Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Awakening ❯ FOUR: HITOMI--Lend fate a hand... ( Chapter 4 )

© Youjibaracuda 2000-2002

DISCLAIMER: Escaflowne is property of Sunrise…for now…wait until I take over the anime industry in Japan…then you'll see…THEY'LL ALL SEE!!!! BWAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!!!!

::ahem:: Read on.

*~*~*~AWAKENING~*~*~*

"True feeling justifies whatever it may cost." -May Saiton

FOUR: Hitomi-Lend Fate a hand…

I wanted to see Van so badly it hurt. I had no idea it could be that painful. I must have looked like a complete and total fool, crying like I was.

I chuckled bitterly and vainly tried to wipe my childish tears away. These days I could cry at the drop of a hat.

Finally, I decided that it was no longer a good idea to continue on the streets of LA by myself at night, so I called a cab to take me home.

Cabs are a funny thing, especially in Southern California. They were nearly impossible to find outside of the downtown of the city, and even then you had to call them by phone for them to come for you. The simple reason being that everyone usually has a car. I hadn't brought my car, since Daleila had offered to drive tonight. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long for a cab to pick me up from where I was and drive in the direction of the apartment Daleila and I shared.

"Are you alright, sugar?" the cabbie asked me after I had been in her cab for about four minutes.

"I'm fine," I replied, blushing. A perfect stranger was concerned about me! My eyes were dry now, but I imagined that they must look red and puffy. Not exactly a pretty picture.

"I don't mean to butt into y' business," the lady continued, "But did someone try to hurt you tonight?"

"Oh, no, it's nothing like that!" I rushed to put her mind at ease, "It's just…heartache."

"Oh," she nodded knowingly.

After a few minutes silence, she glanced at me through the rear-view mirror. "Honey, I think you're too young to know what heartache is," she said comfortingly. Then her eyes narrowed, "Did he cheat on you?"

I laughed in spite of myself. "No, not at all. It's just that he's very far away," I told her, a bit surprised that I was openly talking about my life with her.

"I was with him for a little while, but when I left…I never told him how I felt about him. I actually haven't heard from him in five years," I continued.

She nodded, "So why can't you call 'im up and tell 'im?"

I swallowed hard. "If only it were that simple."

"Do you really love 'im?" she asked.

I nodded. "More than you can possibly imagine."

"Have you any idea how he might feel?"

"I can feel he cares for me too," I responded honestly.

"Well then nothing should stop you from being together, sugar," she said matter-of-factly.

"I suppose it's left up to Fate," I said absent mindedly.

"Fate? Y' can't leave everything up to Fate! She's a busy woman with a lot to do, and sometimes we gotta give 'er hand."

We pulled up to my apartment building near the center of the city. I paid her and got out of the car.

"Hey, sugar," she called to me from the window, "If he doesn't want to be with such a nice and pretty girl like you, he doesn't deserve the tears you shed."

I thanked her with a smile and wished her a good night.

~*~*~

I often wonder at life's little quirks.

Who knew that you could receive a lesson in love from a cab driver? Especially in this town where the shrinks out number cabbies about 500 to 1.

I slowly walked into the apartment building and walked through the lobby. The warmth of inside was welcome, but I wasn't quite ready to head up home just yet. So I made my way through to the small type of garden paths leading to the swimming pool.

Since winter nights were too cold to be swimming in the pool, the area was amazingly calm and quiet. No one would believe that the complex was built right next to one of the busiest freeways in the county. That freeway was actually the only thing that separated our building from the downtown skyscrapers. It was a wonderful place to live, even though it was little far from the university Daleila and I attended. People always wondered how we could be college students and still afford to live in such beautiful (and expensive) apartments, each of us have a car, and I be the only one with a steady job (Daleila worked occasionally jobs). The simple answer was that Daleila was rich. We only started living this way about two years ago, when Daleila's father died, leaving her with all his possessions…which amounted to a good amount of money (I'm not sure of the exact sum of money, but I know it's well past two million). I don't like to leech off of people, so I help her as much as I can, making sure to pull my own weight. However, I let her talk me into her paying for the apartment we lived in now (since it was nowhere near anything I could afford). The place was so beautiful, I couldn't refuse.

I sat on one of the lounge chairs by the pool. Twinkle lights left over from the past holiday were still up and gave the dark area a magical feel. The moon was reflected in the water, the twinkle lights looking like stars all around it. I looked up at the orb in the sky and strained to see past it, as I had many times before, hoping to catch a glimpse of that far away planet where my beloved Van was.

I think somewhere in my heart, I was praying for a miracle of some kind that would put me out of my misery.

"You got to give Fate a hand…" she had said.

I'm not sure I believed in Fate much. But it was true that if I wanted to get anything resolved, I would have to take matters into my own hands.

I had always been afraid to let my let my true wishes loose in the world. I'm not exactly a person that is full of positive energy, so who knows what kind of negative effect my wishing could have.

On the other hand, what would happen if I wished just once? I don't think that the world would end…right?

The proverbial "What could go wrong?" phrase is always an ironic prelude to disaster.

Anything is better than all this uncertainty, my heart said to me.

I had to have faith in myself. I couldn't let fear keep me form doing whatever I had to do to ensure my happiness. I had to have the courage to take matters into my own hands.

Throwing caution to the wind, I closed my eyes and focused my thoughts.

Then I proceeded to do something I had promised never to do again.

I wished with all that in me that Van could be with me, that I could tell him how I felt about him.

I smiled as I felt a nearly forgotten warmness coming from my heart.

I knew my wish would be granted…

~*~*~

TBC…

Baracuda here. Okay, fourth chappie finished. This is going pretty fast, and I'm glad. Thank you for reading! ^_^

Now, please review.

October 2002