In My Life
Okay, well, shout-outs at the end of the chapter. I worked especially hard on this, and read it at least fifty times to make sure that everything sounded perfect. This chapter really needs to be.
I thank everyone for their reviews. Shout-outs afterwards. Now, onto the story! Enjoy!
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"Stand back!!"
"Please… please live…"
"Okay! Let's count to ten."
"He's not responding…"
"Damnit! Live, damn you!!"
"Ten!"
"Stand back!!"
"We've got something!"
"Thank God."
"Nope, that was just a fluke…"
"God damn it!!"
"Ten!"
"Stand back!!
"Wait a minute… I think he's muttering something…"
"Hmm… he's breathing!"
"Yes! He's gonna live!"
"A job well done."
"No wait… he's slipping out of it again."
"Damnit, don't go into the light!!"
"Wait… he's coming back… umm… TEN!"
"Stand back!!"
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Ringing in a Sunday morning…
Every bit of Makoto's consciousness was slowly sinking back into him. He groaned briefly, trying to discern something familiar from the world around him once again. Barely able to open his eyes, he muttered something inaudibly under his breath, leaving his lips in a sigh.
From somewhere nearby floated in the humming of a lofty and familiar tune. Feeling a constriction on his head as light began to penetrate his eyes, he moaned a bit. Colors slowly began to return to him, and he could see a familiar silhouette on the other side of the room. Short brown hair, long blue dress, somewhat tall, and a slender yet shaped stature somewhere underneath the clothing.
"Where am I…?" Makoto moaned unintentionally. He tried squinting a bit.
His vision began to fully focus, and he saw Elli move from the other side of the room to over his bed. He turned to look up at her, his eyes showing the pain in his head as he cringed.
"You're at the Clinic, Makoto…" Elli replied in a solemn voice. "We almost lost you back there…"
"Nnmmm… back where?" Makoto groaned, still in a daze.
Elli nodded to herself a bit.
"Well, you sustained a rough concussion when you fell from that cliff."
Makoto turned back, sinking into his pillow a bit.
"Wonder why I didn't die…" he tried muttering under his breath. "I should have."
Elli shot him a cock-eyed glare as she folded her arms.
"You broke your right arm too, but that's not what you want to hear, is it?"
"Are you sure there's no internal bleeding or something fatal?"
"Sorry to let you down…"
Makoto looked over at his right arm, his fingers protruding out from the fresh cast. Nodding approvingly, he turned it over to admire the skillful wrapping.
"Good job on the cast," he said.
"Thanks."
Makoto turned to the window. The sun hadn't ripened quite yet in the pale sky.
"What day is it…?" he half-muttered with a sigh.
Elli turned to him, arching an eyebrow.
"Why, it's only the fifteenth," she replied quickly. "Thank God you woke up so soon."
There was a long silence. Makoto turned into his pillow, not knowing whether or not Elli had left to do something else.
"You know…" Elli began again, answering Makoto's question. "I couldn't help but think about how you've been since the Goddess Festival."
"Miserable."
"You looked it."
Makoto turned to her again. She still stood up next to his bed, looking down on him.
"I can't even fathom what it's like being you. I thought I was going to have a bad time when I had to go to the festival by myself," she said with a sarcastic laugh. "But then I saw you there." She kind of went off the trail for a moment, thinking of something to say next.
"The dreamboat Doc declined your invitation to escort you to the festival?" Makoto shot in.
He turned and saw a scarlet red tone cover her face. She turned away a bit.
"Your sarcasm didn't fool me," Makoto added.
Elli came back to him, and gave him a reply.
"You don't talk much, but I guess that means you listen and observe more, doesn't it?"
She continued to stare at Makoto, and he stared back, eventually giving a shake of his mop topped head. Shaking back out of it, he got back into talking.
"By the way, where is the Doctor today?" he asked.
"He had to go on a house call forty miles off in another town that doesn't even have a clinic," she replied, her eyebrows quickly jumping up. "I'm just supposed to make sure you're alright."
Makoto groaned.
"So I can't go home until he returns?"
"You got it. You're trapped."
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As Makoto remained bedridden in the infirmary, Elli got back to her post behind the desk. She assumed her regular stance, her cheek pressed up against her fist as she filled out more forms and logs for the day. She took a quick glance to the open infirmary door every now and then, catching a quick view of Makoto sleeping.
The clock ticked and the clock tocked. Turning her head again, she saw Makoto turn over a bit in his sleep, his light brown mop of hair sticking up all over the pillow. Thinking about how cute Makoto looked left her unable to help but let loose a wry little smile.
She turned back to her work, humming a bit to herself as she filled out more paperwork. Finally capping the pen, she tucked neatly everything into the beige folder labeled "Ogawa, Makoto". She turned around and pulled open the file cabinet behind her, giving it a quick push shut. When she turned around, Makoto was standing right there in front of her, she grabbed her heart as she jumped back. She stood there, staring up at his cold, gray eyes.
"Makoto!" she exclaimed. She pushed her hair back with two nervous hands, just for it to flutter back into her face. "Do you need something?"
Makoto shook his head.
"Then, what's the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing."
There was another silence. Makoto shrugged a bit, and Elli tried focusing back on her work before they looked at each other again.
"You must have a positively enthralling job…" Makoto muttered.
"I can't bear the excitement on days like these…" Elli replied. "This place is sickeningly bland. But then, there are days where I do kind of like it…"
Makoto shrugged.
"I stand corrected," he said. "What do you actually like?"
Elli smiled at Makoto.
"Well, a lot of women come here to have babies. I've seen a lot of births."
"I'd probably pass out at the sight of one."
"Why so?"
"It looks painful!"
"You don't have to worry about that, Makoto! And besides, you're the one who comes in here loosing enough blood to make anyone else collapse!" She laughed. "But you say watching a birth would make you pass out?"
"I can watch people die and not bat an eye." He paused to give her his 'I'm scary' stare. "Creepy, eh?"
Elli shook her head.
"No, no… I don't think it's creepy."
Makoto arched an incredulous eyebrow.
"You don't?"
She laughed.
"What, were you testing me?" she asked with a smile.
Bullseye.
"No, no… it kinda slipped out, is all…" he muttered, his voice somehow remaining calm. He stared into her warm brown eyes, Elli in turn becoming lost in his intriguing eyes.
Another silence hovered in the air between them as they stared into each other's eyes. Finally, Makoto stepped in to break the silence.
"Well…" he began. "I should get back to bed." And he stepped back out.
He turned, and just as he was well headed back for the infirmary, Elli swung out from around the counter.
"Wait!" she exclaimed quickly.
Makoto turned around to look down at her, noticing how much taller he was than her. She looked back up at him, and well, everyone looked short next to Makoto. They stood there for a long moment. Finally, the silence was broken.
"Well… I guess you should get back to bed…" Elli half-muttered to Makoto, sighing a bit.
Makoto nodded a bit as he turned to head back into the infirmary. Elli waited as she heard him crawl back into bed, and let out a sigh. She was done with her work, so she headed back to her post with nothing left to do.
She looked up at the clock. Noon. Only noon. She watched Makoto as he turned over in his bed, awake. He looked over at her as she had her eye on him, quickly feigning sleep in a very cute child-like manner. Elli smiled a bit under her eyes.
The phone was set off behind her, ringing through the entire Clinic once as she still stood there in a little daze. The second time… the third time… it finally came to her as a shock the forth time it rang, so she quickly spun around and pulled the receiver to her ear to utter the rehearsed greeting.
"Good afternoon, Mineral Town Clinic."
There was a bit of a delay as the voice on the other line took a deep breath.
"Elli, I'm not going to be back for a while. There are more sick children in this house than I've ever seen at one time. It's a bad case of the flu."
"That's alright," Elli quickly replied. She blushed quickly. "I just feel bad that I couldn't come and help…"
"You have to tend to your patient, Elli," the Doctor automatically told her in an authorative tone. "Speaking of whom, how is the Sergeant doing?"
Elli gave her forehead a quick smack of realization.
"Oh! That's right!" she exclaimed. "Makoto woke up a while ago, and there's nothing gone awry that we should worry about."
"Good, good," the Doctor murmured. "Glad to hear it. Just keep an eye on him now, okay?"
"Will do!"
The Doctor took a moment to try a quick little chuckle.
"I know I can depend on you…" he said back in his normal tone that somehow managed still to make Elli's cheeks go crisp. "Well, I should let you get back to work." He took a moment to possibly look at his watch. "I should be back at around six if all goes well."
"Okay, Doctor. I'll make sure Makoto's doing fine then. Take care!"
"Bye." He hung up.
Elli put the phone back on the hook, quickly taking another gaze at Makoto.
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Makoto saw Elli taking another gaze at him, so he sat up a bit to look at her. She gave him a smile in response, but just as quickly getting back to intensely drumming her fingers in a drone of a four quick taps at perfect little increments. It was too much like the ticking, tocking clock on the wall.
Hours must've passed on before Elli finally turned her head to Makoto again, but this time to actually say a little random something.
"I'll be right back, Makoto. I'm just going to go upstairs to get something."
Makoto gave her an acknowledging, somewhat "yeah" of a grunt. He listened as she quickly swept out past the counter, and walking quickly up the adjacent stairs. Waiting for her to get up to the top floor, he heard a door above him open and shut.
Now she was gone, giving him the cue to get up from bed and hang around the reception area.
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Elli sat comfortably upstairs on her bed in a makeshift bedroom, placidly writing in a sky blue diary with a pen she kept in her palm from downstairs. The room was somewhat settled into, but not by much. Across from her was a bookcase full of medical textbooks, with a couple little plushies to make it feel a bit more like an abode than a bunk. Other than that, the room was too close too neutral with its pale green walls and new wooden floor.
So she wrote in eclectic and eccentric little threads. The thoughts were just spilling in a steady stream from emotions to paper. She finally did stop, placing the pen aside to be able to grasp the freezer of thoughts with both hands, reading over what she wrote intently.
I thought today was going to be another run-of-the-mill, "Dear God let me gouge my eyes out" uneventful day. But, we can't wish every day to be like that. Anyway, the Doctor went out on an all-day excursion to some remote town (not saying anything) to perform a check up on at least 27 children in one home. Usually, I'd go too. Okay, that turned out to be a disappointment. (Ooh, I'm bad.)
Well, we have a patient here today. It's Makoto, the new boy. He fell off a cliff on Mother's Hill, and surprisingly enough, only getting away with a couple cuts, a broken arm, a minor concussion, and, well, anyway, he's still living all and well. (Ha.)
There's been an awful lot going around about him. "He's a ruthless guerrilla fighter", "He's no good for this town". I must admit, I didn't think much about him the first time I met him. But for some reason, I kind of regret not talking to him more in the beginning. He's actually very kind.
What's strange is that I know a lot about him already (I was updating his record, so I couldn't help but take a peek) and I don't. He's not what you'd call talkative. He's pretty introverted (I'll ask him for his membership later) but still, he's got a good heart.
I forgot! I told him I'd be up here for a second!
She finished reading the last line, smacked her forehead, and dropped the diary into the adjacent nightstand drawer on her way downstairs.
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The file cabinet was wide open, all the little bits and pieces of random information collected neatly into a little reference section, open for business. Makoto had one folder "accidentally" opened on the counter, peering at it briefly. Finally, as he heard Elli come back down the stairs, he tucked the folder back into the drawer with a little nudge of his elbow that made it conveniently slide back into place. By the time Elli had stepped into the lobby, Makoto was standing around the counter, leaning on the clean surface with his unbroken arm and his back to her.
Elli walked up to him, her eyes fixed into her trademark sideways glare as she stopped in front of him.
"If you're going to sift through the files, you could let me know first," she told him with an even tone. Makoto shrugged in reply.
"Yeah, but there's no fun in that," he said, giving her a sideways glance. He shrugged again, slowly sliding back away from the counter. "Oh, well… I guess I should get to bed." He turned and headed back.
"Oh, no you don't."
Makoto slowly turned to look at her, and with that, slowly lift his working arm in the air, ready to succumb. He stood there, arm in the air, and Elli stood across from him, and they stood there… and stood there… and stood there…
The phone rang. Elli excused herself to go answer it again, while Makoto stood in place. He waited for her to get done, listening to her utter out quick replies to the voice on the other line.
"He's doing just fine," she said with a look in Makoto's direction. "Mm? Yes, he's perfectly fine. He's actually up and about." She paused as the voice continued. Makoto kind of looked of, humming a bit to himself. "Sure, I'll tell him. Bye, Doctor." She hung up the phone with a quick motion.
"Well, so much for a conversation…" she came to mutter to Makoto. "The Doctor just asked me to send you home. He won't be back till late, but he wants you to come back tomorrow."
Makoto sighed.
"Such a bummer…" he muttered in a voice that could have been sarcastic. He shrugged, as did Elli, and they stood there briefly until Makoto muttered: "Can I get my clothes back?"
"You certainly may."
Makoto made his exit from the clinic as discreet as possible, leaving Elli utterly bummed out at her desk as the door shut behind her patient. She sighed, and went about the work she didn't have.
Stopping to look at his cast, Makoto stood outside the clinic with an idea on his brain. He took off into the drizzle of the Sunday afternoon, heading to do something he really wanted to for once.
Okay, so I nearly encountered death today, yesterday, when I fell off Mother's Hill. Well, then I woke up to Elli, the girl at the clinic. Yeah, the first time I met her, there was nothing much. I probably didn't like her. I don't remember. I don't care. I can't stop thinking about her, so I went through her med record at the clinic find out stuff about her, because, well, I can't ask her myself. Her birthday is tomorrow. (She's turning seventeen) Well, I got her some flowers (lame), and it's lame, lame, lame, but I really don't care at this rate. I just walk in tomorrow, drop them off, and walk away.
I also found out that she's allergic to bee stings, but she has 20/20 vision. She's also very pretty.
-From Makoto's Journal
Clouds circled around the sky the next day, forming a little peephole pond that let some sunshine down onto Mineral Town. Makoto woke up and went about his chores, watering crops with his working arm. Upon watering the last patch, he swung the watering can on his arm as he turned and hop skipped his start back to his house.
He smacked his broken arm on the front doorframe, not even giving a shrug as he continued straight into the house.
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The Doctor sat behind his desk, pen in his mouth as he grabbed an armful of papers to sort into a neat packet. Shifting the packet to one arm, he pulled the pen out of his mouth and tossed it on the desk, shoving that hand in his lab coat pocket as he headed out into the empty lobby.
Empty, but Makoto stood there, his cheery flowers clutched under his gloomy face as he looked around for who he so dearly wanted to see. The Doctor glanced at him with a quick arch of the eyebrow.
"You don't have an appointment today, do you Sergeant?" he asked, cutting across Makoto and behind the empty receptionist desk. He opened up the file cabinet, and proceeded to sort in the papers like a machine.
"Is Elli here?" Makoto finally asked, holding the flowers at his side.
In a quick and effortless reply, the Doctor shook his head.
"No, I gave her the day off," he said to Makoto, not turning from the file cabinet. "She just went home."
"Where is it?"
The Doctor looked up from the file cabinet, turning to Makoto with his cold look.
"You passed it on the way from the farm."
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Elli headed off down the road, brown paper bags in her arms clutched up against her chest as she proceeded for her house.
The door of the Clinic opened, and out came Makoto with a heaving sigh. As quickly as he appeared, he turned his head to see the short-haired girl from before right ahead of him. For a moment, he was a bit choked up, trying to say something.
"Hey…" he muttered, almost to himself. "Hey… Hey!! Elli!!"
Elli stopped and turned her head back, and when she saw Makoto running up to her, she completely turned around to face him.
"Makoto!" she exclaimed just as he came up to her. "What's the matter?"
With one strong motion, Makoto got down on his knee and thrusted the flowers in her face with his functional arm.
"It's lame," he muttered, breaking all eye contact. "But happy birthday."
Elli stood there for a moment, gazing at Makoto's hung mop-topped head. She looked to the pretty bunch of flowers to Makoto's hidden face, and finally spoke up.
"Makoto, you're too much."
Makoto lifted his head, looking up at Elli's smile.
"Really?" he asked, his eyes caught in a quick flash.
Elli nodded.
"Really, really, truly so!"
Makoto got back onto his feet, holding the flowers. Motioning to the bags, Elli looked at him.
"Just come inside real quick so we can put those flowers in a vase," she said, motioning her head over to the one-story house they stood in front of.
Makoto nodded.
"Sure," he replied. For a moment, he thought of something else to say. "So… I'm going to meet your parents?"
Elli turned away and fell silent and somber, her mouth somewhat hung open and her eyes unfocused. She blinked several times, several slow, painful openings and shuttings of her warm eyes. Makoto swallowed his words, his mouth agape as he stepped back with a subtle slide.
"I…" he uttered, his tongue in the back of his throat. "I'm… I'm sorry…"
Elli came back to herself, turning to Makoto with a slow motion. She looked up into his gray eyes; beyond the coldness was genuine pain, a crescendo into being there.
"It's okay, Makoto…" she replied, staring into his eyes.
She turned, heading over and meeting the door of her home with the grasp of the doorknob and making a quick motion for Makoto to follow with her head. And that he did, slowly trekking up the inviting path into something totally new and inviting. Elli opened up the door, a rush of blood running to Makoto's head.
The sun made its own indoor lighting, slowly running in through the window panes and touching down to solemnly move from memory to memory on the mantle. Embodiments of spirit now gone smiled and laughed beneath the glass cases, leaving Elli with a solemn face as she was passed the flowers from Makoto and proceeded to the kitchen to set the bags on the counter. Makoto waited until she made a gentle motion for him to enter, and he did, turning to feel the memories Elli must've felt every waking moment in her abode.
The dinner table had extra seats. The seat in the den had extra room. The rooms had extra beds. As Elli unpacked, Makoto stood looking zoned as he absorbed everything he felt, for once in his short life. She looked up at him, seemingly muttering his name, yet he stood fallen.
"Makoto?"
Slowly having his attention jarred, he turned to face her. The ineffable rush of emotion strangled his tongue, the lead weight in his mouth sinking into his jaw as his mind went numb.
"Do you want to meet my grandmother?" she asked gently.
With his eyes fixed on her, he nodded in two slow nods. So Elli came out from the kitchen, taking a step in front of Makoto. She led him off, past the dining room and into the den on the side opposite of the starting point.
It was rather simple, a place for the family with bookshelves, a wood floor, and T.V that was large enough. And along the far wall and near the sunny window sat a kindly old lady, placidly swaying in her wooden rocking chair. She looked all nice and warm underneath her blue blanket and white knitted hat, and turned to her granddaughter and their guest with a slow smile that effortlessly spread out onto her face, wise wrinkles forming around her mouth.
"Who's this strapping young man here, Elli?" the old lady asked, looking up at her granddaughter.
Elli smiled, and exchanging a quick glance to Makoto, she turned back to her grandmother with a hand out to Makoto.
"This is Makoto, Grandma," she replied, a small smile cracking on her face. She then finished the bridge, her hand out to her grandmother and her eyes in Makoto's direction. "Makoto, this is my grandmother, Ellen."
With his face inquisitive and his eyes less defensive, Makoto turned to Ellen.
"It's nice to meet you," he said gently.
Ellen nodded with her smile.
"Likewise, Makoto," she replied with warm eyes that shone out past her little glasses.
It was a nice little moment, living in a brief serenity with a few occasional smiles and glances that broke the silence As Elli took another look at Makoto, the front door quickly opened and shut again, little feet pattering on the wood floor.
"There's Stu," Elli quickly said. With a quick smile in Makoto's direction, and a nod back from Makoto, she turned and headed out of the room.
Makoto turned, his hand shoved in his pocket, listening to the conversation going on in the foyer of the house.
"Here, sis! I got you this for your birthday!"
"Wow, it sure it pretty!"
"You really like it?"
"Of course!" There was a brief pause. "I'll put it in here."
"Where'd those flowers come from?"
Another delay as Elli put the flower away in the vase. With that, Stu just took off behind her back, scuttling into the living room as fast as his skinny little legs could take him. Seeing Makoto turn as he entered the room made him stop short, but he gained back his sense as he continued on to jump up and give his grandmother a kiss on the cheek. He made her smile, but then turned to Makoto, his tongue sticking out from his grimy little face. Makoto arched an eyebrow, standing there as Elli calmly walked back into the room, coming up to Stu with a pickup of his tiny hand. They started off in the other direction.
"Come on, Stu," she said. "Let's get you cleaned up."
Stu looked up, and with a little furrow of his eyebrows, he moaned.
"Why's he gotta be here?" he whined, turning his head to Makoto. "He's mean!"
"Oh, he is not!" Elli muttered as they left the room.
For a moment, Ellen looked up at Makoto with a smile. Makoto sort of shrugged, his eyebrow affixed to its perch on his forehead.
"Well…" he began.
Ellen continued to rock in her chair. She turned to Makoto, ready to start a conversation.
"I'm so proud of them…" she half muttered, yet catching Makoto's attention better than any trap could. Makoto looked over. "Their parents died three years ago, and I can no longer walk. My legs hurt all the time, and I wish there was more I could do. But those kids are so good… they've gotten through all of it somehow…"
She cracked another smile, somehow. Makoto slowly but strangely turned to her, his expression inquisitive. He met Ellen's eye, trying to find the words to convey everything he needed to. He finally managed to crack it out.
"How are you not miserable?"
For the long moment, there was a silence with hindsight strangling Makoto's tongue. Ellen looked up and him, and neither shocked nor angry, continued with a smile.
"I have my wonderful grandchildren, Makoto," she replied kindly. "I love them with everything I got. That's all I need."
The words sunk into Makoto, easing an agreeing nod out of him. Ellen smiled, enjoying sharing with him, and she turned to take a stare out the sunny window.
"Their parents… my daughter and her husband, were such good people. They just wanted the best for their kids."
Makoto nodded again, more of a weighted, solemn nod as Elli entered the room again. She stopped, and smiled up at Makoto again. Looking to her, he sort of sighed.
"I should get going," he said to her.
Elli nodded.
"Okay, no problem then," she replied. "I guess I'll see you another time."
"Yeah."
Makoto headed for the front door, taking one more look at them. Ellen still sat by the window and stared into the afternoon while Elli went about her business on that day. So he left, taking off and away from there and back to his farm.
Great. Great. Great.
Her parents are dead. I can't go around liking this girl with her parents dead. Everyone in this town hates me enough, and they would too. I can't do that.
Well, there goes that one.
-From Makoto's Journal.
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Yep yep.
Anyway, *claps hands* onto the shout-outs!
General sort of thing… I love throwing people off.
Fairy Friend- I can't even describe Makoto's personality in one word. Thank you!
Starlight the Wanderer- I'm glad you like this, but I'm sorry that last chapter confused you. Anyway, yeah, I totally agree on the romance thing. Thank you!
Liete- That's cool, I'm guilty as charged. Thank you!
Anon- Don't worry, everyone will have their time to shine in the story. But right now, since there are too many characters and I'm still kinda early into things, you're not gonna see too much character flying around (other than Makoto). But, I'm all for characterization. Thank you!
Aero- Hey, can't wait to see more of your fic. Ah, and since you asked, I don't use thesauruses. I dunno… I've got this whole "connotation of a particular word" viewpoint going. As always, best of luck and thank you.
Mindo- Heh, I'll be sure to keep some humor going along in the story. Thank you!
Anyway, signing off.