Firm Hand

When was the last time that I cried and it wasn’t because of a story? It had to be when I was a child still. When we had to leave Okayama. I was eight and we had stayed there for nearly a whole year. It was the last time I tried to make friends and enjoy myself with my classmates.

Like all of the moves, it came with little notice, about a month. It sounded like a long time, but it never was enough. Packing, arrangements, movers, goodbyes, the day to leave came too fast. That time I tried to hide from my parents. I wanted to stay and stop moving. But I was a child and it didn’t work. They found me. We left. And everyone I knew was gone. My parents were the only constant and really only dad in the end.

That was probably when I just started to give up. When I realized the effort wasn’t worth the repeated pain of loss. I would just have to find comfort alone. No one else could provide it to me. Because they would just disappear.

And yet, there was Mrs. Erina holding me as more emotions than I could even think about flooded me. I couldn’t even be sure all of it was about Miss Welinna and what Mrs. Erina had to be feeling. It overwhelmed me. I was lost.

But the warmth wasn’t bad. I missed it.

After who knows how long, I recovered to look up at her. Even though she had to be sad about her friend being dead she comforted me instead. No one had done that for me before. I didn’t even know what to do with that. “Thanks…” It felt so empty for what I should have said, but I couldn’t find any other words at the moment.

“Of course. Sometimes you just need a shoulder or an ear.” I straightened up feeling better. “Now that you’ve got some color back in ya, got a question for you.”

“What is it? If I know, I’ll tell you.”

“Where’s the furry little fireball? She’s not with you and I know she would rather be in this seat of mine right now.”

I didn’t tell her, right. “Oh, she left. She decided to stay with her parents after we got back from the whole thing with the curse.”

A narrowed expression came over her as Mrs. Erina looked down at me. Was she mad? I knew they were friendly, but it was Eri’Sol’s choice. “Did she tell you that?”

“Huh?” She glared at me for a better answer. “No! Her mother did. I haven’t seen her since she had a fight with them.”

“Then how do you know that is what she decided?”

That took me back for a moment. I hadn’t seen Eri’Sol at all since she visited me. She was conflicted. It just seemed natural. “Because it just made sense. Why would she want to stay with me?”

And then suddenly Mrs. Erina whacked me in the head. It made me bounce a little. I felt like that should have hurt a lot more than it actually did. But I still stared at her confused. “For a nice kid, you sure can be an idiot!”

“What?”

“You’ve known Eri for a few days. What do you think she would decide?”

“How the hell would I know? We’ve barely known each other. And she looked torn over abandoning her parent’s profession.”

“If you don’t know, then why don’t you ask her yourself rather than hearing it from someone else?”

“I guess that’s true…”

“Then get out there and go to her! Think real hard about it! She’s a good kid. So think.” Now I think she really was angry with me. I jumped up to my feet like she was going to throw me out the window herself.

“Al-Alright!” Bolting for the door, I made it down two blocks before I realized I didn’t remember where she lived. Embarrassingly, I walked back sheepishly asking Mrs. Erina for directions. And then ran off again before she whacked me again.

It started out more as a heavy jog, but as I thought about Eri’Sol’s bright energy and boundless determination I found myself running. My body still wasn’t used to such physical activity and my lungs were already starting to burn. But I just kept going. Because I should or needed to. She flung a giant sword at me. Just steamrolled herself into my daily life within this new world. Even when I thought she had left me, she hadn’t.

I had been wrong before.

Was I wrong again?

Maybe he was right.