Lament

Spike, Shoji, and T.J. looked up at the sky on the bench. They were plotting what to do next. This misfortune reminded Shoji of his own. Should he share it? Might as well.

“Guys.” the doctor spoke up. T.J. and Spike looked up. Shoji swallowed hard. “Here goes!” he thought. “I… once had a… love like Sakura years before.” he began. The other two guys stared. “You did?” T.J. asked. Shoji nodded.

“Years ago,” the doctor began. “I moved to this city. I had no money and no family. But I didn’t care. I knew I could make it.

“I made ends meet with Oko hospital. I had enough years of medical experience to help everyone. But I still had a problem. I wasn’t good with children. It was hard to find someone to take care of the children who didn’t care about the money.”

“You found me.” T.J. cut in. “That’s true,” Shoji replied. “But after you left, I was at a loss again. Then one day, one of my fellow doctors said he had a surprise for me. He took me out to a temple hidden from they city. I asked him why we were here; my colleague said we would see.

“He lead me down to an alter. Jewels and ivory were everywhere. I was amazed. My colleague grinned. ‘You haven’t seen anything!’ said he. Then he hurried to a brass gong and rang it. I watched as the sliding doors opened.

“What I saw blew my mind away. A woman came through the doors slowly. She was no ordinary woman. She was a tenshi-chi just like Sakura. Her hair was like a sea of rubies, her skin was cool and pale, her eyes were so sweet looking, and her wings were perfect.

“I was overtaken from the start. My colleague grinned and winked at me. I finally understood why I was here. He was trying to set me up with woman.

“ ‘Do you like what you see?’ he asked me. I nodded happily. My colleague smiled. ‘I knew you would.’ he said.

“From there, the lady and I began dating. I grew to love her quickly. I could tell she felt the same. I even gave her a name.

“I gave her the job with the kids at my hospital. She was the best worker I ever had. Six months later, we married. To some, it was peculiar. Not that many people married mystics at the time. So we had many awkward glances on the whole thing. But I didn’t care. I loved her and she loved me. But I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

Spike and T.J. stared at the doctor. “What do you mean?” Spiked asked. Shoji took in a deep breath. “Her memory,” he began. “She began to loose it after a year of marriage. At first, it was just minor. But then, the problem worsened. My wife would forget which child needed what medicine, which rooms they were in, and what their names were.

“Things couldn’t get any worse until one night after work. She was cleaning the kitchen in our apartment. I crept up behind her and kissed her on the neck. She turned to me and asked: ‘Konnichiwa, what’s your name?’ I was crushed. She had forgotten about me and our marriage.

“That was it. I had to save my wife, no matter what it took. But the problem with that was I didn’t know how to deal with angels or tenshi-chis. So I took my wife to a priest.

“The priest said there was nothing to be done. Unsatisfied with the results, I decided to get a second opinion. I took my wife to another priest. He said the same thing.

“I felt helpless now. My wife was losing herself and nobody could do anything to help us. Then one night, we were taking a walk through the city. We took a short cut through a construction site because it was getting late and I had to work in the morning. That’s when fate mocked me. We were walking under an unfinished building. One of the steel piles hanging form the cables hung above us. The cables snapped in half and the steel plummeted. I would have died if my wife hadn’t pushed me out of the way. It happened so fast. She ended up getting crushed by the steel.

“I was so terrified. I cried for someone to help me. Two construction workers helped pulled the steel off of my wife. Her body was badly crushed. Her life was slipping away from me.

“I tried to fight back my tears. My wife looked at me with glassy eyes and said: ‘My love…’ Then, she died in my arms.

“I took her to a priest. He said there was no hope to bring her back to life. He also told me if I loved her so much that I could get another tenshi-chi that looked just like her.

“I held a funeral for my wife two days later. Like our wedding, people thought it was strange. I didn’t care. I missed my wife. Her smile, her laugh, her beauty, her personality, her voice, everything. It’s all just a memory now.”

T.J. and Spike were greatly moved by Shoji’s story. “It’s kinda strange,” the doctor spoke up again. “You guys are the first people I have told about my wife since it all happened.”

Spike rose to his feet. T.J. and Shoji watched him. “Spike!” the writer yelled. “Where are you going?” “Going to look for Sakura again!” the cowboy yelled back. Then he got into Swordfish and took to the skies. T.J. and Shoji grew into full spirits again, got to their feet, and began their search again.

Look Hard Cowboy