Chapter 1-Tomoyo
The wizards were a lot of fun, I must say. Although before they had been pretty worried and mysterious, now that the silk bag that can never be destroyed is opened, they seemed more relaxed than before. Seeing this, all of our hopes were raised.
Syaoran was still blind and mute, and will be, Sergei says, for the rest of his life. We were content to have Syaoran alive though. However, Syaoran didn't seem especially happy.
Ever since Yue came home Syaoran spent all of his time with his father. He refused to accept his jade back and was even offended at Sakura even thinking of such a thing. He went out flying every night to come back exhausted yet rested. He listened to music and played the cello every day. He went over to Eriol and my house as much as he could and visited Sakura every day. We gathered together once a week, just us, the Circle of Clow.
In truth we thought things wouldn't get worse. The bag was always full of whatever was in it. The future looked bright because it seemed that there was a future. We did not ponder on how Syaoran will support himself because Yukito is immortal. Neither did the wizards, it seemed.
That way April passed like a breeze and May came. Outside was warm and Yukito often took him to the park. Lele, the dog, went out too. Mimi loved Lele. She likes all dogs.
Lele especially liked chasing birds. Until, that is, he came to cats. Then he grew even more excited. Countless cats had to be rescued from the trees and Syaoran was more amused than angry at Lele for bringing so much trouble to them.
" He's fast." Syaoran had mouthed, although none of us knew how he could possibly had figured Lele's speed. " Cats can't outrun him unless there are trees around. He's quite harmless too. Wouldn't touch a fly." He didn't know if Lele did touch flies at all. He couldn't possibly have known.
The funny puppy is really cute.
" Here you go, over here, a little to the right. There!" I smiled as I handed the ice
cream to him. Syaoran smiled back, taking the spoon and dipping it into the ice
cream. He no longer liked cones because if the ice cream was dripping he wouldn't
know it, and things would get messy afterwards.
I was perfectly willing to buy Syaoran all the chocolate he wanted because he was still far too thin for my taste. He needs ' muscle'.
Of course, when I say the word ' muscle', this image of Superman pops into my head. So no, he does not need that much muscle. Just enough to lift his cello out of his case without tripping over from its weight.
" Do you want more ice cream?" I asked. Recently it was only yes and no
questions. Syaoran shrugged. It depends, he was saying. Then I remembered he
didn't know how much ice cream he was having.
" You finished about half already." I laughed. Then Syaoran nodded. I started up,
but Syaoran held on to my hand.
" Nani?" I asked.
Syaoran rolled his eyes and tugged me down, then pointed at me.
" Fine." I said. I really didn't know what he was saying, but I'm guessing he's saying
that I still have to eat.
Which was true.
" Hey Syaoran. Did you have fun?" Touya asked. Syaoran gave him a nod before
searching for the couch. Sakura came down the stairs.
" Konnichiwa, Syaoran-kun." She smiled, although Syaoran couldn't see it. " Are
you okay today?"
By now Syaoran had this look of annoyance that I had to videotape.
Xuyan laughed at me.
Eriol came in around half an hour later along with Kaho and the others. Yue had stayed with Syaoran the entire day and was leading him to the table where Touya was preparing lunch.
Today was April 7th.
" Ow!" Syaoran blinked at Xuyan, then giggled silently. Xuyan glared at him.
' Your own fault.' He said. Or mouthed, for that matter.
" Sheesh." Xuyan muttered. " Why do you have to kick me all the time?"
Syaoran cocked an eyebrow and went back to his food.
Afterwards we played poker. Or tried to, anyway.
" He can't play anything but Chinese Poker and Goldfish, for that matter, since he can't see." Eriol pointed out.
Later, we found out that he couldn't play that either, because he can't even see his own cards.
So we resorted to any kind of board game we could think of. That didn't
work. Without Syaoran's eyesight, there's really nothing we could do.
So we resorted to story telling, which wasn't all that bad.
" One time, Sakura went with Chiharu to one of the malls," I began, " And there
they tried to buy this key chain. The guy obviously didn't know how to do math,
they had to stay there for several hours bickering with him."
" It was stupid." Sakura agreed, while Eriol chuckled. " The guy kept on thinking it
was twenty yen when it was twenty cents. He said the decimal wasn't supposed to
be there."
That resulted in cocked eyebrows from everyone present.
" Does such a retard even exist?" Xuyan asked.
" I have never heard of such a thing." Eriol laughed.
Then it was Eriol's turn to tell a story.
" I know this very good pianist in America." He began, " She's a Chinese and plays
in New York."
" Oh, Ping Yuan, hai?" Kaho blinked.
" Hai. Anyway, she was a very good pianist. Very good." Eriol shook his head. " So
naturally she had many concerts. One time she was planning a concert in a college
in New York. They sent out flyers to all the students in the school as they should a
few weeks from that day, and on the day of the concert, the manager goes to her,
asks her, ' are you ready', and ' whenever you're ready', and she calms herself. The
manager dims the lights, she goes out, takes a bow, and realizes that there is no
audience."
At this we all started chuckling like crazy.
" No one?" I cried. " Not a single person?"
" Not a single person." Eriol grinned. " So she comes back, and the manager asks
her, ' what are you doing? Go back there! What's wrong?' and she tells him to come
out. So the manager, very cautiously, peeks onstage, and notices what's wrong.
Naturally he was very embarrassed. Ping Yuan says don't worry, ' I'll handle this',
and goes around to several students who were just hanging out and tells them, '
there's a concert! You must come!"
" She got around ten people at the beginning of the concert, and in the front there
was a man who was watching. When she finished a piece and bowed, he asked, first
in English, if she was Chinese. She answered that she was and left, and when she
came back again, he started speaking to her in Chinese, and she would answer back
and sit on the piano and start playing. After she played, she would bow and he
would say something and she'll answer back, and when I heard this I thought this
was seriously bizarre. Out of the ten people she first got only three students were
left in the end, because they had to go to class."
Syaoran was laughing hard in his silent way, probably imagining what it had
looked like for a great musician to perform without an audience. We were laughing
too.
" Is this true? Did this really happen?"
" Trust me," Eriol began, " I can never in my whole imagination, making something
like this up."
