"Tako, Tako. Tako. Cha. Cha. Chaaaaaaa."
"Meg-chan," her aunt sighed. "Your food is going to get cold."
"Cold?" She beamed up at her aunt with mischievous eyes. "Not cold."
"Yes, cold." Megumi picked up the soup bowl and gently pressed it to her niece's lips.
With wrinkled nose, the girl drank every last drop.
"Miso. Miso. Miso." Meg-chan was clearly enjoying reinforcing what she had eaten with a little sing-song chant afterwards.
"Yes, Miso." Megumi said patiently as she picked up a small portion of rice with her chopsticks and brought it near Meg-chan's mouth. Meg-chan obviously was enjoying her rapidly growing vocabulary a bit too much. But at the very least, she was thankful that she didn't have to reteach Meg- chan anything after she had been left for a number of weeks at the dojo amongst boys who had a tendency to use very colorful expressions.
And she was thankful that Meg-chan was no longer sulking as she did for three days straight after the two had left Tokyo.
"Are you done, Meg-chan?" Megumi smiled at her niece, who despite her odd little behavior she admitted she found charming.
"Mmmmmm!" Her braids whipped around as she nodded vigorously. "Playtime!"
"No, not yet," she answered gently. "We have to put things away, and then we can play before you sleep."
"Okay," Meg-chan jumped up and immediately started to wander about othe room. Megumi knew this habit well enough to determine that this was always preceded a game of hide and seek.
She picked up the bowls and dishes from the table and watched as the girl continued to move about, occasionally stopping to look at whatever caught her attention at that very moment.
She then proceeded into the kitchen, which was a small room down the hall. Unlike most traditional homes, her living quarters had been designed for efficiency. The majority of the lot housed the clinic, which was on the other end of the property. She was particularly thankful for the design - which meant that she didn't have to traipse around outside in the cold just to cook and clean.
But things were different now, and this place was too small now with another Takani in the household.
As she placed the bowls and dishes into a tub already filled with water in the kitchen, she considered that it really was an opportune time to finally sell the property and move. She had a buyer waiting to take the house the next month - not a doctor as she had hoped, but someone who would rebuild it into whatever they wished.
She didn't quite know where they would head. Tokyo was still the most logical and sensible choice, even though things had soured slightly towards the end of her time there. Sanosuke hadn't even shown up the morning they had left. Yahiko had commented rudely that Sanosuke was probably off drinking and gambling again.
She sighed. She suspected she knew the reason why he had lapsed into his bad habits. Until the very last minute before they had to board the train, she had hoped to see him although what she would have said to him then she didn't really know. He wanted something from her, something she wasn't yet ready to give to him, or to anyone.
But perhaps if she moved back to Tokyo, his forgiveness might come in time. And with Gensai-sensei on her mind, Tokyo would likely be where she and her niece would settle for the time being.
A tug on her sleeve interrupted her thoughts. "Auntie?"
"Yes?" she paused and turned to look straight into her niece's eyes. "What is it?"
"What's this?" She held up an envelope. "Present?"
Megumi laughed as she recognized the envelope which she had left on her desk. "No, no, it's not your present."
Her niece's fourth birthday would be in a few days. Already she had some concept of something coming to her, as apparently one of the children at the dojo had told her that she would be getting a lot of presents around that time. During the last few days, Meg-chan had been persistently poking around and examining mysterious items.
Megumi's words failed to convince her niece. Meg-chan gave her a stubborn look.
"Look," Megumi put down her dish and wiped her hands on her smock before taking the letter. "It's a letter I'm going to send to Kyoto."
"Tokyo?" Meg-chan's suspicious look instantly gave way to curiosity.
"No, Meg-chan," Megumi said more slowly. The distinction between the two was apparently lost on her niece. "We're going to go visit Kyoto. That is where Aoshi-sama lives. Do you remember Aoshi-sama?"
"Horsie!" Meg-chan squealed suddenly and jabbered on incomprehensibly for a few more seconds. Megumi couldn't quite understand what she was saying, but at the very least, Meg-chan seemed pleased by the idea of seeing "Aoshi- sama."
"Yes, horsie. But you mustn't call him that when we get there. Aoshi- sama will be very busy, and we'll have other things to do there instead of playing horsie."
"Ok." Meg-chan's expression was again dubious.
Megumi sighed at this child's stubbornness. There could be no doubt that the child was a Takani. "Can you put that back please where you found it?"
"Ok."
Megumi watched her niece skip back out of the room, letter in hand. She suspected by the indirect path she took that her niece would not put it back where she found it, and instead misplace the letter somewhere in the house.
She would rather not have to look for it, and she had every intention of posting it in the morning. She had told Aoshi to expect the two of them at the end of her two weeks in Aizu, and so the letter really was a formality announcing their planned arrival. But there were other things she had stated in the letter . . . things which spoke of Tokyo and Gensai- sensei.
It was not that her mind was made up completely to go to Tokyo, but she told herself that she had mentioned Tokyo amongst other things in this letter to Aoshi Shinomori in order to prevent Okina from inflicting too many jokes on her while her niece was there. Meg-chan would misunderstand, she was certain.
What she would not admit to herself was that perhaps what she had written also had something to do with Sanosuke's last words to her, which she had found deeply troubling. If he thought that she went to Kyoto for Aoshi Shinomori, what would Aoshi Shinomori and the Aoiya also think?
She smiled as she watched Meg-chan head for one of the large chests in her study, letter still in hand. The letter was safe. And she would make sure to take it later and finish it. There were a few names Gensai-sensei had told her to look up while in Kyoto. There were other retired doctor friends in the area he had wanted her to meet after she told him privately that she was also looking in Kyoto at opportunities. She was certain that either Aoshi or Okina would know of them and how best to find them. And she admitted to herself that the appearance that she had other connections in Kyoto would protect her from other strange ideas and gossip.
As for her watching her niece, she knew she wasn't really supposed to be looking, but the last time she allowed Meg-chan to go off alone unsupervised Meg-chan had somehow ended up in the tub. To her relief, she did not immediately seek out some equally unsuitable place to hide. Instead, Meg-chan had managed to climb into the trunk and pull it shut without too much noise.
Megumi set the last of the bowls back where it was normally stored. She wouldn't need them until tomorrow lunch. Thoughts of lunch suddenly reminded her that she had left an earthenware jar outside the back door of the clinic. Typically she would have left it to morning, but the neighbor who had brought over the jar of pickles had said that they were likely frozen through. Megumi would need to bring them in this evening in order to have them thawed for their lunch meal.
Daikon pickles were Meg-chan's new favorite food.
Megumi quickly glanced in the direction of the chest that lay in the other room amongst all her other chests, boxes and books. Meg-chan was very quiet , but she probably could wait a few minutes more while Megumi ran out to retrieve the jar. Megumi really wanted to bring those pickles in before she forgot.
She grabbed a shawl and quietly slipped out the other side of the small house. She gritted her teeth against the cold and moved as quickly as she could while her eyes adjusted to the darkness. It was a moonless night, and there was little ambient light to guide her. Thankfully she had left the jar exactly where she had remembered placing it. Otherwise she would have stumbled around in the dark like an idiot for a trivial jar of pickles. As she reached down for the jar, she immediately regretted that she hadn't brought another cloth with her. The clay jar would be cold to touch. Thankfully, she was a person who could easily improvise. She took off her shawl and wrapped it around her hands as she leaned over to pick up the jar.
As a sweet smell wafted up her nose, she suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.
She barely had time to contemplate whether the pickles had gone bad before she slumped over into a pair of arms waiting to catch her.
~
For a while, Meg-chan lay quietly in the trunk, counting quietly to ten. She repeated that several times for she couldn't count past ten without her aunt or someone else to help her.
Her eyes began to close and open slowly. She was getting warm and sleepy while lying here.
She wondered as her eyes closed completely if maybe she had hidden too well. Maybe her auntie couldn't find her.
When she opened her eyes again, she could hear voices in the house. There were lots of them she could tell, but one sounded familiar. That voice called out to her. "Meg-chan?"
Megumi blinked as she drowsily listened to the voices continue their talking.
She listened as the voice from a younger person approached the trunk. "What could have happened? A woman and child can't just disappear like that."
"It's alright," a young male voice answered. "I'm sure there's an explanation. I'm sure Takani-sensei and her niece will turn up."
"Meg-chan!" the elder woman called out
Meg blinked again and then with a yawn answered, "Obaasan!"
"Meg-chan!!? Where are you?"
Meg sat up and attempted to push up the lid of the trunk "Here!"
The lid opened seconds later and she was quickly drawn out and embraced by her elderly neighbor. "Meg-chan! Thank goodness!"
Meg looked at the expressions on the faces of everyone in the room. There were a lot of people there looking surprised and confused. Meg-chan knew they were her neighbors. She had seen them before. The young man in blue waved them all out as Obaasan knelt down next to her.
"Meg-chan, have you seen your auntie?"
Meg frowned, "We were playing hide an' seek,"
"When was that?" The young man leaned in, interested. Meg-chan took a step back.
"It's alright, Meg-chan." Obaasan patted her, "He's my nephew. He's also a policeman. And policemen are supposed to help you."
"Why?"
"Meg-chan, think. Did your auntie say anything to you last night? Did she go to see a patient?"
"No."
"Do you know where she is?"
"She's looking for me."
"Eh?" The old woman looked confused.
"I think she means hide and seek, Aunt," the young policeman sighed. "Can you tell me about when you saw her before?"
Meg-chan looked at the nice young man and opened her mouth. Suddenly she remembered that she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers. She made a face. "No!"
"Meg-chan," Obaasan began to plead with her.
"No!" Meg-chan's scowl soon turned into tears of rage and annoyance. "I want Auntie Megumi!"
As she continued to complain, the two adults exchanged worried looks.
Outside, an earthen jar of pickles lay broken on the ground. A light colored shawl, muddied and torn, lay by the door of the gate.
Through these doors, the neighbors glumly feared, Megumi Takani would not return.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Author's Notes: False Dawn refers to a false promise for the future.
Moonless Night - In western culture, it is the full moon that holds a lot of superstition. But according to the stories my parents told me, it is the moonless night that is the most frightening. Darkness is much more tangible then, and man-eating tigers, thieves and malevolent spirits wander the country roads.
We've gone now through 25 chapters of comedy, romance, and hope lost and found. There are other emotions and genres still left to explore and plot points from waaay back to tie together. Hopefully, neatly.
"Meg-chan," her aunt sighed. "Your food is going to get cold."
"Cold?" She beamed up at her aunt with mischievous eyes. "Not cold."
"Yes, cold." Megumi picked up the soup bowl and gently pressed it to her niece's lips.
With wrinkled nose, the girl drank every last drop.
"Miso. Miso. Miso." Meg-chan was clearly enjoying reinforcing what she had eaten with a little sing-song chant afterwards.
"Yes, Miso." Megumi said patiently as she picked up a small portion of rice with her chopsticks and brought it near Meg-chan's mouth. Meg-chan obviously was enjoying her rapidly growing vocabulary a bit too much. But at the very least, she was thankful that she didn't have to reteach Meg- chan anything after she had been left for a number of weeks at the dojo amongst boys who had a tendency to use very colorful expressions.
And she was thankful that Meg-chan was no longer sulking as she did for three days straight after the two had left Tokyo.
"Are you done, Meg-chan?" Megumi smiled at her niece, who despite her odd little behavior she admitted she found charming.
"Mmmmmm!" Her braids whipped around as she nodded vigorously. "Playtime!"
"No, not yet," she answered gently. "We have to put things away, and then we can play before you sleep."
"Okay," Meg-chan jumped up and immediately started to wander about othe room. Megumi knew this habit well enough to determine that this was always preceded a game of hide and seek.
She picked up the bowls and dishes from the table and watched as the girl continued to move about, occasionally stopping to look at whatever caught her attention at that very moment.
She then proceeded into the kitchen, which was a small room down the hall. Unlike most traditional homes, her living quarters had been designed for efficiency. The majority of the lot housed the clinic, which was on the other end of the property. She was particularly thankful for the design - which meant that she didn't have to traipse around outside in the cold just to cook and clean.
But things were different now, and this place was too small now with another Takani in the household.
As she placed the bowls and dishes into a tub already filled with water in the kitchen, she considered that it really was an opportune time to finally sell the property and move. She had a buyer waiting to take the house the next month - not a doctor as she had hoped, but someone who would rebuild it into whatever they wished.
She didn't quite know where they would head. Tokyo was still the most logical and sensible choice, even though things had soured slightly towards the end of her time there. Sanosuke hadn't even shown up the morning they had left. Yahiko had commented rudely that Sanosuke was probably off drinking and gambling again.
She sighed. She suspected she knew the reason why he had lapsed into his bad habits. Until the very last minute before they had to board the train, she had hoped to see him although what she would have said to him then she didn't really know. He wanted something from her, something she wasn't yet ready to give to him, or to anyone.
But perhaps if she moved back to Tokyo, his forgiveness might come in time. And with Gensai-sensei on her mind, Tokyo would likely be where she and her niece would settle for the time being.
A tug on her sleeve interrupted her thoughts. "Auntie?"
"Yes?" she paused and turned to look straight into her niece's eyes. "What is it?"
"What's this?" She held up an envelope. "Present?"
Megumi laughed as she recognized the envelope which she had left on her desk. "No, no, it's not your present."
Her niece's fourth birthday would be in a few days. Already she had some concept of something coming to her, as apparently one of the children at the dojo had told her that she would be getting a lot of presents around that time. During the last few days, Meg-chan had been persistently poking around and examining mysterious items.
Megumi's words failed to convince her niece. Meg-chan gave her a stubborn look.
"Look," Megumi put down her dish and wiped her hands on her smock before taking the letter. "It's a letter I'm going to send to Kyoto."
"Tokyo?" Meg-chan's suspicious look instantly gave way to curiosity.
"No, Meg-chan," Megumi said more slowly. The distinction between the two was apparently lost on her niece. "We're going to go visit Kyoto. That is where Aoshi-sama lives. Do you remember Aoshi-sama?"
"Horsie!" Meg-chan squealed suddenly and jabbered on incomprehensibly for a few more seconds. Megumi couldn't quite understand what she was saying, but at the very least, Meg-chan seemed pleased by the idea of seeing "Aoshi- sama."
"Yes, horsie. But you mustn't call him that when we get there. Aoshi- sama will be very busy, and we'll have other things to do there instead of playing horsie."
"Ok." Meg-chan's expression was again dubious.
Megumi sighed at this child's stubbornness. There could be no doubt that the child was a Takani. "Can you put that back please where you found it?"
"Ok."
Megumi watched her niece skip back out of the room, letter in hand. She suspected by the indirect path she took that her niece would not put it back where she found it, and instead misplace the letter somewhere in the house.
She would rather not have to look for it, and she had every intention of posting it in the morning. She had told Aoshi to expect the two of them at the end of her two weeks in Aizu, and so the letter really was a formality announcing their planned arrival. But there were other things she had stated in the letter . . . things which spoke of Tokyo and Gensai- sensei.
It was not that her mind was made up completely to go to Tokyo, but she told herself that she had mentioned Tokyo amongst other things in this letter to Aoshi Shinomori in order to prevent Okina from inflicting too many jokes on her while her niece was there. Meg-chan would misunderstand, she was certain.
What she would not admit to herself was that perhaps what she had written also had something to do with Sanosuke's last words to her, which she had found deeply troubling. If he thought that she went to Kyoto for Aoshi Shinomori, what would Aoshi Shinomori and the Aoiya also think?
She smiled as she watched Meg-chan head for one of the large chests in her study, letter still in hand. The letter was safe. And she would make sure to take it later and finish it. There were a few names Gensai-sensei had told her to look up while in Kyoto. There were other retired doctor friends in the area he had wanted her to meet after she told him privately that she was also looking in Kyoto at opportunities. She was certain that either Aoshi or Okina would know of them and how best to find them. And she admitted to herself that the appearance that she had other connections in Kyoto would protect her from other strange ideas and gossip.
As for her watching her niece, she knew she wasn't really supposed to be looking, but the last time she allowed Meg-chan to go off alone unsupervised Meg-chan had somehow ended up in the tub. To her relief, she did not immediately seek out some equally unsuitable place to hide. Instead, Meg-chan had managed to climb into the trunk and pull it shut without too much noise.
Megumi set the last of the bowls back where it was normally stored. She wouldn't need them until tomorrow lunch. Thoughts of lunch suddenly reminded her that she had left an earthenware jar outside the back door of the clinic. Typically she would have left it to morning, but the neighbor who had brought over the jar of pickles had said that they were likely frozen through. Megumi would need to bring them in this evening in order to have them thawed for their lunch meal.
Daikon pickles were Meg-chan's new favorite food.
Megumi quickly glanced in the direction of the chest that lay in the other room amongst all her other chests, boxes and books. Meg-chan was very quiet , but she probably could wait a few minutes more while Megumi ran out to retrieve the jar. Megumi really wanted to bring those pickles in before she forgot.
She grabbed a shawl and quietly slipped out the other side of the small house. She gritted her teeth against the cold and moved as quickly as she could while her eyes adjusted to the darkness. It was a moonless night, and there was little ambient light to guide her. Thankfully she had left the jar exactly where she had remembered placing it. Otherwise she would have stumbled around in the dark like an idiot for a trivial jar of pickles. As she reached down for the jar, she immediately regretted that she hadn't brought another cloth with her. The clay jar would be cold to touch. Thankfully, she was a person who could easily improvise. She took off her shawl and wrapped it around her hands as she leaned over to pick up the jar.
As a sweet smell wafted up her nose, she suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.
She barely had time to contemplate whether the pickles had gone bad before she slumped over into a pair of arms waiting to catch her.
~
For a while, Meg-chan lay quietly in the trunk, counting quietly to ten. She repeated that several times for she couldn't count past ten without her aunt or someone else to help her.
Her eyes began to close and open slowly. She was getting warm and sleepy while lying here.
She wondered as her eyes closed completely if maybe she had hidden too well. Maybe her auntie couldn't find her.
When she opened her eyes again, she could hear voices in the house. There were lots of them she could tell, but one sounded familiar. That voice called out to her. "Meg-chan?"
Megumi blinked as she drowsily listened to the voices continue their talking.
She listened as the voice from a younger person approached the trunk. "What could have happened? A woman and child can't just disappear like that."
"It's alright," a young male voice answered. "I'm sure there's an explanation. I'm sure Takani-sensei and her niece will turn up."
"Meg-chan!" the elder woman called out
Meg blinked again and then with a yawn answered, "Obaasan!"
"Meg-chan!!? Where are you?"
Meg sat up and attempted to push up the lid of the trunk "Here!"
The lid opened seconds later and she was quickly drawn out and embraced by her elderly neighbor. "Meg-chan! Thank goodness!"
Meg looked at the expressions on the faces of everyone in the room. There were a lot of people there looking surprised and confused. Meg-chan knew they were her neighbors. She had seen them before. The young man in blue waved them all out as Obaasan knelt down next to her.
"Meg-chan, have you seen your auntie?"
Meg frowned, "We were playing hide an' seek,"
"When was that?" The young man leaned in, interested. Meg-chan took a step back.
"It's alright, Meg-chan." Obaasan patted her, "He's my nephew. He's also a policeman. And policemen are supposed to help you."
"Why?"
"Meg-chan, think. Did your auntie say anything to you last night? Did she go to see a patient?"
"No."
"Do you know where she is?"
"She's looking for me."
"Eh?" The old woman looked confused.
"I think she means hide and seek, Aunt," the young policeman sighed. "Can you tell me about when you saw her before?"
Meg-chan looked at the nice young man and opened her mouth. Suddenly she remembered that she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers. She made a face. "No!"
"Meg-chan," Obaasan began to plead with her.
"No!" Meg-chan's scowl soon turned into tears of rage and annoyance. "I want Auntie Megumi!"
As she continued to complain, the two adults exchanged worried looks.
Outside, an earthen jar of pickles lay broken on the ground. A light colored shawl, muddied and torn, lay by the door of the gate.
Through these doors, the neighbors glumly feared, Megumi Takani would not return.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Author's Notes: False Dawn refers to a false promise for the future.
Moonless Night - In western culture, it is the full moon that holds a lot of superstition. But according to the stories my parents told me, it is the moonless night that is the most frightening. Darkness is much more tangible then, and man-eating tigers, thieves and malevolent spirits wander the country roads.
We've gone now through 25 chapters of comedy, romance, and hope lost and found. There are other emotions and genres still left to explore and plot points from waaay back to tie together. Hopefully, neatly.
