A Visitor

Just as Hakkai took a step toward me Gojyo threw Goku through the door. Goku flailed, but landed on his feet in time to spin around and start yelling at Gojyo about how he was hungry. I took a step to my left so that I was suddenly in Goku’s line of vision and cleared my throat to get the shorter boy’s attention. “I have food prepared right here,” I said. “I wonder what the surprise is inside.”

“Surprise?” Goku asked excitedly. I smiled and nodded as I sat down next to the nearest plate. I opened the basket and pulled out a huge Tupperware container of barbecue chicken. I had ten baskets like this one each with different kinds of food already prepared. Each basket could feed one meal to ten people, although in this case I figured that the amount would be barely sufficient. I normally saved the food for emergencies, but I figured that I aught to play nice with these people before I found myself in a sticky situation.

“Jason always hides something in my baskets whenever my aunt makes them up. Sometimes they’re action figures, and sometimes they’re flowers. Once Aunt Martha caught him trying to sneak in a spider, so ever since then he only gets to put in pre-approved surprises.” I smiled a genuine smile as I remembered the incident.

“Is Jason your boyfriend?” Gojyo asked as I dished out chicken, grilled potatoes, fruit salad, and chips onto everyone’s plates. I handed him his as I snorted.

“He’s my son,” I said.

There was a long stretch of silence. Gojyo opened the lid to the basket and looked inside, pulling out a twelve pack of root beer. “No wonder there’s only fake beer in here,” he said. If that was the reason Gojyo wanted to explain away the lack of booze with, it was fine by me. I wasn’t asking them for their secrets because I didn’t want to tell them mine. My explanations usually take a very long time to get through.

“You have a son?” Hakkai asked in surprise.

“I have three,” I said simply. “Troy is sixteen, Hai is thirteen, and Jason in eleven.”

“Damn,” Gojyo said. “How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-two,” I said with a chuckle. “I adopted all three of them. I suppose you’d say it’s the human version of taking in stray cats.”

We ate in silence. Goku ate enough for five people and we ate the rest. It took a lot of cajoling and some threatening, but even Sanzo and Hakkai grudgingly piled food in their mouths, chewed, and swallowed, despite not having much of an apatite. Goku wanted to steal the food off of Gojyo’s plate, but every time he tried to reach over I smacked his hand lightly. After four attempts he gave up.

After a while I started to keep up a steady stream of chatter, talking about my kids and My Dance Troupe. Then, as we each finished our food I explained about a series of four magical dances, one dance connected to each element.

“The dances were choreographed eons ago, and there are so many variations that it isn’t even funny. I’d guess that the version I know is closest to the original because a goddess of art taught it to me – but she’s a bit of a bimbo, so I always take what she says with a grain of salt. Anyway, the dances were never officially put to music, and are traditionally danced in silence, but I found a piece of music that actually fits the Water Dance.”

I stood up and walked out into the rain. I gently gathered the falling droplets into two balls at the palms of my hands and gracefully arranged myself into the starting pose. Then I started the music I had chosen – “They Live in You” from The Lion King – and started the water swirling around myself as I moved gracefully through the steps of the dance.

“Night, and the spirit of life, calling.” I spun around on my toes and bowed to the men sitting on the blanket before me.

“And a voice with the fear of a child asking.” I made a motion, calling more water into my hands and spreading them wide, the water following in trails behind my hands.

“Wait, there’s no mountain too great.” I started walking in a slow circle with my hands close together, the water spiraling upward around my body.

“Hear these words and have faith.” I finished my circle and brought my arms in, collecting all of the water that I could into a small ball held close to my chest.

“Oh, have faith.” I allowed my magic to fill the water so much that the water started to glow a bright blue that matched the color of my magic just as I sang the word “faith.”

“They live in you.” I started spinning and traveling to my right, the ball of empowered light split into three streams that swept around my body in three different directions, catching the rain that fell on them. The rain that wasn’t caught looked like curtains of glittering fabric that swept around my body as I danced.

“They live in me.” I started spinning in the opposite direction, the water following my every move as if it were clothing that I was wearing.

“They’re watching over.” I did a quick spin and stopped moving, my arms held out in front of me with the bright ball of glowing water.

“Everything we see.” I raised the ball above my head and slowly split the water into three balls.

“In every creature.” The three balls elongated into streams that swirled down my arms and back and gathered around my waist.

“In every star.” I lifted my right foot to knee height and then straightened it so that my foot was above my head to the side. The water flowed so that it balled up at my pointed toes.

“In your reflection.” I switched my position around so that I faced sideways and my foot was behind me. The water split back into three balls that started circling one another.

“They live in you.” The balls of glowing water grew to the size of soccer balls and started circling my waist as I lowered my foot and pointed it in front of me while I went to face the other direction. My right arm was above my head, collecting a fourth ball of glowing water, and my left hand was resting gently on my waist. I waited there through a temporary lull in the music, but burst into a flurry of movement when the song gained momentum.

“They live in you!” I started doing a series very complicated jumps, spins, and flips.

“They live in me!” The water flowed around me as though it were keeping me in the air.

“They’re watching over!” It was almost as if I were swimming, touching on the ground only to launch myself into the flow of water again.

“Everything we see!” The water was around me.

“In every creature!” I lowered the glow of the water, but not very much.

“In every star!” The glow dimmed more, taking on a more sparkling hue, shining off my hair and eyes, making me look as if a spotlight had found me.

“In your reflection!” I moved most of the water into a solid sheet behind me so that my shadow could be seen. The rest still swirled, changing color from blue to purple to green.

“They live in you!” I landed on the ground with my knees bent, my arms held out as if I were offering the others a tray. The water pooled between my hands and started raining on the ground around me. A bright blue light spread from me and into the others, dimming as the music faded into silence.

It was quiet for a very long time as the calming joy of the dance faded. No one wanted to break the spell I had cast with ugly words, but staying still for too long was very difficult. After about a minute I straightened up and walked over to the others. I started gathering up the dirty plates and putting everything away.

That is when lightning decided to strike. Since the inn was the tallest building in town, naturally the lightning was going to strike us. Before the others could get hurt I stood up straight and tall so the strong electrical charge hit me at full force.