The cab driver was an old man who never bothered to shave and had a face covered with white hair. His hat was shaped like a dumpling, and a yellow scarf was wrapped around his neck. But his strength was unusual. He lifted our bags using a few fingers and loaded them in the trunk like they were nothing.
The brightness of the city had gone when I woke up. We had entered a simple town where the only lights were from street lamps and pointy stick houses. The cab driver was humming a tune, tapping on the steering wheel, while dad had eyes on his phone.
"How much further?" I asked dad.
"Halfway there," the cab driver said when dad didn't respond.
The phone flashed on dad's face, and I leaned over to see what he was watching. It was a live stream of the light show.
"Oh no," I said. "We're too late."
A shaky hand pointed the camera towards the sky. The light projections were amazing. It flashed different characters from Mr. Toriyama's work—some I recognized, some I had never seen before.
"Who is that?" I asked.
"That's Crono," dad said. "From the video game Crono Trigger."
"Whoa, he created a video game?"
"He is one of the designers."
The highlight of the show were the Dragon Balls. Orange spheres with stars on them appeared one by one. Once they combined, the dragon god Shenron emerged. The huge dragon slithered in the air, illuminating the night sky, then faded into the darkness. The Dragon Balls were scattered in different directions. The crowd on the square cheered with tears in their eyes.
"I'm sorry we missed it," dad said.
I looked away from dad's phone, fighting off the tears. "Why not go to the hotel and come back tomorrow?" "It's too late for the funeral. The light show is over. We missed everything."
"We should pay our respects first. That's what we came here for."
The cab driver admired what dad had said. "Your father is wise. It's never too late. You'll never know who might show up."
I didn't understand what he meant, and wondered why he had to make his voice deeper than it really was. My eyes wandered about in the darkness, watching the leaves of the trees sway in the wind. There was nothing much to look at.
