chapter twenty - six

graveyard whistling

About two days after we got back from the hot springs resort, a package was dropped off at Tetsu's front door, postmarked from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The box was heavy, and had no doubt cost my mother a fortune to send overseas.

"What's in the box?" Tetsu raised an eyebrow as I carried it into the kitchen, his copy of Demon Slayer suddenly much less interesting than it had been ten minutes ago, when we were both perched on the suede couch with our books. Well, mine was a book, his was basically a comic.

"Care package from my mom." I said, slicing into the packing tape with a pair of kitchen scissors. "All the goodies she doesn't want to cart back to Santa Fe."

"I wanna see." Tetsu whined, appearing as if from nowhere at my side as I reached into the box.
On the top was a canvas tote bag filled with clothes, nothing super important but I guess mom figured it was time to clear my stuff out. There was a stack of books, some that I'd had since high school *cough* my sixteen-book Pretty Little Liars collection *cough*, others that I'd bought more recently.

A second stack was all detective novels that used to belong to my dad. Picking up a copy of Jeffery Deaver's 'The Bone Collector', I thumbed through it, taking in the notes scrawled in his handwriting. I'd often read a book first, because we both liked the same detective stories. I simply found it easier to read without his notations, but now I found them comforting.

"What's this?" Tetsu hummed, reaching for a stack of DVD's. Asian DVD players worked differently, but I knew my laptop would still play these.

I grinned. "Mila Jovovich. Resident Evil. It's based on a Japanese video game, actually."

"Dan and I have played it, actually. Other than get into fights, playing video games was all we used to do in high school. I had to repeat my senior year twice!"

"We'll watch it later, on my laptop." I smiled. "I used to love these movies growing up."

Also inside the box, I found a cache of American chocolate bars: KitKat, Hersheys and Twix, all full sized. My mother was spoiling me rotten. Grinning, I opened the jumbo KitKat bar and broke off a stick, passing another to Tetsu with a smile and a simple explanation to what it was.

Reaching into the box again, I grinned wider- if that was even possible- and pulled out my favourite desk ornament: the Guy Fieri bobblehead. Flicking the master chef and TV icons head, I laughed, inviting a strange look from Tetsu.

"What the hell is that?"

"A Guy Fieri bobblehead." I answered innocently, perching it on the palm of my hand

"Who?"

My jaw dropped. "You don't know who Guy Fieri is?"

"Not a clue."

"How dare you." I laughed. "You've gotta be joking!"

"I'm not!" Tetsu insisted as I turned back to the box. Books and chocolate alone wouldn't have made the recycled Amazon Prime box as heavy as it had been when I carried it through the stained glass front door. There had to be something else.

Oh wait.

My heart sank when I saw the urn.

"Oh my god." I muttered, placing my hands on the ceramic as I gently lifted the unassuming black urn out of the box, a card fluttering to rest among the bare cardboard.

"Gillian," Tetsu's voice was sad and soft. "is that what I think it is?"

I nodded, tears threatening to fall. "Dad's ashes."

"Gilly, I'm so sorry." Tetsu folded me into his arms, and I nuzzled my face against his hoodie. I felt safe in his arms. Being with Tetsu, and even just having the experience behind me that I did after being in Japan for so long gave me the strength that I needed to reach out and take the card, shaky hands threatening to drop the mauve envelope. Since Yuki had died, I'd opened so many white, cream and mauve envelopes, plastic Hallmark greetings inside.

This card was a simpler, more nondescript card, devoid of any sort of message on the front, just a watercolor painting of an orchid.

My sweet Gillian,

I'm sure you're wondering why I sent you your father's ashes, and by FedEx no less.I was doing a lot of thinking, in the lake house I never wanted, left more alone than ever. And stuck like that, I came to a decision. Yuki Morizono, the man that I loved more than anything on this earth deserved to be laid to rest in Japan, where he came from, the place he talked so highly about, with his daughter, the person he loved more than anything, maybe even me.

Tetsu was reading over my shoulder. Even though I knew that he didn't know what the card said, my mother's loopy writing sometimes difficult for even the most fluent of English speakers to read, I appreciated the gesture. He took my cold hand in his warmer hand, placing a gentle kiss to my knuckles.

"I know some guys that I can call, we can put a service together, find him a final resting place." Tetsu suggested gently, folding me back into a hug. "You don't have to do this on your own."

____

Shu Kato walked across the graveyard, dressed in a brown suede jacket with fur around the collar, and tight fitting black jeans. In his right fist, he clutched a bouquet of calla lillies, Fuyumi Kato's favourite flower. Dangling from a chain around his neck was the silver and diamond ring that he'd proposed to Fuyumi with. He never took it off. The suede jacket he wore was the exact some one he was dressed in the night he and Fuyu had met. It was her favourite jacket on him. His red hair was down, stringy tendrils almost covering his eyes.

Just the way Fuyumi had liked it.

The large marble headstone loomed as Shu knelt down, swiping his phone open and pulling up that same picture of Fuyumi in her white dress that he did every year he came to see her grave. Placing his phone against the marker, Shu laid down the bouquet of white flowers, the delicate Kanji letters spelling out his fiancee's name.

Fuyumi Kato. Beloved daughter, sister and wife.

The wedding hadn't been for another fourteen days, but it only seemed right to act as if they had gone through with it before she passed. Fuyumi would have wanted it that way.

"Hey, darlin'" Shu smiled sadly. "I miss you, but I guess you already know that." He twisted at the jet black engagement band on his left hand. "It's been five years. Today should have been our wedding anniversary." The Kato boy stopped to wipe at his face. "There was a girl at the temple the other day, a foreigner. God, she reminded me of you. She's off the market though, dating one of the Sannoh guys. Besides, I don't think I could ever love somebody as much as I loved you, Fuyumi Sena."

"Fancy seeing you here!" A voice carried over the cemetery. Ukyo Sena walked across the rows of gravestones, hands in the pocket of his massive brown leather jacket.

"Ukyo." Shu grinned. "Of course I's be here, I haven't missed an anniversary at all yet. Why are you here?"

Ukyo shrugged. "It felt right. I usually leave the anniversary to you, but for some reason, I felt like my little girl needed me to be here today." The older man placed a small, inexpensive stuffed animal at the base of the headstone, something he had been doing every year, each time one got worn away or taken. There was always a stuffed bear and a calla lily at Fuyumi's final resting place.

"Look who else showed up." Ukyo said quietly, nodding at a plot two rows over.

Norihisa Hyuga stood with his half sister and his nephew, picking their way through markers as they walked among the tombstones.

"The Izawas." Shu said quietly. "I didn't realize that Ryu was buried here as well."

Ukyo rolled his eyes. "Its the only cemetery in this part of town, dumbass."

"No need to be rude." Shu shot back before tuning to his wife's headstone. "Listen to your father, Fuyumi. He's bullying me."

"It's not bullying." Ukyo defended himself

Shu nodded towards the group of three. "Should I go over there? Mourning is no good alone. I mean, It's not exactly fun in a group either but I found it to be a little less painful."

"You do you, kid."

Grabbing his phone, Shu Kato got to his feet and picked his way through th granite markers until he found the one he was looking for: Ryu Izawa. Masako and Hyuga stood shoulder-to-shoulder while Keiichi Izawa poured water over his father's grave, as was tradition in this part of town. Masako Izawa looked solemn, hands tucked in the pockets of her trench coat.

Shu cleared his throat. "Fancy running into you guys here."

Norihisa Hyuga turned to face Shu and Ukyo, nodding in acknowledgment. "Wedding anniversary?" He asked quietly, familiar by now with Shu Kato and his father-in-law's mourning schedules.

Shu nodded. "What about you guys?"

"Yuki Morizono's step-daughter is holding another memorial service next week." Masako's voice was scratchy. "She's laying him to rest somewhere in Sannoh. The man that killed my husband."

"You should go, mom." Keiichi suggested "It's been years. I think you need to start forgiving instead of holding this against the family."

"Keiichi-kun's got a point." Ukyo shrugged. "When Fuyumi died, I held a lot of grudges, mainly against my ex-wife. But eventually I realized that that's not what Fuyu-chan would have wanted."

Hyuga's phone bagan to ring, the tinny, generic Apple ringtone carrying on the wind. Keiichi grinned. His mother glared at her step-brother.

"Hold that thought." Hyuga said answering the phone and stepping a few rows away. Minutes later, he came back with this to report: "Smokey is in the hospital. I have to run, Himari loves the guy, feels like she owes him. The second she tries to get the Iemura's insurance to cover Smokey's healthcare, Kuryu is going to find her. I can't let that happen."
Shu nodded. "Go, run! I can meet you there in half an hour!"