Two months passed.

Sam had been late at work and had only just got back in time for tea. He took off his outside shoes and coat and entered the guest room.
"Huh? Why the sad looks?"
Kasai and Jika were sitting at the table, looking upset. Rakka and Hikari were standing together in front of the table, looking solemn. Hikari was holding a box.
"Is there anything wrong with Yasaka, or Kana, they're not here" said Sam with a slight trace of worry in his voice.
"Kana is presumably working late, and Yasaka's fine" said Rakka, "She's walked over to Naoki's house."
"What, by herself?"
"Yes. You see, Naoki ... " she stopped, then caught her breath and said "He's got cancer. The doctor has given him six weeks to live."
Vast silence.
"Oh" said Sam.
"In that case if you can please excuse me, I won't be eating tea here tonight."
He turned to go outside, only to be halted by Hikari standing in front of him, holding out to him the box she was carrying.
"Sam, I've made you a packed meal for you tea." She looked up at him.
Sam briefly held her shoulders "Thank you" and took the box.

Sam was sitting in one of Naoki's arm chairs in his study. Facing him was Naoki in the other chair. Yasaka was kneeling on a pillow on the floor, leaning sideways against Naoki's legs.
"Ironical, isn't it. I was so worried about both of you flying away and leaving me alone. Instead it's the opposite way around."
They chatted about nothing in particular and eventually Sam got up to leave.
"Don't worry about me" said Yasaka, "I'm staying here."
"She's moving into my daughter's room. Which, after all, almost feels like home to her anyway."

Kana got back very late indeed, and at breakfast was dismayed to hear about Naoki. She regretted not being there when Sam had been given the sad news. So as compensation for this, she had the idea that they all have a meal at Old Home. Consequently, two days later Sam and Naoki and Yasaka walked up the hill, with Yasaka holding Naoki's hand and Sam on the other side of Naoki. Not holding his hand, of course, but nonetheless he was there.
"Welcome, Naoki. I am so sorry to hear about your health, nevertheless I hope we can have an enjoyable meal together." said Rakka, as she invited Naoki in. She took his arm and escorted him to the guest of honour's chair at the end of the table.
Kasai and Jika were excitedly running around, they had made up the table with their best plates and cutlery (which were almost the same as their normal cutlery) and had put on a table cloth and napkins and made up some big bunches of flowers in the middle. The flowers had been sent by an old friend of Naoki's, named Yoshe, who owned a flower shop.
Kana, without grumbling for once, had assisted Hikari in the cooking. Hikari had done her best to provide an exceptional meal. The main course was lobster, ordered by Naoki and delivered directly to the Old Home. Where the lobster came from no one even thought about inquiring.
Sam and Yasaka sat either side of Naoki and were forbidden by Rakka from doing any work.

"No, no more food please, I was never a big eater" said Naoki, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "Perhaps Sam might want some more?"
Kasai looked at Sam with hesitation.
"I think Sam has had enough of the good food" said Rakka. "We'll save some for the children."
"Shame" said Sam.
"Now let us drink a toast to friendship!" said Rakka.
Hikari got down the bottle that Naoki had donated, and everyone had a drink. A small drink in the case of Kasai and Jika.

Naoki needed a small amount of help getting home again, discreetly given by Sam. Sam started visiting every morning and having a meal with Naoki and Yasaka every evening.

Over the course of the next few weeks various business acquaintances and family friends and a couple of old personal friends visited Naoki during the day.

He reminisced with his friend Yoshe.
"Sorry I didn't get to see you much after my wife's death."
"That's fine."
"Long time since out last dance."
"Yes it is. Which reminds me, did you hear about..."

A week later Naoki was getting wobbly on his feet. Yasaka held his arm and gently guided him into his armchair. He plonked himself down heavily.
"I'm getting weaker."
"It's all right, dad. Would you like Sam to get you your evening glass of wine?"
"Make the most of it while I can? Certainly. At least I don't have to worry about restocking my cellar."
"Here you are" said Sam, also pouring himself one. Yasaka was sticking to water.
They clinked glasses.
"What should the toast be?" said Naoki.
"Well, let's toast to your daughter's future." said Sam.
Yasaka blushed slightly as they toasted her future success as a haibane.
"You know, Naoki, this is good wine. I'm glad I have an excuse to drink it every evening." said Sam.
"Be my guest!" said Naoki.

A week or so later the nurse was visiting every day in the evening now.
"Ok, Mr Naoki, we'll move you to these tablets. They are stronger pain killers. Yasaka, please make sure he takes one every four hours." said the nurse.
After the nurse had left, Naoki moved, with a struggle, to the sofa. Yasaka sat next to him, with one arm around him, the other arm holding a novel she had found in her bedroom, a novel that would have been read by his previous daughter.
"And the prince took the girl back to his kingdom and married her. They lived in his mountain castle and they were king and queen of the country. They lived happily ever after." she finished the story. She enjoyed the story more than they did. Naoki just enjoyed her company.
Sam wondered what on Guri they thought a mountain, or a castle, or a king or a queen was. They certainly didn't have any here.

A few days later Naoki was in bed. He was propped up by a lot of pillows. Yasaka sat on the bed next to him, swinging her legs while Sam sat in a chair close by. They had been listening to the evening radio concert. When it had finished Naoki asked:
"How's your little writing project going, Sam?"
"As far as the writing goes, not too bad." Sam replied. "However I am beginning to realise that my goal of making it easier for future haibane to avoid the issues involved with unexpected Day of Flights is problematical."
"Hmm?"
"See, a nice young haibane, like Yasaka, is hatched. She lives here in Guri for, say, five years, learns what she has to learn, then flies away."
Yasaka had stopped swinging her legs, she was concentrating on what Sam was saying.
"She, or us, must form strong bonds of companionship and friendship with the other haibane. We depend on each other to survive, it's the way the system is setup."
"But maybe half of those people will abruptly go. Just like that. Reki was totally dependent on Kuramori, and then Kuramori disappeared."
"I think it would have helped Reki if she had known more. But would it have helped much? Probably not. She was still left by herself, with only Nemu for company. And Nemu had her own problems. Although knowing more would have averted the Wall climbing fiasco."
"And perhaps in some cases it is best if the departing haibane goes without warning. It's going to hurt one way or another, might as well get it over in one go."
"And what's more, it is apparently all so random. What if Rakka hadn't been hatched at the time she was? Reki wouldn't have been saved."
"Unless, of course, the Powers-that-be carefully construct and guide everything to have just the right effect. But in that case where is the free will? Why should anyone fail at all in that case?"
"So, I suppose what I am writing will be of use, but my dreams of it making a big change for the better I can now see were optimistic."
Sam finished speaking and there was silence for a while.
"Well, you certainly have given Yasaka something to think about." said Naoki.

Another week passed. They were playing Fish, a card game for children. Fortunately neither Sam nor Naoki had ever played much cards in their lives, so Fish was acceptable.
Yasaka tallied up the scores,
"That's six to me, five to dad, and only one to Sam."
Sam ruefully looked at the cards and said: "I'm not very good that this, am I?"
"No, you're not. What Hikari and Kana say must be true after all." said Yasaka
"And what do they say?" said Sam.
"Oh, nothing."
"Hmm, it wouldn't be something like 'I'm stupid' would it?"
"How did you ever guess?"

Three or four days later, Naoki graduated to requiring a full time nurse. He was on pain killer injected every four hours or so.
It was the afternoon, no one else except the nurse and Yasaka were there for Naoki. Naoki was sleeping and the nurse was checking Naoki's chart and getting ready for the next pain killer:
"Oh dear, this vial is broken, I can't use it. The next lot will be delivered this evening when the doctor goes pass. Yasaka, can you walk as fast as possible into town, and take this note, and deliver it to the pharmacist? She'll give you some more pain killer to bring back here."
Gulp. Walk into town by herself? Go to a strange place called a pharmacy and have to deal with the strangers there?
Yasaka looked at Naoki. Still sleeping, but with the starting trace of a frown line above his eyes. Was that the pain starting to break through?
"Sure. Could you write down the details of where the pharmacy is, I've never been to the town before."

It started easy enough. She walked out the front door, down the track to the turnoff, and then turned towards the town. She passed the windmills and walked along the river for a while. Two human girls on bicycles went past.
"This isn't too bad, is it?"
Then three young men swooshed pass. It was the peak hour traffic rush in Guri, when everybody was going home after a day's work.
"Keep walking, dad needs his medicine."
Now she was getting to the more crowded parts of the town. People in clumps going home, cyclists weaving in and out of the pedestrians, service vehicles being returned to their depots. She concentrated on her task.
"Turn right at the junction." she said, repeating her instructions.
There were more people now. Just as she was about to cross in front of the gate to a factory, its siren went off. Immediately a dozen young men, whooping with glee at the end of the day's work, stampeded out the gate. Yasaka froze at the gate as they rushed by, totally ignoring her.
"Deep breath. Remember dad. Deep breath."
She continued. How many more of these trials was she going to have to endure? And wasn't time passing. Maybe dad had already woken up and was in pain?
She eventually reached the point where she had to admit she was lost. Now, perversely, there was no one around, except for a solitary teenage boy sitting on a garden fence. Nothing for it but:
"Ex - excuse me, C-C-Can you show me the way to the pharmacy?"
This boy was waiting for his girl friend, his first, to appear from the house. They were going to a musical event. So he was impatient with this request, but his mother had instilled into him firm guidelines about being polite and helpful. Especially towards haibane.
"You're in the wrong street. Here, follow me and I can get you straight there."
He promptly raced across the street and up a narrow path way between two.
He turned around "It's this way!"
Legs beginning to tremble, she trotted after him.
"We can take a short cut through Tanaka's back yard."
He opened a gate, waited for her, then walked across a private back yard, then out another gate.
"Come on! I'm in a hurry!"
By now Yasaka was trembling all over. She forced herself to visualise Naoki lying in bed and waking up, in pain, needing more pain killer. She hurried up. Though the second gate.
And she was back onto a street.
"There it is, diagonally across the road" said the boy, pointing. He promptly disappeared the way they had come.
"Well, I'm here now, can't get any worse."
Naturally it did get worse. Guri must have been out for poor little Yasaka that afternoon.
Yasaka pushed open the door and entered the shop. Only to be confronted by a young man, obviously drunk. His face was red, his hair was unkempt, and his clothes looked as if he had been dragged through the grass, backward. His voice was loud and his movements jerky.
"Pharmacist! Want something to kill this terrible hangover!"
"Oooh look, a little haibane. Have you come to bless me?"
"Never mind him" said the pharmacist from behind the counter, "He's being a pain. Please come over here so I can take your order."
Yasaka continued to look at the drunk in the way that a timid mouse might look at a cat looming over her. She couldn't move. Fortunately, just then, another customer arrived. A middle aged woman, with smile lines across her face. She smiled at Yasaka and then looked at the drunk.
"Oh dear." She looked as if she had unexpectedly bitten into a sour lemon. "Really, you are upsetting this nice young lady."
With the lady standing guard, Yasaka had the confidence to hand over the nurse's note to the pharmacist.
"Right, so you're the haibane looking after Naoki! Pleased to meet you. Just a jiffy..." She disappeared into the back room.
After a jiffy, she reappeared, with a parcel.
"There you are"
"So you need to go back to Naoki's place, do you", said the lady. "That's the one near to the Old Home buildings, isn't it?"
"Yes"
"I think I can help you there. My son just dropped me off here; he's in his truck outside.
Guri was offering up one last challenge.
Thinking about the package in her hand and the need to get it back as soon as possible, Yasaka overrode her feelings of trepidation.
"Thank you very much."
The lady followed her outside and hailed the driver of the truck.
"Hey, Tadashi, this lady wants to get some medicine back to Mr Naoki, so be a good boy and drop her off on your way past."
"Rightio, mum."
He leant across and opened the passenger front door.
"Hop in!"
Only now did Yasaka realise that there were two other males in the vehicle, in the back seat. But the lady was so nice looking; surely she wouldn't be leading her into any trouble?
She got in.
"Hang on" said the driver. He dropped the clutch and the truck lurched forward with a bang.
"It's not the best truck there is, but we don't get much choice here in Guri!"
Yasaka clutched her parcel in front of her, and concentrated in breathing nice deep regular breaths. Thankfully the driver, nor the passengers, made any further conversational attempts. Perhaps they noticed that she seemed somewhat anxious?
After an interminable time, going along roads that she did not recognise, the truck, with a few more bangs, braked to a halt.
"Here you are. May you bless us all one day!"
They were back at the front of Naoki's house.
Yasaka climbed out. She turned and bowed deeply to the driver and passengers.
"Thank you very much"
And with a cheery wave, the driver got the truck moving again and, with no more than a few bangs and clashed gears, they disappeared down the track.

"Ah, you're back again. You made good time! Mr Naoki is starting to wake up now. Did you have any problems?" said the nurse, as she received the parcel.
"No, no problems" replied Yasaka.

The next day Ame was at her work place, Guri's only salvage yard. She was counting second hand tiles:
2211, 2212, 2213, 2214, 2215, 2216, 2217, 2218, 2219, 2220
She heard a truck parking behind her, so she wrote down her count and turned around.
"Hello Tadashi. Want more of those red tiles?" she said.
"Sure do. Say, guess what, I drove one of your friends back from the pharmacy to Mr Naoki's house last night!" said Tadashi.
"Surely you can't mean Yasaka?"
"Don't know her name, but she's the one looking after Naoki. Looked like she was a timid little mouse afraid that I might bite her!"
"Amazing." said Ame.

Ame was walking home after work.
"Little scaredy-cat Yasaka made it into town all by herself, then got a ride back in Tadashi's rust bucket? Presumably she forced herself to because she had to get the medicine for Naoki."
Ame was impressed.

The next day Hikari delivered a parcel to Yasaka. It was a cake baked by Ame, with the message:
"Good work travelling to town and back by yourself."
Yasaka was simultaneously pleased and embarrassed.

Four days later, Naoki was now bedridden. He also started to get things wrong.
"Ahh, Akiko, could you get your mother please" he said to Yasaka as he was struggling to eat his meal.
"Dad, err, mum is busy now." she replied. Akiko was the name of his biological daughter.
But he had already forgotten what he was asking for.

Another time Sam was sitting with Naoki and Yasaka had come in through the door.
"Why, it's Mizu. It's been so long since we last danced. Have you met my daughter Yasaka, she's also a haibane."
Yasaka looked at Sam in puzzlement. He shrugged his shoulders.

Sam took leave of absence from his work, and moved into one of the spare bedrooms.

A week later Naoki was no longer talking. There were now two nurses on full time duty, both living on site. Fortunately there were plenty of spare bedrooms to go around. Yasaka didn't do much talking either. She sat on a chair next to Naoki's bed. Sometimes she held his hand, and sometimes not. Since Naoki no longer made much response to her touch, she was unsure of what was the best to do. She was steadily reading her way through the books in Naoki's daughter's book case. Sam now sat next to Yasaka. He figured that Naoki was beyond his reach, so he might as well look after Yasaka instead.

Three days later Naoki's breathing was laboured and produced rattling noises. Sam and Yasaka sat next to each other; Yasaka was holding Sam's hand. There didn't seem much point in holding Naoki's hand now. The two nurses were sitting behind them, waiting. Naoki breathed and gasped and breathed and coughed and then was still.

One of the nurses checked Naoki and then looked at Yasaka.
"Sorry miss, he has passed on."
Yasaka looked at her hands in her lap and said nothing. Sam asked:
"Do you want to stay here, or go to your room at Old Home?"
In a soft voice she said "Old Home". She looked small and frail and desolated.
Sam carefully picked her up and carried her back to their home.

It was now night time. It was still summer, so the air was cool but not cold. The skies were clear and a thin crescent moon lit the way. The sound of Sam's shoes crunching on the gravel of the path, plus the wind softly blowing the leaves around, were the only sounds along the way. Yasaka huddled in Sam's arms, she had her eyes closed, blotting out reality.
Sam thought to himself that he was making a habit of carrying distressed girls.
He carried Yasaka into the guest room, where, fortunately, Rakka and Hikari were present, doing some sewing. They looked up and waited.
"Naoki has passed away. I'll carry her to her room; perhaps you can come along and look after her?"
Rakka slept the night in Yasaka's room, on a bed roll on the floor.

The funeral was in two days time, at his house and he was buried in the small cemetery behind the house. The same cemetery that his parents, and his wife and his daughter, were buried. A small handful of town people turned up, including Yoshe, as well as all of the older haibane from Old Home, and Ame and Mado.

* * *

Three days later Yasaka and Sam made their first pilgrimage to Naoki's grave. They walked hand in hand, but she no longer stuck to his side whenever strangers passed them on the road. Yasaka had picked a bunch of flowers earlier in the day. When they reached the cemetery they cleaned out the old and wilting flowers from the vases, and put in the new ones. They knelt by the grave for a while. Sam looked at Yasaka's face, and then pulled out yet another brand new clean hanky.
"Here, use this. Looks like the old one can't take any more." said Sam.
Sniffle "Thanks" said Yasaka.
They got up to leave. Yasaka looked at Sam. He was sad looking, but no trace of tears. In the back of her head she made a little note to talk to the other girls about this, after she had gotten over the worse of her own emotions.

Thereafter she went to the grave three or four times a week. Sometimes alone, it no longer seemed all that difficult to walk to Naoki's old house and back again. And sometimes Sam accompanied her.

Two weeks later at breakfast one morning.
"Hikari, can I walk in with you to the bakery, the house mother wants me to buy some doughnuts for the children's morning tea. I'll walk back by myself." said Yasaka.
Hikari raised her eyebrows slightly. "Certainly".
It was still summer, the walk into town was pleasant. They passed the wind turbines ponderously turning, casting their rotating shadows onto the fields of pasture. The occasional humans could be seen driving tractors across the landscape, or herding sheep from one paddock to another. The river splashed its way downstream, and if you looked carefully enough you could see the occasional flash of colour from a fish, darting between the reeds.
"I'm glad you are getting more comfortable in your new life" said Hikari.
"So am I. It feels that the vague terror I felt on first arrival is fading out. Mind you I don't understand why I feel that way." said Yasaka.
Hikari had heard a bit about this from Sam and Rakka. She kept quiet.
"Say, Hikari, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about Sam?"
"Of a course you may"
"Sam is really nice, and he feels almost as deeply about Naoki's death as I do, but he never shows even a single tear. Although he is very attentive towards mine, he even carries spare hankies just in case."
Hikari giggled. "Oh, you have noticed that. So have we. It's our suspicion that he is so affected by the image of a tough macho man that he never properly grieved for the death of his original girlfriend. We don't think he ever shed a tear. We don't think he ever really recovered either. Not that he has ever said anything to that effect, this is just our interpretation."
"It's really sad to think about what he must have gone through back then." added Hikari.
"I know." said Yasaka.

Three weeks pass.

Yasaka had introducing reading nights to the older haibane of Old Home. Once a week she would select a story from the books she had taken from Naoki's daughter's book case, and read it out. Kasai and Jika loved it. Rakka and Hikari found it amusing and enjoyed the stories. Kana also enjoyed most of the stories, but she pretended to be somewhat indifferent. And Sam, well he never was much of a one for light fiction. However he really appreciated the slow opening out of Yasaka's personality, so he made himself enjoy the evenings. Besides which, the story telling nights were a nice way to spend with one's companions.

"And the evil sorceress was banished from the kingdom and they lived happily ever after. The End."
Yasaka finished the story. Kasai and Jika clapped, and then Rakka told them to make their way to bed.
The not-quite-adults, with Sam listening in, had a short discussion about replenishing food supplies, and whether or not to arrange an outing for the children next Sunday.

"Oh, ah, Sam, since you alone out of us haibane can actually remember their past, can I ask a question about it?" asked Yasaka.
"I'll do my best to answer"
"You know how I am affected by dad's death; you're even kind enough to provide extra handkerchiefs?"
Yasaka, with the expression of a shy person at the ball, asking someone for a dance for the first time, continued with
"Well, I'm just wondering, err; did you ever shed tears over your girlfriend's death?"
Blink.
"There's no need to ask that question. Good night everyone, good night Yasaka" said Sam, but gently. And he was off.
"Humph" said Yasaka.
"Good try, but it's not going to be that easy" said Kana.
"So how am I going to get him to answer it?" said Yasaka.
"Speaking from experience, I'm not sure it's possible" said Hikari.
Yasaka stamped her foot. "Well, I've decided I'm going to get an answer!"
"Hmm, this must be the original, non-terrorised, Yasaka showing through" thought Kana, "I like it."

A fortnight later, they were winding up another not-quite-adults planning session.
Rakka reached out to pick up something, and knocked a litre container of milk on to the floor. Fortunately it was mostly empty.
"Oh dear" she said.
"What's the saying, don't shed tears over spilt milk?" said Hikari.
"Perhaps in this case 1 litre of tears" said Rakka.
"I've certainly shed a litre or three, but over things a lot more important than spilt milk", said Yasaka.
"Me too" said Rakka.
"When I first came here, I found things very tough..." said Hikari.
"I don't know about 1 litre, but ... Kuu and Kage ..." said Kana.
As if on the same circuit, their heads simultaneously swivelled to look at Sam.
"I'm still interested in hearing an answer to my question..." said Yasaka.
"Sorry, I'm going to bed now. Good night girls, thanks for the evening, sleep well." and Sam left.
"One day I'm going to grab him by the lapels of his outsized ugly overalls and shake him until he answers!" said Yasaka.
Kana clapped. "I would really like to see that, unfortunately you might notice he is a lot bigger than us and he is stronger than all of us combined."
An image popped into Yasaka's head. "Hmm, I wonder if something like that would work?"

A month later, at the end of another evening meal.

"Oh Sam", said Yasaka, "See the button hole on the shirt pocket flap of your overalls?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
Yasaka reached out, put her little finger through it and clenched her fist.
"Now Sam, if you try to move, since you are so strong, you will just end up breaking my finger, no?"
"What!?" said Sam.
Sam reached out with his hand and wrapped it around hers. Not to try to disengage it, but to prevent any accidental movements.
"What are you doing?" said Sam.
"I'm still waiting for an answer to my question: Did you shed tears at Tatiana's funeral?"
"You can't do this! Use my strength against me!"
He glared at Yasaka. She looked back.
"Am I in a staring contest with -" started Sam, inside his head. He was going to continue with the phrase "a little girl", but he could feel other voices in his head ready to stomp on him if he did.
"with a young lady?"
He looked away. "Yes he was, and he just lost" he said to himself.
"Rakka, please tell Yasaka to stop this business now!"
"It's not up to me" said Rakka, "Although I find it quite ingenious. It would only work in special cases, mind you."
Kana was smiling, Hikari looked very interested. No help there.
He looked back into Yasaka's eyes. This must be what Yasaka was like before she came to Guri. Strong, and very determined.
Yasaka looked at him.
Sigh. OK, she deserves an answer. It's not as if it would kill him.
"No, I never cried, not once."
Yasaka carefully released her hold, gave Sam a hug and left. Rakka stood in front of Sam, bowed, said thank you, and also left.
Hikari hugged him, Kana squeezed his hand, and they left.
Sam was left alone. After a while he also went to bed.

A couple of days later Yasaka and Sam walked down the hill to Naoki's grave. They replaced the blown flowers with new ones, and knelt in silence. After a while Yasaka looked at Sam's face. She took a clean hanky from her pocket, which she had made a special effort to remember to bring, and gently wiped Sam's cheeks.
"Here, you can keep this; it's one of yours which I have washed"

Later on, with the girls.
"Yes, he has now shed tears for Naoki. But I don't think he is any near starting on tears for Tatiana. And it's beyond my power to do anything about that."