My sister is my life

by Julia MacGergor

it had been snowing some time in the small town of Salem Ohio. It seemed heavier the snow came down the more difficult to drive in. for Doctor Genyjo Sanzo the snow was more of a bother than something nice to look at. If that was not enough, then his ward, Son Goku had been playing a noisy video game on his tablet. He had been wind up from the last game he had played on his tablet. It was getting to the last nerve of Sanzo. He was trying to look for an address on a secondary street in Salem. He was hooking up with an old high school friend which he kept in touch with for years.

Sanzo's car seemed to be out of place. It was not some ordinary car. It was a late model Mercedes-Benz that was the colour of the sky. It traveling around a working class neighborhood.

Sanzo glanced at Goku as the young man heard the sounds of him losing the game he had been playing, Sanzo had to stop Goku from starting another game. He was starting to loose his nerve a the car began to slow down. "What are you on?" Sanzo quipped with a sour look on his face.

"What makes you say that?" Goku remarked a little hurt at his loss as he shoved the tablet onto the dash board. He turned his head to glare at his guardian. He wanted to play his games as loud as he could.

"You are hyped on that coffee you had at that shop. If you had something, then I don't have to hear you playing your games." Sanzo quipped as the car inched along until he noticed a small house no outside lights. On stopping the car, he asked the car's mobile app to call a phone number.

"What are you doing?" Goku asked as the car's speakers buzzed with the phone connection.

With the car idling in front of the house, Sanzo sighed,"Please for once, I need you to be quiet. I need to hear if the person in this house is at home!"

then, the noise of someone piking up on the other end, then, a deep husky voice spoke,"Hello?"

"is that you, Gyojo?" Sanzo asked.

"What...Sanzo...how long has it been!" the voice questioned Sanzo.

"Yes...are you home?"

"yea...why do you asked," Gyojo quizzed his friend.

"We aew in front of your house. I need to now if you are at home...I stopped in for a visit."

there was a laugh for just a second before Gyojo told Sanzo to turn around and he could park next to the house. Sanzo did what he was told. Then, he instructed Goku not to be so hyped as they got out of the car. Sanzo did not want Goku first impression to Gyojo to be the wrong one. Goku felt like he was being bossed around by Sanzo.

"Why are you so grouchy to me..." Goku quipped as he turned his face to glare at the window.

Sanzo drive the car up the street to find a drive way to pull into for the turn around. After finding a drive way, Sanzo slowly pulled into the drive way before withdrawing the car from the driveway. He retraced the street until he found the house once again. A young man with crimson hair and a thick pull over gray swearer and matching jeans stood on the porch. He watched as the car pulled into the yard next ot the house. The young man was named Sha Gyojo.

There was a young girl stood in the front picture window. She was dressed in a light blue sweater and jeans. She was the sister of Gyojo, Felicity Sha. She was just a few years younger than Gyojo. She watched as two figures rounded the corner of the side yard to the front.

Gyojo had been smoking outside as he stepped out. He knew the cigarette smoke would make his sister ill. She had an illness which Gyojo had to keep his eye on her. She was different from Gyojo. She was thin and advantage height. Her gray eyes and brown braided hair made her a little different with a gentle facial feature which was a contrast to the red hair and semi-long face of her older brother.

Gyojo noticed the two figures of Sanzo and Goku walking up towards the front porch. "Hi..." Gyojo said with a slight smile.

Sanzo try to remain calm as he noticed Gyojo, then Felicity,"Hello!" Then, without turning to look at Goku, Sanzo elbowed the young man in the ribs.

Goku was lost in thought as he felt the sharp jab to his side,"Uh...hello!"

"It's been a while," Gyojo said as they heard a knock on the window. Gyojo turned his head to glance at the window. "You want to come in?"

"Yes...i was hoping to talk to you about hooking up with Hakkai..." Sanzo said as he stepped onto the stoop with Goku in tow. He followed Gyojo as Gyojo turned to open the door. After a minute of climbing up the stairs, all three men stood in a warm living room which was decorated in a holiday mode. Sanzo ordered Goku to watch his language. Then, he glanced at Ferocity who blushed at the two new comers. "Hello...miss!" he said in a reversed tone of voice.

"It's Felicity...my name is Felicity!" the younger sister of Gyojo said. Her voice was shy as she nodded slightly. She did not know who Sanzo and Goku were. Felicity was always shy since she was a child.

"You want to go to the kitchen and have coffee...it's the warmest room in the house," Gyojo said as he walked past his two guest. He had make his way to the kitchen from the living room in about two minutes.

There was a spark of happiness in Goku's attitude. He grinned as he did a little leap,"Yea...I want a cup!"

"Goku...you fool...when did you ever had use something called restraint..." Sanzo griped as he wanted to smack Goku on top his head.

Goku knew Sanzo was trying to teach him manners, but he was a little harsh in his approach. "What was that for?" Goku yipped as if he was being smacked hard. He knew Sanzo's language was hard with a sharpened edge.

"When do you slow down?" Sanzo asked.

Gyojo needed to speak up about the whereabouts of Hakkai. He received a phone call from Hakkai who lived in Boston. The three had a long standing friendship since they were kids, growing up in a small town Salem, "Hey...Sanzo, would you like to hear about Hakkai...he is coming late!" Gyojo interpreted with a groan. He placed a hand up to his pinkish red hair.

Sanzo and Goku had instantly stopped their little near spat and glanced at their host. Goku remarked with a surprised glance,"Come again?"

Sanzo's eyes with a questioning stare,"What are you telling me...he's not showing up until later?"

"Yea...it's the weather. His fight has been delayed until tomorrow. I have been keep tabs on the next flight for him...he's stuck at a hotel near the airport."

"You always had been covering his rear like the time you and him were caught that one time cheating at the math test you nearly aced. You and him were so clever, but until the teacher just happened to look your way...and..." Sanzo smiled as he recalled a time when Gyojo and Hakkai were trying to pass an extremely hard math test.

"And your point being..?" Gyojo quipped. He felt something buzzing in his pants pocket. As his left hand reached down to the pocket for the object which was now making a buzzing noise, he told Sanzo to put his thoughts on hold. After pulling it the object from the pocket which was his cell-phone. He glanced at the screen to realize a phone number was familiar. He had to stop and smile. The last piece of the puzzle was there, but yet so far away.

"What's up?" Sanzo asked, noticing the look on Gyojo's face.

"Would you believe that he is calling me right now!" Gyojo shook his head a little. He had to answer his phone if the three former classmates would hook up in the near future.

Felicity looked at Goku as she said,"Would like to come into the kitchen and have a cup of tea?"

"Yes..." Sanzo said as he tried to keep a restrained appearance while Goku was about to speak, but noticed Sanzo remained cool and calm. Sanzo gently ordered Goku as Felicity walked over to the archway between the kitchen and the living room. "I was hoping to see your brother before the spring!"

"Oh...my brother is different..." Felicity said when she turned to glance at the two new comers. "He does take of me very well...since our parents had died."

"And you are still school?" Sanzo asked. Since he had been in charge of Goku's life including schooling, Sanzo wanted less than perfection. Goku was a very young boy when he was granted a warden that was Sanzo. " Because an education is very important for a successful life!"

Goku felt he had heard the same words spoke to him in a drone like fashion it was as annoying as a fly buzzing around his head. "What's a bunch of crap!"

Sanzo knew Goku was getting to him in a quick, precise way. He said as he noticed the kitchen as he entered the room with the plain table cloth and kitchen appliances,"Did you have any idea what the future holds?

"I know what I want for my future, that's for me to go to computer school to play games..."

Sanzo knew that Goku was just grasping at straws if he wanted to be in school just to play games all day. He had keep Goku in line for just a while longer. "That would be OK for a couple of weeks, but remember I still have the upper hand..." Sanzo said.

Felicity asked the two if they were wanting to take a seat in the kitchen or in the living room. Sanzo believed the kitchen was the most comfortable. He walked over to the table and chairs. On pulling out a chair, he told Goku to take the one next to him. The table was round with four chair. It looked very new, but ti had years of the brother and sister having meals together. Felicity went over to the stove. A teapot sat the stove. Felicity reached out to pick it up. She walked to sink which next to the stove to fill up the teapot. She asked what kind of tea would they like to have. There was only three boxes in the house,

Then, Gyojo entered the kitchen, cell-phone in hand. He had been talking to a semi-stranded Hakkai. He got Sanzo's attention with a nod,"Hey...Hakkai wants to talk to you!"

"Oh...is he still in Boston?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yea...he's stuck until least two day from now..."

Sanzo raised his left hand to take the cell-phone,"Let me talk to him!"

"Sure..." Gyojo said when he walked over to the table to hand over the phone to Sanzo. He glanced to see his sister watching over the teapot while she was getting the tea service ready. She had a small flowered tea pot on the counter. She had an opened box of plain green tea. "Don't forget the cake you made in home EC...it wasn't all that bad!"

"Yea...it's the first time I used a real recipe," Felicity sighed.

"Hi...Hakkai..." Sanzo said as he cupped left hand over his left ear while he pressed the receiver over his right. "How's the weather?"

Meanwhile, in a Boston hotel near Logan airport, Hakkai who was staying in a small comfortable hotel room. He sat at the small table with his tablet playing gentle a jazz download. He was dressed in a lounging pants and matching shirt. He had been drinking a large mug of tea while he was texting some of his contracts before calling up Gyojo. "Hello...you have snow in Salem?" he asked.

"Yea, it's been heavy...it's kinda typical for this time of the year...when you are coming to here?" Gyojo asked. He slowly padded over to the other side of the table. The last chair was taken. All three were facing each other. "It's been a crazy time of the time...Felicity wanted to go to the mall everyday. I don't have the time."

"Let me be frank...the airport is closed until at least tomorrow afternoon. They are having icing problems with the planes. They have been working on that problem since this afternoon. After they notified the vacationers that's OK to take their flights."

"so, what flight are you taking?" Gyojo asked.

Hakkai remembered the note he had written down about his flight and when he had to be ready. "I'm catching a red eye in the afternoon...i probably will be in town no later than tomorrow evening,"

it seemed like everything was so normal, it felt like a photo-shopped play. Everything was so scripted that a powerful force could not be able to even flick a penknife into the works. Despite the cozy picture in this seemingly peaceful world, there was a foreboding event which was not starting loom in the horizon.

There was a small house which stood in another part of Salem. It was sat in a very quiet neighborhood with neatly shoveled sidewalks. In that house a man had been drinking a rather large mug of coffee as he sat at his kitchen table front of his laptop. The kitchen was rather tiny whit enough room for the usually stove, sink and fridge. The kitchen table was a little bit bigger than a card table. A small blue cloth adorned the table. The man was dressed in a plain gray sweater and jeans. The dark colour of his eyes were a contrast to the gray of the sweater. His long, thin face had been avoid of any mention what so ever. The only noise which could be heard was that of the gentle tapping of a laptop keyboard.

A gentle chirping noise was making the table buzz from a cell-phone which sat off to the side of the computer. The man's gaze had shifted to see who was calling him. He quickly pushed a button or two the face of the phone. A demanding female voice uttered loudly,"What are you doing?"

there was a tiny flicker of an eye brow. Followed by a flair of a nostril. Finally, a twitch of one corner of the man's mouth. He said in a dark voice,"I am surprised...you are calling on a holiday week! Most people are relaxing with family or friends. You on the other hand are workaholic...you have no idea of what fun is?" His fingers did not rest on the keyboard. He wanted to stop, but his computer was telling him otherwise.

"Ni...are you looking at anything that I gave you!" the voice hissed over the phone.

"Yes...oh illustrious one. You are a busy little bee!"

"Ni...are you?" the voice yipped.

the man's name was Ni and he remained still cool to the core when he told the person on the other end that he will sent them an email in a couple of days. Then, in a second or two, he reached over to swipe the screen to disconnect the phone. He had enough of the voice. He knew who it was. It sounded like a woman's voice which gave an edge to the conversation. She had ordered Ni to start on a project of illegal drugs. These were new chemicals which Ni knew about. They were in the class of the high edged pain killers.

Reaching out to check screen, Ni had flipped off the phone. Feeling not all that concerned, Ni sighed,"Contemptuous woman!"

Then, as if he did not missed a beat in his typing, Ni resumed his work and remained in his smirking nearly unemotional state. He murmured loudly,"I have work to do...busy...busy...busy!"