Chapter Text
The summer flies by for Kiki. Business at the bakery increases overnight, once townspeople find out that’s where their local witch has set up shop. Kiki herself becomes something of a local celebrity, too. For about a week after the incident (or the Dirigible Disaster, as Tombo likes to call it), all that’s played on the television sets are clips of her rescuing Tombo.
It’s flattering, in Kiki’s opinion, but after a while it starts to get a little embarrassing. That first time trying to use the old man’s street broom was difficult after not being able to fly for days, not to mention that the broom itself was never meant for magic. As a result, her flying was more reminiscent of a five-year-old floating for the first time, instead of the thirteen-year-old witch-in-training she’s supposed to be. Seeing herself bumble about the rooftops and swing wildly around on the broom in black-and-white on screen after screen stings her pride. Kiki remains worried for several weeks that people who have only ever seen her fly from the clips will think that she has no control whatsoever over her flight. Well, to be fair, in that moment Kiki’s control was limited. But it’s not like she’s that out-of-control on a normal day! The Dirigible Disaster was about as not normal as you could get.
Luckily, Kiki has more than enough opportunities to prove herself a good flyer. In addition to the bakery’s business increasing, her own delivery service becomes incredibly popular. Where she used to get maybe five or six deliveries a day, she now gets a dozen before noon. The phone line rings near constantly, and Kiki has to quickly learn how to handle the influx of business or risk losing customers.
With Tombo’s help, she sets up routes that make her deliveries a little more reliable. He even serves as acting secretary during the day, taking calls in the bakery for her, writing down names and addresses. Kiki herself spends most of her time in the air, delivering packages, before going back to the bakery to get the information on new deliveries from Tombo. Kiki pays him 15% of the profits she gets, although she wants to give him half.
“But you’re working just as hard as I am!” she says, trying to foist the money off on him.
Tombo just chuckles bashfully, and says “Well, you’re the one actually flying. Plus, I get free pastries whenever I want, so that’s more than enough. Don’t worry about it, Kiki!”
That’s what Tombo says, but she can read between the lines. He’s trying to pay her back for saving him, even if he won’t say as much. Kiki is just as content to not bring it up as he is, because it’s honestly a little weird. Kiki can be stubborn though, and she won’t relent until he agrees to take at least 15%. With a long-suffering sigh (that Kiki is sure he’s faking), Tombo agrees. Neither of them is quite satisfied with the arrangement, but it’s enough.
He has to go home in the evening for dinner, and by then the workday is done because Kiki doesn’t deliver past 5:30. That had been a rule encouraged by Osono-san, saying “Even young witches-in-training need their me-time. You’ll have more than enough work when you’re an adult, believe me!” And then she gives one of her big, hearty laughs that are starting to feel like home to Kiki.
Kiki likes her me-time, but she wants to help Osono-san and her husband with the bakery. After the delivery business picks up more, she tries to pay rent to them similar to how she tried to pay Tombo, only to be laughed off, similar to how Tombo laughed her off.
“You’ve repaid us ten times over with the free publicity,” Osono says with a wink when Kiki brings it up in the kitchen. “Our bakery has more customers now than ever! Well, some of them are for you, but even they tend to buy something once they’re in here.”
Fukuo nods his agreement from where he’s kneading dough, but similar to Tombo, Kiki doesn’t feel like it’s enough. Osono seems to realize this, like she always does, and leans down to Kiki’s level. Her eyes twinkle, and she pulls Kiki into a hug.
“Really, Kiki, you don’t need to worry about it. Besides, family members shouldn’t be expected to pay rent, should they?” she says into Kiki’s shoulder.
The weight of the statement sinks in for a moment. Kiki doesn’t know what to say to that, so she just hugs Osono back as strongly as she dares. When they pull away from each other, their eyes are suspiciously bright. Fukuo turns away, and something that sounds suspiciously like a sniffle comes from his direction. Osono laughs one of her big belly laughs again, and Kiki feels warm from her head to her toes. She promises herself that even if she can’t pay them in money, she’ll do her best to help out with the bakery, and eventually with their child.
Eventually comes sooner than she thinks, and only a few weeks after that, Kiki holds the little one in her arms. Kazane-chan, as they named her, is maybe the cutest thing that Kiki has ever seen, and she makes another promise to be the best old sister that she can be. Afterwards, Osono and Fukuo decide that it would be best to hire a part-timer to help handle business and baking. When they do that, they’re even quicker to shoo Kiki away from the bakery when she tries to help there. According to them, they have it all under control with Kira, the new worker.
Kira is 18 and she has long, curly, golden hair that she wears up in a bun when she handles the food. Her eyes crinkle up when she smiles, and she reminds Kiki of Ursula in a way. Kiki spends the first week too terrified to talk to her, but Kira is the type of person that doesn’t seem to have any fear whatsoever when talking to people. It makes her very popular with the young men that start coming to the bakery, and Kiki can’t even blame them. Even worse, is that Kira wants to get to know Kiki. Not just as “the witch who saved that one boy” either, but as Kiki. It’s nerve-wracking, and Kiki always fumbles with her words whenever they talk, but Kira is kind enough not to make fun of it (unlike Tombo, that little snot).
Either way, Kiki doesn’t see much of her because Kira works from morning through the afternoon, while Kiki spends that time delivering packages. When Kiki comes back to the bakery, that’s usually when Kira is leaving. Kiki can’t decide whether this is a good or bad thing, so she doesn’t think about it at all.
By mid-summer, Kiki’s days are filled with flying above Corico, helping (when she can) in the bakery, and looking after Kazane-chan. She’s busy, busier than she’s ever been in her life, but she’s also incredibly happy. When she’s not working, she’s helping Tombo with his new-and-improved absolutely-indestructible aerobike (his words, not hers). Kiki isn’t nearly as clever with tinkering as he is, but she’s there to lend a friendly ear when he needs someone to ramble to or to fly and get some specific part from the other side of town. He’s still a total dork, and Kiki won’t hesitate to say as much, but she’s also totally impressed with what he’s doing. She’ll never be as interested as he is in flying contraptions, but she understands his love for the sky.
One day, they’re sitting on one of the dunes by the sea, looking up at the clear blue skies. His latest design for the aerobike is lying on the dune grass behind them, half-finished, when he asks her about the first time she went flying on her own. Kiki thinks for a second. The memory is sweet. It had been on her Mama’s broom, the one that now lies beside the attic door in two pieces. She avoids looking or even thinking about it, most days.
“I was maybe six or seven, and it was probably a day like this, you know, beautiful out. Mama was in a good mood, otherwise I can’t imagine why she’d have let me go off by myself,” Kiki says, looking out at the sky and sea. “Before then, I’d only ever been on a broom with her riding beside me or with her holding my hand, and I can’t really remember much about those times. But I remember my first time on my own pretty clearly.”
She looks over at Tombo, who’s reclining with his eyes closed. If they were having any other conversation, she’d scold him for falling asleep while she was talking, but she knows he’s paying attention to this story.
She continues, “I was in the yard, on Mama’s old broom. Either Mama or Papa gave me a push, and then I was going by myself. I couldn’t have been more than three feet off the ground, but it felt like I was way higher!” Kiki smiles, thinking about it, how she felt like she was going faster than anyone had ever went before, how scared she’d been in the moments before Mama or Papa let go, how she wobbled the whole time, not used to balancing on her own. But that first time felt like something woke up inside her too.
“After, I would beg Mama all the time if I could go flying by myself! She’d usually let me, as long as someone was watching. But one day I was going too fast and couldn’t stop myself and I flew right into the side of our neighbor’s barn!”
Tombo sits up at this, looking alarmed, and he asks, “What happened then?!”
“Well, the barn was fine, but I broke my wrist. Mama wasn’t very happy about it, and then I couldn’t fly until I was twelve, when she started to properly train me. It sucked.” Kiki pouts. She remembers those years all too well. It had been almost painful, to be so close to the broom, but not being able to use it for such a long time. Even when her mom relented and let Kiki sit beside her as they flew, it wasn’t the same.
Tombo turns his head away, and his shoulders are shaking. She thinks for a half a second that he might be crying, which is alarming, but then he bursts out into a guffaw. He’s laughing at her!
“Hey! You’re not allowed to laugh, that was a very dark time for me! I was banned from doing something I really loved!” She yells, smacking him on the shoulder, but he doesn’t stop. If anything, it makes him laugh harder.
“I’m sorry, Kiki, but it’s just really funny, imagining little you flying top-speed right into the side of a barn,” he says, and then snorts again, as if that thought alone is the funniest thing in the world.
“I can’t believe you’d make fun of the worst experience I’ve ever had,” She says snobbily, turning her chin up and away from him, but she’s not really upset. Tombo knows this too, and he keeps giggling. “Besides, it’s not like you’d do any better. You crashed your first aerobike, you know!”
Tombo composes himself after a second and agrees. “You’re not wrong! I guess we all start somewhere, even Little Miss Witch,” he replies, elbowing her in the side with a wry smile. She shoves him back but can’t help smiling too. What a dork!
He lies back down with his arms cushioning his head, and she gets curious.
“Tombo, why do you like flying so much? I’ve never met a non-witch so obsessed with it! I mean, everyone’s interested in blimps and aeroplanes and stuff, but not like you,” she says. Even to her ears, it sounds a little judgmental, but Tombo either doesn’t notice or doesn’t mind. He just makes a little hmm noise and closes his eyes again. His nose and brow scrunch up a little beneath the glasses, which means that he’s thinking, as Kiki has come to learn.
“Well, my uncle was a pilot, for one of the first commercial aeroplane lines. When I was little, I mean really little, he used to take me and my sisters with him on short trips. Nothing official, but when we’d visit, he’d make the time to take us for a spin in his plane,” Tombo says.
“It was always my favorite thing to do, and he’d let me sit in his lap and look at the dashboard and controls and everything. You can’t tell anyone this, but he even let me steer the plan while in flight, once!” he says excitedly, opening his eyes and looking at Kiki. “Only for like, 30 seconds, but boy was it wicked!”
He sobers up some, though, and looks back to the sky. Kiki lies down beside him, following his line of sight. A few clouds have drifted across the big expanse of blue.
“Hey, don’t you think that that cloud looks kind of like Jiji?” she asks.
“You need glasses more than I do, if you think that cloud looks anything like your cat, Kiki!”
“Don’t be mean.”
She shoves his torso, and he just snickers a little before going quiet again. They lie there in the sun for a little. It’s a Sunday, which means a “Day of rest!” as Osono calls it. For Kiki, it means lazily floating around Corico or hanging with Tombo, which she guesses could be considered rest.
Tombo speaks up again.
“He passed away a few years ago. My uncle, that is. Some sort of illness, I think. We had a service, but we didn’t bury a body. My grandparents were kind of against it, but he was cremated and had his ashes scattered from an airplane, above the ocean.”
Kiki stays quiet and turns to look at Tombo. He’s still staring up at the sky, and his eyes have a distant look in them.
“That’s not really why I want to fly, but… I kind of get it. His love, you know, for flying and stuff. My mom always says he was a ‘free spirit’, whatever that means,” he continues. “I just love the thought of being up there. I don’t really know how else to explain it? I think my uncle understood, though.”
Kiki says, “I think I do too.” And they go quiet again. But soon Tombo sits up, and it seems like he’s got a sudden burst of energy. He whips around to look at her.
“That’s why I need to work so hard now! If I’m gonna be any sort of pilot or engineer, I gotta know what I’m doing, otherwise I’ll never get into university. Last year, I was fourth in the class, but this year I’m definitely gonna be top three!” he declares. “And I’ll definitely get my aerobike to work for real this time!”
Kiki could say something sarcastic, and normally she might. But all she says today is “I believe in you, Tombo.”
He grins at her, and without words they get each other. But then he has to go and ruin it, which is so Tombo-like that Kiki should have been expecting it from the beginning.
“Hey, if you believe in me so much, then why don’t you come and hang out the rest of us? Everyone is super curious about you! They never see you!”
Kiki doesn’t really have it within her right now to explain to Tombo that a) her belief in him is by no means related to whether or not she’ll hang out with his friends and b) those friends never seeing her is on purpose, and for a good reason. Part of it is because she’s just busy with the bakery and babysitting and the delivery service, but it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that she keeps that busy in order to have better excuses to avoid meeting them. Her hanging out one on one with Tombo is completely different than her being with all his friends.
Despite what’s occurred over the past several weeks, she’s still not comfortable with that thought. Tombo always talks about them, and every so often one or two of them are there to drop him off at the bakery or pick him up in the evening. They peer in through the windows curiously, likely hoping to catch a glimpse of Kiki. Sometimes when they see her, she waves and scurries off to do who-knows-what before they take it as an invitation to come inside and start talking. Whenever she does this, Jiji gives her a withering stare that Kiki can interpret as “You’re a coward, Little Miss Witch,” The thing is, he’s not wrong.
That doesn’t change the fact that she’s still just a country witch, compared to Tombo and his friends, who are definitely city kids. They show up in that run-down automobile, and the girls have fashionable haircuts and wear fashionable clothes. Kiki’s been in an automobile only a handful of times, and she’s had the same haircut since she was little. Not to mention the dress! She’s proud of it, of course, but it’s not exactly the height of fashion. If she were to hang out with all of them, she’s sure she’d stick out like a sore thumb. It’s difficult trying to explain that to Tombo, though, who’s been staring at her with a curious gleam in his eyes. Kiki has learned to dread that look, because it means something crazy is going to happen sooner or later.
So she just says, “You know how busy I am,” and closes her eyes, hoping he’ll drop the subject. He doesn’t say anything, but Kiki knows better than to think he’s given up on it completely. If they’ve got one trait in common, it’s their stubbornness.
In fact, the subject comes back up in an entirely new way the following morning. Kiki wakes up in her attic (or her “studio loft”, as Ursula likes to call it, saying that it sounds “more metropolitan”). She goes down to the bakery at 7:00 AM to help with what she can. Fukuo is up already, taking fresh loaves out of the oven. Kiki’s been here for weeks, but she swears she’ll never get used to the homey fragrance of fresh-baked bread. Fukuo nods to her as she walks through the bakery. It’s a little stoic, but Kiki can tell he’s happy to see her because his brows soften just a little. She smiles and says “Good morning, Fukuo,” before entering the bakery proper.
Kira is already there behind the counter, as she is most mornings, and she gives Kiki one of her bright, crinkly-eyed smiles. Kiki’s stomach drops, and she thinks “Yeah, if I can’t even hang out with Tombo’s friends, then there’s no way that I could ever hang out with her.”
“Good morning, Miss Kiki!” Kira says, like she does most mornings.
“Ah, you don’t need to keep calling me- I mean, it’s not necessary- well, I mean, you can if you want but please don’t feel like you have to, you know… Call me Miss Kiki. Just Kiki, is, um. Good.” Kiki replies, like she does most mornings.
Kira giggles a little, but it’s not mean-spirited. “Sure thing, Just Kiki!”
Kiki is somewhat mortified, like she is most mornings, but just nods and rushes over to the phone, waiting for either the first call or for Tombo to walk in. Kira takes pity on her and ends the conversation (although it would be charitable to even call whatever that was a conversation). She starts to hum a little tune as she arranges the pastries and loaves in the display case, while Kiki sits by the phone with her head resting on her arms, on the desk.
The door bell rings, and Kiki starts to say, “Good morning, Tombo,” but she catches herself when she sees the person in the doorway. It’s not Tombo. It’s a girl, one that Kiki recognizes from Tombo’s group of friends. She has short ginger hair, and she’s wearing a cute lavender pinafore over a white blouse. “Fashionable,” Kiki thinks. They make eye contact, but neither one says anything, although the friend smiles a little. Kira looks over, and she says, “Oh, good morning! Sorry, but we don’t open for another fifteen minutes or so.” With a sweet smile, as always.
The friend shifts her glance to Kira, but instead of saying “Sorry, I’ll wait outside,” or anything else that Kiki’s expecting, the friend enters the store completely, closing the door behind her.
“Pardon my intrusion, but I’ve actually been sent by Tombo. He can’t make it today, so I’m here to be his replacement! I’m Lily Spina, and I’m grateful to be in your care today!” she gushes, and then bows. To Kiki. It sounds as though she’s been practicing the phrase over and over.
“Um, that’s okay. You can stand up. If you want,” Kiki says, not quite sure how to handle the situation.
Lily straightens up, and she smiles at Kiki a little wider, before saying, “Tombo has told us so much about you! He’s always like Kiki this and Kiki that, and after he started working for you he’s been gone a lot of the time but that’s okay because now he has actual money, like money that he’s earning instead of just getting from his parents, which is so cool because he’s working for you! You’re like his boss! No one I know is working at this age, expect Sammy Takagi, but even he’s just helping out with his parents’ store, it’s not like an actual job you know? But you have an actual job, and so does Tombo!”
Kiki just goes “Uh, yeah,” and wonders if she’s met the fastest talking person in the town. Then Lily speaks again.
“And I am so happy that you’re letting me help out! Like, everyone wants to get to know you, you’re so cool, and you’re always working so hard so there’s no time. My mom is really happy too, she was like ‘Liliana,’ which is my full name but no one calls me that, she was like ‘Liliana, I am very proud of you, it takes a lot of responsibility to work during the summer holiday instead of just goofing off, and with the new witch in town, no less,’ and I was like ‘Mooooom, it’s not that big of a deal, she’s a friend of Tombo’s!’ but she was still impressed, and she promised she’d consider taking me to the theater because of it which was great because,” and here Lily takes a deep breath, before continuing, “I love the theater.” And then she smiles that big smile of hers.
Kiki smiles in response, just a little hesitant. She says, “I’ve never actually been to the theater,” but she’s thinking about what Lily said about everyone wanting to get to know her, about how she’s apparently “cool”. Kiki? Cool? She knows that Tombo might think she’s cool, but she figured that that had to do with the whole flying thing. His friends thinking she’s cool? That’s a different story.
Lily continues to talk. “Never been to the theater? That’s unacceptable! You’ll have to come with me next time, especially since you’ll be the reason I’ll be able to go anyways! Oh my gosh, this has to happen, it’ll be so much fun!”
Kiki says “Oh, uh, thank you!” because she’s still a little shocked and a little upset at Tombo for meddling in her life. She thinks she’s made it pretty clear that she’s not up for hanging out with the rest of his friends, and it kind of rankles her that he’s gone and arranged something like that anyway. It’s somewhat of an unwelcome surprise. Kiki feels off-balance and doesn’t know what to say to this birght girl who’s jumped into her life. But Lili doesn’t pick up on that. She walks further into the bakery, looking around curiously.
“You know, this place is so cute, it’s small but functional and it smells so good, I can see why Tombo spends all his time here, aside from being able to hang out with you, of course!”
Kiki really doesn’t know what to say, but Kira steps in and saves her by saying “I know, right? I was really lucky when Osono, the owner, hired me!” Kira and Lily smile at each other, and they both have very bright, very pretty smiles. Kiki thinks she’s going to combust.
“Hey, Kiki, how about you show Lily how to operate the telephone and the notebook where Tombo writes stuff down?” Kira suggests, and Kiki starts a little, but feels grateful for the hint. Kiki thinks that without it, she would have stood all day in confused shock. Lily goes “Oh, cool! I love telephones, but my Mom always limits me to a half-hour when I use it because she says I talk too much. Can you imagine that?” And then she giggles, and so does Kira. Everyone in Kiki’s life giggles. She doesn’t really get it.
“Well, um, the telephone is pretty simple, you just answer it when it rings and uh. You write down the address of the caller and the person receiving the package. Also, you’ll be taking money and packages from customers who come directly to the bakery,” says Kiki “I come back every half-hour or so to deposit fees and get the information. And you’re paid fifteen percent of the fees, too. So, uh, yeah. That’s it, I think.” She makes a face at her lackluster explanation, but Lily doesn’t seem to mind. She heads over to the desk and Kiki stands so Lily can sit down.
“Wow, my first real job. Kiki, you’re so cool,” she says again, and Kiki really doesn’t know how to react. But there’s a warm feeling staring to unfurl in her chest, the same thing she feels when she helps Tombo with his bike or kneads dough with Osono or poses for Ursula’s sketches. So she smiles a little more, and says “Nah, not really, but thanks for thinking that.” And because she figures that she owes it to Lily, who’s been nothing but nice since she came it, Kiki continues with “So, how do you, uh, know Tombo?”
Lily’s eyes light up a little, and she goes “Oh, we got to know each other in detention last year! We were both there, like, every other week.” And Kiki’s own eyes start to widen, because she didn’t know that Tombo was such a troublemaker.
“I thought he was a good student though?” she asks, interested despite her discomfort with the situation.
“Well, he’s super good at tests and stuff but he’s always doodling and daydreaming and stuff. Our Lit teacher always got super pissed whenever she’d walk by and see him working on equations or something when he was supposed to be annotating,” Lily says, matter of fact. “And I’m there because, well. I’m somewhat of a chatter-box.”
That sounds exactly like Tombo, and it makes Kiki laugh a little under her breath. She says “He’s kinda a dork about that stuff, right?”
Lily laughs too and agrees, nodding quickly. “Yeah, oh my gosh, I almost never know what’s he’s saying when he starts talking about his new projects or whatever! But he’s fun to talk to, you know,” she says with a smile and a shrug.
Kiki says “Yeah,” because she does know. And she also says, “You’re pretty fun to talk to, too, you know,” because she’s finding it to be true. “So, uh, thanks for today, and helping out.”
Lily says “No prob! Anything for a friend,” with a bright grin. Kiki smiles back, and she’s still a little shocked, but she’s not upset that upset anymore. Tombo can be a stubborn dummy, but he means well, and Lily seems to be really sweet. And besides, any ill-will she might have felt can be counter-acted with the delicious information that he’s apparently a repeat delinquent. Kiki thinks, with relish, that she’ll never let him live that down.
The day goes by surprisingly quick, with Lily as her acting-secretary. She’s easy to talk to, even if that means that Lily is the one who does most of the talking. Kiki’s fine with that, and it’s fun to hear about life in Corico from someone her own age who isn’t Tombo. At the end of the day, Lily leaves with fifteen percent of the profits and Kiki leaves with an invitation to get coffee at “this super-cool and cute new café in downtown, right by the waterfront! And you can meet the rest of us, too!”
Kiki’s still not one hundred percent comfortable with that thought. Lily is still a fashionable city kid, while Kiki’s still a country witch. But the invitation doesn’t inspire the same hesitance and shame that it might have yesterday, so Kiki offers a playful “Maybe, I’ll see if I can fit it into my schedule,” instead of a flat-out refusal. Lily teases right back, “Okay, we get it, you’re a successful, busy witch, no need to rub it in!”
They both laugh a little, and it feels just right. It reminds Kiki of her girlfriends back in the village, so when Lily sincerely asks, “I’ll definitely see you soon, though, right?” Kiki answers with just as much sincerity, “Right.”
Tombo is back the next day, and because Kiki is an open book, he can tell immediately that she had a good time yesterday. He gets a smug look in his eyes, and Kiki can tell he’s about to say “I told you so,” which would be totally insufferable.
She walks up to him before he can, punches him in the arm, and says “Not only are you a delinquent in school, but apparently you think it’s alright to play hooky with your job! I might have to consider replacing you with Lily, because she’s been the better employee, believe me!”
Tombo goes “Nooooooooo, Kikiiiiiiiii,” and he starts to whine. Kiki turns away to hide her smile, and Kira giggles from her place behind the counter. The warm feeling in her chest is back, and Kiki can’t think of anything she wants more than this.
Halfway through the summer, Kiki finally calls her Mama and Papa. She’s been putting it off for weeks, the same way she put off hanging with Tombo’s friends. Since she got to Corico, her emotions about the village have been wildly inconstant. In her low moments, of which there have been many, she wanted to go back desperately. She thinks that if she had had her Mama with her when she stopped flying, the issue would have been solved in a few hours, instead of a few days. Mama always had the solution for whatever issue Kiki was facing. Without that guidance, she feels unsure and confused and sad and all Kiki wants in those moments is to be back somewhere familiar. And then, she feels immensely guilty for wanting that, because the whole point of being thirteen years old is to go off and struggle on your own. On some level, Kiki feels like less of a witch for wanting to go home so badly, for not being able to handle her own problems efficiently.
On the other hand, Kiki can’t imagine ever going back there ever again. How she ever managed to live in such a small place, Kiki will never know! She knew everybody there and she knew every square foot there, and by the time she left, she was basically chomping at the bit to get out and to fly, to experience something new. In that regard, Corico has been everything and more to her. Every day, she’s meeting new people and exploring new places. She’s independent in the best possible way, but she also has the best friends and support. Osono and Fukuo, Ursula, the Madame and Barsa, Tombo, of course, and maybe his friends. Maybe Kira. Some days, of which there are more and more, she doesn’t even think of the village. And then, she feels immensely guilty about that. She doesn’t want to forget her parents and her old friends and her old life, and she worries that she’s replacing them, even though she doesn’t want that! On some level, Kiki feels like a terrible daughter and friend because it’s so easy sometimes to think that this is the only way she’d ever like to live.
It’s difficult to understand everything she feels about her old village, so she doesn’t even try, for a long time. She sends letters, because it’s easy to hide behind the impersonal paper and the delay in response. Calling is too immediate, and she knows that her Mama will be able to see through her even though they’re hours away from each other. Her parents don’t even know about Mama’s broom, yet. All they know is that she’s flying with the old man’s broom now, although at this point it’s pretty much hers, anyways. Kiki doesn’t necessarily lie to them about why she’s started to use it, she writes something about there not being any other choice when the Dirigible Disaster happened, and she just feels comfortable with it now. But she never mentions breaking the old broom in half. Kiki feels terribly guilty about this, as well, and the longer she doesn’t tell them about it, the worse she feels. It’s a broom that had been her grandma’s and then her Mama’s, and then it had been Kiki’s, but she was too foolish to keep it safe. Everything about calling home makes her stomach turn, and she doesn’t like feeling that way, so she ignores it as long as possible.
Whenever she gets a letter from home, though, the feeling is renewed tenfold. Jiji can sense her pain, because of course he can, and he pins her with various “Kiki, you can’t ignore this forever,” looks in between courting his lady-friend kitty cat and lounging in sunspots. Kiki knows this, of course, but it’s easier to pretend otherwise.
This changes, though, after Osono and Fukuo bring home Kazane-chan. It’s obvious that they were made to be parents, Kiki thinks. From the moment they let Kiki into their lives, Osono and Fukuo have been some of the kindest people Kiki’s ever known. They treated her like family, despite not knowing her, and this empathy and love makes them absolutely amazing parents to little Kazane. Kiki sees it in the way Fukuo holds his daughter with a delicate touch that should seem strange on such an intimidating man but doesn’t at all. It’s in how Osono sings to Kazane in every spare moment, popular songs or old, passed down lullabies, or soft little made-up tunes. It reminds Kiki of her own parents, how her own Mama would teach Kiki small ditties to remember ingredients to potions or charms or how her Papa would hold her close when she was little, dancing with her to the songs on his, now her, radio.
It seems that when Osono became a mother, she inherited the ability to read Kiki like her own Mama can, because one evening, after the bakery closes and Kira and Tombo have gone home, Osono says “You know, you can use the telephone for personal business, as well, not just the delivery service.”
Kiki has been watching Osono gently rock Kazane, and she looks up to meet Osono’s eyes. There’s a soft look on Osono’s face. She smiles, and there are bags under her eyes which weren’t there when Kiki first met her. Kiki knows that Kazane, for all that she’s a calm baby during the day, cries a lot at night. In addition to running the bakery, Osono has a lot on her plate. Kiki thinks that having a child must be a lot of work, and she feels that guilt in her stomach again, thinking of her own Mama and Papa. But Osono must sense this, because she takes one of Kiki’s hands in hers.
“I guarantee that they’ll be happy to hear from you, no matter what,” Osono says. “Speaking from experience, they’re very proud of you. Any parent would be proud to have you as a daughter, believe me, Kiki.”
Osono always knows what to say, and Kiki’s vision blurs as she tears up. She squeezes Osono’s hand and gets up to drop a small kiss on Kazane-chan’s soft forehead. She smells soft, the specific baby smell that Kiki has grown to adore. Kiki leans back and says to Osono “I have to get ready for work tomorrow.” Both of them know that Kiki really doesn’t need to prepare anything for her deliveries, but Osono smiles and lets her go with a “Goodnight, Kiki.”
Kiki spends that evening making a small amount of rice and broth, something simple because she doesn’t have the appetite for something heavier. The sunset casts her room in hues of orange and red, turning the dusty wood floors warm. In the few months Kiki’s been here, the attic has changed as she’s settled in. The bed has a cute knit blanket that a customer gifted her once, along with a cute throw pillow with a black cat on it that resembles Jiji. The wall above her bed has lots of sketches by Ursula or plans by Tombo tacked up. Kiki has taken to keeping plants too, after the Madame caught her interested glances towards the plants in her house and gave her some. There are a few books on her big table, lent to her by Tombo, and she invested in a lockbox to keep all her savings in, that sits beneath her bed during the day until she can put her days earnings away. Kiki should get around to putting a locking charm on it, as another layer of security, but she’s always been bad at charms. Mama would know how to help, but Kiki hasn’t asked for help yet, for obvious reasons.
She eats her small dinner and pulls up a chair to the big window. She looks out into the evening that’s getting darker with every moment. Since it’s the middle of summer, soon the days should start getting shorter. She thinks about summer days back at the village, and how they always felt lazy and lethargic. It’s the first time that Kiki’s ever had to work through the season, and she kind of loves it. It’s hot out, in the middle of the day, but she can hardly tell when she’s flying through the sky. In the village, it would get terribly muggy in addition to sunny and hot. Kiki and her friends could always go cool off in the small lake, but some days it wasn’t enough. Kiki remembers lying in her room with the mechanical fan on high, waiting for night to fall so it would cool down. In Corico, though, it doesn’t get as humid, thanks to the breeze that rolls in off the ocean. Even on the hottest days, it stays pleasantly windy so it’s not too bad outside. For Kiki, who flies everywhere, the effect is multiplied. Even though her dress dark and had longer sleeves, she stays cool.
The sky is different at night, too. In the village, further removed from big metropolitan spaces, the stars are bright and clearly seen. Kiki spent a lot of night with her Mama out in the fields with a telescope or even just their eyes, tracking different planets and constellations. Mama always said that the stars were in her blood, because Kiki’s great-aunt Keiko was famous for her ability to interpret their meaning and Kiki’s great-great-grandmother Kiyoko the Third could accurately predict future events based on where they were in the sky. Even for a witch, this sounded far-fetched to Kiki, and she had wrinkled her nose and said as much to her Mama, who just laughed. They both agreed that the stars were very pretty, but neither could feel very much from them.
Kiki holds that memory near to her heart. She looks out to night sky above Corico, and the stars are harder to see here. She thinks that she no longer agrees with how she once felt about them. Even without seeing the stars, Kiki can feel them, more than she could back in the village. She doesn’t know if it’s really ancestral magic in her blood or if she’s just imagining things, but Kiki’s fairly sure that if she were to close her eyes and fly out the window right now, she’d be able to find her way home with nothing but her broom and the night sky.
Then she laughs a little at herself, because what a ridiculous thought! Jiji hops into her lap, and she’s a little surprised because she didn’t even know he was back in the attic. Once upon a time, she’d have known exactly where he was at all times. But it’s okay that she doesn’t, Kiki thinks, because they both have busy lives nowadays, and she says as much to him as she pets his hand. He nuzzles her hand, and she looks out at the sky that’s turned indigo and black, and Corico is lit up in yellows and golds and street lamps and houselights turn on in the night. It’s different than the village, but no better or worse. Kiki goes to bed with Jiji, feeling both happy and sad as she falls asleep with memories of her old village on her mind.
The following evening, the storefront is suspiciously empty right after closing. Normally, Kira or Tombo stay for a little bit, and Fukuo or Osono putter around tidying up for the next day of work. But no one’s there, leaving Kiki and the telephone alone. It’s a little too perfect to have occurred without interference from a certain baker-slash-mother, but Kiki won’t comment on it. She’s too busy staring at the telephone, which has never appeared so intimidating to her before. The twisty-turny feeling in her stomach is back, but before she can bail out like she wants, Jiji saunters into the room and stares at her with shrewd eyes. Kiki thinks of muggy days and dancing with her Papa and stargazing with her Mama. The twisty feeling in her stomach doesn’t go away, but as Jiji intertwines between her legs, it abates enough that she sits down by the phone and picks it up.
It takes Jiji hopping into her lap before she can turn the dial for her old home phone number. The moment listening to the ringing on the phone before it’s picked up reminds Kiki of the moment when Tombo slipped from the rope and she dived, not knowing until that she would catch him until she caught him. The comparison isn’t perfect, because there aren’t any lives on the line right now, but Kiki feels the same breathless tension.
The line clicks and Kiki hears her Mama’s voice, saying the familiar-unfamiliar words, “You’ve reached the Hoshino residence, Kokiri the witch is speaking, how may I help you?”
Kiki’s breath catches and it takes a moment before she can say anything. Mama says “Hello?” and Kiki needs to say something, or else Mama will hang up on her, and Kiki doesn’t think she has the strength to call again if that happens so she says the first thing that comes to mind which is a rushed “Jiji can’t talk anymore!”
The cat, lying in her lap, makes a sniffly noise at being mentioned. He’s also probably laughing at her inability to talk.
“Kiki, is that you?” her Mama’s voice comes through the speaker and it sounds surprised. Kiki says “Yeah,” much quieter.
“Oh, sweetheart! We didn’t know to expect a call from you!” Mama says.
Kiki starts to say, “Sorry, I know it’s unexpected, if you’re busy I don’t want to bother you or Papa –" but her Mama cuts her off, saying “A call from you is never trouble, believe me.”
Kiki doesn’t know what to say from there, so the line goes quiet until her Mama asks “How have you been?” in a soft voice. It’s the same tone of voice that Mama would always use when she knew Kiki had a rough day, and in her mind Kiki thinks “I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hide from you if I called,” and for a second, she wildly contemplates hanging up instead of having to talk. But she’s been putting this off for long enough, and if nothing else, her Mama deserves to know how her daughter’s really doing.
“I broke your broom, Mama,” Kiki admits quietly, almost a whisper into the receiver of the telephone.
“Okay,” Mama says, soft and accepting.
All of a sudden, Kiki feels like a dam in her heart has been knocked down and all she wants to do is talk about anything and everything from the past few months and before she even realizes it, that’s what she’s doing.
“I broke your broom because I stopped being able to fly for a little bit and I couldn’t do it no matter what I tried so I went out in the night and tried running down a hill with it but I tripped and I fell and it broke and I felt awful about it but I couldn’t call you or Papa because what sort of witch stops flying for no reason and then how could I tell you I broke the broom that your mother gave to you and then the dirigible disaster happened and I could fly again and I saved Tombo and I got a new broom and then by that point you and Papa were so happy that I couldn’t possibly have told you!” and by this point, it’s hard to speak because there’s snot in the back of Kiki’s throat and she’s choking on her tears and her breathing is short and fast.
“Kiki, it’s okay. Your Papa and I figured something was up, when we saw you with that new broom,” Mama says. “Besides, that old broom needed to be retired soon anyways. If anything, I’m happy that it helped you on your journey for as long as it could.”
Kiki sniffles a little, and she asks “Really?”
Mama laughs, and the sound brings Kiki back to when she was little, back to that night under the stars, back to just a few months ago before Kiki had even left the village. It sounds like home. “Really. Sometimes old things need to make way for new!”
“I guess, but I just,” and here Kiki needs to say something, something about how she feels inadequate and small and not-very-much-like-a-witch sometimes and how in those moments she wishes she had never left. Or maybe about how other times, she never wants to go back ever again because she’s so excited and eager to learn how to be witch, even if she’s not all the way there yet, and how she doesn’t think she could ever learn that back in the village. She wants to talk about how strange and tiring it is to flip-flop back and forth between these conflicting emotions and how guilty and frustrated she is about it all.
“I just miss you guys,” is what Kiki ends up saying, because she doesn’t know how to put it into words.
Mama replies “We miss you, too.”
“But I don’t want to come back.”
Mama laughs a little bit and says “We don’t want you to come back, either. Not yet, at least!”
Somehow her Mama understands, even though Kiki doesn’t make much sense, and she continues “You’re young, and you’ve got so much to learn. It’d be silly if you wanted to come back when you’ve just started! But that doesn’t mean we don’t love and miss you.
“We’re so, so proud of you Kiki, your father and I. I know that it’s not always easy, being on your own. But you’re so bright and kind that you’ll find your place. From what we’ve heard, I think you’ve already found it. Now, all you have to do is enjoy it to the best of your ability. And no matter what happens, we’ll always love and support you.”
Kiki listens to all of this, and her stomach untwists and she’s flooded with warmth.
“I love you, too, Mama,” she says, because she can at least say that much.
“Now, your father is hopping up and down waiting to speak to you. Would you like me to pass the telephone to him for a bit?”
Kiki laughs and says “Yes, please!”
She talks to her parents until late into the night, when they finally end the call with loads of “I love you!”s and “Call back soon, please!”s passed between them. Kiki puts the telephone down, and she can hear Osono singing to Kazane. She walks into the kitchen, and she sees Fukuo preparing dough for tomorrow. She has family here, just like she has family back in the village. Her home is here, just like it’s the village. Kiki smiles to herself, and hugs Jiji close to her chest as she joins them.
That night as she falls asleep, it almost feels like the stars are singing her a lullaby.