The River Kami Asked Before Taking My Hand novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: What the Keepers Promised
The priest was waiting at the stone gate with a lantern and a long scroll under his arm.
Sayo had walked Akari there and stopped at the milestone, because she was not sure she was allowed further.
"I'll be at the shop," she said. "Tell her I said good night. Tell her twice."
"I will."
"And if she writes on the window again, I'll leave it fogged. I'll leave it fogged all week."
She went back down the road, looking over her shoulder every few steps.
Nagi was on the veranda.
She had made three cups of tea, and none of them was steaming.
Akari sat beside her and took her hand without a word.
It was cold again, and she held it until it was not.
"I am ready," Nagi said to the priest.
"I am not," he said, and unrolled the scroll along the boards.
It was a long strip of paper, brown at the edges, with columns of small brush writing.
He did not read the first line aloud.
He pushed his glasses up his nose and began.
"The first keeper was a ferrywoman. She was left at the bend when the bridge washed out, and she stayed three winters. When she grew old she said, I will not leave you alone. I will be here until the day I die."
"I remember," Nagi said.
"The second was her niece. She said, I promise to take my aunt's place."
"Yes."
"The third was a widow with no house. She said, I will stay for as long as I have no other home."
Nagi's hand twitched in Akari's.
"The fourth was a carpenter's daughter who had been turned out by her family. The fifth was a teacher. The sixth was a woman from the next valley who was running from a man." The priest's voice was wavering. "Each one said a promise at the gate. Each one said it in front of the river."
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