A lanky figure sat quietly on the porch steps of the town's old post
office. Rain poured down along her long braid of brown hair, turning it a
mixture of darker shades. The hood to her raincoat had fallen, rendered
useless by gravity, but the owner- a teenage girl- didn't seem to care.
Her eyes, a deep cinnamon color, were framed with thick lashes. Rivulets
of rain trickled down her high cheekbones, dripping off her chin like
tears. She drew in the mud with a stick, ignoring the rain splashing
around her.
"Happy birthday to me." she smiled wryly, drawing a tiny image of a birthday cake. She erased it with a scribble and sighed. It was true, today was her sixteenth birthday, but she didn't really care. She stood, not bothering to tie her raincoat around her. It had been raining for days and days. The main streets that ran through her little town were becoming flooded. The drains and ditches were clogged with wind-blown leaves and branches, leaving huge puddles in the middle of the road.
Chihiro walked slowly through the middle of one of the puddles. She ignored the stares from the several passing neighbors who had dared to brave the torrential downpours. She knew they were muttering to one another in disapproving tones, "That girl is too old to be acting like that. She should know better."
"Oh but you must remember, her mother died only a short while ago."
"That is no reason to go around acting like a child! She's nearly old enough to go off to the university. And there she is, playing in the mud!"
"What a strange girl!"
And so on.
* * *
Chihiro ignored the whispers and the stares and concentrated on her shoes, which were slowly filling with rainwater. Ripples swept away from her old yellow sneakers as she swished through the water. The simple action reminded her of the train tracks in the Spirit World, when she had left the bathhouse to visit Zeniba. These days, memories of the Spirit World were the only things that lifted Chihiro's heart anymore. She had kept the entire adventure a complete secret for the past six years, never telling the story to the few friends she kept at school.
She gently pushed open the door of the darkened house, removing her sopping shoes and placing them in the back hallway. She shrugged out of her long raincoat and hung it on the coat rack, taking care to wipe the excess water off the floor with an old towel. Ever since her adventure in the Spirit World and her employment in the bathhouse, Chihiro had taken extra care to make things neat and clean. It filled her with a sense of pride in her work, as well as a feeling of control. Which mean more now than ever.
The house was cool and dark. Chihiro opened the windows in the kitchen to allow the smell of the wet grass and leaves into the house; her father always scolded her for leaving the windows open, but he wouldn't be home for another hour. She sighed, wrapping an apron around her thin waist. 'He seems to come home later and later these days.' she thought, gazing out into the small garden. As she prepared dinner, her mind wandered to its most comfortable place: memories of her friends in the Spirit World.
'Snap out of it, girl.' She firmly told herself as she reached up into a cupboard for a mixing bowl. 'It wasn't all fun and games, you remember that. In fact, you spent most of the time in a constant state of panic.'
True. But those moments with Haku seemed to dull all the other moments of fear and pain and exhaustion that she had felt. Without her realization, her cheeks began to burn with a feeling that she was all too familiar with and she busied herself with the dough before her. 'And how much longer are you going to wait?' A voice inside of her demanded.
But she realized, as she closed the windows against the darkness outside, that she had nothing else to do but wait.
* * *
"I'm home." A tired, male voice sounded from the hallway as the door opened and closed. Chihiro had just finished the dinner and was setting the table. Two plates, two sets of cutlery, two glasses. The table seemed too big for just two people.
Chihiro's father walked into the kitchen, his exhaustion showing clearly in the lines on his face. Chihiro put on her best smile for him, contrary to what her heart felt. "Hi Dad, how was work?" she removed her apron and hung it in the pantry as her father rummaged in the refrigerator for a beer, then sat at the table across from her.
"Same old." He sighed, reaching for the rice. "How was school?"
"Fine." The teenager lied. That same day, Chihiro had been given two warnings by her teacher about her slipping marks in composition and music. But lately, it seemed like words and notes of music just couldn't live up to her colorful memories.
The rest of the night was just like every other night they spent together. They made light conversation through dinner; afterwards Chihiro cleaned up the plates while her father watched television in the other room. She said goodnight to him, kissed him gently on the cheek while he stared, unblinking, at the television.
* * *
Chihiro sighed as she closed the door to her room softly. She removed her school uniform and changed into a cotton skirt and tank top; the days of rain brought nights of fierce humidity to her small town and she blew sticky strands of hair out of her face. She sat on the edge of her bed, slowly unraveling the long braid of hair over her shoulder. Rain splashed against the roof, trickling down her window and casting dark shadows across the girl's room. Lately, she had found the darkness comforting and rarely switched on the warm bedroom lights anymore. As she ran her hands through her hair, her lips quivered as she returned to the same thoughts that plagued her every night.
'Why can't I go back?'
She remembered the day with clarity, when she had run as fast as she could, tears streaking down her face, towards the long tunnel that led to the Spirit World and her fondest memories. It had felt exactly like striking a brick wall and the force of an invisible barrier had momentarily stunned her. Thrown back against the dirt road, the girl swept dusty tendrils of dark hair out of her eyes, her hands and knees scraped. She couldn't remember how long she had sat there on that silent road, in the middle of the old forest, sobbing into her scraped hands at the unfairness of it all.
'Maybe they don't want me to return.' It would not be the first time the thought had occurred to her. Perhaps they had forgotten her; perhaps Haku didn't need her anymore.
Chihiro was startled back into the present by a cracking sound outside of her bedroom window. She frowned, rising to lean against the desk and peer out. Through the rivulets of rain that ran down the windowpane, she could see that the drainpipe on the side of the house was cracking under the weight of rainwater. Her eyes traveled down the pipe, to the drain at the edge of the garden and saw what the problem was: wet leaves were clogging the drain.
"Hell." She cursed, hurrying down to the garden.
* * *
The clouds parted above her and moonlit began to filter down into the backyard. She sighed with momentary contentment as a light wind lifted her hair off her neck gently. She bent down to clear the drain of the damp, sodden leaves; she pulled them out with quick, digging motions, tossing them into a bucket on the porch. A pool of water that had collected on the small path began to diminish quickly. The water that had lapped her ankles began to recede down to tops of her feet. She gazed for a moment, entranced by the moon's reflection on the rippling water. It seemed as though the moon was trembling above her. Her mind was swept away once more into her memories of that night in Swamp Bottom and all the times she had watched the sun rise over the vast ocean that had formed from the rainfall in the Spirit World.
"This can't be normal, Chihiro." She scolded herself quietly, picking up the bucket of leaves and making her way across the lawn to dump them in the corner of the garden. "Normal people do not fantasize day and night about the Spirit World."
She sighed, stretching her back and placing the bucket next to an old shed. Her feet were dirty and would have to be washed. The thin skirt and tank top were already becoming damp in the wet air and her hair, which she had tied up firmly with her beloved hair tie before entering the garden, was beginning to frizz in the humid air. As she turned to walk back into the house, she heard a rustle in the bushes behind her.
Frowning, she turned. She barely had time to turn her head slightly before she felt a rush of frigid air and dark arms snaked around her mouth and waist, dragging her back into the shadows of the garden's edges. Her eyes wide with fright, Chihiro tried to scream with all her might. The thing that covered her face didn't feel much like a normal hand, but she was too frightened to speculate on that. She wrestled against the powerful binds, her bare feet kicking up mud and leaves around her.
"Hurry up," a dark voice behind her urged, sending chills through her struggling body. Chihiro bared her teeth and bit into the hand that was muffling her and an acid, burning taste filled her mouth. The hand moved quickly, but before she could draw a breath to scream, something very heavy and painful hit her in the back of the head and the shadowy evening of the garden faded into a very black, very silent darkness.
Before her eyes closed, she caught another voice saying something altogether odd: "She bit me! Rin had better give me good compensation for this."
"Happy birthday to me." she smiled wryly, drawing a tiny image of a birthday cake. She erased it with a scribble and sighed. It was true, today was her sixteenth birthday, but she didn't really care. She stood, not bothering to tie her raincoat around her. It had been raining for days and days. The main streets that ran through her little town were becoming flooded. The drains and ditches were clogged with wind-blown leaves and branches, leaving huge puddles in the middle of the road.
Chihiro walked slowly through the middle of one of the puddles. She ignored the stares from the several passing neighbors who had dared to brave the torrential downpours. She knew they were muttering to one another in disapproving tones, "That girl is too old to be acting like that. She should know better."
"Oh but you must remember, her mother died only a short while ago."
"That is no reason to go around acting like a child! She's nearly old enough to go off to the university. And there she is, playing in the mud!"
"What a strange girl!"
And so on.
* * *
Chihiro ignored the whispers and the stares and concentrated on her shoes, which were slowly filling with rainwater. Ripples swept away from her old yellow sneakers as she swished through the water. The simple action reminded her of the train tracks in the Spirit World, when she had left the bathhouse to visit Zeniba. These days, memories of the Spirit World were the only things that lifted Chihiro's heart anymore. She had kept the entire adventure a complete secret for the past six years, never telling the story to the few friends she kept at school.
She gently pushed open the door of the darkened house, removing her sopping shoes and placing them in the back hallway. She shrugged out of her long raincoat and hung it on the coat rack, taking care to wipe the excess water off the floor with an old towel. Ever since her adventure in the Spirit World and her employment in the bathhouse, Chihiro had taken extra care to make things neat and clean. It filled her with a sense of pride in her work, as well as a feeling of control. Which mean more now than ever.
The house was cool and dark. Chihiro opened the windows in the kitchen to allow the smell of the wet grass and leaves into the house; her father always scolded her for leaving the windows open, but he wouldn't be home for another hour. She sighed, wrapping an apron around her thin waist. 'He seems to come home later and later these days.' she thought, gazing out into the small garden. As she prepared dinner, her mind wandered to its most comfortable place: memories of her friends in the Spirit World.
'Snap out of it, girl.' She firmly told herself as she reached up into a cupboard for a mixing bowl. 'It wasn't all fun and games, you remember that. In fact, you spent most of the time in a constant state of panic.'
True. But those moments with Haku seemed to dull all the other moments of fear and pain and exhaustion that she had felt. Without her realization, her cheeks began to burn with a feeling that she was all too familiar with and she busied herself with the dough before her. 'And how much longer are you going to wait?' A voice inside of her demanded.
But she realized, as she closed the windows against the darkness outside, that she had nothing else to do but wait.
* * *
"I'm home." A tired, male voice sounded from the hallway as the door opened and closed. Chihiro had just finished the dinner and was setting the table. Two plates, two sets of cutlery, two glasses. The table seemed too big for just two people.
Chihiro's father walked into the kitchen, his exhaustion showing clearly in the lines on his face. Chihiro put on her best smile for him, contrary to what her heart felt. "Hi Dad, how was work?" she removed her apron and hung it in the pantry as her father rummaged in the refrigerator for a beer, then sat at the table across from her.
"Same old." He sighed, reaching for the rice. "How was school?"
"Fine." The teenager lied. That same day, Chihiro had been given two warnings by her teacher about her slipping marks in composition and music. But lately, it seemed like words and notes of music just couldn't live up to her colorful memories.
The rest of the night was just like every other night they spent together. They made light conversation through dinner; afterwards Chihiro cleaned up the plates while her father watched television in the other room. She said goodnight to him, kissed him gently on the cheek while he stared, unblinking, at the television.
* * *
Chihiro sighed as she closed the door to her room softly. She removed her school uniform and changed into a cotton skirt and tank top; the days of rain brought nights of fierce humidity to her small town and she blew sticky strands of hair out of her face. She sat on the edge of her bed, slowly unraveling the long braid of hair over her shoulder. Rain splashed against the roof, trickling down her window and casting dark shadows across the girl's room. Lately, she had found the darkness comforting and rarely switched on the warm bedroom lights anymore. As she ran her hands through her hair, her lips quivered as she returned to the same thoughts that plagued her every night.
'Why can't I go back?'
She remembered the day with clarity, when she had run as fast as she could, tears streaking down her face, towards the long tunnel that led to the Spirit World and her fondest memories. It had felt exactly like striking a brick wall and the force of an invisible barrier had momentarily stunned her. Thrown back against the dirt road, the girl swept dusty tendrils of dark hair out of her eyes, her hands and knees scraped. She couldn't remember how long she had sat there on that silent road, in the middle of the old forest, sobbing into her scraped hands at the unfairness of it all.
'Maybe they don't want me to return.' It would not be the first time the thought had occurred to her. Perhaps they had forgotten her; perhaps Haku didn't need her anymore.
Chihiro was startled back into the present by a cracking sound outside of her bedroom window. She frowned, rising to lean against the desk and peer out. Through the rivulets of rain that ran down the windowpane, she could see that the drainpipe on the side of the house was cracking under the weight of rainwater. Her eyes traveled down the pipe, to the drain at the edge of the garden and saw what the problem was: wet leaves were clogging the drain.
"Hell." She cursed, hurrying down to the garden.
* * *
The clouds parted above her and moonlit began to filter down into the backyard. She sighed with momentary contentment as a light wind lifted her hair off her neck gently. She bent down to clear the drain of the damp, sodden leaves; she pulled them out with quick, digging motions, tossing them into a bucket on the porch. A pool of water that had collected on the small path began to diminish quickly. The water that had lapped her ankles began to recede down to tops of her feet. She gazed for a moment, entranced by the moon's reflection on the rippling water. It seemed as though the moon was trembling above her. Her mind was swept away once more into her memories of that night in Swamp Bottom and all the times she had watched the sun rise over the vast ocean that had formed from the rainfall in the Spirit World.
"This can't be normal, Chihiro." She scolded herself quietly, picking up the bucket of leaves and making her way across the lawn to dump them in the corner of the garden. "Normal people do not fantasize day and night about the Spirit World."
She sighed, stretching her back and placing the bucket next to an old shed. Her feet were dirty and would have to be washed. The thin skirt and tank top were already becoming damp in the wet air and her hair, which she had tied up firmly with her beloved hair tie before entering the garden, was beginning to frizz in the humid air. As she turned to walk back into the house, she heard a rustle in the bushes behind her.
Frowning, she turned. She barely had time to turn her head slightly before she felt a rush of frigid air and dark arms snaked around her mouth and waist, dragging her back into the shadows of the garden's edges. Her eyes wide with fright, Chihiro tried to scream with all her might. The thing that covered her face didn't feel much like a normal hand, but she was too frightened to speculate on that. She wrestled against the powerful binds, her bare feet kicking up mud and leaves around her.
"Hurry up," a dark voice behind her urged, sending chills through her struggling body. Chihiro bared her teeth and bit into the hand that was muffling her and an acid, burning taste filled her mouth. The hand moved quickly, but before she could draw a breath to scream, something very heavy and painful hit her in the back of the head and the shadowy evening of the garden faded into a very black, very silent darkness.
Before her eyes closed, she caught another voice saying something altogether odd: "She bit me! Rin had better give me good compensation for this."
