Koyasan (9 page)
There were gasps galore as Koyasan crossed the bridge, and cries of outright terror when she walked into the forest and vanished from sight. Koyasan only giggled at the villagers’ reactions, then made her way to the top of the hill, where the spirits — her new friends — were waiting.
That first meeting was a bit awkward, the way encounters often are when strangers are getting to know each other. The spirits and Koyasan were overly polite, keeping conversation to matters such as livestock and the weather.
That changed over the coming weeks and months. As they came to know each other, they relaxed and opened up. Soon they were talking about all manner of things, laughing and joking, playing games and sharing secrets. Quite a few of the spirits had been children when they died, and some of these became the best friends Koyasan ever had. Others, it turned out, were distant ancestors of hers and they rejoiced when they discovered their shared bloodlines.
For the first couple of months, only Koyasan went into the graveyard at night. The other villagers were wary of her, believing her to be some kind of holy person, with a great spiritual gift. Koyasan could have let them go on believing that, and acted like a lady of mysterious power, but she wasn’t interested in becoming a living icon. She kept telling people that she was an ordinary girl and the spirits were normal people — only dead.
Eventually, driven by curiosity, a few of the other children snuck into the graveyard after Koyasan one night, unknown to their parents. The spirits were delighted and made the new visitors welcome, treating them to a spectacular light display, and telling them gory, grisly stories from the past, which the children happily lapped up.
Over time, more of the children, cautiously followed by adults, ventured into the graveyard, and soon the visits became just another part of their lives. They took it in turns to go and keep the spirits amused, bring them up to date with recent political events, teach them the rules of new and complicated games. They sang to the spirits and told them stories, and in return the spirits taught them old songs and tales which had been forgotten by the living over the centuries.
Once a month they held a lavish festival, to celebrate the reunion of the living and the dead. They quickly became the most anticipated festivals of the year. Everyone dressed up in their finest clothes and costumes, and the spirits would twist themselves into the most fanciful shapes they could conjure up. The whole village would spend the night drinking, feasting, singing and parading through the graveyard, only returning to their homes at dawn.
And not only the villagers. As word spread, people came from provinces and countries far, far away to honour and chat with their dead ancestors, to learn the secrets of a time they had never known, and to unwind and have fun — nobody could ever accuse the dead of not knowing how to party!
And so the years passed. Koyasan and Maiko grew into beautiful, strong women. Since she was the eldest, Koyasan was the first to marry and have a child, a sweet little girl called Tomoko. On the night she was born, Koyasan took her into the graveyard to show to the spirits — they loved the fresh innocence of newborn babies.
Although the spirits welcomed all of their visitors, and forged close links with many of them, they shared a special bond with Koyasan. They never forgot that she had been the one to bring the living and dead back together, and her visits were looked forward to more than any other’s.
When, after many long and happy years, Koyasan felt the fires of her soul burning down, she asked to spend one last night in the graveyard, alone with the spirits. Nobody objected and all other visits to the graveyard were postponed.
Tomoko — now a grown woman with children of her own — carried her mother into the graveyard and up the hill. She left her in the domed clearing, and although she wept a bit when she said goodbye, she wasn’t overly upset. Very few of the living feared dying any more. They knew that if their souls didn’t pass on to somewhere better, they could stay here, among their bodyless friends and close to their living relatives, where they need never feel alone or abandoned.
Koyasan smiled as the sun set and the spirits came out. “Hello, old friends,” she murmured. “I’ve come for one last night.”
“It’ssss about time you got rid of that old sssshell of a body,” the spirits laughed, circling round her, pressing up close to keep her warm.
“Do you think my soul will pass on in the morning or will it remain here?” Koyasan asked. “Doessss it matter?” the spirits replied.
Koyasan laughed. “No, not really.”
Rising with difficulty, she danced round the dome with the spirits, a stiff, slow dance to begin with. But after a few circuits, she felt a weight lift, and suddenly she was dancing freely and gracefully, making the most delightful and intricate moves of her life.
“There,” the spirits chuckled. “You never knew you could dancccce sssso well, did you?”
“No,” Koyasan said, pirouetting high above the ground. “Can all the dead danccce like thisss?”
“If they wissssh,” the spirits said. “There are no obsssstacles when you’re dead. You can do almosssst anything you want.”
“I think I’m going to enjoy death,” Koyasan grinned, sweeping away from her abandoned body, gliding through the trees and down the hill.
She spent the rest of the night dancing around the tombs and headstones of the ancient, joyous graveyard with her ghostly friends, relishing death as she had loved life, realising now that they were, in reality, one and the same. She never once worried or thought about what would happen in the morning. After all, only a fool frets about the light of the dawn when there are all the glorious shadows of the night to experience and cherish.
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