In life, you learn that there are some things that you will just unconditionally hate. Common among these things includes, but is not limited to clowns, dentists, heights, and falling. I myself unconditionally hate things for no reason. It's quite liberating to be able to accept the fact that you can hate things without any pretense at all. You should try it sometime.
Anyway, one thing I absolutely, unconditionally hate is the when your asleep and you feel like you're falling and you wake up with the shit scared out of you. I thought that this was my only true sleep-related fear, until this fateful day when I would make the acquaintance of Tenshi Kyoto. It was in the moment before I first saw her up-close that another sleep-related fear of mine was both actualized and realized at the same moment. As my head came crashing down while I was still regaining consciousness, I concluded that actually falling in your sleep is much, much worse than just thinking that you are.
I immediately rush my hand to the back of my head, and a warm wetness overtakes it. When I look up I see her, sitting right nest to where I was, reading a worn out paperback novel, the cover of which had become so worn out that the title had been rendered illegible. Without look up or making any movements at all, she opens her mouth and speaks.
"That was quite a fall you took there. You should really be more careful." There's a certain sweetness to the sarcasm that her voice so subtly conveyed. It's almost like she's pretending to not care about not caring. It's cute, and frankly, uncommon in my experiences. Most girls either never speak a word to me or automatically assume that I'm gay. I don't have any sort of issue with anyone being homosexual, but I do have an issue with people who act on first impressions and false judgments. It is at this point that I realize the sun has set, and after having spent a month in San Francisco, I knew that he sun wouldn't have fully set until 8 on a late summer day. I juggle around the contents of my pockets in a desperate attempt to find my phone, in hope of finding more clarity regarding what the hell just happened.
After a few moments I've located it and take it out to check. Time; 8:21 PM, Missed Calls; Eight. Four from Mom, four from Dad. Last missed call 8:13 PM. I immediately dial my Dad's number in and wait for him to pick up. I simultaneously work up a story that's not as stupid as "I fell asleep and then fell off of a park bench, and there is also a good possibility that I am concussed". However, when he picks up, that's exactly what I say to him. He tells me to take my and that they're in no rush to go anywhere and that he's glad that I called and that I'm okay. It is at this point I realize she's sitting there on the bench still, so I immediately close my phone and move my attention to her.
"What's your name, cowboy?" she asks me. I look up at her. It is at this moment in time that I am introduced to the finer curves and lines in her face. There's a street lamp off a ways to the left, and with the light shining I could see her very clear. It almost shines, not in the vampire way, but a clean way. I could tell she wasn't wearing makeup, due to the fact that the only significant relationship I'd ever had was with a girl who never wore make up.
"It's James," I state simply. "James Thomas." She has yet to remove a single iota of attention from her book. She just sits there, wings spread, legs tucked into an Indian style position, reading her book, and asking me questions. I still knew so little about her, not even her name, so I decided that maybe it was my turn to start asking questions.
"What about you?" I ask, "You've gotta have a name too, right?" figured I should play it safe and just level the playing field. I mean, in all honesty, there wasn't much she knew about me either. She was just more comfortable with it.
"I don't 'gotta' have anything." she says. "But luckily enough for you I do happen to have a name." Her arm looks like it twitches for a second, right by her shoulder, but it stops. An awkward silence ensues as I wait for her to tell me her name, she takes her eyes off her book and looks me right in the eyes and says, "You only asked me if I had a name, you never asked me what it was".
Quite a smartass. I like it.
"If you should feel so inclined," I start, "I would very much like to know your name." A smile sneaks up on her face and that's when I know I've won. I highly suspect that this girl isn't planning on this being our only encounter. A small laugh squeaks its way out before she answers me.
"It's Tenshi," she says. "Tenshi Kyoto, representing the city with the second highest Japanese population in the United States, San Francisco." She manages to sneak a smile out of me too, and that's when I know, she's won.
By now I've managed to get myself sitting upright, but I can feel a small stream of blood slowly working its way down my neck. Tenshi notices and digs her hand into a dinosaur shaped bag on the bench which I can only assume is hers and grabs a small pack of tissues.
"You're bleeding," She notes, "Here, this should help clean it up, just keep pressure on it for a while and it should be okay" She gets up and gets on her knees next to me and helps me blot the blood away. The red stays in my hair, but it's mostly dried up and starting to scab within five minutes.
It's during this time that I first start to see Tenshi, the nooks and crannies of her personality, the way her curves and lines meet, how my hands tremble when I look at hers. She reaches out and clasp my fingers in hers, feeling them intertwine for just a moment, and get up onto my feet. My head spins in every direction, and I get the all-too familiar sensation that I am going to vomit. I inhale sharply, hoping the rush of fresh air to my lungs will may my head stop flying in every direction. It ends up having pretty much the opposite effect and I find myself rushing to the nearest trash can, which is about 10 feet away.
When Tenshi catches up to me she has a bottle of sprite in her hand. "I think I might be concussed." I say, as she uncaps the soda and hands it to me. It's warm, but it makes my stomach feel a bit better and my head slowly slows down too. "Thanks," I tell her, with a slight smile on my face, "that really helped" she smiles and then gives me the cap to the soda, which I then screw on. I stand up and she throws her arm around my waist and helps me walk.
We make our way back to the party room. The caterers are beginning to pack everything up, and there's nobody from the picnic left in the room. Tenshi and I sit down at a table near the front, where the lemonade and cookies are. I grab myself 2 oatmeal raisin, and she grabs a chocolate chip. We fill up our cups and sit there and eat. It's awkwardly quiet at first, until she whips out her cell phone and snaps a picture of me, with a huge oatmeal raisin cookie in my mouth.
She rummages through her purse for a second until she pulls out a large, purple sharpie. Then she rips off a part off a part of the paper table cloth and precedes to hand me both. "Write me down your phone number, I think we could have some really awesome adventures together." I take the sharpie and write my number down, and then hand both things back to her. She takes the sharpie and above where my phone number is, she writes "James <3" She shoves them in her purse and stands up. I get up slowly too, and we start to say our goodbyes.
"Thanks for like, taking care of me and stuff," I start. I've never been very good at talking to girls, and my inability to exude any kind of confidence becomes painfully obvious as I continue on. "You really didn't have to do that, but I'm really glad that you did. I think we could be really good friends." I kind of half-smile-half-laugh, and she pulls me into a tight embrace, with her arms around my shoulders. I wrap mine gently around her waist and squeeze a little, and she squeezes back.
We finally let go of each other. She looks at me for a second, really close, so close that our noses almost touch. She looks me straight in the eyes, and says "I hope we'll be more than that." She spins around quickly, and the tip of her wings slap against my body. She starts to skip away, and I just watch her, until she's gone out of my sight. I sit down on the chair I had been in before, and pull out my cell phone as the workers take the table we had been sitting at away. I call my dad, and I let him know I'm in the party room. He tells me to meet them out in the parking lot, so, as I hang up the phone, I stand up and make my way out of the room.
I see them as soon as I walk out the door. They're not too far ahead of me, and they're walking towards the car together, holding hands. I don't think they see me yet. It gives me a little hope that, maybe my family isn't as broken as I've brought myself to believe.
I slip into the backseat of the car, and I put my head phones in my ears, starting up from the beginning of my favorite album. And, even though I know you're not supposed to, I start to nod off after a long and eventful day. And I swear, right before I fell asleep, I saw her again, and she took my hand, and pulled me through to the other side.
