Of course, right when the lesson ended, the door opened, and Janus came through ready to pick me up. The classroom buzzed with giggles, laughter filling the air. If I didn’t know any better, I would have assumed them to be a bunch of teenagers, but here they were, grown adults, two even in their fifties, giggling like high schoolers.
Janus noticed my contained rage and deemed it necessary to justify his protective behavior. “It is cold outside, and it’s already dark. I wouldn’t want you to stumble and fall.”
Excuses, nothing but excuses, I thought. He just wants to spend time with me. And I wouldn’t even hate spending time with him if he would at least not do it in such embarrassing ways. Maybe I should talk to my soon-to-be mother-in-law. Perhaps she can talk some sense into her son.
Janus shivered slightly.
I look Janus in the eyes and firmly say, “Fine, but I want to go to Rika. It will be late, so you don’t have to wait for me.”
“But…” He tried to dissuade me, but ultimately folded under my students’ prying eyes. Perhaps I can ease up on the next homework assignment.
On our way through the snow trenches, I held Janus’s hand firmly, happily skipping behind him, while he trudged with a more depressed gait. The night sky was clear, and the cold moonlight reflected on the snow, casting a silvery glow that illuminated the quiet street. Rika’s family home stood right next to the entrance gate, with kids and adults busily shoveling the fresh snowfall, their breath forming clouds in the crisp air. A band of kids threw snowballs at each other, chasing the butcher’s fat cat, their Cheeks and noses reddened from the cold, warm clouds of breath escaping their laughing mouths. Soon, their laughter faded as they followed the cat into a narrow alley, leaving the snow-covered street silent again.
For a moment, I imagine two more children, a boy and a girl, running after the rowdy band of kids until I bump into something soft.
“See, I told you, you would stumble.”
Entirely in thought, I have stumbled right into Janus, who had stopped right in front of Rika’s door. Or, more accurately, Sir Titus’ door. A door so big it could rival the entrance gate right next to it. Curiously, there were two doorknobs at different heights. The higher one was made from rough iron in the image of a bull’s head. The smaller one was fashioned from silver with a delicate floral pattern.
“I didn’t stumble, I was just in thought and…”
Halfway through, I stopped my sentence cause I could already tell it would only prove his point.
Sigh, he won’t ever let that go…
Thankfully, he didn’t dwell on it and instead knocked on the heavy door, causing a few flakes of snow to fall from the roof.
Soon, Rika opened the door, and hot air momentarily blew away the cold.
“Come in, you two. Ruby, you can leave your shoes and winter clothes at the door.”
Janus and I walked in, and I firmly closed the door behind us, carefully making sure that no snow came inside. I take off my gloves, coat, and hat before moving on with the boots. Soon, all my clothes hang next to the door, with the attached snow already melting. But unlike me, Janus just waited until I was done and opened the door again.
“Don’t stay up too late. Rika, make sure to walk her back and…”
“Yes, Mother. Now be gone, you big oaf.”
And with these words, Rika pushed the still protesting Janus out of the door.
Sigh, finally. I really do have to talk with his mother about him being too overbearing. And speaking of mother, Rika’s mother had really outdone herself. A fully roasted chicken with crispy skin and meat that just falls off the bone. Surrounded by green beans, golden potatoes, sweet and sour red cabbage, and tons of dark gravy. The table was so full that it would have been impossible to fit another cup on it. Four chairs surrounded the table, three simple chairs, one for guests, and the other two for Rika and her mother, while another chair, twice the size of the others, was for her father. But not only his chair, but also his cutlery and plate, were bigger, filling a good third of the table all by themselves.
He really was a giant.
Today, he was full of smiles and constantly refilling my plate until I could finally manage to make him stop by constant begging. Rika’s mother, on the other hand, had the same blond hair as her daughter. Not the same platinum blond as her husband, but the same dirty blond hair as her daughter, but with a few grey strands. She also had the same brown puppylike eyes, but was about two heads smaller than her daughter. To her own account, she was no older than thirty… right next to her twenty-six-year-old daughter.
When we were all in that blissful moment of fullness, when no one wanted to get up yet to handle the dirty dishes, I exclaimed,
“Why have you not introduced me sooner? If I had known your mother to be such a capable cook, I would have come over all the time.”
“Oh, thank you, Ruby, you are truly too kind. You can come whenever you want.”
Her husband nodded along while busily picking his giant teeth with a regular fork.
“I just didn’t think it was necessary.”
“Not necessary, huh? Aren’t you just scared I will tell them too much about you and....”
“Mom!”
“Hehehe, okay fine, how about you two go upstairs to chat while your father handles the dishes.”
And without even giving me time to protest, Rika had already dragged me halfway up the stairs away from her mother’s prying eyes and her father’s weak protest.
Rika’s room was filled to the brim with cute little trinkets and knick-knacks like seashells and smooth stones, as well as many different colored feathers.
“These are from my father, whenever he comes home. There is a whole chest of them under my bed. These are just the best ones.”
Rika’s situation was a bit unusual. Usually in this country, a woman her age was already married with two or three kids under her belt. But she was still alone, living with her parents.
“What did your mother mean by talking too much about you and…?”
To me, it felt like she was about to say someone’s name before Rika cut her off.
“Ugh, nothing, she just likes to dig up old stuff all the time. How about we leave it at that and instead talk about why you wanted to come over in the first place.”
I was still curious what she was hiding. Still, I indeed had more pressing issues than some embarrassing story from Rika’s childhood… not really, of course, I was dying to know. Still, I could already tell that she wouldn’t spill the beans.
So instead, I wrapped Rika’s hands with mine and, with tension high and a pleading look, I asked,
“Rika, I need your help! I can’t think of any presents for the Luna Festival!”
