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Blue Flame – Part 02

Sam was walking down the alley with Kazuya, gesturing enthusiastically.

“I was a huge fan,” the man said. “She was so cheerful, and so pretty. Don’t even get me started on her hourglass figure!” He smiled wistfully. “If the real Queen Coco is an artificial Blue Rose…”

“Yes?”

“Then the Downtown Blue Rose is a blue flame! Crackling, burning with love every night. She was the best dancer, the best singer. And she was friendly with her fans who came to see her frequently. She even chatted with me while I was waiting by the stage door. I used to bring her freshly-baked bread. She’d thank me and then take a bite right then and there. She’d smile as she told me how delicious it was.” He pointed to his own face with a knotted finger. “She used to leave crumbs on her cheeks and chin. Young and naive as I was, my heart would beat fast as I removed the crumbs for her. My fingers still remember the warmth of Nicole Leroux’s cheeks. It felt like directly touching her soul. I’m willing to bet that God was watching me at that moment.”

Realizing what he had been saying, Sam scratched his chin in embarrassment. “I was in love with her, basically.” He hung his head. “Twenty-four years had passed. Nicole Leroux and I were still so young back then.”

“So you knew her well.”

“She was a celebrity and I was a fan who came to the theater to watch her perform. That was the extent of our relationship. But she was definitely a great girl. You could see it in her eyes. Bright, heavy drinker, virtuous. I only saw her at night, but she was like the sun. That’s why I still think of her as a flame. It’s what attracted all the men. All the guys downtown liked her way more than the original Blue Rose. Sure, Queen Coco was beautiful and noble, but they didn’t know what she was really like. Who knows, though? She might have been a nice girl too, if they got to know her.”

“I heard that Nicole Leroux was a dancer in Phantom, and she suddenly went missing in the year 1900.”

“She did.” Sam’s face dimmed. “I don’t know the details, but she suddenly stopped performing. I was worried.”

“I see.”

“Why did she have to die? She was so full of life. I still can’t believe she’s gone.”

“…She’s dead?” Kazuya stopped in his tracks.

“Wait, you didn’t know?” Sam said, just as surprised. “Nicole Leroux is long dead.”

“What do you mean? All I’ve learned so far is that she’s been missing since 1900.”

“There’s a grave in the cemetery up ahead that belongs to Nicole Leroux.” Sam cast his gaze down. With a knotted finger, he pointed to a church spire. “I came across it by chance. Our store is close, and we also sell our bread to the reverend. I think it was about three years after Nicole went missing. I stumbled upon her grave while I was taking a shortcut through the cemetery. The gravestone had the name Nicole Leroux.”

“No way.”

“I’m telling the truth. I cried back then. But bawling my eyes out isn’t really my thing. Besides, Nicole didn’t like gloom. Neither one of us wanted tears and flowers, so I brought pies and a bottle of red wine to her grave instead. Nicole loved wine. She used to drink it every night.”

“I see. So she’s really gone.”

“Yeah. I prayed that she’d be drinking, eating, singing and dancing in the afterlife. And that’s the end of our story.” Sam’s shoulders fell. His eyes narrowed even further as he recalled the distant past. “A beautiful girl, like a blue flame, and a boy. That was all we were.”

A winter wind blew past.

Hearing a faint sound in the distance, Kazuya turned. The door to Sam’s bakery opened, and Ms. Cecile stepped out. He waved his hand, squinting against the brightness.

The brilliant light of the sun fell softly on the pavement.

---

Kazuya parted ways with Sam and met up with Ms. Cecile.

They walked together up the gentle slope leading to a small church. Small patches of snow dotted the tree branches. They could see their own frosty breaths.

A child with a colorful scarf for adults wrapped around his neck came running toward them, and a woman who looked to be his nanny was chasing after him. The child’s breath was frosty white as well.

Dead branches crackled in the wind.

Kazuya was carrying a paper bag filled with a pile of fresh bread that Ms. Cecile had bought. The bag was so large that he couldn’t see where he was going.

“You sure bought a lot, Teach.”

Ms. Cecile’s cheeks turned red. “You guys were taking so long. I ran out of things to talk about. So while I was asking random questions and recipes…” She fixed her round glasses. “…my appetite grew stronger and stronger.”

“Can you even eat all of this?” Kazuya teased.

“It’s fine. I’ll give them to Sophie.”

“The dorm mother?”

Ms. Cecile’s face clouded. She kicked a pebble, and it rolled down the slope. “Sophie and I usually invite each other when going to Saubreme, but I couldn’t inform her this morning. It was an emergency. If she found out I went to Saubreme alone, she would get mad that I didn’t invite her.”

“About that…”

Ms. Cecile inclined her head. “She can be a bit selfish sometimes. She can just go by herself, but she gets lonely, so she always wants me to invite her. Then she acts all sassy.”

“The dorm mother is in Saubreme right now, though.”

“…What?!” Ms. Cecile’s face turned horrifying.

Kazuya poised himself to run. “Wh-Why are you looking at me like that? Why are you even mad?”

“Sophie’s here? Why?!”

“Um, let me think.” Kazuya tried to remember. “She read in the morning paper that there’s going to be a play at the Phantom. She’s loved Coco Rose since she was a kid. She even collected her photographs.”

Ms. Cecile sniffed audibly. “I forgot about that sissy side of hers.”

“Sissy?! That’s too far. Everyone’s free to have their own interests. It’s a human right.”

“So Sophie came to Saubreme alone, right?”

“Actually, I came here with her.”

“You did? Not with me, her best friend, but with a little pipsqueak who just arrived last year?!”

“Hey, that’s not nice! You shouldn’t be talking like that to your student.”

“She can be so mean. Why didn’t she invite me?!”

“Uh…”

Ms. Cecile struck a power stance. “How dare she!” she bellowed with the power of a seasoned opera singer.

Kazuya looked incredulous. “Mad ‘cause she wasn’t invited. Acting all sassy. Are you sure you’re not talking about yourself? Ouch!” He jumped. “You just kicked a student! That’s abuse! I’m filing a complaint!” He flared.

“Whatever. I hate you, and I hate Sophie!”

Kazuya suddenly smiled. “Are you jealous? I didn’t know women could get that jealous and angry even when they become adults. You learn something new every day.”

“Hmph.”

They arrived at the church.

It was a tiny building, with a spire pointing up into the winter sky. The round bell far above swayed in the wind.

The cemetery at the back was small, neat, and somewhat lovely. Confections and beautiful wreaths lay before the rows of crosses, small and tightly-packed, that marked the graves.

Kazuya, carrying the pile of bread, couldn’t move properly, so Ms. Cecile read the words on the gravestones instead, starting from one end to another.

“Nope. Not this one either.”

Leafless trees shook bleakly, creaked solemnly, like a voice from the distant past.

Graves of small children, the elderly, siblings. Large and grand crosses, pretty crosses, humble crosses. Everything was still in the wind that blew from yesteryear.

Kazuya suddenly realized something. “Teach, aren’t you afraid of cemeteries?” he asked. “Hello? Ms. Cecile?”

Ms. Cecile put her hand on her glasses and attempted to run away.

The wind whistled past.

She shook her head. Her shoulder-length hair, soft and wavy, slowly fell back to her face.

“I’m not afraid!” she declared. “I have to assist Victorique too!”

“Okay.”

“I know I’m not much of a help.”

“…”

“But I have a bad feeling about this case. All that complicated stuff is beyond me. I just want us to return to St. Marguerite Academy together. So I won’t be scared. I’ve given it some thought.” Her face took on a distant look. “What scares me more than ghosts, more than the paranormal, is losing someone I care about in the real world forever.”

An eerie sound came from the distance, like the howl of a beast. Was it the winter wind? It was faint.

A withered branch shook, and a frozen brown leaf fell between them, rustling.

“The departed lie here. The dead. And there are people who care about them. It’s rude to be scared of them.” Ms. Cecile’s brown hair stirred softly. “So let’s do our best, yeah?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Ms. Cecile gasped. “I found it!” She pointed at a cross.

Kazuya swiftly ran over with a pile of bread in his arms.

Right in the middle of the tiny cemetery stood a lonely gravestone. Even when she was no longer in this world, it looked as if she still loved singing and dancing in front of everyone. The cross was small and ordinary, but the confections and bottles of wine made the grave look vibrant.

Kazuya and Ms. Cecile read the markings on the gravestone.

“Here Lies Nicole Leroux, Lovely Little Gold-and-Blue Bird.”

Her year of birth and death was also engraved below it.

“1881-1900”

“What?!” Kazuya gasped. “Nicole Leroux, drawn by a newspaper ad, went to a job interview organized by the Science Academy in 1990, and then went missing. Sometime after that she passed away and was buried here. So she died in the year she went missing? In 1900?”

The wind rose. Bare branches creaked eerily, and the church bell tolled. Kazuya’s heart trembled. His mouth tightened, and his jet-black eyes narrowed, as though glaring at someone plotting in the darkness.

Another dead leaf fell, this time without a sound. The wind blew it away.