What Happened That Day

The sound of the piano was wonderful, even though it was played by an amateur. Ren was sitting in the front row, watching the grand stage with just a piano and a little girl on it. Ren couldn't see things clearly around him; everything was somewhat blurry, except for the girl.

Aria looked flashier than ever, wearing a dress for the performance, and playing with all the skill Ren could imagine she possessed. The show was marvelous, and he noticed that Aria wasn't the same as he knew her; she was a much younger version of herself.

She didn't seem to be more than six years old, and the piano itself, although a professional instrument, was a smaller version for children. But that didn't stop Ren from enjoying it. The sound of Aria's keys made his mind wander.

He imagined the two of them on the back of a long dragon, flying through the sky. Everything felt so real and exciting, and Ren could create the story as Aria played.

But then, the lighting came, bringing them down from the sky. On stage, Aria hit the keys in a way that was so abrupt that even Ren, who knew nothing about music, noticed that something was wrong.

He didn't mind, though; he was still loving the performance, but Aria was deeply upset. He could see despair on her face as she tried to fix the performance, but her nervousness only caused more mistakes, creating more lightning in the dream.

Now, he was at the event's exit, waiting for Aria to congratulate her. However, what he heard were shouts. He approached and saw a tall woman who looked more like a long shadow scolding Aria.

Compared to the shadow, Ren realized he was also smaller, the same size as the little Aria who was apologizing on the ground.

She said she would do better next time, that she slipped her finger, and that was it. But the shadow wouldn't accept that. She had lost the competition, and that was unacceptable. Ren couldn't let that happen, but there was nothing he could do about the shadow, so he ran to a nearby store and bought something.

He couldn't identify what it was, an object he could hold in his hands, and he rushed back to his friend. She was still in the same place, kneeling on the ground and crying. The shadow was no longer visible, and no adult seemed to be helping Aria.

"Hey, I bought this for you," Ren said, handing the object to Aria. "It's a magic ******! If you *** it, you'll feel happy in no time."

He couldn't understand the words coming out of his mouth, but he was sure Aria understood.

The girl paused for a moment; she was still sad, but Ren's presence seemed to calm her. She took the object and forced a smile.

"Thank you," she said, but tears still streamed from her eyes. "I'm not good enough."

"You're good enough for me," Ren replied.

He knew it wouldn't be enough, but it was all he had to offer at the moment, and Aria seemed genuinely grateful.

"Thank you, Ren, for the ****** too."

She stood up, they hugged each other, and she calmed down a bit.

"And I know I'll leave, but we can still see each other one more time," Ren said, feeling all the melancholy of never seeing Aria again as if it were something real.

"Yes, agreed. Tomorrow, you come to see me. I'm going to miss you..."

"Me too, but let's not say goodbye yet! We have tomorrow for that; now we can just play," Ren replied with all the innocence in the world.

A terrible feeling took hold of Ren. Not child Ren, but his consciousness, which had a notion of what would happen in the future. This was the last time they would see each other, and they wouldn't say a real goodbye. But why didn't I go see her?

They played for a while until their respective parents showed up to take them home. The shadow grabbed Aria, who preferred to stay with Ren rather than leave.

"See you tomorrow, Ren!" Aria said as they separated.

Ren's mother put him in the car. The woman looked exhausted. Maya, was a short woman with short, straight hair and a pair of glasses. He remembered how tired she was at that time, not from work but from the divorce. Even now, working hard every day, she didn't seem half as tired as she was back then.

Still, she made an effort to take Ren to watch Aria, something he would only understand how hard it was years later. But he still didn't know why he hadn't met Aria again.

Now, it seemed like a nightmare. Ren was alone, running down a dark corridor. He knew he was heading towards Aria, but he couldn't reach her in any way.

Then he woke up, restless in his bed. It was the first dream about Aria that was so clear, but many questions remained, and there was no way to be sure if anything in that dream was real.

At least he could ask Aria about it next week at school. He didn't want to talk about it on the phone, and they still hadn't exchanged messages, which slightly worried him.

But no, this weekend he needed to focus on drawing and not get distracted by the past. To conquer the magical world he wanted, he needed to win this contest.

Before he started, though, he looked at Niko's white body between his legs and woke him up, remembering the ghost cat from the day before.

"What's up?" Niko asked irritably for being woken up.

"Did you have anything to do with Aria taking me yesterday?"

"What? What are you talking about? Do you think I can leave your mind and appear to others? Have you gone crazy?"

Indeed, it made no sense, but then what was the cat yesterday? Did Ren just not see it? Did Aria lie? Or was it just something magical?

Regardless, Ren got up to draw and thought that if his mother was going to spend the weekend at home, he would cook something delicious for her.