Sorry about posting off schedule. The real life drama caught up to me, but hopefully that's all straightened out now.
Whenever he needs a day off, or an hour's relief, Nanaki taps me to take his place, despite my protests, and eventually I start to enjoy it.
Today, I'm teaching a unit on Chemistry disguised as cooking. Nanaki's done all the hard work of teaching them what processes are happening when the food is mixed together, the side-effects of spices, and the physical change and breakdown with the application of heat, but I get to show them how to boil eggs, prepare fresh mayonnaise, then make the egg salad and the loaf of bread from scratch in order to eat it all.
I'm pretty sure my lessons aren't actually part of any curriculum, but are things he knows I can't mess up. I don't really care, because now the kids cheer when I come in the class instead of groan.
We finish making the project and take it outside to the ridge and eat it picnic-style. After the kids scarf down their experiments, I send them off to play and I walk over and sit cross-legged in front of Deneh's altar.
"So, we're going to the Gold Saucer for my birthday this weekend," I tell the absolutely still and quiet Deneh as she stares out at the setting sun.
"I don't know if you've ever been there," I continue, "but you should get Nanaki to take you there on a date once you're free. It's a lot of fun." I finish my sandwich and toss the thick crust off to a bird nearby. "Don't tell Vincent I didn't eat the crust, ok? He'll just think I'm being childish."
She says nothing of course, but I don't feel silly for talking to her. Vincent and I stumbled upon her during one of my therapy walks months ago and I'd fallen down on my knees and begged her forgiveness while he watched me, mutely. I'd come up here many times since then, just to talk to her.
"So, when no one comes to visit you tomorrow, it's my fault, so don't blame Nanaki. Right now he and my Vincent are out looking for a Contain Materia. It's only found in some weird-ass quest in Mideel." I look around to make sure none of the kids heard me. We made cookies earlier too, great big misshapen things with nuts and bits of fruit. Mine is still warm and gooey; I eat one in a single bite. The kid's begin playing an impromptu game of kick the can with an empty soda can. Their giggles and laughter spill over us.
"I hope you will like Nanaki after all the years and obstacles he's overcome. I don't know what he was like before, but he's pretty cool now. He's strong and brave, but he's also smart and tender. You've got yourself a good male, if you want him. He's gonna make a great dad –"
"Reno?"
My head pops up and I look straight into Nanaki's eyes.
"Oh, um, you're back early," I stutter. "Well, that's embarrassing."
"Yes, we had wonderful trip thanks to the Mastered Chocobo Lure and Luck Plus Materia. We found three Contains. Vincent is on his way home now."
"Really? Awesome!"
"It was a good day's work. How was the class?"
"Yummy," I say, gesturing to the blanket where not a single speck of food can be seen.
"Wonderful. What were you doing when I came up?"
"Oh, well…" I look back to Deneh and sigh. "When you're gone, I come up and talk to her. I figure she probably gets pretty lonely without you here. The kids said you bring them here all the time for lunch. So, yeah, that's what I was doing."
"You talk to her often then?"
"At least once or twice a week. That's ok, right? I'm kinda hoping she remembers this and forgets about the first time we met."
"I think it is wonderful that you talk to her, Reno. Thank you. And don't be so hard on yourself. The first time we met, you allowed us to finish the ritual. You didn't have to do that. You could have killed one of us, forced us to comply, but you didn't."
"Don't make me sound like a saint, Nanaki. I kidnapped you so Hojo could experiment on you."
"But you had choices on how you could fulfill your orders. You don't know how much I appreciated it. And I know she'll appreciate that you didn't forget her, or her sacrifice."
"How much longer 'till she can come off the altar?"
"Twenty-nine years."
"Shit, I'd be seventy-four then. I guess I don't need to worry what she'll think of me; if I'm still alive, I probably won't remember my own name by then."
He chuckles. "What are you going to do now?"
"I think I'll go home. I need a nap."
"You're welcome to stay and nap in my rooms. By the time you get home, it'll be time to turn around for the town hall meeting."
"Ugh," I groan, "I'd forgotten all about that. I guess I'll call Vincent and see if he wants to go to the meeting."
"He promised me that he would be there. There are some big issues to be discussed today."
"I'll call him then, and tell him I'm staying on this side of town," I take out my phone. "At least I can take a nap."
"Or you could join us in the observatory; I promised the kids a special showing if they were good today… we'll be looking at the constellations."
"I'm totally down for that, yo. Let me just make a quick call."
"See you inside."
I fall asleep listening to Nanaki's voice narrate a history of the constellations. I wake up momentarily when Vincent slips into the seat next to me and twines his fingers with mine, but otherwise there is nothing but rest and good dreams as I lean back in my chair…
"Now we'll take a vote on issue number twenty-six, the request to install a satellite dish on the North rim of the canyon," says the meeting facilitator, Wahkan. I'm told his name means 'has much practice' in the native language of the people of Cosmo Canyon, but to be able to call for a vote of issue number twenty-six, two hours after the meeting started, I want to call him, "soon to be throttled."
Twenty-five of the passed issues have been of zero concern of mine: a permit for a wedding party to use the circle in the main part of town, the formation of a rain dance committee, repairing the roof on Starlet's Pub, switching days for recycling pick-up – ok, that one is sort of important to me, but I could have just read about it in the minutes every household will get after the meeting – new restrictions on fireworks, and on and on and on, ad nasuem for the last two hours.
I sag into Vincent's side and he puts his arm around me.
"Would anyone like to speak in favor of the request?"
"I would!" says Tahcawin. Her name means 'doe,' but I think whoever named her had a sick sense of humor, because she is one of the largest women I've ever met. She's not fat, mind you, but a bodybuilder whose arm is wider than my thigh. "The people of the Canyon would be served…"
I tune out. I don't care about satellite reception. We have one of the best internet service providers I've ever encountered in the Canyon, and I can stream anything I want to watch, including the news out of every major city in Gaia. Hell, I can watch the news in Wutai if I want, so getting a few extra channels means nothing to me.
"I don't know why we're even voting on this," I mumble to Vincent. "We don't live on the North Rim, if the people there don't want it, then that –"
"Mr. Valentine, would you like to address the floor?" Wahkan asks.
"Sorry, not really, I was just telling my husband that I think this should be an issue decided by people who live on the North Rim, as it will be affecting their property values and view, not us South Rimmers."
"That's a good point, Mr. Valentine, but next time please remember to raise your hand and wait to be acknowledged. Tahcawin gives me a look that says she'd hurt me if I wasn't a walking medical disaster. I give her a weak smile, ducking my head to say I'm sorry.
"The vote does not pass, we will table the satellite proposal until technology or tastes change. Now, we only have one last issue to deal with today. Recently we've found that people have been dumping in the South Pass near the water supply. While I have no doubt that this not the work of any Cosmo Canyon citizen, we will all have to be more vigilant. We're going to take donations today for the clean-up, and we'll be adding a guard to the south entrance. We can't have our water supply endangered in this way, we want the Canyon to be a clean, safe place for us, our children, and our children's great-great-great-grandchildren into the future."
Zitkala ('Bird') begins walking among the gathering, holding out a bucket for the donations, when she gets to us, I toss in twenty-thousand Gil. She looks at me, "Are you sure, Reno? That's a lot of money."
I nod, "This is our home. We've got to take care of it." I want to say it is only money and that we're more than comfortable, but that'll sound like a boast. It's not common knowledge that we have a half-dozen Mastered All Materia in a box under our bed, worth more than 1,400,000 Gil a piece for a rainy day, or a dozen newly born All Materia waiting to be leveled up. I wish I could actually go out and help with the clean-up, but that's got to be done by someone who knows how not to contaminate the nearby water, I get that, so this is all I can do.
"Now, onto better things," Odakotah (friendship) says. He's our Community Center Director and this is the part of the evening I wish I could avoid the most. "This month's birthdays are: June first: Mika, June sixth: Reno, June fourteenth: Sintay Galeska…" I tune out as the crowd around me is suddenly very interested in patting me on the back, hugging me, and giving me a general warm feeling of welcome and love. It's strange, how over the years I'd given up on celebrating and focused more on surviving, but it's actually nice to be the center of attention again.