The Blue Orchid Years

Chapter 8: The Ghost of Love in a Time Capsule

Author's remark: the poem below can be sung to the melody of the music above. I have chosen to listen to the violin/instrumental cover and while I know the actual lyrics can't be translated like this, I've taken the liberty to just change it altogether into something I imagine our narrator would write. Do let me know of your thoughts. Thanks.

TREASURE ME

Intro:

I am stepping into the cloudless night

Searching for answers that elude me

The life I once knew passed me by

Is it time to re-build from the ruins?

Verse 1:

If only I have the wisdom of a monk

Perhaps I would know where to step next

All the doubts and guilt I buried in my mind

One day they will dissipate

Chorus:

But today I want you to hold me close

Tell me that you welcome me once again

Help me let go of my fears once more

I want you to treasure me

Verse 2:

Although we can't go back to the start

When dreams were sweet and our world boundless

When time stood still and the space was bending

When my heart was whole and unbroken

- N.A.S

February 18th 2664 (Adult Nardho POV)

I brought Moira to my music studio in the basement of our house because if there was any good way to show her where our love story began, all the songs I wrote for her could probably speak for themselves. She seemed to be very confused, as if she had never seen the studio before, but she let me hold her hand. I turned the light on and the first thing we could see was a blackboard on which I have hung my favorite pictures from our time together.

"Is that supposed to be me when I was younger?" Moira pointed to a picture of herself laughing with Nardhia and Vannie on a beach. It was a picture I took during our trip to Golden Valley.

"Yes, that was you as a seventeen-years-old. When that photo was taken, we had been dating for about five and a half months. I thought you look mesmerizing under the sunset."

"Who are those girls? I was friends with them, I suppose?"

"Yeah. That one with French braid was my sister Nardhia when she was younger and the one in wheelchair was Vannie. Do you remember Vannie?"

"Not really. How did she and I become friends? Is she still my friend?"

"I'm sure she still is. You two became friends when you worked in her family's library shortly before both of you started college. She was your first best friend. By the way, you're also friend with her partner Rain. So there you have it, the quartet: Moira, Nardhia, Vannie, and Rain."

"Wow. Not only I forgot my own husband, I forgot my own closest friends."

"But I'll help you remember. You want to remember, right?"

"I do. Who else have I been forgetting all this time?"

"Do you remember Tony? He's Nardhia's husband now. He is my best friend."

"I'm so sorry, but I don't remember a Tony. What was he like?"

I showed Moira a picture of Tony and Nardhia on top of a water tower. In the picture, Tony was about to jump to the water and Nardhia was also ready to jump on to the sea and swim with him. That picture captured Tony's laughter and Nardhia's mischievous smirk. 

"Wow. He must be looking very different now as an older man. Can I meet him? Actually, can I meet everyone in your photos? I feel so bad that I forgot them. How have you coped with my disease? Actually, tell me more about it. What exactly happened to me?"

"I cope by going to therapy sessions, I'll tell you about it later. As for meeting everyone, that can be arranged. I'll also tell you about your disease later. For now, there's something I would like you to listen to. It's a song I wrote when I was contemplating killing myself but then I decided against it because Kenta gave me a call and that call saved my life."

"Nardho, I'm so sorry." Moira pulled me into an embrace. Oh goodness, she hadn't hugged me in a while. I hugged her back and then she put on the headphone, listening to my song. I watched as her eyes grew huge and her lips moved upward into a sad smile as she got the messages.

"Y-you have really missed me, Nardho. I'm sorry. But I'm here now. Yes, I remember very little or almost none of the details of our life together, but I'll treasure you just the same."

"I did. I missed you terribly. Thank you for welcoming me back. I was afraid that I'll never get to hear you say the three magic words anymore, I was afraid I'll never get to hear you call me by our pet names, I was so afraid that—" my voice trailed off as I could feel tears coming.

"Come here." Moira held me closer and I just melted into her arms. She sang a melody I recognized. I looked at her surprised. It was the song that played when we first kissed.

"H-how come you know the song Oh My Stars by Andrew Belle? That was a freaking ancient song from 2010 that not everyone knows except if they happen to like archaic artefacts."

Moira giggled and told me that when I was away with Kenta, Nardhia and Johan brought her a mixtape player and the two of them, together with LJ and Naoko, listened to some don't-even-count-how-many-centuries-old love songs while crafting the fleecy scarf that I now have.

I couldn't decide if I should be mad at my siblings or not for stealing my mixtape player.

"Hey Nardho, how did you propose to me?" Moira asked, still swaying me in her arms.

"What if I just re-enact the scene?" I smiled. She laughed and said she'd like to see me try.

Moira's engagement ring was in our bedroom and I didn't want to bother going up there and kill the mood, so I took off my own ring and pretended it was hers. The two rings were practically identical, anyway, the only difference was that Moira's have my initials and mine have hers.

"Moira Rosalind Johnson, you are the reason I look forward to every sunrise and the reason I want to become a better man. I'll only say this once but I do hope once is enough. Please marry me. We can be happy forever. I'll build you a house with spacious garden and every evening we can lie down on the grass and watch the moon. Grow old with me and don't let me be lonely."

The way Moira reacted to my re-enactment was amazingly the same way she reacted back then when I proposed to her about three decades ago. She flung her arms around my neck.

"Yes. A thousand times yes."