The Sunshine Kimono

When a draught causes her family rice crop to be destroyed, Rei'l is sent away to live with her grandmother and learn the family trade.

the sunshine kimono

by Carl Termini

 

      Soon there will be many things walking, which are not seen today, but appear as things that are.

      There once was a golden two-tailed kitsune with cranberry eyes, which came across a Pylur temple and its young farmer-monk.  She watched him from atop a nearby cliff, behind a fallen tree, her two tails rustling the fallen leaves behind her.  The cranberry-eyed kitsune waited until a few evenings had passed, and it was raining, before approaching the ancient Pylur temple.  She approached as a beautiful young woman, her hair of an unusual blonde with cranberry eyes.  Her kimono was dove white and darkened to ebony at the bottom, with gold thread for trim.  She knocked on the temple’s undecorated wooden doors, and the monk answered.  The Pylur monk indeed was attractive with an even open face and his hair chignon.  His robes were green in honor of Tǖf.

      The kitsune bowed her head greeting then spoke: “Please, Young Farmer-Monk, I request shelter from the rain.  I am on the run from my step-mother, a demon that entranced my father.”

      The monk looked the attractive maiden up and down, and nodded at her shadow; still in its kitsune form.  He moved aside to let her enter, spellbound by her beauty.

      “My step-mother became jealous of my father’s love for me.”  She removed her geta.  “At first she had me sent away for lower secondary school, but that made his love for me only greater, until he took frequent visits to see me.  Then returning home after one visit, the rope bridge his motor-chariot was crossing snapped, and he died.  My step-mother blamed me, and made disgusting accusations.  She cursed me to be a kitsune, only to be human when it rained.”

      The farmer-monk believed the story and let the spirit take refuge in his temple, and not just for the one rainy night.

      When the farmer-monk and spirit’s child was born they named her Rei’l.  For a final time the golden-kitsune transformed, and shed her skin, to forever stay human.  Picking up her former fur, the new mother walked into the temple.  Sitting by the window, she reached out to the air and pulled a ray of sunshine through her needle.  Humming to herself she sat on the floor and made a kimono for her daughter.

 

      One day, after morning devotions Rei’l’s father came to her with a basket filled with offerings of honey, butter, and cakes.  “Daughter,” he paused, “the drought has finally made it so that the temple’s rice crop can no longer support the both of us.”  Shaking his head and handing his daughter the basket, added tearfully, “So, I am sending you to your mother’s mother and learn the family trade.” 

      The girl dressed for her journey in a white and gold & cranberry trimmed traveling kimono coat, and matching gold lined ruby obi.  Rei’l believed the kimono gave her good luck, as her mother had passed it on to her before she died, saying she had sewn it with a ray of sunshine.  Rei’l had also inherited her mother’s kitsune-gao face to her.  Around her eyes she painted light blue eye-shadow.  She packed, as well, a small bag of clothes and Tomimotosen copper coins to pay for lodging along the way.

      Beneath Terran System’s starless sky she walked the red earthen path lined with white stones passed the dried-up fields, nodding to the desolate farmers, as she left her village.  When the sun and moon both hung high over her, casting small shadows, she passed through the dark bamboo forest listening to the songs of the Red-rumped swallows.

      Rei’l finally exited the bamboo as the moon was setting and the sun cast long shadows.  Covering her eyes she watched as a black bird flew over her, which she followed to the mountain where she was told her grandmother lived.  She gazed at the lone tall mountain that jutted from the expansive plain like a sore amongst the culture, knowing soon her mission would be completed.  Various green splotches of trees decorated the otherwise wine-colored crag; ginger spots twinkled amongst the green, indicating the frequent homes of the merchant village. 

      As she made her way the sun began to disappear behind the horizon, the false stars of the Devastation Wall came into view.  Rei’l grew tired and hungry.  At the base of the mountain Rei’l came across a ryokan, surrounded by apple blossoms and nut trees, embedded into the mountain’s face. A black bird perched on an akamatsu’s lower branch.  It was an ancient three storey structure, painted in rich candy reds and detailed with intricate golden patterns that puffed like frosting, which stood above the ground on four thin chicken-leg stilts.

      Rei’l knocked on the large russet wooden door: Tap. Tap. 

      “Hold on.  I’m coming.  Who is it that’s there?”  A hapless old woman, with thick wiry gray and red hair, opened the door.  Tiny glasses sat on the tip of her nose, making her sunken minute blue-painted eyes peer over them.  “Hello, child.”  She pulled a house kimono around her tighter, and opened the door further.

      “I have been walking all day to my grandmother, and am starving.  I was wondering if I could trouble you for a meal, if the kitchen hasn’t closed.”

      The old woman shook her head, “No.  No, the kitchen has not closed.”  Opening the ryokan door further, a white bushy eyebrow crept into an arc, and the hag inquired: “Where does your grandmother live?”

      Rei’l answered as she crossed the threshold.  “Just up the road in the village.  But I’m so hungry I just needed to stop and eat.”

      “Come in.  Eat and then spend the night here,” the old woman offered.  “It’s so late already, you’d probably be waking her up, and a knock in the night can frighten an old body.  That wouldn’t be a nice way to greet your grandmother.”

      Rei’l nodded her head, agreeing.

      “Best to spend the night, then go off to see her in the morning.  You are just in time for supper.  You are walking along as though you were on your way to school in the village. Please stay.  Go rest amongst the beautiful flowers that are blossoming in my garden.  Why don't you go and take a look?  And while you are doing that I will set out dinner."

      Wondering in the old woman’s garden Rei’l picked flowers, thinking, Grandmother loves collection of beautiful flowers.  Rei’l walked deeper into the splendid garden, continuing to pick flowers and add them to her bouquet.  Following the dirt path deeper into the garden Rei’l came across a small clearing.  In the center of it was a single beautiful out-of-place gray and maroon fern flower growing from the ground.  Rei’l curiously examined the fern flower from the border of the clearing, and wanting to pick the flower, she chose not to, and instead hurried back to the ryokan.

      The meal was spread across a small table.  It was a traditional dinner, and as Rei’l sat on the floor the old woman poured the tea before taking her own place.  Rei’l presented the collection of flowers as a centerpiece to complete the table setting. 

      They both kneeled at the table and quietly put their portions onto their plates.  Placing her dish before her, to cool, the old woman raised the question, “Why are you on your way to your grandmother’s?”

      “The famine in my village has forced it so that my father can no longer support the both of us, so I am going to stay at my grandmother’s.  I’m bringing her a basket of tea, honey, butter, and cakes for her taking care of me.”  Rei’l cooled some poultry and vegetables before eating.

      “That’s very sweet of you.  Perhaps, you will take some of the herbs I grow and sell up in the village to your grandmother to help flavor some of your tea and butter?”

      “That’s very kind,” Rei’l replied gaily.

      Leaning on her elbows, with her ancient head supported by her skeletal hands, the old woman asked, “What happened to your mother, child?”

      Rei’l looked at the wall as she spoke.  “My mother had secretly wed my father, a temple farmer-monk.  I am their only child, and have been kept secret from my mother’s mother, who is of demon lineage.  To continue to keep me a secret my mother had to return home, before the search parties found her.  I was five years old.  When she got home the demoness had her chef slit my mother’s throat, and traditionally prepared her like a hind, to be consumed by her mother.”

      The elderly woman swiftly apologized for bringing up such a horrible memory, and offered her condolences as comfort.

      Rei’l accepted the apology, and to show there was no hard feelings she offered up some of the basket’s gifts.  “Please accept what she can offer to add to such a luscious meal.”  Taking a knife from the table she cut healthy slices of bread for each, “I will just tell my grandmother that I ate the slices.  She can’t fault me for being hungry.”  Rei’l smiled at her host.  Then taking some honey, poured generously onto each slice, she handed one to the older hotelier. 

      A crooked crow flew in then, from the kitchen, a carafe of sake in its talons.  As it placed the warm drink on the table, it squawked, “Enjoy my brother?” before flying back into the kitchen.

      The old woman let a moment of silence pass after the crow had left, before she turned to Rei’l and spoke.  “Now that you have eaten, dear girl, please relax in my spring.  I will clear the table.”

      Rei’l nodded, as she dabbed her lips, and left the table.  Slowly she made her way out of the hotel and into the night sky.  She made her way to the hot spring, and stopped at the water’s edge.  She undressed, folding her clothes neatly into a pile, before getting into the tepid, relaxing water.

      The hot spring was a decent sized pool, feed by a small water-green waterfall from a cliff thirty feet above it, and surrounded by plum trees.

      Returning the old woman kneeled at the edge of the water, made a curious gesture towards the falls then began to rinse Rei’ls hair.  As she lathered the shampoo, the old woman sang a history-poem telling of when the sky was blue and food was plentiful; shamisen and echoed chanting somehow filled the enclosed spring.  When the old woman stopped singing she kissed Rei’l on the forehead before picking up the soiled clothes from the edge.  As she brought them in, Rei’l asked: “Where are you taking my clothes?”

“For mending; if they can’t be fixed you can keep the new clothes I’ve hung in your room.”  The old woman then disappeared inside, to return moments later with her long gray hair down, flowing like a dead river down her back.

They continued to talk.

      “You have such beautiful hair.”  The old woman commented, taking the hair in her hands, adding cleanser to it.

      “Thank you.” Rei’l giggled and blushed, pressing her shoulders against the edge of the bank.

      The old woman built a strong conditioner-lather up in the hair.  As her scalp was massaged Rei’l relaxed further, and smiled.   “You are very skilled.”

      “I’ve had years of practice, child.”

      Reaching with one hand into the back of her obi the old woman pulled a Hmong knife.  Just as she was about to wrap her last finger around the knife’s bone handle a loud thudding from the door could be heard, the signal a new guest had arrived.  Quickly she released the knife, and smiling, excused herself to return.  Always polite Rei’l understood the hotelier’s responsibilities and excused her, then submerged rinsing the suds from her hair.  Resurfacing Rei’l reclined in the pool, closed her eyes, and thought of her grandmother. 

 

      Coming to a standstill in the front entry way, the old woman greeted an attractive young male laborer, who requested a meal and room for the night.  Nodding and smiling sweetly, “Eat and then spend the night here,” she impatiently moved him directly into the dining area.  As she sat him at the table, she short temperedly added, “Your food will be out shortly,” going into the kitchen.   Once the door was completely shut behind her she undid her hair, and a wiry tendril of hair crept snakelike across the floor, and flicked the stove on, heating the broth inside a large soup pot.  The hotelier announced she’d be right out with sake, as two snake-tendrils hovered across to the far side of the kitchen and grabbed Hmong knife, and placed it in her hand.

      Walking into the dining area she strikes quickly, slicing the man’s throat.  “Mm, yes, you will make a good pheasant to whet my appetite for the spirit-child in my spring.”  She brought the laborer’s body into the kitchen backwards, dragging it across the floor.  As she backed into the door opening, she stopped suddenly, unable to move any further.  Turning around the old hostess saw a naked Rei’l, holding a large pruning scissors and gray-and-red rose.  Before she struck said, “I’m sorry grandmother.”  Rei’l slit her grandmother’s throat, killing the old demon-woman. 

      The next morning Rei’l woke up, planted a new gold and ruby rose where the previous had been, then showered, brushered her hair with its new gray stripe, and opened the ryokan for business.  As she sat in her room awaiting guests Rei’l skinned her grandmother’s body and used it to make the new house kimono.  Rei’l traditionally prepared the demoness-hotelier like soki, to be consumed by her guests.  As she sewed, pulling a ray of sunshine through her needle, Rei’l thought to herself: Where would I be without my lucky kimono?

      There are various kinds of kitsune. There are those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet.  Unfortunately, it is these gentle spirits who are the most dangerous ones of all.