Chapter 13: Curtain Call
Syaoran slammed the door to the apartment and shuffled in, apparently miffed at something. I frowned, a bit concerned seeing as when I last saw him, 20 minutes ago, he was unbearably excited about something that he wouldn't tell me.
"Um...hallo there. What's wrong with you?" I asked. He looked up at me, like he was unusually pissed, then broke into this huge grin.
"Nuthin... just playing around" He chuckled, hugging me lightly and gliding over to the Kitchen, literally, it was a glide... like a dance or something. He was weird.I've known him practically all my life, and I still don't understand the man. I shook my head and sighed.
"Whatever... so what are you so excited about anyways??" I asked, wiping down the counter where I had some chicken earlier. He shrugged.
"I told you... I cant tell you. it's a surprise...the only possible way I could tell you was if you let me blindfold you and whisk you off to some very random location." he said suspiciously. Creepy? Yes, but I was too eager to find out to care.
"hmm...okay. Where's the blindfold?" I asked, very nonchalantly...I love taking people off guard. He stared at me incredulously.
"Seriously??" he asked, taken back a bit by my interest in being blindfolded and whisked off somewhere random. He smiled and pulled a dark blue piece of fabric from his back pocket...my, how convenient...
"You DO know what I'm planning to do right??" he asked me as he tied the cloth around my eyes.
"No, elaborate on that, would you?" I said as he tightened the bond.
"You don't know what I'm doing, yet you trust me..." he said, completely confused.
"Yup...now what are you doing?" I asked, turning in the direction I thought he was in. he sighed and turned my stance a little, I guess I wasn't facing him before.
" I'm going to drop you in a random location...and send you on a scavenger hunt. When you find me, you'll get the prize."
"there's a Prize??" I asked, surprised a bit. I guess he nodded, because he didn't say anything.
"Yup. Now come on." he said, taking my hand and leading me out of the house.
When I took the blindfold off, I was standing in the middle of a creek, suspended on a rather slippery rock. Yes...that was about as random as he could get. However, after about the third turn around in a smallish circle, I noticed the creek was far too familiar. It was the Bridges creek. Not something many people recognize, but when you use said creek for everyday things for about 5 years, talk to me and we'll get all nostalgic about our creek-using experiences that we shant ever forget.
I smiled as I skipped from large, slippery rock to the next, until I made it under the bridge. The tarp still hung on one side, suspended there by fifteen year old ropes and some moldy rocks, and lodged under a large round rock I think I may have used as a pillow in my younger days, was a very crisp, clean and new looking envelope. I rolled the rock off of it and picked up the paper. Flipping the top open and pulling the contents out, I unfolded the paper and began to read;
"Hey! Your reading this, so I guess you figured out the random place I dropped you. Good. Now, what I want you to do, is get away from the bridge and go find Mike the Hot Dog vendor. He'll tell you what to do next. But keep in mind that there are about 50 hot dog vendors, just on Market Street...Good Luck!
Love ya!
-Syaoran"
I snorted and rolled my eyes. Great, how on earth am I supposed to find this Mike fella? Oh well. Best not to tarry any longer. Getting to my next destination was easy, the note clearly said Market Street. But turning on to said street brought and onslaught of vendors. Ouch. So, one by one, I ran up to vendors, screaming as hard as I could with what little breath I had 'are YOU Mike??' then left, dismayed slightly. Finally, Vendor number 45 was my guy. He smiled and nodded.
"Depends on who's asking. You Sakura?" He asked. Mike was a burly gentleman, who smelled of fancy mustard and sweat. He wore a paper hat and a very stained used-to-be-white shirt. It was now a dingy brown.
"Yesss" I sighed, obviously exasperated. He smiled a semi-toothless smile, which brought back the memory...and with it, the reason why I had to find this particular man. He was the first guy I stole from successfully. If I remember correctly, I made up some excuse that my father would hurt me if I didn't bring back food, which I had lost the money to pay for with. He chuckled and handed me a hot dog, topped with everything, and a very large beverage, hopefully highly caffeinated.
"I remember you. Good to see you clean..." he said, doting on my obvious hygienic well-being. I smiled.
"You as well. How much for the Buddha Dog and glorious beverage?" I asked, pulling out my wallet. He shook his head;
"Already taken care of. Good luck on your hunt." he said as I nodded gratefully and pulled the wrapping off of my dog. Of course, there was writing on it:
" Enjoying your dog? Good. Now then. Whilst you feast happily, I want you to make a left onto east 153rd and go until you reach Shanghai's Sushi Bar and Taco Emporium. Once you get there, turn right until you reach the dumpster...its about 3 feet in front of you. You'll find the next clue there.- Love Syaoran"
Ew...Dumpster Diving wasn't something high on my list of priorities today. Nevertheless, I went there. Growing more and more Nostalgic, I realized that Syaoran was making me go everywhere that we went together. Granted, everywhere we went was grubby and due to hunger, we would have never gone there otherwise, but it was, for all intents and purposes, to me, very...very Syaoran. It was his very strange way of doing something romantically. After all, all the letters were signed off with love or something of the sort. I couldn't help but get energetic off of that.
The dumpster reeked. It was horrible. Aged meat and fish carcasses were not very pleasant to inhale. But luckily, no garbage expeditions were required. The note was duct taped to the lid. I peeled it off carefully and opened it. There was nothing really. It simply said:
"Turn around...keep walking. Find the white rows." And thus, I was more confused than I think I have ever been this night. But I did as instructed. I turned around and ran straight. And kept running. And running...until I was certain there was nowhere left to run. As I slowed to a halt, I spun around in a small circle until my eyes fell on two brick walls that made a path into Central Park, completely covered in white roses. Tucked inside a large group of then, was a red envelope. Grabbing it quickly, I pulled out the white paper inside and sighed.
"Haha. Fun, right? Sorry for exhausting you so much. Anywho, not much left now. I need you to take a left and walk until you find The House. You know which one. Love-x-Infinity... Yes, that WAS cheesy, but im running out of fun things to write!!! -Sniff-
-You-Know-Who (NO!! Not that one!!)"
I laughed and turned left, tucking the note in my bag with the rest of them. I ran briskly until I skidded to a sharp halt in front of the still condemned house. The windows and doors had been re-covered with thick two-by-fours, but the back door hung open loosely. I squeezed my way past the furniture blocking the door and hopped to the floor about a foot below me. I walked into the room where we all used to stay, I looked around for some clues. Taped to the mantle above the fireplace, was another note. I picked it off the wall and smiled.
"This is the last one! YAY! Okay. Lets see how good your memory is...go to the corner of Huxley and Bourque. Ill be there by the Green mailbox. -Syaoran." I frowned and began wracking my brain for what that place held. But it struck me like a lead balloon and I rushed out of the house with as much gusto as I could muster. I sprinted down the street and skidded around corners until I came to a dead halt. He was leaning against the mailbox, reading a magazine and checking his watch periodically. I slowed down to a trot and attempted to catch my breath as I slid up behind him. I saw his face distort into a smile as he turned around on his heel.
"Hey. Have any fun?" he asked as he wrapped me in a quick hug and stared me in the eyes.
"Yes, actually I did. Got me a free Buddha Dog an' everything. Although I must admit, you, my dear, have one hell of a memory." I sighed, leaning into his shoulder. He laughed.
"apparently you do too. But do you remember here??" he asked hopefully. I nodded and grinned.
"Well, yea. Its where we met." I said with an obvious tone. He smiled and nodded.
"Good. Now come here..." he said, leading me to a bench. I sat down cross legged and stared at him.
" ...My name is Syaoran Li. I'm 25 years old, 26 in November. I work for the New York Times as a Photographer and am known to all who know me as an orphan. But in truth, I do have a family, I just choose to stay away from them. They actually consider me dead. I ran away from them in China when I discovered that we were actually part of the equivalence of the Chinese Mafia. They said they wouldn't come after me, but I was dead to them. When I was nine, I met my best friend Eriol, who truly was orphaned after a house fire, and in turn we met Tomoyo and Takashi. When I was 11, I met the girl I knew I would wind up spending the rest of my life with right here there at the mailbox. She had stolen a sub and was unfortunately caught. Nearly 20 years later and a ten year lapse of depression from not seeing her, I found her again and did everything in my power to get her back. I did." He said, taking my hand through the middle of it all. I blinked in confusion, not really sure what to say about his life story.
"wow. But why are you telling me this??" I asked, irrevocably confused. He laughed mirthfully and sighed.
"Because, I wanted you to know who I was before I asked you the most important thing I will ever ask..." he said, pulling out a small black box from his pocket and falling to one knee. It was then that my heart stopped and my lungs decided to fail. A swarm of butterflies crashed into the pit of my stomach and my eyes watered uncontrollably. "...Marry me, Sakura." he said in a low voice. I gasped.
" My name is Sakura Kinomoto, I'm 24, 25 in December. When I was five, I told my friend Toya that I had three big toes and a tail, which I his in my pants. He believed me. When I was 9, I was orphaned and sent to New York, in order to find a family. I never did... that is until, I met a boy a few years older than me, who helped me and my stolen sub make a run for it after I tripped and fell. From then on, I stayed with him and his group of vagabond orphans, who turned out to be the best people I could ever meet. It was when I was ten that I fell in love with my savior. But I never got the chance to tell him until fifteen years later and a ten year gap where we never saw each other. I was adopted by wonderful people and have a step sister who I love to death, even though she isn't born yet. I have been known to talk nonsensical things in my sleep, and have been told that there is no person that has ever loved someone more than myself and that boy. I work at the New York Times, where I am a journalist. It turns out that the photographer that I work with is that boy, and I love him insanely..." I said, most of that in one breath. He raised an eyebrow and looked up at me. "I wanted to tell you who I was before I said yes." I said, falling on top of him and hugging him until I don't think he could breathe anymore. He could, I guess, and he slid a small, but absolutely gorgeous ring around my finger and smiled before catching me off guard with a kiss.
It turns out that he did, in fact ask me to jump off a bridge, but attached to very secure ropes. We went bungee jumping while in Ireland on our honeymoon. We got married in December, two weeks after my birthday, on the 24th, Christmas Eve. It was a small wedding, but that's what we liked about it, not many people to fuss over us, and vice versa. Next week, we'll be celebrating our 2 year anniversary. It was peculiar, when I was younger, I never thought about any of this, I thought I would be alone forever. But I was wrong. And everything that I was afraid would never happen, happened. Which is strange and slightly ironic. Anywho, I remember a while back, Syaoran asked me if I could go back in time, would I change anything. I shook my head and told him no...cause if I never got stuck here, I never would have met him. Or if my mom never died, we'd be happy in New York, and I still wouldn't have met him and the people I call family. I don't regret any of it, don't want to change any of it. And 5 years and nine months from now, Syaoran and I will hold no shame when we tell that little boy or girl that her parents met on the streets. Because there's no point in hiding the greatness that is the truth, now is there?
That"s my story. I told you it would be worth it. Now, don't go getting inspired and become an orphan or a runaway yourself. You saw first hand how bad it is...but at the same time, how great and wonderful it can turn out. Now go off and show this to your kids. Maybe someday, when this book is long since gone from whatever list it made, people will look at it and go ' hot damn, that chick went through a lot. Good for her!!' I'd Like that...a lot.
I closed my laptop after the printing began, and waited until the last of ten page spat out. I stapled the top and slid it into a stamped Manila envelope, then trudged outside and dropped it into the green mailbox outside of our apartment. Syaoran had suggested, a while back that I write our tale and make it a book. I thought it was a dumb idea, until my boss at the Times said that she knew a publisher who would gladly take in my 'incredible and awe inspiring story'. So I did. I just mailed off the last chapter to my editor, who, in turn will give it to the publishing company after checking it over, and next year, my first book; "A Place to Call Home" will hit bookstores nationwide. Cool huh? Yea, I thought so too.
Thats it!!! ITS DONE!!!!!! Does a happy dance woo!! I am terribly proud of this feat, and will celebrate by...eating lunch and playing Star Ocean. Yes, that sounds good. Anywho, I suppose I owe a quick disclaimer here. I don't own Harry Potter. I made a quick reference, if you managed to catch it. But anyways. I am DONE!! With this one at least. What's coming next?? Only time will tell. Until said time, thank you EVER so much for sticking with this crazy author, I greatly appreciate it...and am terribly enthralled that you all enjoyed it so much! So...Until Next Time, in another story,
Ja Ne!
-Kirra