A Ninja and an Assassin Walk Into a Bar

I just want her to say something. I would have preferred she say something along the lines of I don’t have to be sorry or it’s not my fault. Even if it’s not true, it would have been nice that she considered making me feel better by telling me a lie. That’s not completely pathetic is it? Please don’t be completely pathetic. Anyway, she does nothing, except stand there staring at me. And the silence is killing me. Because all I can think of is her thinking of how much she hates me.
“Why are you still holding onto that sweater?”
Not in my top one hundred possible responses I figured would come from her. It’s nice after all this time she could still surprise me. At least there’s some bright side I can look at for this. “It’s a special sweater.”
“Really? Well it didn’t keep you very safe today. It didn’t even manage to keep itself safe.”
She’s got a point. “Yeah…I mean no it didn’t. But that’s not why it’s special to me.”
Her eye’s narrow. I’ve got her full attention. Her curiosity is peeked. “Regale me.”
“I’ve got a little brother. A few years younger than me. We’re all we have. He’s my world and I was the world to him. I was his hero.”
“Was?” She doesn’t miss a thing.
“He wanted to be me when he grew up, and it killed me inside because he had no idea what or who I was. He thought I was some type of successful corporate tycoon. I had to tell him, exactly what I was and what I did for a living. And as I did, I looked into his eyes. I saw the levees break, flooding the empires he built with me in his mind with those tears of his. I didn’t see him for three days after that. It felt like years. And then he shows back up, but he was different, changed. He didn’t mention his plans for the future anymore. He didn’t ask me about work. He just gave me this hoodie. Said it was for when I ran into bad weather. I keep this hoodie with me because it’s all I’ve got left of him. It’d be too dangerous for me to try and see him with the Syndicate’s price on my head.”
“So you’ve never spoken back to him about what you do?”
“No. I was headed out to my next assignment when he gave me this. We agreed we’d talk when I got back but when I received my assignment, I hesitated. I thought about my little bro and what he would think and I choose to let him go. And you know the rest from there. I’ve been on the run ever since.”
If I’m not mistaken she looks almost like she’s sorry for me. But then again I wouldn’t be the King of Wishful Thinking if I didn’t allow myself to see the things I hope for instead of the things that actually are. “So there you go, that’s the story behind my hoodie.”
She wants to say something, I just know it. But for some reason she isn’t saying it. “What? You can tell me.” If she can’t tell me, who can she tell? I’m the only other person in her life right now.
“You should leave the sweater.”
“Excuse me?”
“Dipper, just leave the sweater.”
“You just think you’re so smug, don’t you?” She does! She thinks she’s so smug! It’s just so convenient she chooses to use my name whenever she wants me to do something I’m uncomfortable with. Well I’m not budging this time.
She slowly advances towards me as her voice gets softer. Temptress! And now her hand is on my forearm. She is physically touching me. Oh come on! Like I don’t realize what’s going on here. Anyone can clearly see what’s going on. A blind man could practically give you play by play commentary of what’s she’s up to. I can hear him now, in a raspy voice that makes you want to rush him a throat lozenge STAT. He’s saying “And with one hand on the poor schmuck’s forearm, she reaches over, palm facing upwards, hand open, looking for the sweater. (It’s a hoodie you putz) She’s laid the devastating one two combo on him. He’s staggering, not sure what to do. His wits have let him now, he’s aimlessly wondering and oh! He makes eye contact with her and walks right into the upper cut. He’s going down for the count”
There’s no way I can keep myself from giving in to her. I couldn’t keep it away from her even if I wanted to. She’s a ninja. And I hate ninjas. And right now I hate her. I leave her in the living room with the pieces of my torn hoodie. How could she?! I just told her how much that hoodie means to me. If she ever cared about anything in her darn life, she’s understand how special that hoodie is to me. But she could never care, or love for that matter, anything or anyone.
I’m in my room meditating, like Master Midnight Kiwi taught me to do to calm myself. And it’s working. Time flies by. By the time the knocking at my door pulls me back to reality, it’s well past dinner time, not that I’m hungry anyway. “It’s open.” Like I care who it is. Death would be a welcome reprieve from living with someone so heartless. But instead it’s only her. And she’s holding my hoodie, sewn back together again.
I’m speechless. I’m literally without speech! Words are refusing to come out of my mouth. So my mouth is just left hanging open, waiting for the words to jump out.
“I’m sorry I cut your hoodie.”
Just when I think I’ve finally figured her out, she just surprise me again. It’s a wonderful thing to still be surprised by her after all this time. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. It was pretty hectic in the thick of it. And you did safe my life.”
I sugar coat it. I know she could have very well saved me without cutting through my hoodie. And she knows I know. And in case you don’t know, I know she knows I know. But in her defense, she didn’t know how special it was to me. So it’s really okay, you know.
I look at my hoodie and it’s almost as good at new. You can tell it’s been sliced in half but still, it doesn’t look that bad after the patch up work. “Why didn’t you tell me this was what you wanted my hoodie for?”
“It’s been years since I sewed anything. I wasn’t sure if I could do it and I didn’t want to get your hopes up for nothing.” What a gal, am I right?
“Snapdragon…” I’m semi-speechless now.
“Come with me, I’d like to show you something.”
I’m actually glad she interrupted me because I had no idea where I was about to go with that. I think I was about to apologize for calling her a temptress in my mind. She grabs my hand with hers and leads me into her room. All of a sudden it’s getting really hard to walk, or even stand up. We stop in front of her dresser. Right dap in the middle is a beautiful Japanese war fan, decorated with striking calligraphy. I turn to look at Snapdragon. I’m pretty sure I get it now but I’d still like to hear it from her.
“This used to belong to mother. My father had it made for her and presented it to her when he first asked her out. They were longtime friends and had even trained at the same dojo together. He told me she was the deadliest warrior with a war fan that he had ever seen.”
“It’s beautiful. What’s it say?”
She stares intensely at the fan as if there is more to it that can be seen than what’s sitting on her dresser. “Morning Glory. It was her name.” She then turns to look at me and heart stops. “It’s all I have left of her.”
“I…Snapdragon, I’m so sorry.”
“Perhaps we’re not as dichotomous as I thought. We’re both two alone individuals holding onto loves since past.”
Who is this girl? I can’t even recognize her anymore. Her harsh words are replaced by empathetic feelings. Her furrowed brow is softened by compassion. Her heart is full once more, like how it used to be. And all of a sudden I seem like the mean one, holding a grudge against her because I believed her to be cold hearted. Who would have thought she could surprise me like this? If I had known I’d be waking up to such a surprise today, I would have set my alarm clock to wake me up sooner. Maybe, just maybe, sooner rather than later, she’ll surprise me once more, and choose to love again.