Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
January 14th, 2018
Yokohama Royal Park Hotel
5:30pm
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Menodora’s stomach growled. Well that was that decision made, wasn’t it?
Unfortunately, cigarettes couldn’t be considered a part of a healthy and balanced diet, so Menodora needed to actually go out and get some food.
She could have ordered room service but she didn’t want to risk trying to order food over the phone in a language she barely spoke. The restaurant in the building was closed for renovations, so that wasn’t an option. Fortunately, Menodora had an idea of where to go for a quick bite.
Riding down the elevator to the lobby, she stopped out onto the plaza that sat above the highway. From there, she could see the city.
The high-rises form a valley with the street. The lights of Cosmoworld in the distance with flares of neon blues and reds. The sky above was darkening into blacks and greys as clouds gathered. It would probably rain soon. Hopefully not too soon. Mennie didn’t have an umbrella and didn’t want to waste money on a cab for a short walk.
She had no idea where that niche club Elle wanted to go to was, but she had spotted a quaint little eatery not far from the hotel in the cab ride from the airport. She could get something to eat there.
With her destination set, Menodora set out into the Japanese night. She had never been to Japan before. Her knowledge of the place and culture was limited to what was necessary to purchase figures. She bought them and painted them to sell online. Some people liked figures but didn’t have the skill and patience to do it well, and some liked to get custom jobs done. Outside of that, Japan was as foreign as it got for Mennie.
The same couldn’t be said for her sister or any of her family, really. Before she was born, the Strausses barely lived in their home in Pennsylvania and had been to Japan seven times, amongst the dozens of other countries they traveled to. Her brother and sister had spent their childhoods nation-hopping alongside her parents. They knew a dozen languages, been to over a hundred different countries, and had friends around the world.
All of that came to an end when Mennie was born.
She had been born sick. Too sick to risk travelling like they used to. Her parents settled the family down in their family home in Pennsylvania to take care of her.. When she was younger, they always talked about travelling again, but those days never came. After Lio left, hope dwindled and outright disappeared when Elle moved out. Now, any travelling that happened was done solo.
That was how Elle had sold Mennie on this in the first place. The beginning of a ‘sister world tour’ she had called it. Their first stop was supposed to be in London, but those plans changed and now they were in Japan. If Mennie cared to guess, it had to do with whatever Elle had run off to deal with. She’d seemed distracted since they got here.
Where they were going didn’t really matter to Mennie. To be honest, she didn’t care much about travel. Seeing the world had very little appeal to her. However, if Elle wanted to bring her little sister along on a world tour, then she couldn’t say no. She never did.
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“Miss?”
Menodora started at the gentle call. She hadn’t realized how much she’d zoned out, now standing in front of the cafe she’d seen earlier. Tashtego written in plain English, the reason she had noticed it. A young woman in a uniform was leaning out of the door, giving her a curious look.
“Are you a customer?” Her English was accented but understandable.
“Oh, yes.” Menodora nodded and went inside. She took her seat and ordered a drink from the young woman; orange soda. While she waited, she pulled out her phone. No calls, not even a text from her missing sister.
Not surprising in the slightest. Unless she was in her direct sight, Elle rarely seemed to think about Mennie. They only talked on the phone when she called her mom or dad first. They saw each other when she visited home and Menodora was standing right in front of her. They only spent time together when Elle wanted to.
That was how it was in their family. Mennie watched TV with her mom because her mom wanted to spend time together; she read books with her dad because he wanted someone to talk to about them, and she did it. It made them happy so she did it. Whether she wanted to would be an irrelevant question.
She didn’t want to be short, but she was. She didn’t want to be fragile, but she was. She didn’t want to be eating alone in a foreign country, but she was. She didn’t want to be mundane, but she was. What was simply was.
The waitress returned with Mennie’s soda and asked for her order. Not wanting to risk something upsetting her stomach, she ordered an omelette with rice. The expectant way the waitress nodded told her that was a common option.
Menodora’s life with her family was a lot like that waitress. Regardless of how she felt about this restaurant, her colleagues, or the customers, she simply had to do as she was asked. Welcome people to the restaurant, write down orders, bring out the food. She played her role as a waitress to make it through the day and lead a happy, peaceful life. Menodora played her role as the little sister and youngest daughter for the same reason.
Did it make her happy? Yes. As long as her family was happy, she was happy. If they were unhappy with her, then she’d be failing in her role and then there would be no point to her. Thus, she always does as they ask of her and they loved her for it. Some people got less than that for doing more, so she couldn’t complain.
They annoyed her sometimes. Lio, her older brother, pissed her off most of the time being the snarky bastard he was, but she rarely voiced that. Usually, he poked at her, then her mother or Elle would come to her defence. That was the gag, the role she fit in the family. Any feelings she harbored about them stayed where they couldn’t hear her. Instead, she focused on what she loved about them and gave voice only to that.
She was already worthless, so she tried not to devalue herself any more than that.
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Soon enough, the waitress brought Menodora’s meal and she dug in. The omelette, apparently called omurice, was bigger than she thought, so it took longer than expected to eat. Once she was done, she dug some of the yen Elle had given her out of her sweater pockets and handed them over. The waitress came back with a copy of the check and some change.
The coins were strange. More specifically, one of the five 10-yen coins was different from the others. Rather than a dull coppery color, it was golden and there were no numbers on it. It wasn’t from age since the rest of the markings were on it. It was more like a misprint. Then again, for all she knew, the other four coins were the strange ones.
After thanking the waitress, Menodora stuffed the change into her pocket and left the eatery. It was fully night now with the streetlights on. The clouds were getting thicker and starting to move. Soon, it began to rain.
“Damn it.”
Pulling her sweater up over her head, Mennie ran through the rain, which began to pour harder and harder. The storm had become utterly torrential in very little time, unleashing curtains of bitter cold rain. Thunder and lighting screamed in the distance with winds that nearly blew Mennie off her feet.
Through the rain, Menodora could barely see ahead of her but she could just make out the sign pointing towards the bridge across the road to the hotel. Soon she’d be out of this damn storm and she could drip her way up to the hotel room for a nice warm bath.
She struggled her way down the sidewalk with cars splashing her with wave after wave of water. The few other people outside were beginning to run into nearby stores and under alcoves as the wind and rain grew worse. It was like a hurricane had appeared out of nowhere.
Menodora started to think about hiding as well when she heard a screeching like the stings of a horror film.
Someone screamed something she didn’t understand.
Ki o tsukete!
Menodora was flying.
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Agonizing heat screamed through her chest and she was falling.
Where was she falling from?
The ground met her ungently. Something cracked. Something was warm spreading against her head. Was that the rain?
She tried to get up but her legs were asleep. No. She couldn’t feel her legs. She just stopped halfway down.
Her chest hurt though. Her chest was on fire. Breathing was agony and if felt like there was something in her throat, but she couldn’t get enough to cough it out.
She turned her head and the world swam.
People were standing over her. But she couldn’t see them clearly.
They were blurry.
Everything was blurry.
Everything hurt. Except her legs.
More blurry people were coming. They were saying things. Yelling things. It was still raining but they were standing over her in the rain. Like umbrellas.
She tried to talk but no words came out. Only gurgling and blood.
Oh.
Mennie was dying.
Something had hit her. A truck. A truck had hit her on the sidewalk? It must’ve slipped off in the rain. And now she was dying.
Just her luck. Hit by traffic on a sidewalk. Pathetic.
At least Elle wasn’t here.
But she wanted Elle to be here. She wanted Lio to be here. Her dad. Her mommy.
But Mennie never gets what she wants.
Mennie felt her body getting colder and the world getting darker and darker.
And then there was light.
It was everywhere. The blurriness faded from Menodora’s vision but she couldn’t see anything but the light from the sky, growing brighter and brighter like the sun was crashing into the Earth.
And she could feel herself moving again. Rising. Pulled up by her sweater. Up past the people, past the buildings, into the sky that was burning gold.
She couldn’t see. Was this what dying was like? Instead of endless darkness, it was endless blinding light? It hurt!
She had to close her eyes. When she did, she found peace in the darkness and felt herself drifting into unconsciousness, away from the terror of the light. And as her mind drowned in blessed sleep, she heard thoughts that were not her own.
“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?”
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Originally Posted by Faux, July 20th 2019
A wise and beautiful woman who exudes an aura of grace. She is a sly, cunning, manipulative person who always gets what she wants, whether through trickery or ruthlessness. Her own fighting abilities are low, but she should not be trifled with. What does she ride? Men, of course!
