A dream

Chapter 3: Decisions

Their reunion had been a teary one. Both sides had cried a lot and had been showering each other with heartfelt words trying to capture this fleeting moment of bliss.

Pania and Mike had moved overseas sometime after Nii had left, and they had stayed there with the changing of many seasons along with the changing of their jobs, dabbling in this and that. And they hadn't stayed alone for very long. But no, it hadn't been a child they had been blessed with. An old friend of Pania had moved into the area at some point, and being as incapable of self-supporting herself as always, the two had started to keep her.

'As a pet'. Or at least that was how it seemed to Nii.

The three of them lived in a square identical to that of Kazuya, though they had to climb many more stairs and pass through many more passages, deeper and ever deeper into the belly of the beast.

"It's soooooo good to see you!" Nii had a much less teary and definitely much less heartfelt reunion with Leonie, the pet. Having returned to her stone-faced state, neither the feeling of discomfort nor disgust found its way to the surface, though she still stumbled for a proper answer. She hadn't interacted with Leonie's type for a long, long time. Nii didn't hate her; she just didn't love her either.

But in contrast to Nii's first reluctance and despite the passing of the years that lay between them, the three welcomed her into her tiny abode with open arms. Though, no mention of the passing of the years or the past was ever to be made.

♫

"You want to go home?" Pania seemed surprised, or rather, worried.

"But how do you suppose to get there?"

Following the initial hubbub over their surprise visitor, things began to settle down again.

Apparently, Pania had gone to the market every day during Nii's stakeout. They simply seemed to have passed by each other.

But now, as they were sharing Nii's tobacco, evidently with more reluctance, sitting on the window sill of that high-rise building, staring into the distance, they had clearly found each other.

"I figured we'd found a group, others who'd want to travel in the same direction, like a caravan, just smaller. We'd have to travel a good distance, but in a large group, we should be able to travel safely. By train, we should be able to reach the ocean no trouble. And there's always enough ship travel and a need for helping hands to head out to sea."

Nii moved away from the window and rummaged through her worn-out linen bag until she found what she had been looking for.

"Is that?! You've been carrying something like this with you all the way here?" Pania started at the map incredulously. It was a worn-out dust-stained map, just as everything else was. But it was a very accurate map, noting the geological characteristics and travel routes, heaped with comments from others who had gone before them for the safest passage across land and sea.

"Where did you get that?"

"This was kind of the impetus for this journey," Nii explained. "I've been travelling around for a few years now, though I've never gotten very far and could never just up and leave completely for fear of losing contact with home or you. But when I found this map on one of my journeys and after exchanging notes with other travellers, real travellers, people who have crossed the oceans, people without any money, just like us, the idea started growing within me. This is why I've shown up after all this time," the last part she had added softly, nothing more than a whisper, one that shouldn't have reached her friend's ears.

"I get the idea, and it's not like I never thought about wanting to go home and seeing my family again, but there'd be a lot of preparations necessary for that," Pania said absentmindedly. She didn't seem adverse to the idea. And perhaps, she, too, had just been waiting for an excuse, an impetus, an impulse from outside that would start her on her journey home. Perhaps we all are. We, who wander this world, perhaps we're all the same.