Memories by tklotl |  |
"Oh, come on, Mum!" whined Kistaki. "Do I have to?"
"Yes, you do. Lemura is an old friend of mine, and she'll be leaving Neopia
soon. I promised to help her pack, but I'm busy right now, so you need to go."
"Can't Rhaiie do it?"
"Rhaiie's off at the Haunted Woods. I'm not dragging her back here to do a
simple job. It'll only take a couple hours, maybe even less. Just go to this
address and help her! Lemura is a nice person, you'll like her."
Grumbling, Kistaki picked up Tikala, her Wadjet, and walked out the door into
the front lawn of their Mystery Island NeoHome. Her mother had a lot of 'old
friends'. Most of them lived in small, three-room NeoHomes in Neopia Central,
with one NeoPet. Mum had never liked to talk about them, but always helped them
if she could. Kistaki had found a scrapbook up in one of the incomplete rooms
on the second floor of her house, filled with old pictures of smiling people
and pets at various places. One of them (her favourite) had a teenage boy in
it, surrounded by a Zafara, a Meerca, an Acara, and an Eyrie, in front of the
Snowager's Den. They didn't look happy. They looked tired, worn-out, and sad.
The Meerca was crying. That picture was the only one where the boy and his pets
showed up.
Walking along the dirt path, Kistaki eventually reached the local port. Getting
on a ship headed for Neopia Central, she pulled out the piece of paper that
told her where Lemura lived. A zip code, a street. A reminder that she wasn't
to flaunt her painted fur, her PetPet, or anything else. Her family wasn't rich,
but they could afford things like that. Apparently Lemura couldn't.
Once the ship docked, Kistaki leaped over the side, and started running out
of the landing dock as quickly as she could. The place was packed, and she hated
being confined.
It wasn't hard to find Lemura's house. It was small, made entirely out of
wood, and-as she had expected-only had three rooms. There weren't any flowers
or plants on the lawn. The windows and door were plain. Kistaki was a little
nervous as she walked up to the front door. Mum had said Lemura was leaving
Neopia. Where would she go? What about her pet? And why had Mum looked so strange
when she said that?
The door opened. A girl, probably in her late teens, greeted her. "You must
be Kistaki. TK said you'd be coming over. Come in. This is Cyete." Cyete was
a green Eyrie. Both of them looked tired and worn-out, much like the boy in
the picture. "Uh-hello," stammered Kistaki, remembering her manners. "Yeah,
I'm Kistaki. Nice to meet you, Lemura, Cyete."
As she walked in, Kistaki noticed that the rooms were sparsely and cheaply
furnished. A Straw Chair, a Stone Table. Candles. No carpet, just ordinary wood.
Plain, bare walls. Cyete silently moved off to another room. Lemura beckoned
Kistaki to the remaining one.
To her great surprise, this room was filled with items. Stacks of food, piles
of plushies, Battlecards and Neocards loosely clumped together. In the middle
of the crowded room was a wooden table, and two Stone Chairs. Several cardboard
boxes stood in one corner, looking empty and unused.
Lemura noticed Kistaki's astonishment. "Most likely you are wondering how
someone as poor as I could own so many items. I've collected things over the
years, and some friends gave me things they no longer needed. I couldn't sell
them. They're not worth much. Well, maybe they are. But they bring back so many
memories. Take this one, for example."
Sitting down on one of the chairs, Lemura picked up a
Fun
In The Sun Usuki. "This was the first Usuki I ever bought. I gave it
to Isabeau, she liked them so much…"
Kistaki interrupted. "Who's Isabeau?"
"She was my Cybunny, long ago. When I had four pets, a nice bit of money,
and a lot of friends… I also had a Shoyru named Mali, a Meerca… I think I had
a Meerca. And another one. I'm not sure. It's hard for me to remember." Kistaki
was shocked. How could anybody forget their pets, no matter how long ago they
existed?
"I had to disown them all. Times were tough, my money had run out. All my
friends were leaving….I felt so empty inside. Mali and Isabeau. They're all
I can remember. I had to get a counsellor to deal with my grief….I didn't want
to disown them. A few months ago, my counsellor made me get Cyete. She helps
me forget. She's so nice, so polite… when I leave, I don't know what I'll do
with her. Disown her. Try to forget…."
Kistaki's shock had been replaced with sorrow and pity. Lemura was little
more than a basket case, a person who had lost their life without dying. But
it seemed that once, when she still had her pets, she had been happy. With Cyete
she could at least stay out of a suicidal depression. But what of when she left
Neopia? Maybe Lemura would quietly fade away, in a different world, where no
NeoPets lived.
Lemura spoke again. "My memories hurt sometimes. It would be better if we
just started packing my things into the boxes. Some memories I can tell you...
some stories."
Weeks passed. Every day, Kistaki would come to Lemura's house, to put some
items away and listen to stories. She heard how Mali had saved every Neopoint
she earned for some Battledome weapons, and placed a Forest Hat and a Million
Degree Sword into a box. She learned about what had happened when Isabeau caught
a strange disease, and put a pair of Ultra Rubber Gloves in a box. She listened
to tales about vacations in Tyrannia, and lifted a Trilo Bite into a box.
It seemed to Kistaki that Lemura and Cyete grew happier with her around. They
laughed sometimes, and smiled more often. Cyete liked to play with Tikala, and
Lemura enjoyed hearing about Rhaiie's frequent expeditions to the Haunted Woods.
Both of them gasped when they heard about her Mum's recent acquisition of two
extremely rare Black Roses for the garden. Occasionally Lemura would bring out
some food from the piles, and they'd eat lunch together. Whenever Kistaki left,
she'd wave goodbye to Cyete and Lemura, who waved back in reply. Those weeks
were good ones, pleasant ones, ones that Kistaki knew Lemura would never try
to forget.
But one day, the room with all her items in it was empty. Everything was packed
into one of the boxes. For the first time since Kistaki had came, Lemura looked
sad. "I'm all done. I don't need your help anymore, Kistaki. I'll be leaving
today. First I'll take Cyete to the Pound. Then... I don't know. You can take
the boxes from my house. I won't be needing them. Tell TK that I've gone. Go
home, Kistaki. I'll miss you."
Kistaki shook her head. "No way! I'm coming with you. These last few weeks
have been the best days of my life, and I'm not just going to go home and forget.
I'll take the boxes home, but only after I've seen you leave."
Lemura smiled. "Kistaki, you're a wonderful NeoPet. TK must be glad to have
you. You can come, and so can Tikala. Just... try not to cry. I don't know what'll
happen, but it might not be easy. Thank you, Kistaki. Even for a brief time,
you made me happy."
They walked to the Pound in silence. Cyete quietly went to the front desk,
handed over 250 NP, and walked into a room full of cages. Lemura and Kistaki
left the building. Kistaki felt sad-not to see Cyete go, but sad to know that
Cyete and Lemura would never be together again. Somehow, she felt that they
belonged together.
They were in a secluded place, all alone. Nobody noticed them there. Lemura
raised her eyes to the sky, and smiled. "I know what to do now." Dust motes
swirled around her, beams of light shown. Closing her eyes in ecstasy, Lemura
whispered, "My friends..." and vanished.
The End
Author's note: This is a true story. There really is a Lemura, and I know her.
She had a Shoyru named Mali, a Cybunny named Isabeau*, and disowned them. Later
she came back to NeoPets and created Cyete. Recently she decided to leave Neopia
for good, disowned Cyete, and gave all her items to me.
*I have, however, removed the numbers from their names. And there were
other pets too, it's just that Lemura couldn't remember what she called them. |
