Chapter Text
Three days have passed since Basil last heard Sunny’s voice.
Three excruciating days, during which every ring of the phone causes Basil’s head to turn to the living room.
“Sorry, that was my Sister,” Polly would say. Or: “Just another telemarketer.” Or, sometimes, just the shake of a head, and a sorry look.
Three long nights, during which Basil couldn’t fall asleep, tossing and turning, his reality becoming a fever dream of anxiety and dark thoughts; his mind racing, his heart restless.
On the morning of the fourth day, Basil can’t take it any longer. He’s used to Sunny calling him, but maybe this was a test. Maybe Sunny was playing games again, waiting for Basil to call-
“Basil!” Polly’s voice comes from the living room.
Basil perks up, suddenly alert, and nervous.
“Y-yeah?” He steps into the living room, his legs shaking a bit. His hair is greasy and unkempt, and there are dark circles underneath his eyes.
“It’s… it’s for you,” Polly says.
Basil takes the receiver in his hands. He looks at Polly.
Polly looks back at him, eyes wide, a strange look on her face.
Basil brings the phone to his ear.
“Sunny?”
“Basil! It’s… it’s Mari.” Mari sounds quiet, her voice low and lifeless.
“Oh. I… I was gonna call.”
“Yeah… I was wondering when you’d - but, yeah. It’s better if I called you.”
“Oh, okay. Where’s Su-”
“Basil, I’m s-sorry.”
“What?”
“Sunny… he… he ■■■■■■ ■■■■. ”
The entire world drops away from Basil’s feet. Suddenly, he loses all sense of orientation, collapsing to his knees, a high pitched noise filling his ears.
“W-what?”
“It was four… four days ago. Car accident. He was on his bike.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry, Basil. We’re all… we’re all together now. That’s all that matters. We…”
“That’s not funny, Mari.”
“... I’m sorry. Basil, I’m so sorry. I know what he means… what he meant to you-”
“That’s NOT funny!”
Basil wants to snap the phone in half, but his hand remains clutched tightly to the receiver, as if glued to it by his sweaty, shaking palms.
“Basil? You still there?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you… are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m okay. Can you just put Sunny on?”
“...Basil…”
“He’s standing right next to you, right? He’s probably giggling. And so are you.”
“...”
“He did this last time, too. He’s not fooling me.”
“...”
“Put Sunny on. Now.”
“...”
“Please, Mari.”
But then, Basil can hear nothing but Mari’s soft sobs through the receiver. She’s crying, gasping sporadically for air, and exhaling in short, erratic shudders.
“P-please, Mari! Tell me it’s not true!”
And then, Basil starts crying too.
“Mari, PLEASE!”
Mari says nothing for a minute. Nothing but gasps, and sobs, and static.
After a moment, Basil can hear Mari take a deep breath, and let it out slowly.
“If you w-want to come to the funeral, mom and dad said they’d pay for your plane ticket, and let you s-stay in Sunny’s room. They already sent Polly the details. If you don’t, t-that’s fine. It’s up to you.”
Mari hangs up the phone, leaving a single, empty, high-pitched tone in Basil’s ear.
🌻
The high-pitched tone never subsides, or goes away. It’s incessant, uncomfortable, and everywhere, gnawing inside Basil’s inner ear.
It follows him out of his house.
It follows him through the airport, and he checks in his only bag. It follows him as a flight attendant accompanies him through security, and onto the plane.
It follows him through takeoff, through the morning skies over Faraway, through a fluffy layer of clouds, above which, it’s sunny.
He starts crying again.
He doesn’t feel sad, but angry. His hands curl up into fists, and he starts sobbing, drawing concerned looks from his seatmate.
He’s angry at himself.
He’s angry that the last thing they said to each other, in person, was ‘goodbye’.
He’s angry that the last thing they said to each other, on the phone, was ‘I love you’.
Why, Sunny?
He’s upset that he’d stopped kissing Sunny, when his lips started to feel numb. If he knew it was their last, he wouldn’t have stopped. He would’ve kissed him until morning, and never let go.
He’s upset that he didn’t stop Sunny, when he announced it was his last summer in Faraway. If he knew this would happen, he would’ve done anything to stop him.
Why, Sunny? We were supposed to have a birthday cake… with… with one hundred candles on it.
He’s sad that the universe went through all that, quarks and protons and stars and stardust and supernovas. All that, just to put Sunny and himself in the same town together. All that, just so the universe could rip him away, with a screech of tires on asphalt, and a pair of headlights.
He’s sad that he hadn’t told Sunny earlier. Even if it was just by a day, or an hour, or an instant. He could’ve lived one more day as Sunny’s boyfriend, one more hour, one more second.
That high-pitched tone follows him, the entire taxi ride, from the airport to Sunny’s house.
🌻
“We’re not going to the cemetery?” Basil asks.
He’s in the car with Mom, Dad, and Mari.
“No,” Mom says, “Sunny never liked the idea of coffins. Did you know? He wrote a will.”
“At age thirteen. Unbelievable,” Dad says.
Mari’s completely quiet, staring out the window as trees scroll by.
Basil’s quiet too, a small backpack sitting on his lap. He holds onto the straps firmly as his thoughts drift off into the dark.
“Expensive and useless,” Dad continues. “That’s what he’d say. In his will, he said to just toss him into the ground, at the base of the biggest tree we could find. So we got a permit with the funeral home… they own the wooded area next to the cemetery.”
Basil and Sunny’s family walk up to a tree in a forested area next to the cemetery. It’s tall, and beautiful, and its green canopy filters the noon sunlight above, shading a small placard at its base:
Sunny Suzuki
1983-1996
“He also wrote something really specific in his will,” Mom says. “He said: if I die, don’t bring flowers. Just bring some friends, and have a picnic.”
Mari holds up a basket with a sad smile. “So that’s what we’re doing.”
Basil tries not to cry.
They spread a red plaid picnic blanket at the base of the tree. There’s a few sandwiches, a salad, and some cut fruit.
The memories start coming back, all at once.
The day they held hands under the tree.
The day that Basil confessed to Sunny.
“You okay?” Mari asks.
“Y-yeah. I’m fine,” Basil says.
They continue to eat in silence.
Eventually, they pack up the picnic blanket, and start heading back towards the car.
“Is it okay if I stay?” Basil says.
“Oh?” Mom looks at Dad with a frown.
“I just wanna stay a little while longer. I can walk home.”
“Do you know the way?” Dad says.
“Yeah.”
“It’ll be like a fourty-five minute walk down the main road-” Dad continues.
“That’s fine,” Basil says.
They say their goodbyes, and Basil finds himself laying down underneath the tree.
Basil ends up laying down on his back, staring up at the fluttering leaves in the tree of life.
The tree is beautiful.
The late afternoon sky filters through the canopy. Basil takes a deep breath, smelling the calm scents of the forest, listening to the quiet chirps of birds and bugs, feeling a soft breeze through his hair.
He opens his bag, and takes out a length of rope.
He ties a noose, and secures it to a low-hanging branch, using a nearby bucket as a stepstool.
He puts his head through the noose.
🌻
Basil wakes up, abruptly, to the sound of the phone ringing in the living room.
His blankets are twisted around his body, and he’s sweating profusely, his pyjamas clinging coldly to his skin.
“Basil!” Polly calls out from the living room.
He’s crying. He blinks, and streams of tears roll down his sweaty face and into his ears.
“Basil! Phone! It’s Sunny.”
Sunny.
It was a nightmare.
Basil flings the blankets off of him. It’s a Saturday morning. He looks at his alarm clock: 9:12AM. It would be 6:12AM where Sunny is.
Basil runs for the living room, almost slipping on the wooden floor.
“Careful! It’s-”
He grabs the receiver from Polly’s hands, and Polly just smiles warmly at him.
Basil opens his mouth to speak, but then words fail him. He just stands there, breathing into the phone.
“Basil?”
It’s Sunny’s voice. Basil gasps for air, shuddering from his cold sweat.
“Basil… you there?”
“Y-yeah.”
Basil starts crying.
“Sorry, I’m in the hospital right now. I had an accident… I… you won’t believe it. I got hit by… by a car. Fractured a rib. I was on my bike.”
Basil starts bawling his eyes out. “Aaah… ahhhh! AGH! AHHHH! Sunny! SUNNY! Are you… are you -hic- are you…”
“S-sorry… sorry I was out for… for four days. Finally woke up feeling good this morning, though. I walked right to the hospital payphone as soon as I could get outta bed. It’s really early in the morning, so I gotta be quiet.”
“Ahhh! I… -hic- I… I missed… I missed you!”
“Haha… I missed you too.”
Non-stop tears flow down Basil’s face.
“I can’t…I… I…. I love you! You’re a-alive! I love you! I love you, I love you, I love you!”
“Sheesh, Basil it’s only been four days? What am I gonna do with y-”
“Say it back!”
“Huh?”
“Say it back!!!”
“Oh. Sorry.”
Basil waits, clutching the phone tightly to his tear and sweat-soaked face.
“I love you, too.”
🌻
Three days, one plane ride, and two taxi rides later, Basil bursts into Sunny’s hospital room, tears streaming down his face, and pulls Sunny into a tight, warm hug, so tight it squeezes tears from each boy’s eyes, so tight that their bodies might fuse.