Page 41 of Water Moon
Chapter Forty-one
Endings
Keishin could not recall how they had gotten from the onsen and onto the floor of their room at the ryokan. He had lived lifetimes inside Hana, and when exhaustion overwhelmed desire, he dissolved, happily, in her embrace. He closed his eyes, enjoying the weight of Hana’s head on his chest.
“Will you ever tell me the end of Taro’s story?” he asked, stroking her arm.
“Why do you want to know?” Hana said, her voice sounding like it came from somewhere more than halfway down the path to sleep.
“Do I need a reason?”
“Yes. The right one.” Hana sat up, pulling her robe around her. “Because if you want to know the end because you think you will die here, then—”
“I want to know the end because from now on, I don’t wantto leave anything unspoken between us. No more secrets.”
Hana searched his eyes. “All right,” she said, settling back onto his chest. She took his hand and kissed the spot where the Horishi had written her name. “Old age.”
“Old age?”
“That’s what was in Taro’s box. Time had passed differently in his world than in the ocean. When he returned to his village and opened the box the princess had given him, all his years caught up with him and he grew old.”
Keishin stared up at the ceiling. “I think that’s what would happen to me too if I ever went back. I’d turn into an old man. What I’ve experienced here feels like it would overflow from just one lifetime. I feel stretched, struggling, every second that I’m here, to fit everything into a tiny room that used to be my whole world. There are times when I feel that if I breathe too deeply, speak too loud, or move too fast, I’ll crack wide open.”
“Even now?” Hana whispered into his heart.
“No, not now.” Keishin kissed the top of her head. “For the first time since I got here, there aren’t any walls around me to break.”
—
Tomo and Yui bowed and waved goodbye as Keishin and Hana left the ryokan. In the moonlight, Keishin could almost see through them. He waved back and smiled, feeling his feet grow heavier with every step. In an abandoned town, in a ryokan haunted by ghosts, he had found a small patch of heaven. And now he was leaving it all behind.
“The Night Market is not that far from here,” Hana said.
“Is it wrong to say that I wish it was?”
Hana looked up at him with a sad smile. “I wish that we did not have to leave the ryokan too.”
Keishin weaved his fingers through hers. Her palm was warm and soft, a welcome shelter from the cold. Keishin found himself wanting to take smaller, slower steps. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“But you don’t need to answer it. It’s just something that I can’t get off my mind. I know that my story ends with you, but I don’t know how…”
“My story ends?”
“I hate that the question has been rolling around in my head for so long, but it feels even worse saying it out loud. I feel terrible for asking it. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. My name is on your wrist and your life is tied to mine,” Hana said. “But I’m afraid I can’t give you an answer.”
“Oh. That’s…um…okay. I understand.”
“I don’t know how my story ends.”
“But I thought that your whole life was mapped out?”
“It was, but I’ve strayed so far from my path that I don’t recognize anything on my map anymore. Nothing about it has changed, but it feels like someone else’s story now, a stranger whose path ends in…” Hana touched the invisible mark on her wrist. “A moon in the water.”
“What does it mean?”
“I don’t know. It used to bother me that I didn’t understand what the image meant when other people’s paths were so clear. But now it doesn’t matter.”
The sound of vendors setting up their stalls drifted over Hana’s voice.
“The market was closer than I thought.” Keishin sighed. “But I suppose the sooner we get to it, the sooner we’ll get answers.”
“It may take some time to find the people who can help us. The Night Market is a big place.”
“I’m glad it’s big. If the Shiikuin track us to the market, we’ll have somewhere to hide.”
“Running from the Shiikuin might be difficult at the Night Market.”
“Why?”
“We might fall through the clouds.”