Hanami – Chapter 22
Leonardo tamped the last of the earth into place on the grave. Raphael watched him head back to the house. He looked down at TwoSee. She sat perfectly still, watching something that he couldn't see from a past he didn't share. Introspection generally made him uncomfortable. Dwelling on the past couldn't change it. If the consequences were really that terrible, think about things long enough to figure out how not to do it again. Thinking about things meant putting names to them, and if words were involved, you were probably thinking too much.
He got mad at the stupidity of the world: the choices he hadn't known were there, the mistakes that he couldn't undo, all the things that he couldn't prepare for and couldn't fight. Hindsight was 20/20; that's the cast iron bitch. 'Wait until it's too late, then show me what I did wrong. The universe is set up bass-ack-ward, but who do you complain to?' He sighed quietly. Just because meditation conjured demons for him didn't mean that TwoSee shouldn't take whatever time she needed to grieve.
He sat down next to her and waited patiently for her to come back to herself. It never once occurred to him to just go back into the house without her.
Leo left the shovel on the porch and dusted off the best he could, but the mud only smeared. As he entered the living room, he could hear ThreeSee and Donatello in the kitchen. 'Sounds like they're having a water fight.' He knelt down next to Shima and touched her cheek. 'She feels a little warmer. Though I was just outside, it could just be me.' Without any real thought behind it, Leonardo settled himself comfortably on a mattress near Shima's pallet. He willed his breathing to calm and his heart to slow. He shut his eyes and difted away from the giggles and splashes coming from the kitchen.
Inside the quiet of his own mind, he sorted through his emotions and thoughts. Patiently sorting them, he cleared space in his thoughts. The space grew as he simplified his thoughts and considered his emotions. His own heartbeat filled his mind's ears. He felt a peace develop inside him that he hadn't known for months.
"It is a lovely place you've chosen." Leonardo's eyes flew wide open. He was standing outside. The apple trees were in bloom. A young turtle about his age sat beneath one of them, cradling a pair of sleeping infants. She looked up at him, with a gentle light in her eyes, "Thank you."
Leonardo's eyes flew wide open. He was seated on a mattress – not standing outside. He was so off balance he nearly fell off the pallet. He quickly checked on Shima, but she hadn't moved. In a daze, he stumbled upstairs to clean the mud off himself.