

"…What?"

"Come on. Promise me."

"All right," I said. "I promise."

We watched the stars for a long time afterwards. I don't remember leaving. The memory ends with a ceiling of stars slowly gliding over the water tower. Tifa's blue dress. Nibelheim.

Maybe those kids never came down.