Highschool of the Dead: Fanfiction Darkpenn

Chapter 3.7: Grandmother's gift

Grandmother's Gift

Family is what you find in the strangest ways.

Z+47

Saeko sat in her caravan at the Maresato farmhouse, mending her school shirt with a sewing kit borrowed from Grandmother Maresato. She knew that, if she wanted, she could salvage any amount of new clothes from one of the nearby towns but she felt a particular fondness for this shirt. They had been through a lot together. And she liked sewing; it was something her mother had taught her when she was a child. It was one of the very few memories she had of her mother.

She reflected that she, like her friends, had very few possessions. Perhaps it was because new things were easily available, or because they had travelled a long way to reach safety. More likely, it was because the old world of possessions - mere stuff, really - had been left behind. Now, if something wasn't obviously useful and tough enough to last, it just wasn't needed. Finding out what was really important had, Saeko realised with a little surprise, taken only about six weeks. But it had been a very long and hard six weeks. A lot of blood.

She finished the shirt and looked around for something else to do. Even though it was getting late and she had worked hard on the farm during the day, she was in no hurry to go to bed. She never was. Her bed was a cold and lonely place. Funny, before the Outbreak she didn't think much about sex at all. She had known that if she wanted a lover it would be easy enough to get one - perhaps someone from school, perhaps someone from the bar where she worked. Of course, they would not stay around for long, but that was alright - what she preferred, in fact. She wondered what might have happened if she had met Akhiro for their planned date, the one she had deferred for months - why? - before finally agreeing to. But the world had ended before it could happen. Goddamn zombie apocalypse.

There was a knock at the door. It was Grandmother Maresato.

"Please come in, Grandmother," said Saeko, bowing in welcome. "I have finished with your sewing kit, thank you."

She liked Grandmother Maresato. Always gentle but you could sense the steel beneath. And she appreciated the traditional formalities that Saeko had learned as part of her training but which often seemed inappropriate around Takashi and the others.

They knelt on cushions on the floor. Saeko poured a cup of tea. Grandmother Maresato picked up the shirt and inspected it. "Good," she said. "Good work."

"Thank you, Grandmother," said Saeko.

Grandmother Maresato was carrying a package, something wrapped in silk. She placed it between them.

"This is for you, my dear," she said.

Saeko opened it. She gave a little gasp of surprise. It was an artificial penis. Hand-made, perfectly stitched, black leather rolled and folded into a foot-long cylinder. It had a dull shine, with a surprising softness on the outside and a pleasing hardness at the core. It was smooth, in the way that much-handled, much-loved things become smooth over a long period of time.

"Did you think you were the only woman who has ever been lonely?" said Grandmother Maresato. "And there is also this." She took a ceramic jar from her pocket and handed it to Saeko. It was a lotion that smelled of chrysanthemums and sunlight.

"Certainly, by no means as good as the real thing," said Grandmother Maresato. "But when we can't have what we want we can seek alternatives, can't we?" She picked it up. "My mother gave me this. I believe she had made it herself, under instruction from her mother. My mother made one for each of my sisters - there were four girls in my family - but since I was the oldest I received hers. They were given to us when we turned fifteen." She handed it to Saeko. "Feel the weight," she said. "I hope it is suitable for you."