The Passing of Gate Keepers
By: Cory Kennedy

35 years later..


Snowda remained the hospital bed giving labour to her second child.
Her husband and father of the child, Icicil kept out of the room of the
city hospital to loosen his pale brown sports suit his wife picked out
for him to wear at the hospital in the city he didn't much care for as with
any city. He spent his time wondering the hallways thinking about his
visions and allowed for his double to comfort Snowda. Icicil had realized
she felt more relaxed around the double since Icicil had been traveling
more to discuss the future with people had known, or would have had to
know because of the predictions.

He walked into the deserted cafeteria, removed his jacket and threw
it on the long barren table on where he opted to sit. A janitor rolled
behind him with a mop, a bucket of dirty blue cleaning solution, over
to Icicil and sat down across from him.

"Good morning, sir," the janitor greeted and reached his open wrinkled
hand over the table. Icicil grabbed the hand and shook, soon afterwards
the janitor released before another shake. "Do you mind if I smoke?"

Without a response, the janitor dug into his chest pocket on his blue
jump suit.

"Hold on," Icicil interrupted. The janitor dropped the visible half
of the pack into his pocket where it still remained distinguished. He
pulled out a gold thin container from his inside pocket of his brown
suit and shot it over table. The janitor picked it up and opened the
packet possessing eight posh cigars. Icicil waved his hand over the
table. The janitor held it in his mouth and lit it. The taste
instantaneously caught the janitor to take the cigar out of his mouth
to waft breezy light smoke. "It's almost as good as air wouldn't
you have to agree. So, what's your name, guest?"

"My name is Conkenu Vsthree. It was given to me to honour some
relative I have never seen before in my life, since she lives in a
countryside manor, called the Pleasant House, which compensates
for its wealthy lifestyle with a splendid inn called the Trick of Tales.
I'm usually very presumptuous, so you look like a person who could
have afforded a season there and come back home to better stuff.
I wish I had a chance to go there for a winter season.
The Trick of Tales only furnishes to a single buyer, at least to the
standards of people willing to pay five hundred-thousand zeni. I
can only suggest the reason for the owners to ask for one customer
only is that the owners would have enjoyed the company of people
any less rich.
You know, I would have gone to a family reunion, but I don't have
a close enough relationship with my namesake. I do wish to have
a chance to go see her, because I never saw her. She is rich and
well known, yet there isn't much opportunity getting pictures of
shut-ins like her."

"I am rich. Not as rich as I was or could have wanted." Icicil said.
Icicil pointed at a crest red circle emblem on is jacket, about the
size of a fist, with two stylish R's filling the space and overlapping.
"My father is a very rich man, and when I was arranged to be wed -
I wonder how young I was? I am for certain that the ceremony was
planned a few years after I was dedicated to a sixteen year old
princess-"

"Sixteen? A young wife you were going to marry."

"I was younger than sixteen. No more interruptions, I am going
to finish this story. Recommencing, I was upset with the promise
and had spent a week on the estate's visitor mansion, which was
fallow of guests of outside sort to secure the estate from visitors.
It is atypical to keep guest out of the visitor mansion and boring, but
during a war is the best time for spies and assassins to take refuge.
Honestly, having spies in the estate during frickles and long arms is
too lively. We could not have allowed them to die or cause them any
harm if they were under our shield. They would have had every right
to run around gathering information with the certainty that we would
have an untouched messenger deliver the package to whomever. It's
an honourable thing to do and we had paid the taxes a year before
we made the no visitors during wartimes a custom.
Now during this battle, my father wanted me out of the guest
mansion; and I came by his order for his gift. The gift is useless now,
but I can claim legal ownership of the Red Ribbon Army."

Then Conkenu Vsthree coughed in a devil of a smoke mist,
which was not like choking on a poorman's cigarette, or a rich man's
cigar, but a smoke that could have made commoners walking by to
envy Mr. Vsthree's struggle. This struggle did not seem to distract
Icicil as he removed his checkbook. "Mr. Vsthree, I want you to have
this check for one million zeni."

------------

Icicil sat down with his jacket on the plastic chair coupled to his own
and nailed to the wall and a patience's clipboard with their file flipped
to its blank side so that he could write a letter, and it read:

"Conkenu,

Though I am given the right to decide the next gate keeper to
whomever fit, and having many recommendations of a proper suitor not
of them with your name, I decided choose you as the next successor.
I have seen one possible path of your future, which you plant firm in
the ground settling down in a small village where you catch fish for
food instead of sport, and make decorative signs out of wood for
doorways. It's awfully safe and mundane for one such as yourself,
so it is in a good interest of one person more than myself that you
craft yourself a more exciting lifestyle and disregard the expectations
of motherhood on children. There is a much better time for that for
that to be honest.
I will not be alive to see you're new lifestyle, but be strong because
it will not be an easy route to follow."

He stopped the flow of ink of his gold plated pen to look over to the
origin of the familiar sound of rolling wheels. Mr. Vsthree rolled his
bucket, this time containing cleaner water, and rested the mop in
the bucket next to the weakly occupied chair. "You haven't left yet,"
Icicil stated. "What can I do for you, Mr. Vsthree?"

"You have done more than too much for me, Sir." He replied, and
he pointed to the clipboard Icicil held. "But, you have to follow the
rules of the hospital and not touch patent notes for the doctors and
nurses."

"Let's see, I was just writing a note on the back" Icicil flipped the
patent notes over and read over them. He reattached the papers
to the board and passed them to Mr. Vsthree. "I'm sorry, I didn't
think the patent would have minded. I read that the patent
admitted himself in here suffering from amnesia."

"This will be our little secret, sir." Mr. Vsthree declared with putting
the papers in his pocket. The papers were safe from anyone finding
them with the wrinkled jump suit obscuring the flat folds made by the
papers that only Icicil saw. He declined into the chair for a time, and
lapsed the time pondering if he should have made another note. He
decided that the note best served him as a collection of his thoughts
before he revealed the news to his child. He was still unsure about
that decision, but had deep indication. What if Mr. Vsthree thought
the note was for himself, which Icicil knew he would have once he
read the message. The janitor's interpretation would have later
connotation.


-------------------------

The labour ended. It was an eight hour delivery, and damages
happened to Snowda, which she snubbed for her reminding stay
of earlier the next morning when she would die.

"Come here, Icicil! Come look at our beautiful child." Snowda held
on the baby. Icicil touched his wife's face. Her face appeared pale
and loose, and moisturized from the tears, and none of them spared
for herself. Icicil sat on the cushioned chair next to the bed, and tried
not to writhe. "A special child, huh? Not of woman born."

"What do you mean?" Icicil questioned but came to the right
conclusion. He whispered to the head nurse, and he gather the
other nurses outside to let Icicil speak in private. "I have to say that
from the day I saw you, that I thought you were perfect. I reasoned
you would have stay the same, and love you the same way when I
first saw you. But, I sit by your side now, and know that if on the day
that I first saw you and I saw a woman just as you are today, that I
the young girl wouldn't be in my mind. For you see, over your life time
you respected and loved yourself with such personal insight that you
would have improved everyday. You taught me to respect myself,
and I hope that my affection for you grew as you did."




5 years later….

Conkenu rushed through the forest with more quickness than
previous days with the sun rising on his fifth birthday. It was double
digits from here. He hopped over bushes in a naive way by stopping
short of a bush and jumping off with his two feet side by side, which
was easy for him to avoid tripping on his white cloak. He ran parallel
to the high hedges enclosing the property, and jumped in his unusual
way. He attempted a backflip to clear the length of the bush, but failed
with a face full of branches that tumbled him head first into the snow.
Conkenu stirred recklessly to his feet and shook the snow out of his
hair. The snow underneath him soon gave way and he dropped well
below the snow to hide his body.

The sun sparkled over the low spaces of the mountains. Conkenu
waited on the shoveled veranda to dry his covered clothes before
entering the residents. He sat on the seven-five centimeter frame of
the pond made from concrete with various stones as trimming. He
also sat below a steep wooden roof that kept the snow out of the
water to preserve the condition for the tropical fish. Conkenu dangled
his feet over the water and watched the colourful fish. His favourite
one stood out the most, because of his monotone colour while all others
had at least three different colours. The favourite fish with a dark yellow
coating, like Conkenu's bristly hair, swam under Conkenu's feet.
"I bet you tasted the best too."

Conkenu saw crumbs fall in the pool, and he looked around for the
source. She, the source, noticed him formerly and started the
greeting before he saw her. "Good morning, Conkenu. And happy
birthday."

"A great morning, Gneiss." Conkenu emphasized to the head maid
of the large mansion, constructed a few years after the war. Gneiss
removed his cape and placed it on a support beam of the pond's
roof on a dowel that Conkenu couldn't have got without jumping. He
would have hung the cloak on the peg but did not want break the
no jumping rule of the property. "Where's father?"

"He's still in bed, but he will wake up soon. You know, that you
typically arrive a bit later in the morning." She answered then pulled
out two long pieces of paper from the front pouch of the apron. Gneiss
walked over to Conkenu and displayed the tickets to the young master.
"Those are two tickets to an early showing of latest Clash of The
Shadow Ninjas title."

He threw his arms up without hesitation that showed his level of
excitement when the force dipped him off balance and he would have
waited longer to dry if Gneiss did not catch him as soon as she did.
She held him with one hand grabbing a mass of the black jersey with
enough strength to sustain the too close for comfort distance. She
decided what she would have to do. Gneiss kicked off her shoes and
with a slow stable movement raised either foot up to remove the sock.
After the act of pretty poise, she stepped into the water to get the free
hand under the head. As an urge that only Conkenu could have
explained, he gambled the success of the maid and reached behind
his head into the warm water. Gneiss then stabilized Conkenu without
knowing that the jeopardized the rescue. She was then able to get under
Conkenu and lift him out of the pond. When Conkenu touched the ground
he illicitly dropped the golden fish into his pocket with some water that
went into his over-saturated sleeve that absorb well. Gneiss got out
of the pond also with some difficulties with exiting because her drenched
brown skirt would not have moved up enough so that she can throw
her legs over the barrier.

"Conkenu, you seem dry enough." She said once she got out of the
pond; she had to sit on the bank and spin herself around on the abrasive
surface. "Why don't you go wake up your father. I am convinced that
he would not have liked to make you wait on your birthday, even if you
are impulsive of the time you arrive."

"I'm sorry for the trouble." Conkenu said to the feet of Gneiss, who
are much more tolerant for him he thought, more than her face as
he thought. He did not a response from the feet, and he played with
his hands to keep his mind off his raising eyes until he could see
her smiling like only a teacher or sage does.


"Don't apologize, I did what I had to do. You must do the same."
She explained to him as she walked to Conkenu and kneeled in front
of him. Her stunning hands slipped into the young master's red pant
pocket and cupped a fish and some water when coming out. The fish
flicked on her palm and splashed the water to trickle small drops out of
her hand. "I do have a better motive to help you than why you always
steal this fish. It belongs in the water, Conkenu."