How I Blew My Summer Vacation

Chapter Eight: Epilogue

Written By:

Samanda Hime-sama


Life is interesting, isn't it? When parents look down at a newborn child; they see an empty slate. Parents always have plans as well as hopes and dreams for the children that they sire and rear. But after a certain point, children become unmanageable and stop listening to their parents. After that, parents can only observe and try to reach them as children grow up and make their own decisions.

I know my parents are proud of me. Like most of my peers, I went through a rebellious stage and shut my ears to my parents advice but it didn't last long. The loss of motor control in my legs made me dependant upon them and others from a young age. I love them more than ever for their patience and for what they sacrificed for me as I grew up. They have made me into the person I am today. And I will always be proud of them.

I know they are proud of me for graduating college as a computer programmer. They talk of me to their friends and tell them that I have achieved all my goals. But that isn't right. Everything I have accomplished in my life I have done it with hard work and determination but I still have more goals yet to reach. Like being a good wife and mother.

My father in law, Bear, once told me that life stops for no one. And he's right. Life stops for no one and it does not take anything into consideration; it simply keeps blundering on. But poor mortals like ourselves, insist on trying to control the future ahead of us and make life conform into something we want it to. Sometimes that works but life is often fond of throwing obstacles into one's path when least expected.

Two years have passed since Tsukasa and I married. We are extremely happy together. Tsukasa is a successful financial analyst and I'm working at one of the top game companies as a programmer. Our daughter, Akiko, was born five months after we married hastily. We hope to have more children in a few years after we are more stable financially.

Ah, Mimiru. She lives in the same district as us in Tokyo and we try to get together as much as possible to catch up. She graduated college last year and was plucked up immediately by a famous restaurant. She's quite happy as a gourmet chef. We are also pleased when she comes over to visit because she brings the most delightful dishes.

Krim has advanced in the company that he works for. He gave up traveling a few years back to stay close to Mimiru. Despite a number of challenges, they have managed to stay together. They are deeply in love and he proposed to her two weeks ago. She accepted with a kiss then dragged him back to her apartment. I swear, those two are shameless! More than one of their friends has caught them before (I, included!) but Mimiru just laughs it off. That woman always did love to live dangerously.

All of us keep in touch rather irregularly. It's Bear who we sometimes get the latest news from. Mistral tentatively got in touch with Bear and then us when she bought another copy of The World. And after all it took Rose and Kite a long time to pay off their debt. Rose ended up joining the army right after we got back. She loved it and is still career military to this day. She excelled in covert operations and earned herself the nickname 'Nitro' as her army buddies sometimes call her less than fondly.

Kite runs an adult site online with help from Rose. They both make a surprising amount of money from it. It's scary how successful their site it since it deals with fetishes and other kinds of perversions I don't want to know about. They live together but are unmarried. Kite is firm that marriage is a institution meant to trap a male and divest him of his freedom to be a man. (Those were his exact words.) Rose is still browbeating him to change his mind but on this I doubt she will get her way. I don't think they plan on having children and secretly, I sigh with relief. The pictures I sometimes get if that ever happened, make me want to shudder. Kite and Rose as parents? The poor child would be doomed from conception.

Mistral fled after the garage incident and no one heard from her for six months. It turned out that she rescued 'Uncle Ernie' from his captivity with the help of a young, naive volunteer fire fighter named Akichi. They ended up in South America on the wrestling circuit for a while but decided it didn't suit them. Two months ago they started a business to help people find the souls of dead relatives that might be stuck in appliances. 'Uncle Ernie' being the showcase for the unbelievers, I suppose.

Mistral had two sets of fraternal twins with her firefighter husband. It's interesting to note that all children have taken after their mother in both appearance and eccentricities. Let us hope that the three girls and the one boy will not get wrapped up in a cult when they grow into teenagers.

All of us are happy with our lives. I guess you could say that going on vacation with my friends was the last adventure of mine before I became an adult. It changed me and opened my mind up wider to the world around me. It's when I found out Tsukasa loved me. It also showed me what a temper he had! And how he worries over the things he deems important.

So in the ending of my girlhood I found the beginning of my life as an adult. I am lucky in this. Not many people can look back in later years and pinpoint the exact moment when they ceased to be a child. I have no such vague sense of time in this instance for which I am profoundly glad.

When I turned wrote the rough draft for this so long ago and turned it into my 12 grade teacher I never thought I'd come back and finish it later. I stumbled across my paper and the ones I rescued from the others. From that, this account was born.

This might be the last chapter of the book but it isn't the end of our lives by any means. It's just an explanation of what happened afterwards. There's still much more ahead of us left to go. And I for one can't wait to experience it.

Compiled and Written By:

Isazaki Subaru