Day 84: The Fourth Full Moon
Mei could only assume that some people didn’t understand what the word “noon” meant, because people started gathering outside Moonrise Hill from when it was barely light outside. A few of them actually approached the cave, but Mei pretended to be asleep and they went away. Gabu didn’t need to pretend; he somehow managed to sleep through the growing noise outside.
The first actors started to arrive a couple of hours before noon, at which point Mei woke Gabu and the two of them went down to join them. Greta was busy seeking out new arrivals who had gotten lost in the throng and directing them to Takkan, around whom all the actors were gathering. After an hour, everyone was present and accounted for.
Still, the crowd continued to grow, larger than had been at last month’s rehearsal, larger even than had been at the forest meeting a few days ago, which had been the single biggest gathering of animals Mei had ever seen until now. This easily dwarfed it.
“What’s going on?” Sagi said. “I didn’t think there were this many people in the entire forest!”
“Ah, about that...” Takkan said. Everyone turned to look at him. “...I might have sent word out to a few of the neighbouring forests that we were putting on the play today.”
“How many of the neighbouring forests?” Greta asked.
“Hmm,” Takkan thought for a while, “all of them.” Everyone stared at him in disbelief. “It was quite a puzzle figuring out how to direct them all here without a common point of reference. But then I realised: Everyone knows by now which general direction the forest with the goat and the wolf is in from their own forest, so they can start by heading in that direction. Then, when they come across another forest, they can ask the locals for directions, and so on until they arrive here. It seems to have worked well, don’t you think?”
“How will the people at the back hear what we’re saying?” Jess asked.
“You’ll just have to remember to project your voice like we practiced,” Takkan said unconcernedly.
“May I ask why you’ve done this?” Greta said.
“You want to know why I’ve set things up so that everyone this side of the mountain—everyone who’s been hearing rumours of the goat and the wolf living together for months now—will have a chance to hear the full and unabridged tale for themselves?” Takkan said. “Well, I thought that was obvious.
“If it can happen once that a goat and a wolf should fall in love and their families and friends reject them because of it,” he continued, “then the same thing can happen anywhere in the world. It probably is happening as we speak. By putting on this play, we’re not just showing the world that Gabu and Mei exist; we’re showing all the other Gabus and Meis that they’re not alone, and we’re showing their families and friends that they don’t need to turn against someone just because of who they fall in love with.”
“That’s...incredible,” Gabu said, awestruck. “So that’s the real reason you wanted us to put on a play all those months ago.”
“Hmm, actually,” Takkan admitted, “I wanted us to put on a play because I’ve always liked the idea of running one and I’ve never had the chance to until now. I wasn’t even thinking about any of that when I decided to send the word out about the play. But you must admit, it’s a good retrospective justification, even if it only occurred to me a few minutes ago.”
Mei decided to overlook all the twisty, turny logic that must go on inside a fox’s head for that to make sense, and instead said, “You really think this play will make that big of a difference?”
“Perhaps not, but it’s a start. It might be enough for one or two more predator-prey couples to come forward—in forests where that isn’t already normal, I mean,” he said, smiling at Kuro-san. “And maybe someday it will be normal everywhere.”
“It reminds me of the stuff you were saying about collaboration between forests, Greta,” Mii said. “We’re helping people like Gabu and Mei in other forests to be more accepted. Perhaps word will even get back to Sawa Sawa Mountain and the rest of the herd will finally get the message.”
“We can hope so,” Greta said.
“Excellent,” Takkan said. “Now, let’s put on a show that will change the world.”
At last, noon arrived. Everyone was already in position for the opening scene, but there was one final surprise that had to happen first.
Unbeknown to Gabu or Mei (or most people in the theatre group, for that matter), Greta and three other deer had been working on one additional song. Mei later learned that Greta had written it herself with only minimal help from Takkan. Just before the start of the play, the four deer lined up in front of the hill and started to sing, Greta singing most of the lines while the other deer provided harmony.
One Stormy Night (title song from Grease)
There was a time when I was all alone
When no one understood
Home didn’t feel like homeBut then I met someone who changed my life
Someone to light my way
Through all the pain and strifeOne stormy night
They think our love is something they should hate
That we should be like them
Keep to the narrow and straightThey try to keep us down but we won’t yield
We know it in our hearts
We got to be what we feelOne stormy night
One stormy night, with a crash, with a fright
Then to you I am clinging
One stormy night, as the sky is ignited
This night is just the beginningThe two of us were born to worlds opposed
That we could become friends
No one had ever supposedIf there’s a chance that we can both coexist
Then we can find a way
For our friendship to persistOne stormy night
One stormy night, in your smile I delight
Something more might be blooming
One stormy night, our love bold and exciting
But soon disaster is loomingThey say our love is unnatural
Caused by confusion, just a deception
We’re not welcome hereReject convention, overturn the rules
Remember love is love
And it is they who are foolsIf there’s a chance that we can all coexist
Then we will find a way
Our love will not be dismissedOne stormy night
One stormy night, we will fight for our right
To be free from accusers
One stormy night, now that we are indicted
Together we’ll make a new futureOne stormy night, underneath the moonlight
After all our endeavours
One stormy night, we’re at last reunited
One stormy night lasts foreverOne stormy night, stormy night, stormy night...
As the words “stormy night, stormy night...” echoed and faded out, Jess began running frantically towards the hill, and the play had begun.
It was one of the most surreal experiences Mei had ever had. If he looked past the fact that he was being played by a wolf, and Gabu was being played by a wolf who didn’t look like Gabu, it was so easy for his mind to fill in the rest of the gaps. It was like watching his own life from an outside perspective.
Whenever the characters went somewhere, the actors would go somewhere, and so the audience moved with them, always to another part of the forest with some feature befitting the next scene. From time to time, the performers would take a break (which Takkan called an intermission), reconvene at the next location and resume the play. This served to draw out the play throughout the entire afternoon and early evening.
Every important scene had a song that told the main parts of the story: Gabu and Mei meeting in the abandoned barn, realising the next day that they were a goat and a wolf, the other goats and wolves finding out about their relationship, lamenting the hopelessness of their situation at the top of the mountain, to name just a few. Hearing them in the context of the story, rather than as isolated songs, brought back memories of that time and heightened the emotions even beyond how Mei had originally felt when experiencing them.
For the entire last third of the play, there wasn’t a single moment that Mei wasn’t crying, and he wasn’t alone. It seemed like everyone in the audience, which must have contained hundreds of animals, perhaps thousands, truly understood how Gabu and Mei had felt when these things happened. They hadn’t been there themselves, but it was almost as if they had been.
They returned to Moonrise Hill just as the sun was starting to set behind them, and they finally reached the song Mei had arrived during at the rehearsal last full moon.
There was a problem.
“If that cloud doesn’t pass,” Takkan whispered, “the moonrise won’t be visible.”
Mei looked past Jess and Gon, who were already sitting patiently at the top of the hill after having finished ‘Inside His Den’. Indeed, the patch of sky just behind the hill looked a little too grey.
Sagi, who had been keeping an eye on things from the far side of the hill, came bounding towards them. “It’s too late,” he said, “the moon’s already risen behind the cloud.”
“Okay, this is fine,” Takkan said. It didn’t sound like he believed it. “It’ll just be a horizontal moonrise when the cloud passes.”
Mei scanned the horizon. “The cloud’s passing very slowly. It looks like it could be another few minutes.”
“Tell them to stall,” Takkan instructed Sagi. “Improvise, anything!”
Sagi ran off at full speed, going around the hill and, presumably, climbing up it from the far side to pass the message to Jess and Gon. Sure enough, the wolves’ ears flicked as the unseen messenger spoke to them.
Jess and Gon kept looking straight ahead, but Mei thought he saw their mouths move. After a few seconds of this, Gon said in his Gabu voice, loud enough for everyone to hear, “‘Something’s wrong. The moon should have risen by now.’”
“‘I don’t understand,’” Jess said, “‘after everything we’ve been through, why can’t this one thing go right? It’s as if even the moon doesn’t want us to be together.’”
“‘Look at me,’” Gon said softly. Jess turned to look into Gon’s eyes. “‘No matter what anyone says or does, whether they’re your herd, my pack, or the moon itself, we will always be together, and I will always love you.’”
They leaned closer to one another until they were less than an inch apart. Their lips touched softly, and they kissed. As they did so, miraculously, the cloud parted and they were silhouetted in moonlight. The audience cheered.
At last, they broke apart, turned back to the full moon, and launched into a slightly amended version of the closing lines. The choir’s voices swelled, and they sang the final song, the one Gabu had written himself.
When the song ended, Mei was completely in tears. He stared up at the moonlight, savouring the gentle words of the song so fresh in his memory. Gabu was trying to get his attention. “Huh?”
Gabu smiled. He, too, had been crying. “Come with me.”
Mei wasn’t sure what was going on. Gabu led him up the hill, Jess and Gon retreating so that Gabu and Mei had the hill to themselves. Mei could feel the thousands of eyes on them, but he had eyes only for Gabu, and Gabu only for him.
“Mei,” Gabu said, his green eyes shining in the moonlight. Somehow, even though he spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear, his voice was as soft as a summer’s breeze. “Being with you this past year has made me the happiest wolf alive. I don’t know how much time we’ll have left—no one does—but the one thing I’m sure of is I want to spend every day of it with you, to never leave your side no matter what.”
Mei knew what was coming, but he could hardly believe it. “Gabu...”
“I want to wake up every morning beside you; I want to be there for you when you need me most. And when we’re both old and we’ve done all there is to do, I want to watch the moonrise with you, one last time. I’ve waited far too long to ask you this, Mei, but...will you marry me?”
“Oh, Gabu...” Mei could hardly speak. “Of course I’ll marry you. You only had to ask.”
They hugged each other, tight enough that it felt like they would never let go. The audience had cheered loudly when Jess and Gon kissed, but that was nothing compared to this. The goats at Sawa Sawa Mountain might not have heard about the play yet, but they couldn’t possibly fail to hear this.