Voices of the Present
Perspective: Part II

The Groundskeeper

As Tamao entered the threshold, the smell of olives, freshly baked pastry, and coffee filled her nose. The place was kept warm, perhaps in part by a roaring fire opposite the doorway. The entryway opened into a Western-style, almost European main room with sofa and several comfortable-looking chairs. "You can leave your shoes over there," Oosaki-sensei pointed to a small shelf beside a coat-rack. "You seem to have omitted a coat when you wandered out of the festivities."

"Keeping warm wasn't exactly on my mind at the time."

"I don't suppose it was. Well, you will be warm now, and hopefully you won't get sick on top of everything else. Feel free to make yourself at home, Tamao. You're free to sit on anything, even the floor, except the recliner with the pillow on it. That's Hisoka-chan's. You'll see why here in a few minutes." With a wink and smile, Oosaki-sensei then slipped around a corner and out of view in the direction of the aromas.

Tamao took the opportunity to examine her surroundings. The main room was cozy. As she had noted earlier, there were many places to sit, either Western or Japanese style. The hardwood floors were covered by numerous colorful rugs to ensure feet, knees, or bottoms didn't have to connect with a cold surface. The artificial lighting was currently minimal, although there were several available lamps, but the dancing flames from the fireplace provided plenty of light and Tamao could see why the lamps were unused. Waning daylight filtered through glass windows.

It looks like they must like to have guests, Tamao observed to herself.

There were few other fixtures in the room, save for a plethora of bookshelves lining the walls. Clearly the inhabitants didn't have a whole lot of interest in non-utilitarian "knick knacks". Where there were no shelves, the walls were generally covered by artwork which must have been Miator student works from various periods over the past 100 years. Likewise, what wasn't books on the bookshelves were various artifacts certainly also of student origin. Tamao always felt the best way to judge a person was by looking over their book collection, so the bookshelves drew her interest. Various fiction and non-fiction texts from an amazing variety of languages met her eyes. Japanese and English, of course, but also French, German, Latin, Chinese, and Greek. Subjects ranged from history to mathematics and logic. Although everything but the French in the latter category of languages was alien to her, it was obvious these books were not just for display. They had the look of use, even love, something Tamao wasn't boasting when she said she could tell.

Oosaki-san doesn't know German. I know since we've discussed the importance of language on literature. And she certainly isn't into theoretical logic! What kind of groundskeeper is Uchida-san?

Tamao knew Astraea had a groundskeeper and maintenance person- the place needed one, and she had to be very capable because you couldn't easily call in contractors when you had a compound-wide "no men allowed" rule except during a short period of the summer when students were mostly back at home or away at summer school. She knew her name was Uchida, and that on the rare occasions Tamao had spoken with her that she had seemed very nice. Tamao realized with a start that she had not seen Uchida-san since late summer and that Oosaki-sensei had been doing an amazing amount of groundswork since before summer school. I wonder why it never seemed strange to me that Oosaki-sensei was doing pool maintenance during Summer break?

Tamao was still pondering the odd activities of Oosaki-sensei and the absence of Uchida-san when the sound of slightly rattling china broke her reverie.

She turned from the bookshelves to see a very pregnant Uchida-san walking into the room with a tray carrying a four-setting china set. Like nine months pregnant. That explains a lot! The fact there were four settings on the tray escaped Tamao as she rushed over to help the gravid woman set down the tray.

"Kōhai, I may have eaten a beach ball, but I can still navigate my own living room!" the brown-haired young woman exclaimed with an exasperated voice but a warm smile as Tamao tried to relieve her of the tray. "If you'll kindly just clear the books from this table here, I'll be just fine. Keiko-chan should have thought of that before she asked me to bring coffee, silly girl."

"Hisoka-chan, please give me some credit for having successfully lured our little fishie here this evening. She wasn't exactly biting." Another impish smile and wink met Tamao as the teacher leaned herself back against the wall of the entrance to the main room. "Okay, perhaps her wit took a little nip out of me, but I'll recover."

Despite herself, Tamao felt the first real, wholly felt, unfeigned smile grace her face since the events of the morning.

"Now that's my girl," Oosaki-sensei said encouragingly.

While she remained smiling- how couldn't she with these aromas, this fire, and these two oneesama-feeling young women in the room with her- her smile mutated a bit to show skepticism as well. "Okay, you reeled in a fishie. Am I now to be an entree?" Tamao challenged her teacher with an arched eyebrow.

"That would be telling, now wouldn't it," and continued smiling was the only response from the teacher. Eyes remained locked as the two of them measured the other.

A giggle and the sound of someone currently very awkward dropping into a recliner broke the staring contest. "Keiko-chan, everything you have told me about this girl doesn't live up to the real thing." Uchida-san leaned back to engage the recliner, obviously with some relief to have her legs up.

"I kept telling you that. Does she remind you of someone?"

"If you mean me, Keiko-kōhai, I was never that sweet. She's more like you, although happily without all the angsty tragedy."

Keiko-kōhai? "If tragedy changes a person, then I think today will leave me very different," Tamao redirected her now more grave expression to the reclining woman.

Hisoka returned the eye contact. "Perhaps, but there is tragedy and there is tragedy. Life gave you a lemon, what will you make of it?"

"Life didn't give me a lemon, senpai, Honazono Shizuma did."

"Ah yes, Shizuma. I would have thought after reading your manuscript that you of all people would have predicted everything that happened this morning."

"Manuscript?"

"Kōhai, I read your Carmen script. I couldn't avoid it- Keiko was beaming for a week over your accomplishment with that in such a short amount of time...and all by yourself at that. One of my many regrets about my own lot in life is that I was unable to attend the performance. Faculty aren't supposed to have favorites, but I'll admit to having a soft spot for Minomoto-san and would have loved to see her shine. Don't tell me you didn't have Chikaru in mind for Carmen when you wrote the play, and likewise Shizuma in the role of Don Jose. What happened at the end of the story?"

"Don Jose kills Carmen rather than see her go to another man."

"In other words, Shizuma would rather destroy that which she loves rather than see someone else gain it."

"But I didn't know Shizuma would get that role. It was only after the script was handed in to Rokujō-san that the roles were decided."

Hisoka gave Tamao a look which made it clear she didn't buy the excuse for a moment.

She's right, I did write the script with Shizuma in mind for that role. Hisoka-san is right about all of it. I didn't realize until now what I was telling myself and everyone else. I foretold all this and didn't even realize it. You're slipping, Tamao-baka. "Okay, I admit it. I wrote that role in a way which left no doubt for Rokujō-san who should fill it. The same for the Carmen role and Chikaru-san. I can assure you Nagisa filling the role at the climax was completely unplanned." The latter was added more to reassure herself than to convince the pregnant woman.

"Oh, I don't doubt it, but it certainly compounds the poignancy of the whole event. Shizuma on stage, demonstrating she'd rather kill Nagisa than have her go to another. You telegraphed it weeks ago, Kōhai. How could you possibly have expected her to allow her beloved to go to another in something so public and formal as the E'toile election?"

She's right about it all...I knew...I knew! "Damn her." The tears began to well up again.

"Quite possibly. That said, Shizuma is herself a terribly tragic figure, although perhaps not to the degree of Keiko-kōhai here. I certainly have earned the right to say that." The gravid woman patted her stomach. "There is a saying regarding walking a mile in someone's shoes before you make judgments. Have you really examined Shizuma's footwear, kōhai?"

That brought Tamao up short. Tamao could see in the groundskeeper's eyes that she knew a lot that she wasn't...yet...saying. She also gathered it wasn't just the whole Kaori incident.

"Aoi Nagisa has chosen a very tough road and a travelling companion whose needs may outstrip even the famous abilities of an Aoi. If she had any sense, she would have chosen you. That said, sense has never been a trait of Aoi women."

"Now what is this about Aoi women, my dear idiot roommate?"

What little mooring she had after Uchida-san's recent words was broken entirely by that voice. Tamao felt a stab through her heart. Nagisa?

***Author Comments***

To clarify, at the time of these events Oosaki-san is 22 years old, five years out of Miator, and Uchida-san is 25 years old, eight years out of Miator. I know I should find a way of making that clear in the text of the story, but one of the challenges with anime fanfiction is that people already have images of characters in their mind. I realize there are many who might dispute my making Oosaki-san so young, but I feel it's not unreasonable given her presentation in the anime. Her age and time since graduation are never stated in any of the source material, so I claim license. It will be critical much later on that Oosaki-san have been a sixth year when Shion, Shizuma, and Miyuki were first years. How she could be a teacher at Miator so soon will also become very clear. Oosaki-san is the arc-spanning character, following us from start to finish of this whole project. Hopefully she's a likable sort. :-)

When I have license to create them, my first name choices are very planned. Hisoka (密) means "reserved". Keiko in this case is (恵子), meaning "lucky child" or "blessed child". While she is now, this name will be twisting the knife during her childhood because she was anything but. No, I do not speak or read Japanese, but I love the language and have learning it as a life-goal.

I apologize for my terrible conversation writing skills. I'm not bad at world building and plot, but the talking stuff often escapes me. I'm open to mentoring and hopefully it'll improve because dialog will get really important in Echoes of the Past.

***Reviewer responses***

Thank you all for the lovely feedback so far. I'll try my best to live up to the enthusiasm. By the way, just to be clear, (*looks down and pinches boob*) I'm a girl. ;-)