Time passes so fast... Enishi is now turning into a young man. I forget sometimes that he needs attention as if he were my own. I have become immersed into my family life that I have seen Kiyosato and Ayumi less and less. Father leaves frequently now as the murders increase in Kyoto, now a shadow of death in the back of Japanese minds.
"'nee-san! I'm hungry!"
Anyway, I'm coming upon my seventeenth year of life. Life goes on as everyday life should go, but I'm still thinking that something is amiss. My father is more nervous around me-perhaps because I haven't had a suitor, and I'm getting older.
"Tomoe! I'm home!"
Tucking her journal away under her vanity, Tomoe looked aside. Life had gone on in it's average way. Dinner was made, laundry was done, her father was silent, her brother ever so tense, Kiyosato smiled, Ayumi ocassionally visited, and she wrote in her journal. Life was the same as it always was. But now as Tomoe got older, she wished for better things in her new age; something to make her truly happy. She stood up, smoothing out her kimono, before retreating from her room to see her family.
"Tomoe! Where have you been? I have good news." her father announced upon his grand entrance onto the Yukishiro property.
Tomoe retreated into the kitchen to lay out the food that she had kept heated for her family's arrival. As she put the bowls out, her father and brother were already seated at the table in their proper seatings. She smiled to them before taking her own seat at the table. Before her father began to speak, Tomoe took a sake cup from its setting near the container full of the alcohol.
"Would you like some sake, 'tou-san?"
"Ah, forget that, Tomoe! I have more important things to dwell on than sake!"
She sat down with her hands folded neatly in her lap, her posture straight as he spoke to her.
"I have a suitor for you, musume." he said with a goofy smile.
Her gaze turned downward, the faint smile never leaving her face. But the eyes were dark, and distant. She was worried. Hideo's expression didn't drop from it's mirth. He winked at Enishi, who was at a loss of words. His hands were balled up in his lap, clutching the fabric of his hakama. His father had finally made a decision, yet he was so confident about it. Didn't he know? Didn't he know that Tomoe belonged with the family, never to leave their side?
"Thank you, 'tou-san." she said softly with a bow of her head.
"Come now, Tomoe! It's not that bad. I'm sure you will enjoy who I have picked worthy of you."
"I am not doubtful. I trust you, 'tou-san." she lifted her dull eyes to her father, "Let's just enjoy the meal, ne?"
Her expression changed into a smile. Enishi knew better. She was thinking of the future, the unhappiness she would have to endure without the one she truly loved at her side. Enishi looked to his father for some answer, for some sign that he would call off this marriage. Alas, he found nothing but a smile. Enishi kept his peace and began eating the fish with his rice. It was too much for him, and it was wiser not to speak. But as he glanced to the side, he couldn't help but notice how his sister had lost the spark she had before dinner. She was just an empty shell of a woman, with only a broken heart inside.
A Moment's Memory
Romantic Tales Before the Meiji Era
Act X: The Pomegranate Flower
"And he told you just like that?"
Tomoe nodded in response as she put the clothes up on the line to dry. Ayumi stood off to the side with a certain distress at her friend's new disturbance. She knew better than to believe that Tomoe was not affected by such news. She pretended to be content with her father's choice, and told the story plainly to her curious friend.
"Well, he seems really up to the marriage. Are you sure you're okay with it?" Ayumi inquired and tried to sneak a peek at her friend's face.
Tomoe let the clothes hang and crouched down to the basket. She let out a sigh of exhaustion and raised the basket with her as she rose to her feet. She had an impassive expression as she looked to Ayumi.
"Tomoe?"
She smiled faintly and let the breeze brush against her petite figure.
"'tou-san knows best, Ayumi-chan. I agree to it whole-heartedly. It is my duty as his daughter to respect his decisions." she replied, letting the wind carry the soft words to Ayumi.
"But what about Kiyosato, Tomoe?!"
Tomoe brushed back a stray hair behind her ear and continued on toward the house, leaving Ayumi with an unanswered question.
"'nee-san!"
The young boy's cries could be heard down the road as he came running. Ayumi turned to see the youth with a smile on his face.
"Enishi-kun..." Ayumi acknowledged in a whisper.
"Ayumi-san! I have good news for Tomoe!" the boy yelled.
Ayumi met him at the gate, and placed a hand on his shoulder to placate the boy.
"Hush now, Enishi. Your sister is tired. She's been working all morning and is fixing lunch. What is it you have to tell her?"
"I just know Tomoe will like my news. It has to do with her arranged marriage."
"Really?! Is Hideo-san cancelling the arrangement?"
"NO!" he clamped a hand over his mouth as he spoke too loud and saw his sister poke her head out of the kitchen.
"Well, speak softly!" Ayumi demanded, "What's going on?"
"Tomoe's engaged to Kiyosato..."
At that moment, the topic of their discussion walked out onto the porch, wiping her hands with a towel. Ayumi's expression brightened, and she smiled. She closed her eyes, and let the wind capture her own words to the heavens above.
Thank you, Midori-san...
*** *** ***
"Tomoe, is that you?!" Kiyosato shouted with his usual glee while walking along the river side.
His fiancee had just stepped off the bridge when he caught an unsual item in her hands. She carried with her an exotic red-blossomed plant in a wooden basket with a long handle going over the height of it. As he came closer, he had seen her bright face there to greet him.
"Kiyosato, I was asked to give this to you. My father brought it from Kyoto." she said in a volume just above a whisper.
"What is it?" he asked curiously, bending over to examine the life in the basket.
"It's a pomegranate." she replied.
He lifted his head to meet her eyes, and she cast her eyes to the side. Her face felt suddenly hot, but she blamed it on the sun upon her. He stood erect before her and his hands reached for the present. His hands barely brushed against hers as he took the basket from her, but the feelings she had from that little contact made her heart flutter. As she looked as his young face, memories of their childhood seemed to resurface in her mind. He had come to her one day, asking her to come outside and play, but she refused. She had not known why, but she was afraid. Yet he returned day after day, persistant in his urge to get her to come outside. She relented after a time and join him outside. He would climb trees, and she would be too afraid to do so, nor did she think it was quite appropriate for a girl such as herself. He would go off to capture frogs by the river, she would just watch. He had many friends, and she had few, only those she chatted with occassionally. She remembered that he had trouble learning how to write the symbols of their language. He didn't even have to ask. She came to him with some paper and an ink set. She stayed with him until he got the concept of every problem. They were opposites, yet so akin to each other Ayumi teased that they were perfectly complimented.
Now, she was engaged. She shouldn't think of him or feel any of the strange feelings she felt around him. It was wrong, and she should have discouraged any meetings with him afterwards. But looking into his eyes, feeling his fingertips glide across the back of her hand, the smell of pomegranates and white plum mixing in the air, they were so right. She had no right to be there, yet it was okay. How silly that she hadn't even experienced her first kiss while many girls her age were already experiencing more. And to share that with a man she has yet to meet, it disturbed her.
"Tomoe..."
Her thoughts disappated, and she looked to her best friend. He held her father's gift in his arms, and his smile could only make her feel happy that he was.
"Do you want to go for a walk? It's been a while."
"Of course." she answered.
They started walking, Tomoe trailing behind him as usual.
"Plus, it's frog season." he inserted.
She tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"We're not hunting for frogs, are we? Because we're too old, Kiyosato. We left that behind with climbing trees." she said uncharacterisically playful.
He stopped and turned his head to meet her questioning gaze.
"Who knows. Maybe we'll find a little girl watching a little boy catch frogs."
She suddenly felt her face grow hot again.
* * * * *
Enishi earnestly practiced his Japanese characters with his father's supervision. He took some papers from one of the few friends he had and borrowed his sister's ink set in hopes of etching his own name. Hideo sat in the corner of the room, dozing off at the peaceful setting. Things were as they should be. He was home, and he was tired, but surprisingly, Enishi had asked him to stay in the room. With his request, who was he to deny the young son he had become estranged to. He watched the ink dry in a matter of minutes because of the thick strokes of the brush. It was clumsy and so strange to see him so interested in his work.
"How's it coming along?" Hideo asked his son with a tilt of his head.
The boy managed to mutter, "It's okay," before sticking his tongue out the side of his mouth. It was rather amusing.
"You sure are in a hurry to learn. What's with the sudden interest?" his father asked.
The tongue escaped back into its home before he lifted the paper to his father's eyes.
"Enishi Yuki....." his father read, trailing off because there was no more to go on.
"That's not my name!" he protested, throwing the paper onto the table.
"Well, you haven't exactly copied all the way. That's all. Just start again."
Enishi gave a small disgruntled moan as he grabbed the brush and dabbed it in the ink while casting aside the reject, starting on a new sheet.
"My friend told me those were the characters to use!" he muttered in anger and frustration.
Hideo chuckled and stood up from his seat. He made his way to his young son's side and gently eased the brush from his hands into his own.
"Now watch, Enishi. This is the proper way to write your name." he said genially.
His strokes were less satiated with ink and delicate compared to his clumsy mannerisms in daily life. Enishi was amazed at his father's artful hand and how beautifully he had made his own name. It was truly something Enishi had never known about his father. And something inspired him to think of his mother. Possibly, it was the delicate way he handled the strokes of the ink, or possibly the name "Yukishiro." He didn't know, but he felt an emptiness when he thought of her.
"Did 'kaa-san write like you?" he asked innocently.
Hideo stopped and stared at the strokes.
"No. I thought she was a rather sloppy writer." he said with a little chuckle.
"'kaa-san was sloppy?"
"Heavens yes! She was the prettiest woman ever, but she was such a bad writer!"
"So does she look like 'nee-san?"
"Yes."
"Was she prettier than 'nee-san?"
"No. They're equal. But she was a different kind of pretty."
"Did she cook good?"
"Of course. She made the best of everything."
"Why did she die if she was so wonderful?"
Hideo froze. He looked to his son who was closer to him, and he had not remembered when he had laid a hand on Enishi's small shoulder.
"The Gods lifted all her burdens from her shoulders and took her away."
Enishi took this as a sign. He didn't say any more, but he grabbed the brush and began writing his name again, right under his father's example.
* * * * *
Enishi and 'tou-san are acting strangely, but surprisingly, not extremely bad. They are decent to each other, cold civilities dropped and they have acquired a strange father-son bond. 'tou-san has been teaching Enishi on how to write. I'm very impressed with 'tou-san's patience, and even more, Enishi's determination. Tonight is the night I go to see my fiance. We are to have dinner and get to know each other. It's strange...
Tomoe looked to her discarded shawl to the side and picked it up with the tips of her delicate fingertips. The material slipped from the pads of her fingers only to puddle in her lap. Again, she picked it up and folded it into a nice little square, placing it into the drawer in her vanity before continuing her journal writing.
...I'm not complaining. The weeks have become easier to pass and the unease in our family seems to have disappated just enough to seem normal. We laugh in ease and sleep with a clean conscience. It's...peaceful. Please, God, if I am to wed, let it be to a man who will love like my father. And give me the strength to love him in return. I wish to make my family, especially my mother, happy. If only I could tell someone of the anxiety I feel. I can't even tell Kiyosato, my best friend. I must be so confined as to only speak to this journal.
"Come, Tomoe! It's time to have dinner at your fiance's house." her father called at the gate.
I am off...please, let tonight pass quickly.
Tomoe quickly retreated from her room and met her father in her most treasured kimono. She was garbed in the white kimono she had worn when she had went drinking with Kiyosato. The memory of that night made her heart flutter, but she had to keep them at bay.
Her father and her walked in silence towards an all too familiar path to a nearby house. Tomoe knew that path, she had etched it into her mind and heart for as long as she could remember. She stopped, and her father turned to her.
"What's wrong, Tomoe?" he asked in concern.
"I walk this way almost everyday. I just thought..." she let her words trail off as she felt foolish for even hoping that Kiyosato could be her fiance.
"You just thought what?"
"Nevermind. Forgive me. Please continue."
"Well, you know the way more than me. Why don't you lead me?"
Her eyes lit up and a smile grew upon her face.
"'tou-san..."
"Go. Kiyosato's waiting." he said with his eyes dancing with joy.
Hideo stayed in his spot and watched his daughter walk ahead. Her pace increased with every step just as much as her heart rate. And at the gate, her heart stopped.
"Tomoe, forgive me for not telling you."
Those words made her heart swell, and her face brightened with just the utterance of her beloved.
"I'm not mad, Kiyosato. I can never be angry with you." she managed to say.
"I'm glad. I hoped that you wanted this, too, just as much as I."
"Kiyosato..."
Kiyosato looked at the canal that ran between the road and his house. They stood on the little bridge above. He watched as a leaf fell onto the calm water, causing a small ripple to disrupt the serenity.
"I asked your father for your hand in marriage."
"I am glad."
He looked to her with hope filling him.
"You are?"
"Of course. I wouldn't want to be married to a stranger. I know you all ready."
His heart sank. He had hoped that she would say she felt the same. He felt a sharp pain in his chest, but tried to cover it with a faint smile.
"I see..."
There was a lingering silence between the couple and Tomoe had noticed the time.
"Kiyosato, I think we should go inside." she said softly as she brushed her fingers against the back of his hand.
He smiled faintly, but left for his home right away with Tomoe trailing faithfully behind.
- End of Act X -
Author's Note: I'm sorry for not working on this story. I've been so preoccupied with "Dangerous Beauty" and life that I forgot about my other story. The ideas just keep coming for that story, and I was stuck in a kind of writer's block for this. I decided to work on it after a dance concert, and I started getting ideas with songs. So I hope you enjoyed this Act. It was definitely a challenge to get back on the ball. A big inspirations for this act was Eva Cassidy's "Fields of Gold." Anyway, I'm just so happy that it's over because it was hard to write this chapter. Well, please read and review! ^.^
