Mimi waves at Rick and leaves the aerial studio. Their next performance was in two months, and Rick had been kicking her ass, trying to get the choreography down. As spirits, their stamina is better than most performers, but unfortunately for Mimi, it meant longer routines and more intense choreography. Sore, Mimi turns on the air conditioning and leans back in her car. There was something peaceful about being in a silent car at night.
Reaching into her gym bag, she yanks out her phone, "What the fuck?"
There were twenty missed calls from the unknown number.
"Huh," Mimi blocks the number at nearly the same time another call rings through.
"Hello, this is the golden phoenix," Mimi stares at the caller number on her car's screen. Why were the police calling?
"Am I speaking to Minori Rei?" the woman's voice is civil, too civil for Mimi's taste.
"Yeah, this is her. Sorry, I'm used to answering the phone for clients. What can I help you with?"
"Mrs. Rei. Could you come down to the station? There . . . has been an incident with your wife."
Dread snakes up Mimi's spine, and her tails begin to shake.
"Yes, yes, of course! Did something happen?!"
"Mrs. Rei, your wife is in the hospital. I will explain more at the station."
Could she have fallen? Was it the baby? Why would the police call? Mimi drives to the station like a madwoman and leaps from the car.
Running into the station, she nearly grabs ahold of the receptionist, "Please, my name is Minori Rei. I just got a call . . ."
The receptionist beams at her friendly and says, "Ohh, yes, of course, please sit down. Can I get you bottled water?"
Mimi stares at the woman, blankly, "I would like answers for one thing!"
A little of the light from the receptionist's eyes fade and, in a business-like tone, says, "I will tell them you're here."
Mimi paces the room like a caged animal. Her tails twitching and writhing about, further displaying her displeasure.
After about ten minutes, a woman with a downcast expression beckons her into a room, "I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, Mrs. Rei. My name is Officer Regers. Please sit down."
The officer looks at Mimi's tails but doesn't say anything about them.
"Now, the reason I called is that your wife was found in her office this evening. It is believed," Officer Regers took a plastic baggy out of a drawer that held a piece of stationary with heavy rust stains, "that she tried to commit suicide."
It was like getting sucker-punched with a fist made of cold iron. Mimi felt like she couldn't breathe as she stared at the officer's face with her mouth ajar.
The woman hands her the baggy from across the desk, and Mimi nearly rips it in her haste. It was a suicide note written in her wife's handwriting. Mimi makes a gut curling sound from deep in her throat before something occurs to her.
"You said, tried? Is she okay?" Mimi looks up at the officer tossing the suicide note away from her as if it melted her skin.
"She's at Southgate Hospital. I would, however, like to ask a few questions first," Officer Regers says, but Mimi interrupts, "Look, I just found out my wife tried to commit suicide less than half an hour ago, and I just want to see her. Is she okay? Is the baby okay?"
Officer Regers sighs, "Mrs. Rei, was there anything going on at home? Any domestic disturbances?"
"What?!" Mimi's voice is shrill, "we are happy! We just got done setting up the nursery!"
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Rei, this is just standard questioning. Were you or your wife involved in any activities that would potentially be harmful?"
"I'm an aerial performer, and she's a professor. We just bought a house! The only harmful thing in our lives is the mortgage!"
"Mrs. Rei, when we found your wife, she was apparently looking at this," Officer Regers pulls out a blood-stained book wrapped in a large plastic bag.
The book was opened to a page description of kitsune. Very false and offensive information, but there it was. If her heart had been broken now, it felt like Officer Regers had stomped on it.
"Now, I want to ask you again. Were you or your wife involved in any potentially harmful activities?"
Growling, Mimi stands up, "I will not be answering any more questions without a lawyer present."
"I am sorry for the disturbance, but I have come for my sister," a gravelly voice says from behind Mimi.
The voice is not familiar, and Mimi turns to see an equally unfamiliar woman, except for the emerald eyes. Mimi is nearly pinned back into her chair with the powerful aura the fox spirit is exuding.
"You will allow my sister to leave, for she is exhausted, and I will sue you if you don't," the elder kitsune says quietly, staring into the eyes of the officer.
"Of course, please feel better, Mrs. Rei," Officer Regers says enthusiastically, even getting up from her desk to open the door for the fox spirits.
As if under compulsion, Mimi follows the elder kitsune out of the police station.
"Can you open the car door for me?"
In a state of shock, Mimi automatically uses her keys to unlock the car. This seems to amuse the elder kitsune.
"If I needed you to do that, I would have done it myself," the elder kitsune reveals a cane made of dark wood, and Mimi realizes the woman is crippled.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Mimi opens the door for the kitsune and watches in astonishment as the woman gracefully tucks in her dozens of foxtails, hidden by the long deep blue robe she wore.
Mimi carefully closes the door and sits in the driver's seat. It had begun to rain, and Mimi tries not to count the giant droplets crashing on to her windshield. Crashing into her life.
"Will you be alright to drive?"
Wincing, Mimi turns the ignition and stares through the windshield, "Who are you?"
This close, Mimi could smell the strong, almost overpowering scent of incense.
"It has been a long time, hasn't it. Drive, and I will explain."
Mimi grips the steering wheel hard, tears dripping down her face, "Please just tell me what's going on?"
The elder kitsune glances back at the police station and raising a slender hand, the car gently pulls out of the parking lot and sedately merges into traffic.
Taking her hands off the wheel, Mimi grumbles as the car began driving itself.
"My name is Lillian Hatsumori," the woman nods her head at her serenely.
The strange woman seems to wait a moment as if thinking Mimi is going to respond before continuing, "I suppose you have heard of me?"
Mimi shakes her head in confusion as she wipes her hand over her face.
"Of course not," the fox spirit pauses to regroup, "your wife is being held in Southgate Hospital. Our sister Elizabeth has already moved her to a private room, and she is in a state of suspension. Her body is being worn away."
"The baby?" Mimi clenches her fists and watches the cars whizzing by.
Lilian purses her lip, "I should prepare you for what you are about to see. Your wife lost a great deal of blood. The child . . . did not make it. The cuts went from here" the elder fox spirit put her hand on the base of her wrist, "to here," and made a line to her elbow.
Mimi brought her knees up to her chest and pressed her face against the steering wheel.
"How do you know all of this?"
"I can see the future, very brief glimpses. I was abroad when I received the . . . first vision. I called you many times but could not get through. So, I called our sisters, and then I called the police. I am not as familiar with this area as I once was, making shadow travel rather dangerous in my condition. I got here as quickly as I could. I am sorry I could not do more, just yet."
"Yet?" Mimi clung on to the word as they finally arrive at the hospital.
"One thing at a time," Lillian puts a handicap tag on the rear-view mirror and looks at Mimi expectantly.
"Why would you help me?"
A strange light trickles into the older woman's expression as if she was disappointed. Her unusual accent grew thicker, "We are sisters, are we not?"
"So why haven't I heard from you before?"
"I was not made aware of your existence until recently," Lillian waits until Mimi got out of the car and helps her out of the passenger seat.
"We can reminisce later," back straight and her cane rhythmically beating against the ground, the two sisters enter the hospital.
Mimi heads directly for the help desk, but she feels a slender hand gently taking her arm and leading her away.
They soon come to a spacious private room; the slow pulse of a heart monitor beeping was the only sound.
"Go on in. I will find Elizabeth."
Nodding, Mimi watches the strange woman gingerly move away, her steps calculating. She realizes for the first time that her sister's long hair is a pale white. This was a mark of pride for extremely old kitsune. It could be possible that this sister of hers had reached her centuries mark. But why did she not use her power to fix her injuries?
Huffing at how strange her life had become in the last twenty-four hours, Mimi enters the hospital room.
The woman on the bed could not be her wife; she thought her tails dragging upon the floor.
"Sara?"
There was no answer from the figure in the bed. Mimi crept closer; her nose burned from the smell of antiseptic. She sat in the chair by the bed and looked down. Feeling numb, Mimi stares down at the still figure. Sara is extremely pale, and a feeding tube had been shoved down her throat. The bandages were thick around her arms. Mimi strokes her hand.
"Weren't we happy?" Mimi whispers, trying and failing not to look at her wife's still rounded stomach.
"Weren't we? Was it something . . .? I did?"
She looks so fragile; Mimi could not touch her.
"Why didn't you tell me if you were unhappy?!"
Mimi lets out a growl and wrings her hands, the claws glinting in the fluorescent hospital light.
"How is everything going in here?"
The voice is enchantingly calm. Mimi immediately feels soothed and hates it. She turns around and must blink several times. Another fox spirit with long red hair tied back with a light blue forehead band enters the room in a long white lab coat. Lilian hobbles in next to her, impatiently banging her stick.
"Well, hello there," the doctor smiles sadly, "I wish we could have . . . met under different circumstances. I am Doctor Elizabeth Feng."
The doctor holds out her hand for Mimi to take, and Mimi shakes it hesitantly.
"Lillian, didn't scare you, did she?" the woman's emerald eyes shone as she gestures towards the older kitsune.
The doctor stares into Mimi's eyes for several seconds before releasing her. Mimi could not help feeling she had disappointed her in some way. Doctor Feng fluidly steps around Mimi and checks over her patient with gentle hands.
"Honestly, I can't really think on anything right now," Mimi drops the hand she still held aloft and tucks her arm around her waist.
The doctor looks her up and down before smiling, "Would like me to fetch you a cot? You may stay by her for the night."
Mimi looks down at her feet, "I . . . think I want to go home. I need to process."
"Why don't you come home with me. We have much to discuss," Lillian said carefully.
"Okay," all Mimi really wanted to do is to curl up somewhere and sleep for several hundred years. Maybe the pain would go away.
As if reading her mind, Lillian said, "I don't want you to be alone right now."