Jumping from rooftops to outlying branches, guided by the gentle evening breeze offering the promise of a meal, a calico she-cat came slinking through the bustling streets of Sendaî, the City of Trees.
It was the seventh day of the Qixi festival.
The romantic festival commemorated the two star-crossed lovers who are only allowed to meet each other once a year. There were many celebrations all over the country, which also included parades, food stalls, dancing, colourful decorations, paper lanterns floating on rivers, tying wishes to bamboo sticks, puppetry shows, music and fireworks.
Under a cherry tree, leaves spreading wide, pink blossoms covering the twinkle of the stars; the calico cat gazed with sadness at two lovers. Sitting in the light from a paper lantern, they were sharing a passionate kiss.
She had once been kissed passionately like this woman. But now, the man who had loved her would probably kill her. She never imagined that love could be the cause of anguish; but now her love-anguish was intolerable, and forced tears that she couldn't restrain.
The She-cat's tummy started rumbling much louder since she started her journey. On a slope in a mountain village, up the Kodami river, through the Nobozashi plains, she had wandered, far and wide, but could not find what she was looking for. She was too sorrowful to think of food until now.
However, the air filled with her favourite scent, she lost focus on her primary mission: finding the man who lived between the sun and the moon and make him her owner for forty-nine days.
"Mackerel, mackerel… yum!" The smell was too tempting to resist! Avoiding the street lights and paper lanterns—force of habit and a necessity, for her shadow revealed her true self—the calico cat slithered around people's legs, lifting her nose in the air like a radar to sniff food out.
Suddenly a drop of fried fat splattered onto her whiskers. Her tail couldn't stop switching from left to right. And her green eyes, a little larger than average, gleamed with excitement. She was hypnotised by the vendor who was flipping at lightning speed the fried balls of mackerels with chopsticks. She skulked by the booth thinking that he might accidentally drop more than fried fat, but, next off, he booted her away. Her claws unsheathed, she hissed and spat, then ran away with a balletic grace.
Then, lurking by the grilled shrimps served on a stick, she was yowling like a kitten. The stall was surrounded by hungry and joyous children waving orizuru.*
[Surely, these little hearts will open up to my plea. Emika, be as purrfectly lovable as a cat can possibly be!]
She gently looked up at the smallest of the children. Beneath her fluttering lashes, big green eye-balls glowing with shrimp-shaped pupils requested food. Weaving around the little boy's legs with a soft purr, and rubbing against his legs, she kept her gaze on the prize just as steady as her crying sound.
"Meow... Meow... Meow... Meow..."
A little girl turned around and answered with a grin, bits of delicious food stuck between her front teeth. The girl patted the cat's back, scratching gently into the velvety fur.
Her pride bottled up inside, Emika stood up on her back legs to beg. She was a queen temporarily disadvantaged.
[Are you kitten me?… Stop licking that shrimp! Aren't I cute enough?… Ha! Need I talk and frighten all of you away to get your shrimp? No, no, no... Emika, no. Long and deep breathe...]
"Meow... Meow... Meeowoo… woo... oo?"
Her stomach groaned.
[Long and deep breathe... Let's be even cuter. Emika, you can do this!]
"Meeeowoo... Meeeowoo... MEEEOWOO!"
[Huh? This is not working... But I can't revert back into my human shape just yet. Besides… I have no money.]
And with their little hands full of freshly grilled skewers, the children ran towards the sounds of the drums and gongs, where the main attraction of the festival was about to start.
Emika followed the children and sat by the potted bamboo trees next to them. All the while, gawking at the shrimps. The little girl who previously patted her, smiled brightly, "The pretty cat followed us!"
Emika tilted her head to the side and uttered a soft "meow".
Looking at the children smiling she knew she had finally succeeded to get their attention.
Emika fluttered again her long eyelashes, underneath, eyes like sapphires glistened. Before long, the children were in awe with the extraordinariness of this cat's attitude. Of course she knew that they would: she was no ordinary cat.
And she lifted her proud little head higher.
"Maybe it's hungry," said a boy with hamster-like cheeks.
"Are you hungry?" the little girl asked in a sweet tone.
Emika nodded with a gentle and cute "meow."
The children shouted all at once, amused, "Aiya! This cat understands you Aimi!"
Aimi handed a piece of shrimp to the cat who gulped it down instantly.
"Do you want more?"
Again, Emika nodded straightaway with a soft "meow", tilted her head to the side and fluttered her long eyelashes. And so the girl handed another piece of shrimp to the clever cat.
Mouths wide open, the children uttered various sounds of amazement as they stared at each other.
"My turn!" screamed the boy with chubby cheeks, "Do you want more?"
At once, Emika did her trick. And plop! Another shrimp landed in her mouth.
This had quickly turned into a game; with the little children taking in turn in asking if she was hungry, and she would then nod with fluttering eyelashes.
What the children interpreted as adorable, was none other than the gaze of a deity-like looking down on ants. A very hungry queen—probably angry too—who chose to forego her dignity so she could eat shrimps.
Emika had turned into a circus monkey. This scene was etched into her memory forever. She would indeed remember for a long time the humiliation. However she couldn't change into her human form yet. It was still unsafe, and she wouldn't risk it until she found Him. Besides, this humiliation was deserving, and a necessary step to her penance.
Suddenly the sound of a gong gathered the audience around the famous Wu-Shan shadow puppet play*.
The play celebrated the dramatic story of two lovers with beautiful puppetry skills.
Cast by oil lamps and candles, the slender silhouette of Princess Orihime cut-out figure reflected on the scrim* and spoke her story:
Princess Orihime was very skilled at weaving beautiful clothes by the Heavenly river. The garments she crafted were fine and celestial like no other. Her father, the Sky King loved wearing the clothes Orihime made. Because of her father's fondness for her weaving, the princess worked relentlessly day and night to create new and magnificent garments.
While she enjoyed making her father happy and the envy of the other kings, Orihime also felt sad and lonely. She despaired of ever finding love.
In that first act, the notes of weeping flutes floated around the audience. Slow and sad notes. Then, the music started to leap from key to key and arrived to a place of hope, introducing the play's second act.
Princess Orihime's father, who loved her so dearly, arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi, the cow herder who lived on the other side of the Heavenly River.
And another shadow puppet appeared, causing gasps of excitement.
The two of them fell in love the second they laid their eyes upon each other and married shortly after. Living their life as a happy couple, deeply devoted to each other, Orihime stopped weaving and Hikoboshi let his cows to wander all over the heavens.
Then, the thunder-like sound of the gong bounced from ear to ear amidst a startled audience. And everyone gaze swept across the tall and fierce silhouette of the Sky King puppet who sprung between the lovers.
This was the third act.
The Sky King became angry at their carelessness of not attending to their duties. Hence, he separated them and forbade them to be together. Orihime, on one side of the Heavenly River, was heartbroken as her lover was out of reach on the other side of the boundless river. She pleaded with her father to allow them to meet.
He loved his daughter so much that his heart was moved. Thus, the Sky King decreed that the two lovers could meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month if Orihime returned to her weaving.
When the day of their meeting finally came, Orihime and Hikoboshi could not cross the Heavenly River as there was no bridge. It was too dangerous to attempt to walk through it. And by that, it would be impossible for them to meet. Devastated the princess cried many bitter tears.
In that last scene, within the gentle and melodic sound of the erhu*, sadness soared into the sky like a human voice wailing. Deeply immersed in the story, Emika's chest tightened. From the story of the princess, she saw her reality. The hurt and the tears pierced through her human heart, and memories of her lost love overwhelmed Emika's mind.
The play resumed into the final act.
Orihime's desperation was so great that a flock of magpies heard her crying. The birds built a bridge with their wings allowing Orihime to cross the river and embrace her beloved Hikoboshi.
The birds made a promise: if the skies were clear they would come back every year to reunite the lovers. It is said that if it rains, the magpies won't come and the two lovers must wait another year to be reunited.
At the end of the play, everyone lifted their eyes to the black velvet sky. Emika saw smiles of relief: it was a clear night sky revealing the Heavenly River as the Milky Way. Happy fingers pointed towards the stellar formation of Vega, princess Orihime, and on the other side of the Heavenly River, Altair, her beloved Hikoboshi was waiting.
The two star crossed lovers would finally be reunited.
For the crowd, this festival celebrated a happy ending. However, Emika's heart was aching. What a tormented love it was! The longing, the loneliness. For in this realm, the people were ignorant that a thread of reality was weaved into this legend.
And the happy audience, held in the arms of a melancholic melody, started singing the traditional song of the Qixi festival:
"Bambo leaves are rustling, rustling
Swaying close to the roof's edge
Oh! How the stars are twinkling, twinkling,
Gold and silver grains of sand.
Five wishes
I have written
The stars are twinkling
And watching from the sky."
Little strips of coloured paper were given out, and everyone started writing their wishes to hang on bamboo sticks.
Emika watched the little girl write her wish on a pink strip of paper: 'I wish to marry Kiyomi.' Then she quatted down and whispered to the cat's ear, "Kiyomi is my beloved. Shush... it's a secret pretty kitty." Aimi patted the feline's head, soft as silk and lamented, "But I hope he will not fall in love with Li Ji. She is not a nice girl. She uses tricks on Kiyomi to try to make him fall in love with her. She doesn't play fair."
Emika was smiling inside and cheered for the beautiful little girl, ten years old and already entangled in a love triangle.
She looked at the boys, and wondered which one of them was her secret love interest.
[Ah... The sweet taste of first love... Just give him plenty of candy and you will win his heart.]
"Kiyomi doesn't like sweets things," Aimi sighed. "Pretty Kitty, I don't know what gift to buy…"
At that, Emika felt shivers down her spine. [Could that little girl hear my silent voice?]
"Besides," Aimi bit her bottom lip with regrets while staring at the two copper coins left inside her small silken pouch, "I've spent too much on delicious food."
For a fleeting moment Aimi felt disappointment at her greediness; and next up, she was already leaping with joy, "First, let's make my wish come true!"
As Aimi was tying up her pink wish to the bamboo tree, a deep tone of voice suddenly call out in the crowds of people: "Aimi! So there you are!"
A few people turned their heads towards the direction of the voice and saw a man exhibiting an imposing presence and a noble aura, although he was dressed quite plainly, and his bearing unpretentious. Those who met his gaze only would see that he looked more radiant than any average person next to him in the crowd.
Aimi's face bloomed like a sweet plum blossom as she waved back at him:
"Kiyomi!"
Emika raised her little feline head, but the to and fro of colourful garments blocked out her view. Being a cat was a clear disadvantage to her field of vision! She craned forward and sideways to see past the crowds of people, but before long, her eyes stumbled on a pair of black thick-soled satin shoes which were now standing a couple of steps away from Aimi and herself.
Then her inquisitive gaze swept over the plain white robe he wore, below which showed a fir-tree-green silk brocade trousers.
And as soon as her gaze reached his face as bright as the mid-autumn moon, Emika was taken completely by surprise.
A jolt of electricity passed through her.
It was Him!
She had found Him.
It was strange how unfamiliar his features now seemed to her, just as if she had never met him before.
During the time that he and Aimi chatted, Emika gazed at his face fixedly and attentively—the fine outline of his nose, the sharp arc of his eyebrows as if painted on with India ink, thin and bold lips, cheekbones as if they had been cut with a knife, and his eyes.
Those eyes expressed themselves most eloquently than words. She recalled how they radiated with warmth and feeling even in anger. However, she found the soul of his eyes different from what it used to be.
Seeing him alive after she had given up all hope gave her such a joy. It was but a brief emotion, and she quickly felt frightened and stumbled back a few steps as she recalled every drop of the painful memories from the past.
She was undeserving of the pleasant memories.
Soon after, her chest tightened to the point of suffocating. Every breathe hurt like thousands needles stabbing her. She felt as if her blood was rushing backwards to drown her heart. In barely one second, a gamut of emotions crashed into her like tempestuous sea waves—from the surge of fear and the rush of love, to the rise of guilt and despair, then fear again. Fear. She wanted to take her eyeballs away, but she realised she could look at him like this for the rest of her life. Look at the face that was her curse nonetheless.
Emika had found him, and he was indeed alive.
He was here.
In front of her, once again.
And it was terrifying.
Beautiful.
Suddenly overwhelming.
She finally had found Him here! In The Forbidden World.
And a stardust-like cloud haloed his body, glowing like molten gold and gleaming like the brilliant pallor of the moon. In this world, her eyes only were able to see the luminous seal surrounding his body. Yes, her eyes only, for she was the one who had been stolen from his mind and sealed away from his heart.
~~~
* Orizuru: Paper crane: origami decoration for long life.
* Shadow puppet show, also known as shadow play: an ancient form of storytelling which use flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) and held between a source of light and a translucent scrim. The shadows cast by puppet figures
* Scrim: a sheet of lightweight and transparent fabric used in shadow puppetry theatres all over East Asia.
* Erhu: a two-stringed bow instrument. The erhu is especially stirring at evoking feelings of sadness and melancholy.