The Late Bird's Tale: A Tale of the Floating World

Part 2 || 5 | Emma | A Wayward Fox II, A Treasure Hunt

Written on 3/7/23. Spring Season, March 2023 edition (1st scene).
Written on 3/15/23. Spring Season, March 2023 edition (2nd scene).
Emma Vasari (picture reference).

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Part 2 || 5 | Emma

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A Tale of a Wayward Fox II

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Before this narrative goes any further, let the clock rewind itself a few hours back, and let the mind's eye move to another location along a desolate stretch of highway somewhere in the desert. On the shoulder of this highway, an eight-pointed seal of daffodils appeared glowing on the pavement, and then there appeared a fist-sized specimen of a chubby bunny in a sack suit, a trilby hat atop its bunny-eared head, and a big handlebar mustache hanging from its face down the middle of his waistcoat. It was Taiso Takagi, the Muse Bureau Chief, backtracking to where the case concerning Emma Vasari began in the 1980s with a hungry little fox by the road.

He had returned to the place he found her on the roadside, where he had the fox read her own name with his mirror and drink from his thermos all those years ago. Now he manifested another eight-pointed seal of daffodils, this time with a glowing compass needle pointing to magnetic north, and said, "Direct me to Emma Vasari's current location."

And the glowing needle's point spun around like a top before dissipating from view.

Taiso let out a sigh, for hungry ghosts were hard to track even with the magical accouterments of a bureau chief. This world alone was a strange one full of reclusive oddities, so in lieu of the obvious method, he manifested another eight-pointed seal with the compass needle and said, "Direct me to Emma Vasari's point of origin along this road."

And again the glowing needle's point spun around, but instead of dissipating like before, it slowed down and pointed in the opposite direction that he and Emma had taken on their way to the Nine Shards all those years ago. When the glowing seal blinked out of sight, Taiso took out his magic map from his bag and unfolded it.

And lo and behold! On the map glowed a miniature eight-pointed seal of daffodils close to its right edge, which was about 355 miles due east of his current location along the highway. It was a start, at least, so he folded the map, put it back in his bag, and teleported—

To where the driver of the semi-trailer truck had run over the previous incarnation of Emma Vasari, the eight-pointed seal of daffodils glowing over a portion of the road that used to hold the fox's corpse. Upon entering the seal, dissipating it below his feet, he saw no sign of dried blood, as the corpse had been disposed of long ago and this section of the highway had been repaved many times since then. Yet the feeling of loss was still heavy in this unhallowed liminal space, so he broke into tears and cried deep painful ones he hadn't shed since he last came here to track Emma's whereabouts after finding her letter forty years ago: a lifetime ago.

After wiping away tears, Taiso braced himself with bated breath, bent down, placed his hand over the spot Emma's past self got run over, closed his eyes, and waited: nothing emerged from the darkness for a time.

But upon open his eyes, he saw the blurry afterimage of a girl fitting Jane's description at The Cake Fairy: brown hair just above shoulder-length, glasses, a short-sleeved hooded blouse, a buttoned undershirt, a pleated skirt, socks, and shoe-laced sneakers. For sure, it was Judy Windermere, but how and why was she here of all places?

Closing his eyes again from the glare of high noon under a clear sky, he bent down, touched the hot pavement, and waited. And after a time, he stood up and looked around him at the nighttime silence under starry skies, sometime after nightfall. Then he looked behind himself and the image of Judy's dreaming self emerging from the darkness, walking up to him without seeing or interacting with him. He stepped back for Judy and noticed something metallic on the pavement where the corpse should have been, then saw Judy bending over, picking it up in her hand, and saying the name, "Vasari," under her breath, and then saw Judy stalking off into the night . . .