The Dragon's Pearl Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
“Aki-chan....Aki-chan! Aki-chan where are you?”
The familiar voice calling his name made Akihito look up from the box of toys Ryu-san had just given him.
“Aki-chan! Aki-chan...where are you?”
He dropped his new favorite wooden toy on the floor and ran out in the direction of the voice, certain that his grandmother had come for him.
“Grandma! Aki is here!”
Reaching the front door, he stopped abruptly. Outside, his grandma was waving frantically, but she couldn’t come any nearer and nor could he join her, because where the front garden of the house had been now stretched a big river, its banks lined with big, sharp rocks.
“Grandma!” Cried Akihito as his grandmother, exhausted by her efforts, sat down on the ground and put her face in her hands. “Grandma, don’t cry! Aki-chan is here!”
Trying to climb over one of the big rocks, he lost his footing and fell, cutting his arms and knees on the sharp edges. When he looked up again his grandmother was retreating from view, her figure half concealed by the curtain of mist that had arisen out of nowhere.
“Grandma.... please don’t go! Grandma please wait!!!”
Crying out his grandmother’s name, his body wracked by sobs, he was woken by the touch of strong arms around him.
“Shhh... Don’t cry, baby. Everything’s alright.”
Clinging desperately to his friend, Akihito begged him to take him across the river to his grandma. Ryu-san held him gently and told him again that it was just a dream.
“But...but...” Akihito continued to sob. “Grandma...she was here... She came looking for me, but I couldn’t go to her... The river’s so wide... I tried to climbed the rock but I fell... And she...she couldn’t see me and she was crying... Please, Ryu-san, take me to grandma...”
Gathering him up in his arms, Ryu-san walked to the front door and showed him that it had really been a dream. The garden shimmered softly in the early morning light and everything was beautiful and calm as always.
“It was just a dream, Akihito,” repeated his friend, planting a kiss on the top of his head.
“Can we go see Grandma, please?” Akihito pleaded. “Please, Ryu-san?”
“Maybe later. We have lots of things to do today.”
“Oh...”
”Didn’t you say you wanted to go see the butterflies again? We can pick peaches, and you can give some to your friends.”
Akihito smiled at the thought of sharing sweet ripe peaches with the two birds he had befriended and who now followed him everywhere, one a stout bird with yellow plume, the other small and grey with matching dark rings around its eyes. He nodded enthusiastically and received a smile from the man he thought of as his best friend in the whole world.
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“Aren’t you going to eat your peaches?”
Ryu-san asked as Akihito gingerly placed the two big, beautiful fruits by his pillow.
“These are for grandma and grandpa,” he confided. “They love peaches, too.”
“You’re a very good boy.”
Feeling a little shy, Akihito pressed his face against the broad chest and asked hopefully, “Can we visit them today?
His friend was quiet for so long that Akihito thought he hadn’t heard his question. But when he looked up, Ryu-san was looking at him, unsmiling, with a strange expression on his face. Akihito tried to say something but couldn’t get his lips to form words. He knew he had been asking the same thing many times... Perhaps he had asked him too many times and that had made Ryu-san angry?
“Ryu-san...” He wanted to say he was sorry, but had to stop to blink back tears. Hearing the tremor in his voice, Ryu-san gently touched his face and leaned down to kiss his cheek.
“Yes, baby. Of course we can...” Then, seeing hope grow on the angelic face, “Why don’t we go now?”
Akihito cried in delighted surprise, eliciting a warm smile that made him forget how he had felt just moments ago. Letting Ryu-san carry him out of the house, he closed his eyes as told and giggled giddily as they began to ascend from the ground as if swept up by the wind. The cool night air nipped against his skin, but he felt safe and happy in his friend’s arms. Once he opened an eye and peeked down, but all he saw was treetops bathed in moonlight. The thrill of it all took his breath away, and before he knew it they were standing outside his grandparents’ home. Holding his gifts to his grandparents in both hands, he tiptoed through the door that Ryu-san had opened for him. The house was semi-dark and unusually quiet. He hurried to his grandparents’ room and, seeing the door left ajar, hesitated a moment before peeking in.
“Grandma! Grandpa! I'm home!”
He announced brightly, but the people in the room didn’t seem to hear him or notice his presence. His grandma was lying on the mattress, being tended to by his grandpa on one side and his aunt on the other.
”Grandma, Aki-chan is home!” He walked to the foot of the mattress, but still nobody looked up. “Grandpa! Auntie...”
Looking back uncertainly at his friend, he saw that Ryu-san’s face had become unreadable again.
“Ryu-san?” Receiving no response, he turned back to his grandma. “Grandma, I’m back! Grandma...please look at Aki-chan.”
Sobbing, he reached out a hand to touch the still figure on the mattress, dropping one of the peaches but not noticing. But hard as he tried, he couldn’t reach his grandma, who was weeping silently, her hands clutching a sandal that Akihito recognized as his own. His grandpa and aunt were trying to comfort her, wiping her forehead with a damp cloth and murmuring soothing words that she didn’t seem to hear. Akihito tried again and again to touch his grandma, grandpa and auntie, calling their names in a voice hoarse with sobs, but still they continued to ignore him.
“Ryu-san..” Turning to his friend, Akihito threw himself at him and wept. “Ryu-san, what’s wrong with grandma? Why can’t I touch her? How come nobody talks to me?”
Gathering the small body in his arms, Ryu-san carried him away from the room despite his pleading cries. As they stepped out into the darkness, Akihito sobbed out his grandma’s name and then everything went black...