by Chris Ward
With Ken’s approval, Nozomi was made her official ward by the Japanese courts, and after a little more paperwork than she would have liked, she was allowed to officially adopt Jorge.
‘This ends,’ Ken said quietly, reaching out for Nozomi’s hand. ‘This ends now. Whether Crow still lives or not, he’s taken too many people from me. I loved Jun like a brother, but he was blinded by a quest for vengeance that I couldn’t turn him from.’ He sighed. ‘I can only hope he’s found peace now.’
Nozomi squeezed his hand. Ken glanced up at Jennie, who had her arms around Jorge’s shoulder, then quickly looked away, not wanting to see the tears in Jennie eyes.
#
Time would tell if any of them would get over it, Jennie thought, as she walked through the streets near her old home, a pilgrimage that she did often, unable to resist even though she had now moved to a new neighbourhood several stops away on the Yamanote Line. She had a new job in an office, but her own name was still written on the faded sign above the boarded up travel agent that had once been her pride and joy.
She would never forget the day Jun Matsumoto had walked back into her life outside Nakajima Travel Services, and while thoughts of what might have been had left deep incisions on her soul, she hoped that somewhere, somehow, he was at peace.
It might never be over, she knew. Professor Crow’s body had still not been found. For now, though, each evening when she returned home to find Nozomi and Jorge fighting over what to watch on TV, or that they had cooked up some special hybrid of Japanese and Spanish food, she could only smile and remember that she had it better than most, because she had got out alive.
But each day, when she woke up to see the sun shining in through her window, she could still see the kind smile on Jun’s face, and while she knew that life would go on, and that one day she might meet someone new with whom she could fall in love, she hoped that a little bit of that defiant smile would remain in her memory forever.
I miss you, Jun.
END
The Circus of Machinations
(Tales of Crow #4)
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