Ch.9

            Dirty water and old, salty tuna fish.  That’s what Nami had to eat that day.  The water was warm, as it had been sitting in the basin for quite some time before she retrieved it.  The tuna was also warm, and it stunk, indicating that it might be somewhat sour.  As she sat in her glass, freezing to death amongst that horrid concubine of unwanted bodily waste, pressing itself against her as if it were trying to force its way inside, Nami tried to think hard.  What could she have done differently, on a day which was filled with so much joy and hope?

            As she happily nibbled on her old lunch just hours before the festival was set to begin, she saw Leigh strolling in from the darkness, a magnificent golden glow accompanying her as she moved.  It was a strange sight, her obvious confidence, her steadfast resolution… Nami wasn’t sure she was looking at the same girl she knew and loved.

            “Hi Leigh, what are you so excited about?”

            “Nami, Nami Nami!  I’m so excited!  So terribly frightened but excited!”

            “Ha, ha, what are you talking abo…  wait.  You asked him didn’t you?  You asked Aieté to join you in festival?!”

            “Well, no, not exactly.  Even better than that… he asked ME to go with HIM!  I cannot believe it..  and, and I actually said ok.  I’m either really lucky or very foolish!”

            “That’s my Leigh!  I so very much wanted you to find a partner this year, and you have.  But not only have you found a partner, it is Aieté!  And I know you are excited to spend the night with him!”  Nami gave her a sly smile as she said that last part.

            “Yes, yes, I am, but I mean, no I’m not, I mean, oh dear Nami!  What have I gotten myself into?”

            “What you have gotten yourself into, Leigh, is a romantic night with your dream, that’s what!”

            “Nami, I cannot do this, this is not me!  I, I should not have agreed to go.  Oh, what am I going to do?”

            “What do you mean this is not you?  What is ‘you’, then, Leigh?  Is ‘you’ that somebody who is always going to sit alone, in the back of the crowd, enviously watching all of her close friends live their lives?  Is this ‘you’ going to be somebody who passes by every good opportunity that comes their way because they lack the willpower to follow through with their true desires?  If it is, then I don’t think I have a lot of respect for ‘you’, Leigh.”  Nami, firing at her from every direction, was quickly able to bring Leigh back to reality.

            “Nami… I…”  But she didn’t know what to say.  Nami had never seemed so worked up before.

            “Leigh, you are my friend, and I only want what is best for you.  Of course I respect you, but time and time again I see you pass up great opportunities because you lack confidence, confidence in yourself, and for the love of Isabella, I do not know why.”  Her chest was practically pulsating color into Leigh’s face.

            “What should I do?”

            “Ha ha, you should go, dummy!”

            Leigh smiled, “of course, of course I should.  It would be silly not to go.  But, will you help me, Nami?”

            “Help?  What could I do to help you?”

            “I don’t know Nami, but you know how to do this kind of stuff!  I do not.  What is the secret?  How do I get Aieté to like me?”

            “You are a silly girl, Leigh.  Aieté already likes you, else he would not have asked you to perform the ritual.”

            “Nami please…”

            Nami stood in deep thought for a moment with Leigh practically hanging over her shoulder.  She looked around.  Beads of glass decorated the walls next to the table.  Just a few seats down from her were some flower petals which other Calculi had picked.  She walked over and picked up a yellow one which was almost as large as her entire body.  It fanned outward like a great umbrella. 

            “I have an idea.  Come with me.”  She hurried off without waiting for a response from her cohort.

            The two of them hustled through the halls; their movements were quickly absorbed into the tremendous mass of activity which flourished throughout the colony.  They rounded a corner and approached the entrance to Sanctuary.

            The giantess’s room was dimly lit.  The great orb which provided everlasting light from the sky above was sinking closer to the ground, and it glowed soothing orange life onto their faces.  Nami could basically feel the anxiousness in the air, as if it were a thick cloud which had encased them all.

            “Come with me Leigh, to where Mali and I will spend the night.  Perhaps being exposed to the atmosphere of the festival will be inspiring to you.  You do have a spot picked out somewhere in the house, do you not?”

            “Well, yes.  Aieté said that he had already handled everything, and that he was going to surprise me.  All I actually have to do is show up!  Oh, please Nami, I do not wish to look like an unprepared fool!”

            “You won’t, Leigh.  I promise you will be the most beautiful Calculus in the colony tonight.  Leigh, do you know why?”

            “Why?”

            “Because tonight is your night.”

            The two fastest Calculi in the colony then sped off toward the large room.  The room with the two windows where they had sat together so many times before.  The room with the wooden tower where Nami’s spot awaited.  The room where Leigh had saved her.  This was definitely a special room.

            Upon reaching the great cathedral of wood, on top of which rested the banded plant material with the magnificent white lights, the two of them took flight, quickly spanning the distance and landing on the hard surface.  That living, shining ring of flora created a perfect halo for the two of them to reside.

            “You see how alone we are up here, Leigh?  That is how it is going to be between you and Aieté, wherever you happen to nestle.  This place that you share with him will be serene, peaceful.  He will tell you all about how he feels, just as you, too, will tell him.”  Nami slowly approached her, then took her hand.  “And when he takes your hand, Leigh, oh believe me he will take your pretty hand, the two of you will be forever connected.  It will be like magic.  Believe me, we see far too little of that in our fearful lives.  So let him, and then embrace him.  You may cry, as will he, but it will be beautiful.”

            The great orb outside had almost retired for the day, but a darker hue of orange penetrated the two windows facing their retreat.  It came through the top of them in bands because it was partially blocked by the long plastic strips the giantess sometimes used to provide herself with some privacy.  As it mixed with the white lights from their guardian plantation, it created an abstract pattern of light and shadow on the ground before them.  Leigh, still holding Nami’s hand, shone a deep orange color from her own chest, as Nami shone white.

            “Thank you, Nami.  You are the best friend I have ever had.”

            “Here, Leigh, one more thing.”  She took the yellow flower petal which she had been carrying with her and tore a piece off from the edge.  She rolled it into a tube and stuck it into one of the many tears in Leigh’s dirty garb.  She then took another piece and reiterated the process.  She did this over and over again until, on the left side of her chest, Leigh had a miniature, yellow icon of her affection.  “Let’s get back.  I’m sure you are more excited than ever.”

            Leigh laughed through her teeth, “yeah!”, although she was crying a bit.

            The two of them gradually descended the high altitude to the fabric laden floor below.  What happened next was something Nami was never truly able to understand.  The two of them looked at each other, with Nami facing the door.  Her gentle smiled almost instantaneously turned to dread as she switched her attention away from Leigh to the ceiling above.

            Leigh looked at her, puzzled.  “What is it?”

            And then it happened.  The heart stopping shriek which echoed from above never left Nami’s head; it never left for the rest of her life.  The massive, black, fabric clad surface which came careening down is an image that never left her head.  It only knocked Nami over, but crashed directly on top of Leigh, who instantly disappeared under its terrible, foul smelling surface. 

How the giantess had entered without their awareness is a question which Nami would never let go.  It was one of those imponderable “what if” questions which would keep her up for many, many nights.  Nami could hear faint crackling underneath of that monster’s enormous foot, which she could only imagine was the breaking bones of her dear friend.  She screamed a pitch that she never knew she could reach.

Upon hearing this, the giantess ceased her merciless grinding and focused her attention on Nami, who, only because of her nimbleness and dexterity, was able to take refuge in the space under the wooden tower.  The giantess walked away, giving Nami a perfect view of what was left of her friend.  She covered her mouth with both hands and screamed again.

Leigh had been seemingly strewn across the ground, and looked as though her limbs had been tied into knots.  A large splatter of hemolymph stained the ground next to her tattered body.  Tiny fragments of the giantess’s soft footwear were intertwined amongst the macabre image of what seemed to be most of Leigh’s bodily fluids.  Within no time, the giantess had returned, a cloth in one hand.  She swiftly bent over and carelessly squeezed Leigh’s body between her fingers, as though it were weightless.  She then directed her movement toward the pantry.

Without thinking, Nami immediately left the safety of her hiding place and followed her from behind.  It was the cylindrical receptacle next to the white tower where the giantess thoughtlessly tossed the cloth, containing the body of her friend.  As if nothing had happened, she then turned her attention to the white tower itself, opening it as though it were an impenetrable vault which only she had access to as she began searching through its contents.

Nami rushed over to her friend as fast as she was able.  As she dug through the desensitizing piles of trash, she eventually made her way to the cloth, which, luckily, was already starting to unfold on its own.  She practically fell over herself trying to get inside of it.

“LEIGH, LEIGH!”

For the briefest of moments, Nami had wished that she hadn’t have found her friend, for the sight was more than she could take, and she vomited off to the side.  Suddenly, seemingly from beyond the grave, Leigh spoke to her, just barely.

“Na.. Na..”  She was hyperventilating, looking at Nami with an expression of stupefied horror.

“Leigh, oh my, oh my, oh no, no, no no!”  She started to lose control of herself, but quickly regained her senses and took action.

“I, I have to get you out of here.”

“Na.. UGHH!!”  Leigh’s attempts at speech were cut off as Nami lifted her into the air.  She wanted to get Leigh back to Sanctuary.  Perhaps there was someone there who would know what to do.  However, it became more and more clear that the longer she held the near lifeless body of her fallen comrade in her arms, the closer she came to death.  Realizing this, she began to descend, eventually making her way to the ground, where she brought Leigh underneath the same softbox where she had been rescued months before.

It was pitch black underneath.  The only light available was coming from Nami’s chest, which burned a deep, ocean blue.  Leigh’s chest had faded to almost nothing.

“Leigh, oh no, oh no…”

“Na.. Nami?”

“Leigh, I’m here, I’m here!”

She started breathing very quickly again as she tried to respond.

“W.. Why?”

“Leigh…”  Nami put one hand on Leigh’s head which, amazingly, had not been damaged.  Her body, on the other hand, had caved in on itself.  Her arms were twisted in a sickening misrepresentation of what they should actually have looked like.  One leg was turned the opposite direction, and a few bones protruded from her thorax into the air.

She spoke, more calmly, but in stuttered words.  “I.. kn.. knew you would not l.. l.. l.. l.. leave me, either.”  She smiled in an eerie way.

“SHUT UP LEIGH!  Quit speaking like that!  We are going back to Sanctuary, NOW!”

“Nami..” She whispered so softly it was practically inaudible.

“Leigh… no…”

She closed those beautiful eyes, and the light disappeared from her chest for eternity.  Nami closed her eyes as well, making incomprehensible sounds as she mourned her friend.  A mixture of salty teardrops and sebum coalesced on her face.  She put one hand over Leigh’s eyes, and another on her chest, as she positioned the side of her head over where Leigh’s heart once beat.  Then she noticed something, something deep in Leigh’s tribal garments, behind the miniature flower replica, now destroyed.  It was Leigh’s parchment.

Nami unrolled it, barely able to see through her watery eyes.  It was drawn quite well, with the use of shading and depth.  Leigh stood at her windowsill, with Aieté next to her.  The two of them held hands as they gazed out of her massive window, partially covered with frost, at the powder falling from the sky.

Nami slightly warmed the water of her glass prison with her tears.