I said my goodbyes with Eno after I got home, then headed for the house, wondering if the girls would already be asleep. That question was partially answered when I nearly ran into Sandra, who was buried right in front of the front door.
“Whoa!” I yelped. “You scared me! Why’d you plant yourself there, of all places?!”
“I was waiting for you. Now hurry up and come inside,” said Sandra.
I didn’t understand what was going on, but I let her herd me into the house anyway, where I found Falfa and Shalsha waiting in the dining room.
“Welcome home, Mommy!”
“Shalsha is glad to see you don’t look overly exhausted.”
What’s going on here? Did those two really go out of their way to wait for me to get home? I don’t think that was really necessary, was it…?
“Come on, Azusa, sit down,” Sandra said as she pulled me over to a chair. I went along with it and sat down, wondering just what the three of them were up to. That’s when Falfa started gently tapping my shoulders with her fists.
“Huh…? Is this a shoulder massage?”
“That’s right! Tap tap tap, tap tap tap!” Falfa replied, hitting my shoulders in time with her chant.
“Shalsha will do it next,” Shalsha said. Her massage was slightly off-rhythm compared to Falfa’s, but that didn’t make me appreciate it any less.
“Okay, but where’s this coming from?” I asked.
“Well, since you look like an old lady now, Falfa ended up realizing something: We’ve never had a good chance to help take care of you like this before,” Falfa explained. She made it sound like a much more serious problem than I’d been expecting. “You usually look so young that even though you’re our mommy, we end up acting more like you’re our older sister sometimes. That’s probably why it never occurs to us to help you out the way good kids should!”
“There’s a relevant saying,” said Shalsha. “‘Show your parents you appreciate them now, because you might never get another chance.’ Tap tap, tap, tap tap, tap, tap tap tap tap!”
“I don’t like the implications of that saying, so let’s not apply it to me, thanks!” Also, your rhythm’s definitely a little off, Shalsha!
Next, Sandra took over shoulder-massaging duty. “Anyway, that’s why we decided we could at least massage your shoulders. You look a lot weaker now than you usually do, so we thought you’d appreciate it.”
“That’s nice of you, though I’m not so sure about the part about me looking weak!”
Sandra’s shoulder-taps weren’t very strong at all, but that just made them feel nice in a different sort of way.
“Plus, you’ll be turning back to your usual form, right?” Sandra added. “Doing this for you won’t feel very worthwhile if you’re young, so we needed to take care of it now while we still could. This body looks like it tires out way easier.”
My daughters really have been thinking hard about me, haven’t they? I guess they’re right—I’m usually tough enough that something like this would feel pointless. Who would bother cleaning a room when it’s already sparkling? If you want to help someone, you need to find something they need help with first, and I don’t usually make that very easy.
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“All right, then,” I said. “If I ever need help with anything in the future, I’ll try to make it a little more obvious.”
“Please do,” said Sandra. “What’s the fun in acting tough all the time, anyway? It gets boring fast when one side of a relationship’s always the one helping out the other!”
I guess this has turned into a great opportunity to reflect on my relationship with my daughters, hasn’t it?
“By the way, what do you think my weak points are?” I asked. This seemed as good a chance as any to get an outside perspective on the question.
“Well, you went to the witches’ gathering looking like that, right, Mommy? What did you call yourself?” Falfa asked in lieu of an answer.
“Oh, I used a fake name—Azu Liliri,” I replied.
Falfa hesitated for just a moment.
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“Coming up with names is definitely one of your weak points, Mommy…”
✦ ✦ ✦
The next day, with no warning whatsoever, I turned back to normal right around lunchtime. I wouldn’t have even realized it happened if Laika hadn’t been with me at the time to exclaim, “You turned back!”
Yep, there’s nothing like a seventeen-year-old body! I feel so much lighter now! I’m full of vim and vigor again!
That evening, I took my rejuvenation as an excuse to celebrate and put together way more dishes for dinner than I’d usually bother making. Their reception, however… Well, it left something to be desired.
“Mommy, Falfa doesn’t really like this stewed radish and poultry dish… They would’ve been better if you’d served them separately.”
“The stew with carrots and onions in it is bland, too. Speaking of which, Shalsha wonders why there are so many stewed dishes.”
“Ugh… It looks like my cooking repertoire’s still stuck in old lady mode,” I groaned. I just didn’t feel the urge to eat any rich, meat-heavy dishes yet, and everything I cooked had ended up modest and bland as a result. “Ugh! If I at least had some kombu, I could make a good stewed seaweed dish…”
“What is kombu, Lady Azusa?” asked Laika.
Rats! I forgot they don’t eat that sort of seaweed here! “It’s, um… What was it again? I forgot,” I said.
Ever since I turned into an old lady, I’d started using forgetfulness as an excuse to brush off more and more problems, and that clearly hadn’t quite changed yet. In the end, it took several more days for me to shake off all those old lady habits and go completely back to normal.