Elderquest: Book 2 (2021 Rewrite)

Chapter 5 - Rain and Cherry Blossoms

The storm was raging as we made our way down the mountain path. We had gracefully wrapped Scotty in white sheets and carried him from the remains of the laboratory. Kay was silent and emotionless the entire trip down, walking ahead of us in solitude. I didn't dare to interrupt her brooding.

Kay stopped at a spot of grass halfway down the mountain. It felt like the one place that was not touched by rain or fog, but instead by tranquility and peace. Drake and I dug a neat grave, to which we lowered Scotty into and decorated with white flowers and cherry blossoms that blew up from the valley. Kay walked up towards the grave and laid a handful of red flowers down in the center. There were no words of remembrance, no laughter about fond memories shared. We had exhausted our thoughts and feelings as we descended from the shadow of the lab.

"Roses. Roses were his favorite. Not the pink ones or white ones, but the red ones. He kept a vase on his desk and watered them every day, making sure they never had too much or too little," she said quietly. Kitt hugged her sister as she sat down next to the grave. Drake and I stood together, away from the girls, looking out over the landscape as the rain fell around us.

"They're going to hunt us with an even bigger army this time. We'll need to be prepared for anything now," I said.

It was true, we had killed Mengele and escaped Nazshi's grasp once more. It was well assumed that Nazhi would have learned by now that he lost a great asset to his cause and would be fit to come for us himself. I left Drake and joined Kay, sitting motionless and silent at the edge of the freshly turned soil of Scotty's grave.

"If you don't mind me asking, how close were you?" I asked.

She looked up to the clouds, and then to me. She opened her mouth and spoke from her heart, "We met the same time we all did in high school. At first I avoided him because I was so caught up in my studies. But then, I had a feeling I knew was uncontrollable love for him. So, eventually I confessed my feelings."

I looked at her with curiosity, "I never knew that you would be interested in someone like Scotty. To be honest, I thought you might have dated a wrestler or someone on a varsity team."

To my surprise, I saw a smile creep across her face, followed by a humorous scoff. It was the first time I heard Kay feel like she was happy to reminisce about Scotty. When she turned to me, I saw that her tears had disappeared. A glimmer of hope had replaced the storm clouds in her eyes.

"There were lots of things you never knew about us, Tre," she continued lightly, "eventually, we made it official: we were a couple. Just another one lost to the winds of young love. Scotty helped me, sometimes in ways I never even knew. I never felt so calm and protected by someone until I met him."

She sighed and looked at the flowers we had placed on the dirt, "I fell more and more in love with him every time we were together. He listened to me sing, even though I was never any good at it. He never cared. He always just wanted to hear my voice sing him different songs we had heard on the radio. We would sing anywhere together, and we didn't care who heard us."

The rain gave way to a gentle mist that floated down from the hills, coating the cherry blossoms in a crystal sheen. We all gathered around Kay as she told her story.