RP-Midnight for the Dragon

[frisco 0]

The sound of footsteps pierce the silence as a set of bare feet slowly walks over the hardwood floors of the old house. As they stop for a moment the rustling of clothes is heard as an unseen specter removes something small from a coat pocket. In a moment the familiar sound of sulfur on flint is heard as a match is struck. The flame dances in the air as it illuminates the visage of Candace as she slowly lays it on a piece of essence sitting on an ashtray in the huge parlor. As a haze of purple smoke emanates from the ashtray Candace walks to her high back wicker chair and sits quietly in the darkness. She slowly reaches over to the long Venetian blinds that hide the window and open them just a crack allowing her to see what is going on outside the old house. The looks down the endless granite stairs that lead to the road too find them barren with the exception of a few scattered leaves that the wind is tossing around effortlessly. Tonight the lights are all out on her street leaving the area in eerie darkness. Candace glances at a tall grandfather’s clock nestled into a corner and notes the time is two in the morning. She feels an uncomfortable tightness in his chest as her heart is beating wildly. She always dreads the night as she can never sleep well. It has been a lifelong curse to be alone at night as the world sleeps with nothing but the demons of her past coming by to haunt her.

She is overcome with the desire to go to Lobo’s room and wake him so she won’t be alone but at the same time she realizes that would not be appropriate. She tries to resist her inclinations. In her mind she could envision herself sitting in the kitchen having a late snack while talking about the upcoming SWF Lockdown card, but also realizes waking Lobo from his sleep at this time of the night would not be kind, and Candace so wants to be kind tonight.

As she closes her eyes to try to force away the demons on her past she feels her mind wander to places she does not care to revisit. The odd smelling opium engulfs her as suddenly she is long ago and far away…

 

 

Suddenly Candace is thousands of miles away as she walks barefoot in the cool green grass in Okinawa Japan. The sun is shining brightly for the pretty nine year old girl as she carries a large tin can over flowing with small brown pellets to her Grandfathers’ garden. As she smells smoke she realizes her grandfather is not far away and she runs to the Koi pond where he is waiting for her while puffing on his hand-made wooden pipe.

 

“Yumiko!” her Grandfather calls in his distinct Japanese intonation. He was one of the only people to ever call her by her birth name.

 

A bright smile flashes over the young girls face as she sits next to him. The smell of Jasmine is in the air on this warm September day in 1996. It was one of many idyllic early fall Saturdays that young Yumiko Okimura had spend with her grandfather. As he wrapped his large, muscular arm around her shoulders Yumiko feels secure from anything and anybody. No one could hurt her on this splendid fall day—much unlike the bitter happenings three years earlier in the fall of 1994. As she thinks of that day she bites her lip and fought back a tear that is welling in her eye.

 

Suddenly it was early October in 1994 all over again. It was a terribly rainy day as the six year old Yumiko waits at school for her mother to come by and pick her up. As she rests her hand on the glass plate that separated the door from the elements she could feel the cold rain as it fell on the glass. She was all alone at six o’clock and her mother had yet to arrive to bring her home from school. She walked in the hallway of her school clutching her hand sewn school bag. As she tries to avoid the eyes of the school Janitor she wondered why her mother has not yet arrived. She quietly walked back to the glass window and looks outside as darkness begins to set. As the seconds turn to minutes she finally view's a familiar car pulling up to the school. To her great surprise it in her grandfather that has come to pick her up today.

As she clutched her hand sewn school bag she runs out to great him. As she approached she could tell immediately that something is wrong. Her heart begins to pound as she looks into his eyes. They look very sad and tired. On this rare occasion her grandfather has lost his smile as he looks very somber and old. His walk is unsteady as he dropped to a knee and stretches his arms out reaching for her. As Yumiko ran and embraced him she could feel a warm tear fall from his eye and immediately realizes something very bad has happened.

 

As she finds herself back in her Grandfathers garden Yumiko tries to push the memories of that horrible October day from her mind forever. The day her parents were murdered in a midday house robbery still rips at her heart. She would never forget the look on her grandfathers’ face as he met her at the school. She looks up at his face today and realizes his smile has never come completely back. There is always great sorrow in his eyes and Yumiko wonders what it would be like today if her parents had decided to go for dinner that day and not been home when a group of street thugs broke into their home and sliced their throats for less than $40 worth of Silverware. Would they be sitting with them at the pond that day? Would Yumiko have a sister or brother instead of being all alone with just her grandfather to raise her?

She reaches into the can and removes a handful of pellets and tosses them on the surface of the Koi pond. As the small brown pellets disappear into the water a group of beautiful multicolored Koi swim by to eat them. The fish are huge and majestic as they move with such grace and elegance in the water. They are never rushed or afraid as they swim close enough that Yumiko could probably touch them if she wanted too. As the fish join her and her grandfather a smile crosses her face. She cuddles closer to him as he takes a deep inhalation from his pipe. He glances at her as he puffs out a perfect circle which rises into the sky and disappears amongst the clouds. As he pulls her closer Yumiko smiles as she basks in the security. She feels the great comfort, a security she would never again experience.