The River Kami Asked Before Taking My Hand novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Lanterns on the Veranda

"I can explain," Akari said.

"Can you?" Sayo said.

"No."

Sayo nodded.

She picked up the basket of onions, carried it through the open gate, and set it on the veranda boards.

She did not look at the empty air.

She looked at Akari, and her chestnut ponytail swung.

"Okay," she said. "I'm not going to ask. Everyone in this village has a drawer with something in it they don't talk about. I just need to know one thing."

"What?"

"Are you in trouble?"

"No," Akari said.

She thought about the hand around hers in the storm.

"No. I'm really not."

"Good," Sayo said. "Then come to the festival with me tomorrow. The Autumn Thanks. Everyone goes. There are lanterns and food.

It will be bad for your reputation if you're the girl who sits at home with an invisible friend."

"I can't."

"Why?"

Akari opened her mouth.

She thought of Nagi at the gate with her toes an inch from the stone line.

Nagi had looked down the road with a face she had hidden very badly.

"I have plans," she said. "Sort of."

Sayo looked at her for a second longer.

Then she grinned.

"Wow," she said. "Okay. Fine. Tell your plans I said hi."

She left, and Akari stood in the quiet garden breathing out.

"I heard," Nagi said behind her.

"Sorry."

"For what?"

"For turning down a festival because of you."

"I did not ask you to."

"I know." Akari turned around. "I'm asking whether you'd like me to."

Nagi's grey eyes widened.

"I would like you to go," she said. "You are nineteen. You ought to have lanterns."

"Do you want to go?"

Nagi was silent.

Her bare feet stood very straight on the boards, and her robe lifted a little in a draught.

"Yes," she said. "I would like that very much. I have not seen the festival since the sixties. I used to hear it. I can hear it from here."

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