It was with the sounds of the cicadas, that Sestuna walked through the streets, looking for the rumored cafe with the ability to travel in time. She could hear the sounds of the first fireworks in the background, the children running around the streets.
She passed the Obon festival, before she reached the right block. The sounds of children playing made a tear fall from her eye. After crying herself to sleep the previous night, Sestuna thought there were no tears left.
She knew that her years of running around the streets had passed. Then, with the still-damp tissue up her sleeve, she dried her eyes and remembered that her children have so many playful years ahead: so many moments of joy to experience – so much life to live.
Before entering the Funiculi Funicula, she made sure to collect herself. She was not about to lose a chance to make a memory that would be with her for the remaining months of her life simply because she had not been collected. Then she opened the traditional wooden doors to the underground cafe.
She saw the small cafe that could not have comfortably fit more than a dozen people. The two people behind the bar had been talking to each other. Kohtake, a regular patron who first visited the cafe a year ago this week, looked up and welcomed her in.
It looked like a normal cafe, with people drinking coffee and reading books. One of the patrons was eating a parfait. The lights were dim, even though the cafe was in a basement. Many of the readers sat under one of the warm lights hanging from the ceiling so they could read. One reader stood out: they had a transparent glimmer unlike anyone Sestuna had seen.
She stood for a moment in wonderment. Is that…? She discreetly looked at the person’s feet, but they were there. For the moment she was afraid, glad that she was wrong.
Kohtake, a nurse who has a deep sense of looking out for people, noticed the direction of Sestuna’s gaze and said “Take a seat! That’s our most regular customer. She sits there for 23 hours a day, patiently reading titles ranging from Homer’s Odyssey to the latest manga. Her tastes in reading are admirable, really.”
Sestuna took her seat, puzzled a bit. This did not look like a bar that was open at all hours. She looked around, knowing that it would take some time for somebody to come and pick up her order. She looked at Kohtake: “Are you a regular here?”
“I come in from time to time, between shifts at the hospital. I tend to work long hours.” said Kohtake.
At that moment, Kazu had brought the jug of coffee to the table. “Do you want a coffee?”, Kazu said. Is this… the coffee that lets you travel back in time?, thought Sestuna. Sensing Sestuna’s hesitancy at answering her question, Kazu said “This is the coffee we brew for all guests. We have another brew that has more mystical properties that you may have heard.”
When Sestuna first heard the story of a cafe in which you could travel back in time, she thought that her partner had read it in manga. Hearing the word “mystical” lit a spark in Sestuna’s mind. Her confidence started to build. There was something different about this cafe.
Her throat still sore after crying the previous night, Sestuna let out the first words she had uttered in more than a day: Can I… go back in time?
Kazu filled her a cup of coffee, as she knew that this was going to be a long conversation. “Well… why would you want to go back in time?”
Sestuna noticed that while it was not a confirmation, it was also not a denial. The tone was also more monotone than normally at the non-committal confirmation that people give, when they want to deny something. There is still hope for this.
She gripped her cup of coffee, the finger tapping the side of it. The warmth of the cup was relaxing. Even in the middle of August, there was still a chill in the air that stuck with Sestuna as she walked into the cafe.
She then said: “Last week, they told me that I have less than a year left to leave.” She looked at the stream rising from the coffee. “I have children at home. The oldest started school this year. He was so proud, when they named him the caretaker of the classroom rabbit. And the youngest, she is….” her voice hiccupped.
She closed her eyes to collect herself. She promised herself that she would not cry here. “I was hoping to get back to the past. To see their father one last time. Hoping to get some strength, to be able to weather this.”
Hearing this story, Kohtake thought back to a year ago when she, too, visited the cafe on the cusp of tears. Kohtake wanted to visit her husband before his Alzheimer’s got worse; she wanted to experience his life and vigor and humor one last time.
“I know how you feel,” said Kohtake. “I traveled back in time to see my husband. Those few minutes I spent with him in the past encouraged me to keep going in a dark time. I will never forget his smile and how he always knew exactly what to say.”
“So it is possible to travel back in time?” That was the first active confirmation that the stories she had heard were true.
“There are rules to traveling in time.” Kazu said. “The first one is that you can only meet the people that have visited this cafe.”
“But… I am not sure he ever visited?” Sestuna said. “Can one still travel to the past, if that person was not there?” Kazu, the junior of the family, called over for Kei who was more familiar with the intricacies of the rules. “Kei”, exclaimed Kazu. She was loud enough that Kei could hear her from the kitchen.
Kei walked through the doorway to the kitchen. “Yes, Kazu?”, she said. “Can someone travel back in time even if they don’t know when, or if, someone has visited the cafe?” Kei pauses for a moment, thinking back to the rules taught to her by her mother.
“Yes,” confirmed Kei. “When you travel back in time, you need to think of the person you want to see again. The coffee will transport you back to a moment where the person you are thinking about came to the cafe. If they did not visit, the cafe is usually empty. It happens sometimes.”
Sestuna hoped that if her husband had told her the story, perhaps he had come at some point in the past. She clung on to that hope, as she uttered, softly, “I would like to go back in time.”
“There are more rules.”, said Kei. “One can not change the present, no matter what happens in another time.”
“I’m alright with this.” Setsuna said with conviction. She knew that she can not change the past and she did not expect that.
You can only travel back in time when the ghost sitting on the chair in the back stands up. The… what? She is harmless, except she doesn’t like to be moved. She gets up once a day to go to the bathroom, at which point the seat is free.
“She?”, thinks Sestuna. “Ghost?” She looked back at their most regular guest. But she had feet. Or was there somebody else?
“Kazu, what have I told you about assuming that the patrons know about the ghost?”, said Kei, who had been a waitress at the cafe for years. Kazu was in her teenage years, still learning how best to communicate the intricacies of traveling back in time.
Kohtake nodded. “It is the person you are thinking of.” He said to Sestuna.
Setsuna had questions. But more important than the existence and the shape of the ghost – since when ghosts had feet and were taking bathroom breaks – was traveling back in time. “When does she usually take her bathroom break?”
Just as she had asked the question, there was a slam of a book closing in the background. The ghost, whose ethereal hue illuminated the back table ever so slightly, stood up and moved away from the table toward the bathroom.
“There is one more rule,” said Kazu. “You can travel back in time for as long as the coffee that I pour for you stays warm. You must drink your coffee before it gets cold.”
Sestuna thought about all the rules for a moment. Most patrons leave after hearing the rules, especially after hearing you can only go back in time for the few minutes it takes for a coffee to go cold. But Sestuna was determined. She needed to go back.
“Can I sit there?”, said Sestuna as she arose from her seat at the bar. Kazu nodded and called for Kei to prepare the cup of coffee capable of sending Sestuna back to the past.
“I wish you luck.” said Kohtake, as Setsuna took the now empty seat.
Kazu had poured coffee into a cup that had been in the family for generations. From the coffee arose steam that slowly enveloped Sestuna. The world started to fade away. The people who were reading and chatting receded into the abyss.
Then, suddenly, Sestuna was back in the cafe, except the world around was different. All of the patrons had gone, except for one man sitting alone at the bar. A man that looked familiar.
He was leaning down, looking at the glass in his hands. The suit was the one that he always used to wear for work, his suitcase leaning on the stool he was seated on. In the dim light of the cafe, he looked like he had more grey hair than she remembered from their last meeting before the ship he was on disappeared in a heavy storm.
They never found his body. They never found any of the passengers’ bodies.
Even so, she raised her hands to her mouth, as the tears had fallen down her cheek. This time there were tears of happiness. She never thought she was going to see him again.
“Arashi”, whispered Sestuna. The cafe was so quiet that the patron at the bar could hear her. He turned around. “Sestuna, when did you get here? You should have come up to sit next to me! Wait, where did the ghost go?”
It was at that moment that Arashi started to notice the gravity of the moment. He was familiar with the tales of time travel from the cafe, and how there was always a ghost present unless someone was time traveling. He liked stories, especially ones with time travel.
“Sestuna, is everything okay?”, he said.
Sestuna tried her best to fight back every tear as Arashi walked over and sat at the table opposite her. The only words that came were “I’m afraid something happened.” Arashi, sensing her pain, tried his best to think of something soothing to say. “It’s okay”, he said. “Whatever it is, it’s okay.”
It was at this moment that the memories of joy from Sestuna’s time together with Arashi started to flood back to her mind: the moment they first met; the time when they went on their first date and Arashi accidentally called her by the wrong name; the time when they said that they wanted to have a child together. She summoned all of her strength. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Arashi, not knowing how to react, made his way to her and reached her cheek. “The time I am spending with you is one of the happiest ones so far. I might not always show it, but that is only because I am worried about the future.” He smiled, gripping her hand in his. “Thank you, for showing me that you will still be able to be happy in the future.”
Sestuna moved her hand, to grip it back, tapping their favorite tune. Like they used to do during university times. Their secret sign. “You would love them, you know.”
There was confusion for a second. Then his face cleared up. “Are they… healthy?” he asked. Their children. After all the problems conceiving, they are going to have children.
He rather concentrated on that, then on the notion that he might not see them grow up. Or worse, see them pass on before him.
“They are doing great,” she said. Our oldest started school this year and is already doing well. He has made lots of friends. He was excited by the backpack that your mother got him for going to school. He treasures that gift. I am so proud of him.
Our youngest said her first word: “kaa-kaa san.” I wish you could have been there.
“Whether or not I was there in person, I was there – and will always be there – in spirit”, he said. Tears started to fall from Sestuna’s eyes. Arashi, noticing the tears, wiped them away softly then took her other hand. Their two hands locked together, they sat and gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment, just like they did on their first date.
Arashi, sensing the coffee would get cold soon, wanted to know what he could do to help so that Sestuna could go back to the future with whatever advice she needed to continue. He asked, “What can I do for you?”, to which Sestuna replied “You have already done everything that I could have wanted.”
They sat in silence for a moment more, the occasional tear now running down Arashi’s eyes knowing that this would be the last time they would see each other. Then, Arashi said, softly, “it’s time to go back.” Sestuna cried. She didn’t want to go back. But she knew, deep down, that she had been able to have the moment she wanted: one last conversation with Arashi.
In order to urge her on, no matter how much he wanted to stay with her, he reminded her. “You really want to finish this coffee in time. You don’t want to become a ghost and haunt this cafe forever, right?”
Setsuna laughed. He always knew how to make her laugh. “Maybe this way, I will get to see my children grow.”
“Our children will never make it to school if you turn into a ghost!”, Arashi said. Then, she knew what his next words would be, before he said them: “Don’t chain our children with our past.”
She knew that. She took the cup and raised her up, drinking the majority of it. At the last moment, she looked up into his eyes and he gave her a small kiss. “Go on.” He said, similying as to make sure that it was his smile that she would see the last.
She drank the last sip of the coffee.
Sestuna could feel herself turning into vapor. Arashi started to fade into the abyss. The cafe started to disappear. In the moment before everything turned to vapor, Sestuna heard Arashi’s voice, now faint. “I love you.”
As the meaning of those words sunk in, Sestuna looked around and noticed the cafe was as it was ten minutes ago. Kei and Kazu were by the table at which Sestuna had been sitting. The lights were dim. The patrons were reading.
Sestuna stood up and made her way back to the bar. At the same time, the ghost, who had re-appeared from the bathroom, took the same chair in which she sits for 23 hours a day.
Kohtake, Kei, and Kazu were all curious about the moment, but knew from experience that the best thing to do was to say nothing. Traveling back in time is difficult, and everyone who goes to see someone in the past needs a different amount of time to process what happened.
“I got to see my husband again,” said Sestuna. “I… seeing him again, I could see the same traits in my oldest son and my late husband.” It was the first time she admitted out loud to anybody that he most likely already passed away. She took a breath. “I feel he is going to be alright.”
Sestuna looked at the young Kazu with sincerity. “Thank you”, said Sestuna, “for giving me one last moment with my husband.” She took one last sip of the coffee that had since turned cold that was sitting on the countertop, then went through the old wooden door at the front of Funiculi Funicula.
As she listened to the sound of the drums welcoming the spirits of the dead, she felt a relief. She was still worried about the future of her children. Yet seeing the care Arashi always showed her, the same care she saw in their children, she felt the first glimmer of hope since she got the news.
She still has some time left to share with her children all that Arashi had taught her: the importance of kindness, of having a good sense of humor, of caring, deeply, for all those around you.
As long as she imparts Arashi’s spirit in their children, Sestuna thought, they are going to be able to find their way in the world.
This fan fiction, inspired by the “Before the coffee gets cold” series authored by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, was co-written with Sara.
