Just then, she heard someone behind her: “Luna!”
Who could that be?
Could it be him?
Luna turned around.
To greet him, just like she always did.
“Good morn—,” she began, then she froze. He rushed up to her, breathing hard, but it wasn’t the boy she had somehow expected.
“Luna! I can’t believe I really found you! The sancta’s power was real!”
She couldn’t follow what he was saying, but he sounded overjoyed. Standing in front of her was a overweight man with an unremarkable face, hair that went everywhere, filthy clothes, and an overall look that said he didn’t pay much attention to his personal appearance. Maybe he didn’t care how he looked to people.
Beside him was a butterfly. It fluttered toward Luna as if to flee the man with the heaving shoulders and reeking breath.
“H…hey… Do you remember me?”
He looked at her, eyes full of hope.
And to her amazement, she did know him.
His name was Willie. The one person she had never been able to forget from the past she had otherwise abandoned.
A pathetic man whom, in her lonely student days, she’d been misguided enough to be attracted to.
“It—it’s me! Willie! Don’t you remember? You know—the boy you always used to talk to in the library? We were classmates?”
Willie’s heart was pounding as he spoke. The butterfly had led him to a woman so gorgeous he would never have known it was his plain-Jane classmate. He’d thought maybe there had been some mistake—until he’d heard her voice.
Shocked to see she had grown so lovely, Willie rambled. “I…I always wanted to apologize to you! What I did to you back then was awful, right? I want you to know, I’ve always regretted it, and…”
The woman just looked at him, silent.
“My friends talked me into doing…what I did, but the truth is, I never meant to hurt you. I’m sorry, really. I know it’s too late to apologize. But I just had to say it…”
The words coming out of his mouth sounded like an excuse.
A moment later, the woman answered him in a trembling voice. She said just one word: “Why?”
Maybe he’d startled her by appearing out of the blue like this. He saw now that he hadn’t explained clearly enough. He told her about how, just as he was wishing he could apologize to her, a kindly antiques dealer had sold him this sancta. He told her how he had mustered all his courage to come look for her today.
“I must’ve shocked you just showing up like this, huh? I’m sorry for that, too. But for my whole life, I’ve never been able to forget you, and—”
“Why are you here?” she broke in. “Why are you anywhere near me?”
Willie could see that the woman looking at him was in the grip of fear.
Why was he here? Hadn’t he just explained?
“L…like I said. I wanted to apologize…”
“Now? Now, after all this time, you want to apologize to me?”
“Y-yes! I know I was awful to you—”
“You want to say you’re sorry, here and now—and what will that do?” Luna was frightening to behold, her face a mask of contempt. Willie felt sick to his stomach. “I want you to know, I’ve forgotten all about the past. I have a job now that I work hard at. I’ve recovered from the bullying I grew up with, I’ve cut myself loose from the time when I was attracted to a pathetic man, and now I’m trying to move forward. And you come trotting up and say you want to apologize? How’s that supposed to work? Are you trying to make me relive all that pain? Then this is just another one of your awful pranks!”
“N-no! I really didn’t mean it that way…”
“I suppose you heard I was making something of myself, and that’s why you decided to try this? You disgust me.”
“M-making something of yourself? What are you talking about? I just want to say I’m sorry…”
Please don’t reject me. Please, at least hear me out. Willie reached out to her beseechingly.
“Luna? What’s going on?” A tall man walked up, putting himself between her and Willie. He was handsome and carefully attired. More attractive than the average man.
Safely behind him, Luna murmured, “Mr. Manager… I’m sorry, but could you call the police?”
“What? Yes, of course. But who’s this man?”
“A stalker.”
No! He wasn’t a stalker. He’d done something terrible to Luna and wanted to apologize—that was all he hoped for.
The words rose up to Willie’s throat, but one by one they stuck there.
“Mm.” The manager gave Willie a look as if he were appraising a piece of merchandise, and then he said, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to stay away from my actors. If you promise never to do anything like this again, I’ll look the other way today.”
Behind him, Luna did not look very happy. “I asked you to call the police,” she said.
“You have a big performance today. I’d rather not cause a ruckus if we can avoid it. I’d hate for it to impact your work.”
“Oh, I’ll be fine. I’ve been practicing all morning.” Luna proudly held up a dog-eared book. The cover bore the name of a famous old play—the story of a woman who endures persecution and tears and ultimately goes to great lengths to achieve her dream.
At the end of the story, the woman falls in love with the man who supported her and they get married.
The two people in front of Willie looked very close.
“Well, anyway, we don’t have time to waste standing here. Let’s get going, Luna.” The man put a protective hand on her shoulder, turned away from Willie, and started walking.
Luna nodded but glanced back over her shoulder. “I never want to see you again,” she said. “Stay out of my life.” And lastly she added, “That’s the one way you can make it up to me.”
Willie could hardly believe what he was hearing. The girl he’d been friends with in the library would never have said such a thing to him. Plain she might have been, but she was so kind, so sweet. That was why he’d wanted to apologize to her.
She hadn’t been like this.
This wasn’t her.
“Wh…what has he done to you?!”
Before he knew it, Willie was running to catch up with them.
He remembered all those years ago. He remembered pretending to ask Luna out on a dare—so that he could keep hanging out with his friends, so that he could keep enjoying his oblivious existence.
To get that, he’d said something he had never imagined saying. Did something that was the polar opposite of how he felt. Now Willie could finally see how much he had warped his own thinking and behavior, just so the people around him would like him.
“He’s making you say those things! You don’t really mean them, do you?” Willie exclaimed.
The man must be controlling Luna. He must be. Willie had to help her. Again, before he knew what he was doing, he had grabbed Luna’s hand, his grip strong and powerful.
He had to take her away from here…
“That hurts!” she said, and her face when she turned toward him was full of pain and fear.
“You there! What the hell do you think you’re doing to my star?!” the man demanded, stepping between them, separating them.
Willie’s face was suddenly hot. He realized the man had punched him.
His head swam; he didn’t know which way was up. The hand he had finally managed to clasp was torn away from him, and instead he felt something cold and hard.
He had fallen down.
“Excuse me! Could somebody call the police?” Luna shouted. To deal with this violent brute, she probably meant. “That man on the ground—he’s stalking me!”
No!
He wasn’t a stalker!
He’d just been trying to apologize…
Willie pulled his face from the cold ground. At that moment, he heard a voice above him say, “Don’t move.” It was the man again, holding him down. “And to think, I was going to let you walk away.” He sighed.
“L-let go of me! Let go, dammit! I just wanted to apologize to her!”
He hadn’t come here for…for this! He’d wanted Luna to hear what he had to say. As Willie lined up the words one by one, he looked up.
The butterfly was flying away.
Fluttering just as if it were alive, never knowing that it had died a long time ago.
Finally, it alighted on Luna’s shoulder.
“I know what you’re thinking. You don’t really feel sorry for me at all,” she said, almost sighing. “You didn’t want to apologize to me. You just wanted to make yourself feel better.”
He’d always, she added, been shallow like that. That was one thing that had never changed.
As she spoke, she looked down at him where he lay on the ground, pitiful.
A crowd was gathering in the street. In the middle of it, the police were hauling a man to his feet. She remembered him—Willie, wasn’t it? She’d sold him a sancta just the other day.
“What’s going on?” Carredura inquired.
“You know, I’m not quite sure myself,” said someone nearby. The man, they told her, was a stalker; he’d been after a young actress who’d grown quite popular lately. He’d attempted to abduct her in broad daylight. Naturally, the police had arrested him—as she could see.
He was probably going to jail.
“My goodness,” Carredura said mildly. How awful.
Then she bowed and walked away.
She had no interest in and felt no concern for the man currently being arrested. Instead she went back to work, looking for new customers.
“I-it’s you! You’re the one who sold me that sancta!” Willie cried. He had spotted her.
She turned to find him staring daggers at her.
“Th-this wasn’t what you promised me!” he said. “It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this! This is your fault!”
“Goodness.”
What an ungrateful thing to say.
Carredura, unfazed, looked at Willie, the man who had been a pathetic creature trapped by his memories of happier days—and was now a criminal.
Why, this was exactly what she had promised him.
“I told you that it would change everything for you.”