text: Sakura waved her hand slowly in front of her face, admiring the rainbow colors that followed the shadows of her fingers. Dr. Sato said there might be halos around lights and blurred vision, but if anything Sakura felt her vision becoming sharper. Except the things she saw, no one else could see. She was playing with Legos when her dad had come into the living room, swaying with the smell of sake on his breath. He tripped over her castle and roaring with pain, picked a Lego up and threw it in her face. Her mom ran in and took her away and put some ice on her eye, rocking her until she stopped crying and fell asleep. The next day she saw a dragonfly fluttering in the corner of the kitchen, its body studded with green gems. “Mom, do you see that? Do you see the dragonfly?” Her mom looked at where she was pointing and asked, “What dragonfly?” There were visits to Dr. Sato and she took her medicine regularly but the visions continued, sidling their way into her house. The doctors were baffled and the small Tokyo apartment became filled with an aura of gloom. Sakura stopped pointing out the things she saw. At first they lasted just a second; diamond birds would splash against the periphery of her vision with the glory of the sun shining through a stained-glass window. She’d be walking home from school and then, stunned by the vision, momentarily forget where she was. A near fatal accident at a road crossing caused Sakura’s mother to talk to the principal at Saragaku Elementary and take her home for home-schooling. One night, Sakura heard her dad yelling, her mom yelling, and then something fell and shattered in high-pitched protest. Her mom started crying, a soft, shuddering sound. Sakura shut her ears and slowed her breathing, holding her breath until the glowing blue halos increased, dancing bugs that hovered across her dim bedroom. Underneath her tenth-story window a thousand street lights bustled like magic bees. Eventually they did become bees, flying in through the open screen to play on her bedspread. With them she played and forgot about the crying. The weeks passed from autumn into winter. Her dad drank more and cursed more, and her mom ate less and said less. One day as Sakura watched the rain become silver meteor showers streaking down the window, a large droplet pushed its way through the glass into the room, and bloomed into the shape of a thin silver mantis, standing tall as a needle on the hardwood floor. In his face Sakura could see her own black pupils fractured like the eyes of the magic bees. “Come with me,” he said. “I can take you to next Spring.” She took his arm, and together they stepped through the window into the meteor shower, the starlit sky dropping cherry blossoms that surrounded her in warm, fragrant pink. Below her children ran in colorful yukatas, lanterns illuminating the floral designs of the dresses. Sakura closed her insect eyes and breathed the flowers in deep. \ More writings at r/ladyandthepen.