Sublimation

By TheNakedKing

She glanced around the corner, peering into the classroom to stare at her Professor, who sat at his desk. As always he was reading, nose buried in a book, spectacles perched precariously at the end of his thin nose. He didn't see her yet, but she cleared her throat primly and he looked up, dark eyes widening in surprise momentarily before a warm smile lit the features of his aging face.

"Ah, my dear," he placed his book gingerly upon the desk, "I wasn't expecting you for another fifteen minutes."

"So sorry," she said as she rushed into the room, shutting the door behind her. With a sigh she sunk into the chair across from his desk, her heavy backpack hitting the floor with a plunk. "My mom is going to be here early to pick me up for the Holidays, so I thought I'd stop in early." There was a pause and she worried her lip, temporarily second guessing her own judgment. "I hope I'm not bothering you?"

"Not at all," he shook his head, chuckling. "But the term is over. I'm done being your Professor now, remember?"

She smiled sheepishly. "Oh, I know, I just had to say goodbye, Professor."

For a moment he considered her before returning her smile. "Well that's considerate of you." He leaned forward and rested his chin in his hand, head cocked to one side. "I know you, Cassie. What are you really here for?"

Cassie blanched a bit and wrung her hands in her lap, her eyes downcast. "I just wanted to know how your novel is going to end."

Silence spanned between them, draped over the small office space like a wet blanket, before the professor laughed; a jolly sound by all accounts. Eyes sparkling with amusement, he reached down to open his desk, retrieving a sheath of papers in a bright red folder. The folder overflowed with documents, pregnant with words, many of which Cassie had read herself.

"Is that all you wanted?"

Cassandra nodded eagerly, clutching her skirt in anticipation as his weathered hands carefully pulled sheets of yellowed paper from their resting place. "Remind me where we left off again?"

"The Pharaoh had just won the God-Ka Tokens in the Tournament," she prompted, earning a vague nod and hum as he shuffled the papers, searching.

"Ah yes, the God-Ka Tokens … "He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well, after the Pharaoh and his partner won the Ra Token from the malicious Dark Alim, they thanked Alim and his family and went on their way. The partners had a lot of thinking to do and they didn't want to rush anything, but they knew what was coming next."

"And what was that?" her hands clutched the edge of the chair, her eyes expectant, lips pulled into a tight line of anticipation.

"Well," Professor continued, "once they presented the God-Ka Tokens to the mural, the Pharaoh's memories would return and … He would pass on."

She was about to speak, but he held up his hand.

"Of course, they all knew this. They'd known from the moment they'd first realized his mission that he would have to pass on. He didn't belong in this world anymore."

"But Professor Mutou, he's so close to them, it's not fair that he should have to –"

"Now now, Cassie," he scolded, "You know as well as I do that the Pharaoh deserves his rest. He may act like a 15 year old boy, but he is actually a very old man." His smile was patient and kind, filled with the understanding of someone who had lived many lifetimes. "He needs to rest. He knows it. They know it, but none of them are ready yet, and that's what the last part of this journey is all about."

She heaved a sigh and shifted in her seat, looking up at him, "I know," she fidgeted with the edge of her sweater, looking away. "I just want them to be happy together. I know that Ume loves the Pharaoh and that the Pharaoh loves her back … "She smiled the sadly, "I was hoping the story could have a happy ending."

Her Professor considered her words for a long moment, and in the depths of his dark eyes she sensed a story of love and of loss, one that she would very much like to hear. Yet she would never inquire about it, even though they would know one another for many years to come, and he would never offer it up. Like a great many things in his life, this was a detail about Professor Mutou would forever go unspoken, though not unknown.

"Sometimes, my dear student, the ending that is the most romantic is not always the happiest."

She looked at him. "So you're saying that no one is ends up happy and in love? That first Ume denied her feelings for the Pharaoh's Partner and now she won't even get to tell the Pharaoh how she feels?" Her tone was impassioned, because she just couldn't believe that no one got the happy ending they deserved after suffering so much.

He sighed. "Cassie, have you ever been in love?"

She hesitated and then shook her head.

"Everyone makes it out to be so easy. Ume and the Pharaoh's Partner like each other, so they should be together," he shook his head. "In a perfect world, the kind of world you grew up believing in, it would all work out, and after the Pharaoh left Ume would realize that she was in love with his Partner. They would be together, get married and have children one day."

Cassie bit her lip nodded, thinking about all the movies she'd ever seen … Romantic comedies, Disney films … All of them taught that true love would prevail in the end. She'd never experienced love herself, but she thought that deep down it always worked out that way. After all, her mom had loved her dad enough to stay in America for him when she had family back in Japan. She'd met him while auditioning for a show on Broadway, a stage crew manager with a dashing smile who swept her off her feet … Cassie always thought it was romantic.

"In real life that isn't true love. That's romantic infatuation, and though it might breed true love in time it seldom is actually worth the price you pay just for that one kiss, that single touch, that brush of finger tips against flesh … "he trailed off. "True love isn't always romantic. Sometimes true love is letting someone go because you know what's best for them. Sometimes true love is staying up until two in the morning eating popcorn and watching movies just to be there for one another. True love gives and sacrifices and it always, always grows."

For a long moment she looked at him, but she couldn't say she understood. She'd never felt anything like that at all. Of course she had friends that she stayed up late with, people that she loved to spend time with, but she had never experienced that kind of bond before. She wondered what kind of things that Professor Mutou had faced to forge those bonds, because there was conviction in his eyes so deep she could drown in it.

"Ume lets the Pharaoh go in the end because she knows that to tell him would hurt him, and even though she does have feelings for him, she also truly loves him in a way that is deeper and truer than I can explain," he said. "Just like how the Pharaoh's Partner never says anything to Ume about his feelings because she knows that it will hurt her … "

Cassie wanted to say something, but the distant look in Professor Mutou's eyes kept her from speaking up. Instead she just waited for him to continue speaking.

And continue speaking he did, spinning for her a fantastic yarn in which she was utterly lost.

Cassie was taken to the land of Ancient Egypt where she faced the hardships of the Pharaoh's past, including all the losses that were dealt to him in the war and his battle against his cousin. But she also experienced his triumph when his friends found his name for him, and when at last he managed to defeat the foul demon Apep. She held her breath as the Pharaoh and his Partner dueled their final duel, the Ceremonial Duel, before the doors to the Afterlife.

But when the time came for him to walk through those doors, Cassie interrupted his telling.

"But … Will they ever see him again?" she asked. "Will the Pharaoh's Partner, and Ume, and all the others … Will they ever see the Pharaoh again?"

"Oh I'm sure they will, someday," Professor Mutou smiled. "When they die, they'll reunite with him."

Still, in her heart of hearts she wished it could have been a better ending. "I know what you said about true love, Professor," she queried, cautiously chewing on her bottom lip, "but why didn't Ume and the Pharaoh's Partner ever end up together?"

He just shook his head. "How do you know they don't end up together, Cassie?"

She bit her lip. "Your eyes tell me they don't."

He looked at her long and hard, their eyes meeting, and he laughed a sad laugh. "You know, you remind me a lot of a girl I grew up with in Japan. She was a very vibrant person, and I liked her very much growing up because she cared about me when no one else would. But that girl one day went off to America and fell in love with a handsome man here. I still get a Christmas and Birthday card from her every year, but she doesn't visit anymore … " There was a long pause in which he turned his head away, looking out the window, and Cassie imagined he was seeing this old love in his mind's eye. "I guess I just put a lot of myself into the Pharaoh's Partner."

She could tell every time he talked about his story, just like she could tell when her mother was thinking about her old crush from back in her school days. She would get this far off look in her blue eyes and smile this distant smile, and though she never said a word Cassie always knew what she was thinking; that she would give anything to see that kind-eyed boy one last time. It had gotten worse since her father had died while Cassie was still in high school, and best Cassie could figure it was because it was hard to lose two people you loved.

"And what about when they meet the Pharaoh in the afterlife?" Cassie asked as means of distraction, not wanting to see her dear Professor pained any longer.

Sadness was etched into the lines of his face, but his eyes were peaceful, and a smile was on his lips. "Well that part of the story is up to the reader's imagination. The story hasn't been told yet, but it will be, in the heart of every person who reads this book and sees a little bit of themselves in the Pharaoh and his friends."

Looking at him she could see it was true. The Pharaoh lived on in the hearts of his friends, and he would live on in the heart of every person who read this book. It was hard to imagine that the Pharaoh and his Partner wouldn't capture the hearts of millions, because they had a subdued power, just like the strength that radiated from the lines around Professor Mutou's eyes and lay in the creases of his steady hands.