“Did you know they aren’t having the fireworks show this year?”
“Yes, I heard the townspeople speaking about it. I heard the fireworks maker passed away.”
“That’s right. Marie told us you came here for the fireworks. Is she right?”
“Yes, she is.”
“So despite there being no fireworks, you’re still here. I’d wager it’s because you’d like to see Marie again, isn’t it?”
The wolfman fidgeted as I said this, indicating my guess was likely correct.
“You don’t have to reply to my offer right now, but take some time to think about it, Mr. Wolfman.”
“It’s Wuf.”
“Huh?”
“Wuf Shin. That’s my name.”
“Wuf Shin. Got it. That’s a strange name.”
“It’s not strange in my world.”
“Spberry has a strange name even for our world.”
“You’re the only one who calls me that!”
After a brief rest, we collected our thoughts and continued.
“So are we all good, Wuf Shin? Remember, you don’t need to accept my offer yet.”
“Yeah, that sounds fine,” Wuf said with a bright youthful expression. He gave off an entirely different feel from the tired old dog he looked like before.
“By the way. How old are you?”
“Me? I’m twenty-five.”
“Twenty-five…”
Doesn’t that make him well over one hundred in dog years? I wonder how wolfman years are different.
We decided to meet up there again before going our separate ways with Wuf.
“You sure we shouldn’t ask him for his contact information?” Sophie asked as we watched him go.
“I mean, I doubt someone from another world has a phone or computer.”
“That’s not the case, according to recent reports. There are people who become pen pals with those in other worlds via e-mail.”
“Really? Wow…”
So modern technology is becoming interdimensional technology? I guess if it’s the same service provider and internet, then maybe…? How’s that supposed to work…?
“Either way, we have a time and place where we’re gonna meet up, so it should be okay. If he doesn’t show, then he doesn’t show.”
At the end of the day, this was his decision to make and not ours. Wuf and Marie barely knew each other, and a year was a long time for love at first sight to last. I couldn’t imagine having long-lasting feelings for someone I’d briefly met during a trip.
But the chance to meet again presented itself, and it was clear they at least had some feelings for each other.
They were worlds apart, in a literal sense, and this went for their races and standings within their own worlds as well. They would each have to overcome these differences of their own accord to come together in the middle.
My role in this was to be a witch-turned-cupid, nothing more, nothing less.
I met up with Marie where we planned, and she greeted me by happily jumping up and saying, “There you are! Where’s your friend?”
“She, uh, got a bit hung up on something…”
On the way to the meet-up spot, someone saw through Sophie’s disguise, and she ended up getting swarmed by fans of the world-famous celebrity. It soon devolved into an impromptu autograph signing event with a police presence watching over the crowd.
“I have two pieces of news for you.”
“Is it about him?”
“Yes. Now, I don’t want you to be surprised when I tell you this, but…”
I told Marie everything. That Wuf was a wolfman from another world and that he was hesitant to meet Marie again. Marie took it all in and responded with a hushed “That’s a relief. I’m just happy to hear he remembered me.”
“Aren’t you surprised he’s a wolfman?”
“Well, yes and no. Honestly, a part of me thought this might be the case. It was the Celebration of Worlds, and he was hiding his face, after all. I figured he could be from another world.”
“Is that right…?”
Marie wasn’t attracted to him for his looks or due to the romance of their meet-cute, but his personality. Setting aside whether her feelings would turn into something serious, I was relieved to hear this about her.
“So he’s not a human man, but are you still willing to meet him?”
“Yes, I am.” Marie said this, then continued. “Actually, it wouldn’t be my first run-in with a wolfman.”
“Oh?”
“It happened a long time ago, when I was a child. I met a young wolfboy who was lost. I walked along with him while we searched for his parents. Thinking back on it, we saw the fireworks together that year, too…”
“What happened to that boy?”
“Somebody thought he was a real wolf, like the animal, and that he was trying to attack me. It caused a big scene, and though I was able to convince everyone I was fine, we were separated in the commotion. That’s why when I heard he was a wolfman, it felt like fate, even if he is a different person.”
“That is a pretty big coincidence.”
Then it hit me—I remembered what Wuf had told me: that he hid his identity because someone thought he was a wolf when he was a kid. Maybe, just maybe…Wuf was the same wolfboy Marie was talking about.
While I tried to decide whether to tell Marie this, I noticed that she was quietly looking up at the sky.
“Tomorrow is the last day of the Celebration of Worlds. It’s a shame there will be no fireworks this year.”
“Do you want to see them again, too?”
“Yes… The fireworks are special to me, because they remind me of when I met him. It would’ve been nice to watch them together with him, just one more time.”
“I think I can make that happen.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean there will be some fireworks in the sky tomorrow. You can count on it.”
The Celebration of Worlds was going to end the next day. It was the day Sophie and I would hold the parade as well.
I couldn’t help but think this was what it would have been like to hold a school festival, if I had gone to school. I felt a little sad that it was going to end, like I was about to wake up from a dream.
After I’d left Marie and headed back home, Sophie showed up while I practiced for the next day in the front yard and commented, “You sure seem fired up.”
“Oh, you’re back already?”
“After a few hours of handshakes and signing things, it feels like my hand is going to fall off.”
“Ha-ha-ha, I bet. Welp, all’s well that ends well.”
“Spberry. You left me there to die. You deserve to be punished.”
“Aw, c’mon. I’m sorry.”
Sophie and I joked back and forth, and it was clear she wasn’t really mad at me. She ended up taking a seat on a stump near where I was practicing.
“What are you doing?” she inquired.
“I’m practicing drawing magic circles with my finger. I almost have the hang of it, but I don’t want to slip up during the parade, so I figured I’d practice a little.”
“I can cover you if something goes wrong.”
“I know, but I need to learn to do it by myself anyway.”
It was quiet outside, and there wasn’t a cloud in the darkening sky. Seeing as it was warm during the day, it wasn’t likely to rain the next day.
“Spberry, I want to ask you something,” Sophie said out of nowhere. “What drives you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re always so busy helping other people.”
“You think so?”
“Modern people are less preoccupied with the business of others. It’s rather strange, really. I mean you, as a person.”
“You don’t need to go that far with it.”
“Do you do it for the tears of joy, Spberry?”
“Huh?”
With Sophie being as clever as she was, it was clear to her that this remark caught me off guard.
“You know… I…”
It took me a moment to find the right words. I didn’t want to lie about it, after all.
“Honestly, the tears are important, but that’s not all there is to it.” Sophie looked straight into my eyes and listened earnestly to my response. “I just want people near me to be as happy as can be. When people trust me enough to share about themselves and their past, it makes me happy, and I guess I just want to return the favor. If I do something that somehow makes someone else happy…it makes me feel like my life has meaning to it. I hope that doesn’t sound too overexaggerated.”
“It doesn’t. There’s something else I really want to know, too. Why are you collecting tears of joy in the first place?”
“Can that…wait till tomorrow?”
“I need to know. It’s eating away at me. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep because of it. It could ruin the parade tomorrow, which would tarnish my name. I’d be dropped as one of the Seven Sages, and it’d be all your fault.”
“I didn’t realize you had the mental fortitude of a wet paper towel…”