Blitzdonner hadn’t revealed he was alive because he didn’t want to cause them any trouble. It wasn’t that he didn’t care for them, and he certainly hadn’t forgotten them.
Nonetheless, Rebecca couldn’t bear to watch any longer. “Just go already.”
Jacob spoke curtly. “I didn’t know you were alive, and I’d never even met you. So, to be honest, I guess I’d given up hope.”
People are surprisingly able to deal with an absence when it’s something that was never there. Jacob was confused now because his father, who had been absent, was suddenly present. But it was different for Charlotte. She had lived in worry this whole time.
“You just have to beat it over there, get in her face and say, ‘I’m alive!’”
“Yeah, but...”
“But you don’t think she’ll forgive you, do you?”
“Huh?” The harsh words from his son’s mouth upset Blitzdonner.
“There’s no way she’ll forgive you. Do you think you can just say something nice and it’ll all be fine? Well, it won’t! I hope she yells at you, and hates you, and bombards you with insults, and stabs you with a knife!”
“Jacob, isn’t that a bit much?” Rebecca tried to stifle Jacob’s violent ideas, but the boy wouldn’t stop.
“That’s what it means to take responsibility for your actions! So don’t try to be cool! That’s what looks the worst!”
“Jacob...”
“If you’re my father, then act like one! If you don’t...” Jacob’s shoulders were trembling.
Blitzdonner finally summoned his determination. “I’m sorry. You’re right. For some dumb reason, I was trying to be cool. Ha ha... And that is the worst!” As he spoke, he gently patted his son Jacob’s head. “Let’s go! I’ll prostrate myself before her!” In high spirits, Blitzdonner marched toward Jacob’s house.
“Whoa... He’s walking so awkwardly!”
“Major...”
Blitzdonner was on his way, but he was still nervous.
“Was that guy really an ace pilot?”
“He was incredible! He really was!” Jacob was disgusted, but Rebecca desperately reassured him.
Eventually, they arrived at Charlotte and Jacob’s house.
“Good luck, Major. You can do it!”
“Th-Thanks!!” In response to Rebecca’s encouragement, Blitzdonner put on a show of courage.
“Don’t be so tense...” Jacob looked exasperated.
“Y-You don’t... understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Someday, when you truly fall in love, you’ll understand.”
“Urgh...”
Blitzdonner trembled. He was less than one meter from the door. But that one meter felt like a great distance. That one meter represented ten years. That door was farther than the far side of the world.
“W-Well, here goes!” Blitzdonner steeled himself, but as he raised his hand to knock on the door, it opened from the inside.
“Hm?”
And there stood Charlotte, the woman he had come to see. She looked at Blitzdonner’s face in surprise.
“Kyaaah?!” Blitzdonner was speechless.
“M-Mom! Um, this is...” Jacob tried to explain, but his words wouldn’t come out.
“Ma’am, this is...” Rebecca also tried to intervene, but she couldn’t get her mouth to work either.
“Erich? Oh my... You came?” Charlotte was unruffled. On the contrary, she was the very picture of tranquility. She was surprised. But her face showed the kind of surprise that comes from something mildly unexpected.
“Charlotte? Um...” Seeing her composure, Blitzdonner was flummoxed.
“You’re late.” Charlotte spoke with a perky smile.
“Agh!”
Hearing those words, Blitzdonner remembered. It had been long ago, soon after they discovered she was carrying Jacob. Charlotte had been tricked into prostitution, so Blitzdonner sold a medal he had just received in order to shoulder her debt and pay for her to return home. She was boarding the steam locomotive bound for Organbaelz when he said...
“I promise. I’ll come for you.”
The royal family had held a ceremony to award him the medal, but he sold the diamond in it, and was almost found guilty of insulting the royal family. He was absolved of the offense because he had been an excellent soldier, but his promotion was rescinded and he was sent into fierce fighting. Then, three years later, he suffered an accident resulting in the loss of his four limbs.
“Charlotte, you...”
He had not forgotten his words that day. However, he thought he didn’t have the right to fulfill that promise. He was prepared to leave her alone if she thought he was dead or had remarried. But she had waited. That’s why she wasn’t overly surprised. Because the person she always believed would come, had come.
“Seriously? Hey, now...” Blitzdonner muttered, put a hand to his face, and laughed hoarsely.
“What a good woman you are!” Then he hugged his wife with all his strength.
“Erich...”
“Aw, man... Argh...”
On this day, from the bottom of his heart, Blitzdonner was sorry that his four limbs were mechanical. His arms couldn’t feel the warmth of this woman who was so wonderful that he had no right to receive her love. He was frustrated, and happy, and the next thing he knew, he was crying.
“.....................”
As Jacob stared at his two parents hugging, Rebecca hugged him from behind.
“Jacob... you must understand one thing.” Rebecca spoke with emotion, as if she wanted very much to convey this one point. “You were born to two people who love each other. At least understand that much.”
Blitzdonner hadn’t cast him aside. And he hadn’t been a burden to Charlotte. Rebecca wanted him to accept that fact.
“Yeah...” Jacob gently pressed Rebecca’s hand as it held him.
“I guess I understand now, because they’re showing me.”
He was an immensely intelligent boy. He was still an eleven-year-old child. Nonetheless, he possessed a very grown-up mind.
“Hmph! With such a troublesome father, no wonder I’ve had it rough!”
But, now Jacob laughed playfully. He smiled with his usual good humor—and that hadn’t happened for days.
“Jacob...!” On the verge of hugging him with her full strength, Rebecca controlled herself. She could easily crush human bones. He was so endearing she could almost do that.
For the first time, a unique but troubled family became a loving one.
✦ ✦ ✦
