Hello and very sorry! It is a bit unforgivable to leave a story hanging like this for over two weeks, and especially when its the last chapter... sorry again. I unfortunately only have access to internet at work - I still don't have internet at home - and somehow I don't think they would take all too kindly to me using the work computer to publish stories. (Maybe I should get my employers hooked on first, and then try it...?)
Oh well, I won't go on. A big thank you to those who have read and commented - as it was my first story in a long while, I was rather nervous about it. But I was very happy to read your comments!
Anyway, without further ado or apologies...
Chapter Five – Sickness
How long had she been there, on that cold floor? She must have fallen soon after he left, just before dusk, since she had not had time to light any of the lamps. Had she broken anything? Was the problem lack of food or was it exhaustion or had she hurt herself, was she in pain? Let her not be in pain! Should he call a doctor? How? And if he did, would they hear a human plea for help or just animal noise?
Questions and fears filled his mind as he carried Hope to her room – that light body, hardly more weight than a bird – and laid her on her bed, and covered her with blankets, and rested her head gently on her pillow, and put the kettle on (on the television they always made tea when someone was upset and Tetsu had concluded that this was a kind of magical human medicine passed down through the ages).
She was breathing, wasn't she?
She opened her eyes as he brought the tea in, and smiled weakly.
"Heart's had a funny turn," she whispered.
He was on his knees beside her bed in a second, taking her hand and feeling her forehead. "How are you feeling?" he asked. "Do you hurt anywhere? What can I do to help?"
"I would love something warm to eat. Just some chicken broth..." she said, in a small quavering voice that didn't sound much like her at all. "I'm sorry to ask it of you, when I know you are a vegetarian and you probably don't want to handle it at all, but would it be alright to make that for me?"
"I'm not – " he began, but realised that this was not the time to discuss his dietary habits and checked himself. "Yes. Yes, it's alright, of course."
He realised as he started on the broth that his hands were shaking. He tried to remind himself that she was, after all, just a human! ... but he knew at the same time that this didn't matter. She was his human. She was special. She smiled at him...
She fell asleep after having her broth and he sat beside her bed, watching her breathe softly, afraid to death that she'd suddenly stop.
It was her heart that was the matter, he understood eventually – weak with age, it had given a flutter and then stopped altogether, for a little while (or something like that). Hope was horribly weak and sick, unable even to rise from her bed. He made her soup and porridge and similar easy-eaten meals, and sat by her side ready to fulfil her every wish. She laughed, once, and said,
"But this is what you hate, dear boy."
"What?" he had asked.
"Living beyond your time. Hanging on, even though your body is telling you it's time to be gone, long since."
"Don't listen," he had said fiercely. "It's not time for you to be gone. You must stay."
She had laughed, quietly and a little wheezily. "Changed your mind, have you? I know you hate this strange human desire for life unending."
"Not when it's you."
He couldn't remember if he had said it, or just thought it, but in either case the sentence had shocked him when he realised it was true. If it was her, he wanted time to stretch out infinitely, to never end. It shocked him, because he had never thought it before.
It was the first time Tetsu loved.
He didn't go outside the house for four days, and when he finally did it was to go shopping for food. They looked at him strangely, in the little shop he had visited with Hope many times before, and he thought They want to ask, but they don't dare. And I want to tell, but I don't dare. How do I say these words, how do I let them know she's hurt at home, and I'm worried...
For the first time in his life, Tetsu wished he was human.
"You're such a help to me," said Hope when he returned home. "I don't know what I would do without you."
She was looking worse, he saw at once. She was paler than ever and her eyes were cloudy.
"I should call a doctor," he said. (But how?)
"No." Her voice was stronger than ever before, suddenly. "I don't want it. I'm old. It's time for me, soon."
"You mustn't!"
She smiled at him, and put a hand to his cheek, the way she used to. "Dear boy," she said, "you've been a comfort to me, this last time. But I'm very ill, now, and I won't ever be the same as before. I don't want to end my days in a home, being looked after by strangers with blank faces. Much better, then, to go now, and here. And I'm tired... I long to sleep."
"Sleep," he said, "and I'll watch over you. I'll see that no one comes."
"There's only one coming, and you can't fight him," she smiled. "Not even you, with your claws and your teeth." She raised her head slightly from her pillow, to look at him. "You're not human, are you?"
"No."
"I thought so. I thought so..." And she lay back and closed her eyes, and Tetsu sat by her side crying human tears.
She passed quietly and peacefully in middle of the night. Death came and Tetsu couldn't stop him.
"She lived alone?"
"She lived alone, yes."
"Strange. Strange..."
"What's strange?" The man who ran the shop close to Hope's home looked curiously at the policeman, who frowned.
"It seems as if someone's been there, taking care of her. And the door was open – that's why we came, in the first place. A neighbour called us in. But none of them have been to see her for over a week."
"Well, I don't know, I'm sure," said the shop-owner, shrugging. "I never heard of her having company."
"So there was not, for example, a young man living with her...?" the policeman suggested, doubtfully.
"What? Where'd you get that daft idea?"
"The neighbours again," muttered the policeman, somewhat shamefaced. "Probably just old women's talk. One or two said they'd seen her with a young man... oriental-looking..."
"Don't know who that'd be," said the shop-owner. "I only ever saw her in here alone. Or sometimes with her dog."
"She had a dog?" frowned the policeman.
"Wasn't a dog, was it, dad?" asked a young man who was stacking shelves. "Was more of a goat. But with long hair."
"What are you talking about, son? Why would she have a goat?"
"It wasn't a dog, anyhow."
"I saw her with a man," said the shop-owner's daughter, peeking up at the policeman from underneath a low shelf and making him jump. "He was barefoot."
"You mean her son," said the shop-owner. "He hasn't been here in ages. Although, now that you say it... there was someone with her here last week, wasn't there? That must've been him. Only I'm sure he wouldn't have so much hair..."
"He had no shoes," said the girl, gravely.
"I'm sure it was a goat, you know, dad," said the young man.
"Where does he live, this son?" asked the policeman, feeling more confused by the minute. "And this goat, where would that be..."
"In Cambodia."
"What?"
"The son."
"And he was here yesterday," said the girl.
"Sorry, now I'm a little... oh, I see... wait, if he lives in Cambodia...?"
"Maybe they don't have shoes in Cambodia," pondered the girl, and started painstakingly tying the policeman's shoelaces together.
Tetsu watched from the roof on the other side of the street. His face was still wet with tears, but he made no move to dry them. He had sat with Hope until morning, and then left without closing the door, hoping and guessing – correctly – that this would bring police to the scene in time. He didn't want her to lie in that darkened house for days until someone finally thought to see what had happened. He wanted her to be found quickly.
He would miss that house. He would miss the beds and the carpets, but only for a day or two. He would miss the television, that endless source of amusement, but in time he'd forget about it. He would miss the food, lovingly cooked, but food was only food and the longing for Hope's pumpkin soup would be gone with his next feed.
He would miss Hope as well, though, and that would never go away.
He knew now what he had been looking for, these past years. He knew because he'd had it, and lost it, and the pain of that loss was worse than anything he'd ever endured before. He had found it in Hope's house, and in her smile, and in the way she touched his face with warm hands.
Totetsu craved a home.
Hope's house was a home no longer. It was a dead thing, dark and ugly. So he was on his way again, looking for his home, searching for that special person that could make him feel safe. He didn't know how long it would take him to get there, but now at least he knew what to look for. And he had hope now that he'd find it. One day...
He sent a final thought towards Hope, wherever she was now, and then rose.
"Pick a direction," he said to himself, "any direction..."
Moments later the roof was empty.
The End...
