Day 73: Return to Normal

After everything that had happened over the last couple of days, it didn’t seem right that things should suddenly go back to the way they were before. Of course, things weren’t the same as before. Gabu still couldn’t walk more than a few steps at a time, and he had to take herbs every day to ease the pain and hasten his recovery.

Mii insisted that the herbs should be taken on a full stomach, and Gabu wasn’t in any position to go hunting, so in the morning, Mei went alone to Waku Waku Hill and returned with a branch full of the blue berries Gabu liked, which he carried in his teeth. Hopefully, Gabu would be well enough to resume hunting before the lack of meat became a problem.

Mei had expected to miss Theatre Day that day, since Gabu couldn’t walk that far and Mei didn’t want to be there without him. And so it was a big surprise when a large group of animals, led by Takkan, arrived in front of Moonrise Hill. It was about half of the theatre group, including Jess, Gon, Janice, Frank, Sagi, Kuro-san and Greta. Those seven, plus Takkan, approached the cave entrance while the main group waited in the meadow.

“Good afternoon, my proverbial protagonists,” Takkan said with a grin. “If Gabu and Mei can’t come to Theatre Day, I thought to myself, then Theatre Day must come to them. The show must go on, after all.”

“We heard about what happened,” Gon said. “Those stags had better hope we don’t get hungry for deer meat while they’re around.”

“Are you two all right?” Jess asked.

Mei struggled to answer all three speakers at once. “This is quite a surprise. Yes, we’re doing fine now, aside from Gabu’s leg. Please don’t eat Darrel and Leo.”

Gon’s laugh sounded like a bark. “If you insist.”

“Thank you all for being so thoughtful,” Gabu said to Takkan and the others. “I don’t want to put everyone to any trouble for my sake.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Takkan said. “We were going to rehearse the final third of the story today anyway, and what better place to do so than the place where it all ends?”

Between them, they managed to help Gabu out into the meadow, so that they could use the hill itself as a stage. Takkan had told the choir members and the actors who played the goat characters that they didn’t need to come today, since only the wolf characters would have any parts to play in this practice session. A few of them, including Greta and Kuro-san, had come anyway.

Jess and Gon started with the scene in which Gabu and Mei were reunited with each other after surviving the waterfall. After that, just as it had happened in real life, they set off in search of some place where the wolves wouldn’t find them. They stopped for the night in a small forest, argued briefly about Gon sneaking off to go hunting, and were almost discovered when Zack (or was it Beach?) noticed a pretty flower just next to the bush they were hiding in. When the other wolves were gone, Jess said, “That wolf really likes flowers, huh?” to which Gon replied, slightly defensively, “It’s perfectly normal for a wolf to like flowers,” and both of them laughed. The humour of that moment broke the tension between them from their earlier argument.

Soon, Jess and Gon were at the foothills of the mountain (actually Moonrise Hill) and were beginning their ascent. After some time spent climbing, they stopped to rest on an overhanging ledge (in reality, the top of the hill) and looked back at how far they had come.

“‘We’ve climbed quite a way, haven’t we?’” Gon said.

“‘Yeah, and I’m tired enough to know it!’”

“‘Look over there, Mei. You can see Sawa Sawa Mountain from up here.’”

“‘You sure can. I can also see Baku Baku Valley.’”

“‘They look so small from all the way up here.’”

“‘We used to live in those little places, didn’t we?’”

“‘Yeah. Every day we would chase and be chased, hide away and seek after. It was such a bother.’”

Jess sighed. “‘You are funny. I never thought I’d hear a wolf say something like that.’”

“‘I never thought I’d hear a wolf say something like that either.’” They both laughed.

“‘Gabu, there’s something I need to tell you.’”

“‘What’s that?’”

“‘I’m...really glad I met you on that stormy night.’”

“Wait,” Mei—the real Mei—said. The scene paused and everyone turned to look at him. “I want to change that line. Just give me a second to think of something.” Gabu smiled up at him knowingly. Mei smiled back and remembered how he’d felt in that moment, how he still felt now. “‘Gabu, there’s something I need to tell you.’”

“‘What’s that?’” Gabu said.

“I... ‘Ever since I met you on that stormy night, every day has been better than the last. All the trouble and hardship—being with you just seems to make it all worthwhile.’”

“‘Really? Well, I feel the same,’” Gabu said. After a long pause, he continued, “‘Hey, Mei, do you really believe there’s another forest?’”

“‘There is. There has to be.’”

“‘I bet you it’s perfect. It’s going to be great.’”

Mei sighed contentedly. “I love you, Gabu.” He said it as if it was the simplest thing in the world, and Gabu melted into a happy puddle.

“I love you too, Mei.”

When it was clear the two of them had finished, Takkan said, “Fabulous! It lacks the sweet subtlety of, ‘Only if you’re there, Gabu,’ but I think we can make it work. Jess and Gon?”

Jess smiled earnestly. “Run it by us a couple more times and we’ll have it memorised.”

After practising the revised version of the scene a few more times and polishing the wording in a few places, they moved on to the scene atop the mountain, followed by Gabu’s confrontation with the pursuing wolves. Both of these scenes had songs that Mei hadn’t heard yet, in which most of the story was told, but they were skipping those today and focusing on the short sequences of dialogue before and after. “You’ll hear them in a couple of weeks when we perform the play for real,” Gabu said. Mei got the impression that he didn’t want to spoil all the surprises ahead of time.

“After the avalanche,” Takkan said, “there’s a brief intermission in which we relocate to inside the forest, where we have Mei pining after Gabu. When he hears news of a wolf in the meadow, Mei runs here and we begin the final scene. For today, we’ll go through the whole sequence here. Jess, just move your legs up and down so it looks like you’re running.”

They did as Takkan said, and they soon reached the start of the song Mei had arrived during last full moon. Since they were skipping that song and the one after it, the last thing Jess and Gon acted out was Mei realising that Gabu wasn’t himself, and then it was over.

“The ending was a little sudden, wasn’t it?” Mei said.

“You think we need something extra in between the songs?” Gon said. “‘Mei, where are we? What’s going on?’”

“That might help,” Mei said. He tried to remember what he’d said at the time. “And then, how about Jess says, ‘I’ve been waiting for you this whole time!’ as if you’re about to cry. After that, we can do the final song.”

“Just those two lines?” Takkan said. “No, ‘At last, the two of us can live out our days in peace, free from the tyranny of a world that isn’t ready for a love like ours?’”

“That’s a little melodramatic, don’t you think?” Gabu said.

“And losing your memories and almost eating your best friend isn’t?” Takkan countered.

“Okay,” Mei said, “Gabu, what is it you said to me as we were watching the full moon?”

“‘The moon’s beautiful, isn’t it?’” Gabu said. Just like that, the memories came flooding back.

“‘Yeah, it really is.’”

“‘I’ve been waiting so long to watch the moonrise with you, Mei.’”

“‘Me too, Gabu. But it was definitely worth the wait. Don’t you think?’”

“‘Yeah, and this is the best one ever.’”

“‘Gabu?’”

“‘Hmm?’”

“‘We’re finally able to be together, aren’t we?’”

“‘Yes, Mei. And we’ll always be together. I promise.’”

“I love you, Gabu.”

“I love you too, Mei.”

There was a pause.

“See?” Takkan said to the group at large. “I told you we couldn’t do this without the real Gabu and Mei here.”

“I don’t recall anyone arguing with you,” Jess said.

Takkan shrugged. “I just thought I’d point out how good an idea it was. That was truly beautiful, you two. Gabu, why didn’t you tell me about those lines when we were writing the script?”

“Because...” Gabu hesitated and looked apologetically at Mei, “...when Mei told me he loved me, I thought he meant as a friend. And then it got even more awkward.”

Not too long ago, Mei would have been annoyed at Gabu for telling everyone about that. Now, though, he only laughed. “How far we’ve come, huh?”

“It takes a while to figure it out sometimes,” Jess said.

“Not us, though,” Gon said. “Other times, you just know what you like.”

“In my experience,” Takkan said, “it’s quicker to figure out what you don’t like.” He noticed Kuro-san’s look of curiosity. “I’ll tell you about those experiences later.”

Perhaps sensing it was time to change the topic, Jess said to Gabu and Mei, “Can you go over that again? I want to make sure we remember it right.”