ZOYA
No.
HIMAWARI
No?
ZOYA
NO! You know what the problem is? YOU!
HIMAWARI
(She looks at ZOYA with an unknown emotion)
ME? How am I the problem?
ZOYA
(Scoffs)
I can’t believe this.
HIMAWARI
What can’t you believe?
ZOYA
I can’t believe you’re here acting like we’re complete strangers!
(ZOYA sighs and walks towards the railing)
Do you remember this place?
HIMAWARI
This was your childhood home.
(HIMAWARI comes to stand beside ZOYA, who leans against the dilapidated wood railing, her arms wrapped around herself)
You wanted to bring me here one day.
(Her voice wavers, if only for a second)
We...we were in love once. And we were happy...Right?
HIMAWARI
(Looks at ZOYA with pain in her eyes)
Yes, we were in love. Now, I don’t know. Not after...after what I did. I don’t think you’d want me in your presence anymore.
ZOYA
(ZOYA sighs before taking ahold of HIMAWARI’S hands, rubbing the knuckles)
Hima, not once have I judged you for your flaws when we were in the land of the living. Even now, seeing you again after all these years wandering through the dead, I can’t find it in myself to hate you. It took me some time, but I understand why you kept running away from our relationship. You thought you weren’t worthy of being my significant other. But I want to hear it from you, to understand you more.
HIMAWARI
(HIMAWARI looks on in surprise)
You...want to hear me out? To understand me?
ZOYA
(Nods)
It took me a while to see it from your point of view, but yes, I do.
HIMAWARI
Okay, um, well where do I begin?
HIMAWARI
(HIMAWARI takes a deep breath and steps away, facing the audience, towards the cranes)
I always felt...like I didn’t deserve what I had in life. My family lived from paycheck to paycheck, and my parents would skip meals so I could have what they didn’t. Even though they gave me everything, they never actually cared. They thought gifts were enough to appease a child, even when I was older they never bothered to call and ask how I was. They always told me I was an ungrateful daughter for not wanting the gifts they gave me. I should be grateful because I had everything I could ask for, but the greatest gift I could ever ask for was for them to just love me. Not through gifts as apologies, but like normal parents, who communicate with their children instead of ditching them the second they turn eighteen. So when we got together, I felt giddy, like I was a bird in flight, free. But as the days went on, I felt like I wasn’t doing enough to show you I cared. And the feeling of ungratefulness my parents drilled into me I tried and tried to push to the back of my mind came back. I didn’t want you to think of me as an unaffectionate lover, so I did what I did best. I ran.
(Turning back, HIMAWARI begins to be choked up, swallowing her sobs as she faces Zoya)
I-I avoided you at every corner, canceled on every date, and when you tried to confront me I just told you to leave me be and said all those vile things. I hurt you even though I thought I was doing the right thing. I was just hurting you and I didn’t get to apologize because then I got into an accident and, well, I came here.
(She laughs ruefully and begins to cry)
Even if you don’t want to see me again, I understand. But before I go, I’m sorry for all the pain I caused you.
ZOYA
Himawari.
(Pulling HIMAWARI into a hug, and upon colliding with her, HIMAWARI melts into ZOYA’S embrace)
Stay. Please. Don’t leave me again.
HIMAWARI
Okay,
(Wiping tears away)
I’ll stay, for as long as you’ll have me.
ZOYA
(ZOYA pulls back and gently knocks foreheads with HIMAWARI)
And if it’s for a thousand lives?
HIMAWARI
(smiles and laughs at ZOYA’S antics)
Then I’ll find you in each one.
ZOYA
And stop scaring those poor students! They don’t come here to get jumped by a random ghost.
(Change of Scene)
The backdrop changes from a house to a field of flowers. Yellows and reds and pinks fill the backdrop. ZOYA laughs with her, and HIMAWARI feels like she returned to the flower fields in her hometown. When she brought her to those same fields four years before, It was almost as if the flowers danced at ZOYA’S arrival. The cranes watched ZOYA and HIMAWARI in the flower fields. And as ZOYA took HIMAWARI’S hand and took her through the flower fields she called her sanctuary, as the two laid underneath a canopy of stars, with ZOYA pointing out constellations, she knew she would take ZOYA again and again. HIMAWARI would let the words ‘I love you’ spill from her mouth a thousand times despite her reluctance to utter those three words. If ZOYA asked HIMAWARI to pull the stars from the sky to make a blanket for her, HIMAWARI would do it, and HIMAWARI knew ZOYA would do the same for her.
Two halves of a soul were reunited on that same night in the land of the dead, and on the other side, the clouds parted, letting rays of sunlight peek from the milky clouds. Chains of a thousand paper cranes were draped over tombstones. Revealing good omens in the upcoming days. On the two tombstones read the words ZOYA and HIMAWARI, star-crossed lovers until the end. The lights dim, and the only sound is the two lovers' laughter as the curtains close.
Kwaku Asanit