The next morning, Shi still had surprises left in the bags he had brought. When I was awake, he offered me a piece of bread. I hadn`t had bread since…since before mother died. We couldn`t bake it here, so mother had always bought it in town. He had enough for himself and Koh too, but Koh just shook his head with a slightly annoyed That is not food. I looked at Shi, who seemed amused by Koh`s instant refusal. I took a bite. It was sweeter than I remembered, though not as sweet as Koh`s blood. “Try it,” I told Koh, breaking a little piece of mine and offering it to him. Koh sighed, but reluctantly accepted the piece of bread. This is not food. He reiterated, but did put that one bite in his mouth. He wouldn`t touch any more though, and wouldn`t say whether or not he had even liked that one piece.
You need real food. Koh decided when I had finished my bread, biting his wrist and holding it out. I hesitated a little—I wasn`t really hungry or cold right now, even though it was still raining. “Just a small amount, little one.” Shi coaxed. If it was only a little, that was ok. When I pulled away, Koh very gently wiped the blood off my lips, and my eyes met his. His expression was gentle. His hand went to smooth my hair, then he gave me a hug. I hugged back.
We were all quiet for a little while, listening to the light sounds of the rain. Then Shi spoke. “Little one,” he asked. “If we fix the cottage, would you want to stay here? Or are there too many sad memories?” I considered. Fix the cottage? Could we? It was sad because it was ruined, and I had been alone. But if we fixed it, it would be a little different because I wasn`t alone now. “I…” I considered again, then nodded to myself and answered. “I think it will be all right. I`m not alone. Koh`s here. And you`re here too, Shi.” Koh`s arms tightened a little, and I looked up to see that, although expressionless, he didn`t seem happy about that.
But Shi didn`t pay attention to that, only saying “Then, if it`s all right with you, little one, once the rain stops we will start cleaning and fixing. But until then…” Shi reached into one bag and pulled out what looked like a large book. It had a picture of a hand drawing on the cover so I guessed what it was. I scrambled off Koh`s lap to go take it from Shi. I wanted... I flipped it open to see that I was right. It was a sketchpad, full of blank paper! Paper, new paper!
I touched the paper gently, and Shi pulled one more thing out of the bag. A small tin. He opened it for me, and inside were charcoals. New charcoals and new paper... I could draw! I wanted to draw. I missed being able to draw on paper. Drawing in mud was not the same at all. I looked back at Koh, excited, and showed him the sketchpad, then back at Shi. He put a finger on my lips before I could say anything. “No thanks necessary. Go ahead and have fun drawing, little one.”
What should I draw first…? I could draw again! I had so missed drawing…using a stick in the mud didn`t quite count. I hugged the sketchbook for a moment, then I picked up a charcoal and contemplated the paper. Koh moved closer to sit so that I could lean against his side. That was fine. Koh…almost without thinking about it, my hand started moving across the paper, capturing lines and shadows that I didn`t have to think about to remember. I drew Koh. I wanted to draw mother as well, but I could draw Koh first, to practice before I went completely from memory. With Koh, I could glance up if I needed to double check a line or shadow.
“There,” I decided after studying my drawing a little while later. “Done. What do you think, Koh?” He was already looking over my shoulder, but didn`t respond, instead reaching out to tilt the paper so that Shi could see as well. Shi studied the drawing, and he looked surprised, for some reason.
“It`s like a photograph…” Shi said after a long moment. I looked at him. What was a photograph? Shi half smiled. “…it means that it is a very, very good drawing,” he explained. I smiled back. “Mother liked my drawings too.” Shi nodded. “You`re very good at drawing, little one. Did your mother teach you?” Mother? I didn`t remember her teaching me how to draw. I shook my head. "Mother taught me to write. But she couldn`t draw, only I could." I had always known how to draw, as far as I knew.
I`d seen better drawings in some of the books I`d read, but it made me happy that Shi liked my drawings. The picture of Koh done, I started on mother. That took longer, since it had been a while since she`d died. It was harder to remember people that you didn`t see all the time. I ignored the lump in my throat at the thought, and kept drawing.
Here was mother`s hair, done up in a bun. Here were the laugh lines on her face, as well as the stern expression that was somehow happy too. Eyes that held secrets she hadn`t confided, saying that I didn`t need to know while I was still a child. Her brooch necklace that I was hoping to find in the cottage somewhere. That shouldn`t have gotten old, but I wasn`t sure where it should be. Mother had hid it before she died, and told me that I`d only be able to find it when I was grown up.
I studied the final result. It was only charcoal, no color, but it looked like what I remembered. I put it down gently, then turned and climbed into Koh`s lap for a hug. He rocked me gently, and hugged back. He knew I had gotten sad when I had remembered mother to draw her, but he hadn`t interrupted while I drew. When I looked up again, Shi was studying my drawing. “Is this your mother?” he asked. I nodded. Almost to himself, Shi murmured, “I feel like I`ve seen her before…”
“Mother said that I looked like her,” I offered. In the mirror, the only thing I had seen that we had the same was the color of our eyes, but she had insisted that we were more similar than that. Shi offered me a smile. “Perhaps that is the answer. Before coming to find Kohriko, I had never traveled in this area before.”
Shi looked out the window, so I did too. The rain was slowing, almost stopped. “Do you want to eat some of your vegetables or berries, little one? Maybe the rain will have stopped by the time you finish.” That sounded like a good idea…it probably was around lunchtime. Koh sighed a little when I accepted some berries from Shi, but didn`t make his common protest that it wasn`t food. He seemed to think he`d gotten his point across by now, and I was just being difficult about it. I giggled a little at that look on his face, and Koh`s expression softened so it wasn`t quite so annoyed.
When I had eaten, the rain had stopped. “Let`s do what we can inside first,” Shi suggested, standing. He put on his shoes, and offered me the shiny ones he had shown me before. I climbed off Koh`s lap and scooted to the edge of the blanket to put them on. Shi had shoes for Koh as well, and Koh copied me, coming to the edge of the blanket to put them on. I had never seen him wear shoes before, and tilted my head at him.
“You`re going to wear shoes now?” Koh gave Shi a disgruntled look. Shi said to. And he didn`t like it? But he was wearing them. Koh stood up first, feet off the blanket, and offered me a hand. I took it and stood. Then Shi picked up the blanket, warned, “Watch for the dust!” and shook it a little before folding it neatly and storing it in one of his bags.
I looked around. “…we need a broom.” I realized. Shi nodded. “And other cleaning supplies. I will go buy them.” Buy them? Mother and I had always made our own. “We can make a broom easily,” I replied. Shi looked startled for a moment, then half nodded. “Why don`t you teach us how then, little one?”
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