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Powder: There’s a festival that starts tmw, I thot u might want to go
Powder: its the obon festival its this thing about your ancestors and honoring the people uv lost
Powder: ik ur moms anniversary is coming up, i just wanted to tell u
Me: Thank you, Powder
Me: You could come with me
Powder: no, i dont think thats the best idea
Powder: im sure fat hands will wanna go with u tho
“You look really pretty,” Vi says, looking at me with a toothy smile. “Like seriously, it really suits you.”
“I feel like an idiot,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Are we sure that I have to wear this?”
“We’re in a fairly traditional Japanese town and we’re going to a traditional Japanese festival, if you want to fit in, I imagine that wearing a kimono is a pretty good choice,” Vi says, smiling at me.
“Why aren’t you wearing one then?” I ask, scoffing a bit.
“Because I won’t fit in no matter what I do, there’s not that many white tattooed butches here,” she shrugs. “Are you ready to go, Cupcake?”
“Yeah, I am,” I say, tying my hair into a low bun. “What about you, Violet?”
She nods, holding out her hand to me. “Let’s go see what’s going on here.”
“We’re lighting the lanterns, Cupcake,” Vi says, squeezing my hands. I don’t know how I got so distracted, there’s just something about the energy here that I find it easier to get lost in than nearly any place I’ve been in before. “I got both of us one.”
I nod, following after her to where the crowd of people and lit lanterns are. They’re starting to disperse now but there’s still a good amount of people there. A woman comes over to us, holding out a candle and Vi holds out our lanterns to her. She lights both of them, smiling at us.
“It is lovely to have you here,” she says, her English accented and awkward sounding. She has a beautiful smile and a kind voice.
“Thank you so much,” I say, smiling. She nods before being called away, Vi putting our lanterns in the long line.
“I can’t believe how many people are here,” I say, voice quiet. “And how many people have lost their loved ones recently.”
“Well, ours aren’t exactly the most recent,” Vi says, chuckling a bit. “But it’s nice; that you get to mourn openly and it’s in an almost sweet way. You know? It’s mourning but in a communal way.”
“I get it, yeah,” I say, smiling at her. “I wonder what Mom would think about me being here, she would probably be glad I’m seeing the world.”
“Did she want you to travel?”
“Yeah, I went to China every summer for a reason. She wanted me to see more of the world.” I pause before saying, “Though she wasn’t the happiest about me moving to America.”
“Well, America sucks ass so that explains that.”
I watch the flicker of the fire, how it ebbs and flows along with the wind, and say, “Well, I met you so it’s not too bad.”
I hand Vi an eggplant with four toothpicks stuck in it to make it look vaguely animal-like. Vi stares at me and I laugh, saying, “It’s a cow. It’s made to give our ancestors and loved ones various gifts in their journeys to the afterlife. If you want them to get there quickly, I can get us a cucumber one.”
“It’s kinda fucking adorable,” Vi says, smiling. Someone carved out what kinda looks like the face of a cow, though it could also be a determined toad. “I like it, I’m gonna name him Dave.”
“Dave?” I ask and she shrugs.
“Do you not see it in his eyes? This is a Dave if I’ve ever seen one. Dave Wickett-Kiramman, my gorgeous son.”
“I guess Bear has a brother then,” I say, smiling. “Though I’m pretty sure he’ll try to eat Dave. Also, why does your name go first, Vi?”
“Because I think it sounds better than Kiramman-Wickett. Kiramman is too thick a name to start a hyphenated name, it sounds way more awkward,” she says, nodding.
“I’ll make sure to think about that when we have kids,” I say, causing Vi to blush a bit.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“How the hell are they doing this? I’d be sweating my balls off,” Vi says, smiling as she watches the dancers. “How much do you think they would have practiced? Like, goddamn.”
“They’ve probably practiced for a long time, months if not longer,” I say, smiling as I adjust the fabric bunched around my waist. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? And the music is simply lovely, I wish I could understand more of what this was about.”
“Yeah, the music is fucking fantastic,” she says, squeezing my hand. “It’s so lively, you know what I mean? Everyone is… So alive here, you know?”
“That is what lively means, darling,” I say, squeezing Vi’s hand. “But yes, it’s beautiful.”
We spend all day out before our legs are so sore we can barely walk home to the house we rented for this leg of our trip. Vi’s wrapping her arms around my waist as we stumble back, laughing about something I don’t understand.
“Did you have a good time?” Powder asks as we get back, curled up on the couch. “How’s the festival? The music was really good, I could hear it all the way back here.”
“We had a great time,” Vi says, walking towards her and hugging her. “I’m gonna hit the hay, I’m fucking exhausted.”
“Night,” Powder says at the same time that I say, “I love you, Violet.”
Powder looks at me and I sit next to her, resting on the couch. “How are you doing? How was your day?”
“I just kinda sat around, talked to Ekko. I figured I needed a good rest,” she says.
“You could come with us tomorrow. That’s the last day, where our lost loved ones are let go to and travel back to the afterlife. Or I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going on.”
“I might,” Powder says, shrugging. “Are you sure that you want me there?”
“I do. I promise, okay?” I say, grabbing her curled up fist. “I really do care about you and I think it would be nice. For both of us, I mean. It’s important to let go.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Okay, how bad does my hair look?” Powder asks, tugging at a strand of one of her braids. “My hair is way too long for this. I need to make sure that I look okay. Do I look good?”
“You look fine,” I say and Vi pulls at her kimono, folding some of the fabric in a way that I think is supposed to make it look better, I’ve never been one for fashion.
“There you go, now you look passable,” Vi says, smiling at Powder. “Are you ready to head out, Pow-Pow?”
“Yeah, Fat Hands,” she says, smiling. “Are we ready to go?”
“Yeah, I am,” I say, grabbing Powder gently. I’m about to say something to her, I can tell she’s nervous, when Vi lets out a screech.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, I need to call Jayce real quick, see what’s going on with Bear,” she says. “We need to wait a few minutes, okay?”
Powder rolls her eyes, smiling at me. I shrug, saying, “You know what she’s like.”
“Sadly.”
The lanterns float into the ocean and after a few seconds, Powder stops talking about the possibility of pollution.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispers, grabbing my hand.
“It is, isn’t it?” I say, squeezing her hand. “I’m glad you came, Powder. I’m glad we all came here.”
“Thank you,” she says before starting to sniffle. I hand her a handkerchief and she wipes her nose, blinking away tears.
“You two okay?” Vi says, nudging me a bit as she frowns.
“Yeah, we’re doing great,” I say as the lanterns float further and further away. I smile, watching them until they’re just blurs of light in vision. I’m glad to be here, surrounded by the love of my life and someone I’ve slowly come to understand as one of my closest friends.
I imagine my mother and whether she would be happy for me, for us. I’d like to think so.