Chapter 9 - Close to You
Sol had led her through narrow streets. He grabbed her hand a led her through the throngs of people. Kimiko was suprised but welcomed it. It was easy to get lost. She eyed how he held her hand. He was gentle like he was handling a priceless vase. Finally they came to a slower alley. It had only a few people going about their business. "There it is." he said pointing. It was a small cemetary placed in between two buildings. A few headstones were lined in the grass. At the very end were two placed together but seperate from the rest. A small stone path led to them.
Sol entered, but Kimiko stayed outside. She didn't know what to say or do. Sol approached the two headstones. His final steps looked labored. He then fell to his knees. He kissed both his hands and placed each on the headstones. Kimiko was again caught between given her friend privacy and comforting him. She looked around and found a flower shop. She bought two dozen.
Sol was talking when she came back. At least she thought. When she came in, she put a hand on his shoulder. He put a hand on hers and looked up. She gave him the white roses. He smiled and placed them between the graves. "Thank you." She nodded. "That's my dad and that's my mom." He sniffed motioning at each. "Where'd you get-" "A flower shop over there." "Thank you."He looked back at the headstones. "You'd think this'd get easier with time." "They were your world." "Yeah, I know." he paused. "You've made this alot easier. I appreciate you coming." They both left the cemetary and aimlessly walked the city. "Sol, let's do something. I don't want to wait around for Dojo." "All right, what do you want to do?" She smiled. "Something fun."
"This isn't my idea of fun." Sol said. "Oh, come on." she said taking his arm. They both walked into a huge mall. They walked through it, not really searching for anything in particular. That was until Kimiko eyed a neckalace. "Oh my god, it's so cute!" It was a white gold chain necklace with a fire symbol written in Chinese. "Yeah, it's nice." was all Sol said. She groaned. "Ugh, perfect time to run out of cash." Sol wasn't by her side. He was looking at some digital watches. She looked around for a little longer and began to leave. "Sol, you coming?" "Yeah, I'll be out in a sec, there's a PDA watch I'm looking at." Kimiko waited outside until Sol showed up, smiling. His hands were behind his back.
"What? What is it?" she asked. He revealed a small white box. Kimiko gasped. He opened it. There, was the necklace. Kimiko was speechless. She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you." "I wanted to thank you for coming." He helped her put it on. "Oh, it's beatiful." "Read the back." In Japanese, it read, "Best Friends Forever". She hugged him again. "Oh, thank you, Sol." "Yeah. You hungry?" Kimiko wasn't be she nodded anyway.
"So I guess he was superglueing a robot or something. Anyway, he has this habit of picking his nose, and I guess a drop of glue was on his index finger." she laughed. "Then, Wuya told him a Shen Gong Wu activated and he had to show up with his finger up his nose." Sol and her were laughing uncontrollably. "He had to have a showdown with me, while it was up there! You should have seen it!" She put a finger on her nose and said in a mimicing voice "Jackbots, ATTACK!" They both talked and laughed at the foodcourt for hours. Finally, Sol said they should be getting back. They left the mall and began their trek back to the mountain.