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All Jamaicans who are not U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents need a visa to enter the U.S. Nonimmigrant visas (NIVs) are intended for those who plan to visit the U.S. for business or pleasure; students or exchange visitors embarking on study or cultural work programs in the U.S.; people who are transiting through the U.S. to other onward destinations, seasonal temporary workers or workers who have been hired by U.S. companies for longer periods of time; visitors on diplomatic, official or U.N. business; journalists who are providing media coverage of time-specific events; and others who are travelling to the U.S. for limited time periods.
Applicants under the age of 6 and over the age of 79 do not need to appear in person unless requested. All other applicants must appear in person. This requirement to appear personally applies both to first-time applicants and to those seeking to renew previously issued visas.
Where and When do I Apply?
Embassy of the United States of America
142 Old Hope Road, Kingston 6
Office Hours: Monday - Friday, 7.30 am - 4.00 p.m. except for holidays
NIV Appointments and Visa Renewals: 7.30 a.m. -11.30 a.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 1.30 p.m. - 2.30 p.m. Monday and Friday
Electronic items, Including cell phones, cameras, beepers and pagers, are prohibited from the Embassy compound and should be secured elsewhere before entering.
Some NIV renewal applicants may be eligible for our walk-In visa reissuance process, Mondays, from 11.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. Please see our press release under "What's New" to see If you qualify.
E-mail: email@example.com
How do I make an Appointment?
All applicants must schedule their own appointments at: http://evisaforms.state.gov/SchedulingSystem.asp
This is an electronic calendar that will show available dates and times. If at first there are no appointments available, check the website again later, as appointments frequently become available over the course of the week.
What about Temporary Workers and Performers?
For information about the application procedures for H-2B temporary worker visas and 0 and P class performance visas, you must e-mail the Consular Section at firstname.lastname@example.com prior to coming in for an interview to ensure a smooth process.
What if I need an Emergency Appointment?
Applicants need to apply for an emergency appointment via e-mail. The Embassy does not process emergency appointment requests via fax, letter, mail, telephone or personal appearance.
What constitutes an Emergency?
Only these things qualify as emergencies:
- Illness or death of an immediate family member {immediate family members are the applicant's mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, son and/or daughter).
- Emergency medical treatment which includes any persons needing to travel for support (such as a parent caring for an 111 child).
- Emergent business travel (such as HIB skilled workers, or CI/D crew members needing to embark from a Jamaican port immediately).
- Student or exchange visitors needing to report to school/programs on short notice.
All applicants requesting an emergency appointment must first fill out an electronic visa application form and pay the requisite fee at Paymaster. Applicants who believe they qualify for an emergency appointment must then e-mail the Visa Unit at: firstname.lastname@example.com. The e-mail must contain the following information:
- Applicant's name
- Applicant's date of birth
- Applicant's phone number
- Applicant's reason for requesting an emergency appointment
- Applicant's Paymaster receipt number
- Date applicant needs to travel
All applications for an emergency appointment will be reviewed within 5 working days from the day they are received and the applicants will be informed whether they have been given an emergency appointment. If you do not receive a response after 5 working days, your request has not been granted.
If you are granted an emergency appointment under the above guidelines, you will be given additional information on what to bring to your interview and the date and time of your emergency appointment. The firstname.lastname@example.com e-mail is for emergency appointment requests only. Other inquires will not be answered, and should be directed to firstname.lastname@example.com.
What are the fees involved?
A visa application fee of $160 U.S. dollars must be paid (in Jamaican dollars at the exchange rate set by the U.S. Embassy) for the NIV interview. For Jamaican and Caymanian residents, you may pay this fee through your local Paymaster Jamaica Limited branch. For residents of other nations, you may pay this fee at the cashier's window in the U.S. Embassy on the morning of your appointment.
What Forms do I need?
The U.S. Department of State now requires all applicants to fill out an electronic version of DS-156 AND DS-157. Handwritten forms are no longer accepted.
The DS-156 form can be found on-line at: http://evisaforms.state.gov/
The DS-157 form can be found on-line at: http://foia.state.gov/FORMS/visa/ds0157.pdf
Finally, student visa and exchange visa applicants also must fill out form DS-158 in addition to the DS-156 and DS-157 forms, This form can be found on-line at: http://fola.state.gov/FORMS/vlsa/ds0158.pdf
Each electronic form will have a barcode used for scanning the application when you appear a the Embassy for your appointment. Unacceptable barcodes (those that are not read by our scanner due to poor printer quality and other factors) will not be accepted and applicants will have to exit the Embassy and return with a readable barcode.
How Long is the wait?
The average wait time between when an appointment was scheduled until the time of the scheduled visa interview frequently varies. Additionally, appointments often become available over the course of each week as appointments are added or cancelled. The following website contains real-time information on visa appointment wait times: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/general/wait-times.html/
Please note: the listed processing times are averages. The timing will vary based on the individual circumstances of each case. Many additional factors, such as the need for special clearances, incomplete applications, and fraud investigation may influence the processing of individual cases. Please plan accordingly to avoid delays.
How long is the NIV Processing Time?
Unless otherwise directed, approved nonimmigrant visas will be delivered directly to applicants through a professional courier service. At the time applicants are approved for an NIV, they will immediately proceed to the courier company, which is located just a three minute walk from the Embassy. Each visa recipient will pay a fee to the company and will arrange all delivery details with company representatives. The courier company will deliver the passport with visa affixed approximately four (4) business days after the date of the Embassy interview.
For certain emergencies, expedited processing may be available. Any expedited processing requests will be reviewed by the Consular Officer at the time of your interview. Visa renewals do not qualify for expedited processing.
For Caymanian residents two different options are available. You may pick up your visa at the Embassy the second business day after your interview at 1.30 p.m. or you may return to the Cayman Islands with your passport and a fetter from the Consular Officer and mail your passport back to the Embassy. Specific instructions will be discussed by the Consular Officer at the time of your interview.
What Documentation do I need for the Interview?
- A valid Passport
- All previous U.S. visas in old passports (even if expired)
- Completed and signed visa application forms:
- DS-156 http://evisaforms.state.gov/
- DS-157 http://foia.state.gov/FORMS/visa/ds0157.pdf
- DS-158http://foia.state.gov/FORMS/visa/ds015S.pdf (for students and exchange visitors only)
- One passport-sized photo (2" by 2" in a dark-coloured shirt on white or off-white background taken within last 6 months)
- Paymaster 'tee paid" receipts, which are numbered "1" and "2", For fees paid beginning 01 January 2008, the fee is $131.
- If applying for a minor under 18, an original copy of the child's birth certificate from the Registrar General's Department on security paper (NOTE - Children under the age of 6 are not required to appear in person for visa interviews. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian when being interviewed for the visa. Parents or legal guardians must also present their own passport or identification to the interviewing officer. Additionally, legal guardians must present original, official court documentation that they have been appointed guardian of the minor).
Additional documentation is required from applicants for student visas and temporary work visas, as well as some other categories, Click on the sections listed under "Other Helpful Links" below for more detailed information.
Other Helpful Links
Visa Forms at http://evisaforms.state.gov/and http://travel.state.gov/visa/fivi/forms/forrnsJ342.htnil
Different visa Types at http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1162.html
U.S. State Department Travel Website (additional visa Information): http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/visa_1750.html
U.S. Department of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home3.jsp
Office Hours: Monday - Friday 7.30 a.m.-4.00 p.m., except for holidays.
Changes To U.S. Non-Immigrant Visa Application Service - November 2008
National Commercial Bank will begin collecting the visa application fee of US$131 instead of Paymaster.
The US-based Computer Sciences Corporation will begin providing visa information and scheduling appointments through a pay-for-service telephone call centre staffed by operators. The Corporation will also open a self-service website option at a slightly lower cost.
DHL will begin the Embassy's official courier company to deliver passports with visas to all successful applicants. DHL will have a counter in the Consular Section waiting room where applicants will make arrangements for delivery of their passports.
How much will it cost?
The cost for the call centre option will be US$13 to obtain visa information and schedule an appointment for a non-immigrant visa interview. The call centre can be reached by dialling 1 -800-572-7780, Monday through Friday, 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. local time, except on Jamaican and U.S. holidays. For the US$13, the caller will receive eight minutes of call time with an agent. *-- Over the phone, the fee is payable by Visa or MasterCard. Cash payments for a Pin allowing eight minutes with an agent can be made at any NCB branch. The Pin will be activated the next business day.
The fee covers an eight-minute conversation and would allow an applicant to reschedule the appointment twice, if necessary.
The Embassy's self-service website address is: www.usvisa-Jamaica.com, at which applicants are to schedule a visa appointment or obtain information on how to apply for a visa. There is a US$10 charge for the service, payable by Visa or MasterCard through the website.
To pay for the same service by cash, a personal identification number (Pin) can be purchased at any National Commercial Bank branch using Jamaican dollars. The Pin is then entered at the website. This service is available 24 hours a day/seven days a week.
DHL will deliver passports to applicants' addresses for US$8.50. Only one fee will be charged per family of up to five members.


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Advisory Board
Our Advisory Board members are among the most prominent leaders in the field Israel study and academics.
Rabbi Ellenson is Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and Visiting Professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. Chancellor-Emeritus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, he served as President of HUC-JIR from 2001-2013.
For two decades, Ellenson served as head of the Louchheim School of Judaic Studies, the undergraduate program in Jewish Studies at the University of Southern California conducted under the aegis of HUC-JIR. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at both UCLA and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and he has been a Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem as well as a Fellow and Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Studies and a Lady Davis Visiting Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In the spring of 2015, New York University appointed him as Distinguished Visiting Professor and he taught there in the Skirball Department of Judaic Studies.
A scholar of modern Jewish thought and history, Ellenson is recognized for his writings and publications in these fields. He has written extensively on the origins and development of Orthodox Judaism in Germany during the Nineteenth Century; Orthodox legal writings on conversion in Israel, North America, and Europe during the modern era; the relationship between religion and state in Israel; the history of modern Jewish religious movements; and American Jewish life.
Ellenson has authored or edited seven books and over 300 articles and reviews in a wide variety of academic and popular journals and newspapers. His book, After Emancipation: Jewish Religious Responses to Modernity, won the National Jewish Book Council's award as outstanding book in Jewish Thought in 2005. His work, Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer and the Creation of a Modern Jewish Orthodoxy, published by the University of Alabama Press in 1990, as well as his book, Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policymaking in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Orthodox Responsa, co-authored with Daniel Gordis and published by Stanford University Press in 2012, were also both nominated for book awards by the National Jewish Book Council. His newest book, Jewish Meaning in a World of Choice, appeared in September of 2014 in the University of Nebraska/Jewish Publication Society's Scholar of Distinction Series. His academic colleagues honored him with the publication of Between Jewish Tradition and Modernity: Rethinking an Old Opposition – Essays in Honor of David Ellenson, edited by Michael A. Meyer of HUC-JIR and David N. Myers of UCLA, in 2014
Ellenson received his PhD from Columbia University in 1981 and was ordained as a rabbi by HUC-JIR in 1977. Previously, he received his AB degree the College of William and Mary in 1969 and the University of Virginia granted him an MA in Religious Studies in 1972.
Professor Feldman serves as an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute in London. From 1997-2005, he was Head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University and from 2001-2003, he served as a member of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.
Feldman is the author of numerous publications. These include six books: Israeli Nuclear Deterrence: A Strategy for the 1980s (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982); The Future of U.S.-Israel Strategic Cooperation (Washington D.C.: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1996); Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control in the Middle East (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997); Bridging the Gap: A Future Security Architecture for the Middle East (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997 – with Abdullah Toukan (Jordan)); and, Track-II Diplomacy: Lessons from the Middle East (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003 – with Hussein Agha, Ahmad Khalidi, and Zeev Schiff). His latest book (with Abdel Monem Said Aly and Khalil Shikaki), Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East, was published in December 2013 by Palgrave Macmillan.
Dr. Fish is associate director of the Schusterman Center. She completed her doctoral degree in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department at Brandeis University in 2013. Her dissertation, "Configurations of Bi-nationalism: The Transformation of Bi-nationalism in Palestine/Israel 1920's-Present," examines the history of the idea of bi-nationalism and alternative visions for constructing the State of Israel. Fish has worked as an educator and consultant in various capacities in the Jewish community and higher education, teaching about Zionism and Israeli history at Harvard University, Brandeis University, UMass Amherst and the Me'ah Adult Jewish Education program. At Brandeis, she teaches the Myra Kraft seminar on Israel at the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. In 2015, she held the Rohr Visiting Professorship at Harvard University, where she lectured on modern Israel and received the Derek Bok Certificate of Teaching Excellence.
Dr. Hassenfeld is Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning at Gann Academy. Among other responsibilities, he is helping Gann redesign its approach to teaching and learning about Israel with a focus on articulating and evaluating outcomes. He completed his doctoral degree in Education and Jewish studies at Stanford University in 2016. His dissertation, "Narratives of Collective Belonging: American Jews and the History of Israel," examines the ways American Jews present and past have told the story of the state of Israel. Hassenfeld has worked as a high school teacher and adult educator in a variety of settings in the Jewish community and beyond.
Professor Levisohn came to Brandeis in 2002, and became director of the Mandel Center in 2014. A philosopher of education, his scholarship has focused on three broad areas: the teaching and learning of classical Jewish texts, i.e., Bible and rabbinic literature; the teaching and learning of history; and critically investigating and reconceptualizing the purposes of Jewish education.
His recent work includes two book projects: Turn It and Turn It Again: Studies in the Teaching and Learning of Classical Jewish Texts (Jon A. Levisohn and Susan P. Fendrick, eds., Academic Studies Press, 2013), and The Interpretive Virtues: A Philosophical Enquiry into the Teaching and Learning of Historical Narratives (forthcoming from Wiley-Blackwell). He is also the co-editor of two forthcoming volumes, Advancing the Learning Agenda in Jewish Education (with Jeffrey S. Kress) and Beyond Jewish Identity (with Ari Y. Kelman). An alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, he holds degrees from Harvard and Stanford in Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Philosophy of Education.
Beyond Brandeis, Levisohn consults at and teaches for Jewish educational institutions, drawing on his academic expertise, twenty years of experience as a Jewish educator, and his leadership roles in several Jewish organizations.
Dubbed by the Forward newspaper in 2004 as one of America's fifty most influential American Jews, Dr. Sarna was Chief Historian for the 350th commemoration of the American Jewish community and is recognized as a leading commentator on American Jewish history, religion, and life. In 2009, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Born in Philadelphia, and raised in New York and Boston, Sarna attended Brandeis University, the Boston Hebrew College, Merkaz HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, and Yale University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1979.
From 1979-1990, Sarna taught at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he rose to become Professor of American Jewish history and Director of the Center for the Study of the American Jewish Experience. He has also taught at Harvard, Yale, the University of Cincinnati, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Sarna came back to Brandeis in 1990 to teach American Jewish history in its Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies. He chaired that department three different times, and now chairs Brandeis' Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. He also chairs the Academic Advisory and Editorial Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.
Sarna has written, edited, or co-edited more than thirty books, including Lincoln and the Jews: A History (with Benjamin Shapell) and When General Grant Expelled the Jews. He is best known for the acclaimed American Judaism: A History. Winner of the Jewish Book Council's "Jewish Book of the Year Award" in 2004, it has been praised as being "the single best description of American Judaism during its 350 years on American soil."
Professor Saxe is Director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University. Saxe is a social psychologist and methodologist concerned with the application of social science to social policy issues. His present focus is on religious and ethnic identity and specifically addresses issues relevant to the Jewish community.
Saxe's current research on the Jewish community involves socio-demographic studies of American Jewry and a program of research on Jewish education and its relationship to the Jewish engagement. He is the principal investigator of a longitudinal study of Birthright Israel, a large-scale educational program. Saxe is an author and/or editor of nearly 300 publications, including a 2008 book, Ten Days of Birthright Israel: A Journey in Young Adult Identity (with Barry Chazan).
He has been a Science Fellow for the United States Congress and was a Fulbright Professor at Haifa University, Israel. In 1989, he was awarded the American Psychological Association's prize for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, Early Career. In 2012, he received the Marshall Sklare Award for lifetime contributions to the social scientific study of Jewry. He teaches in the Hornstein Program for Jewish Professional Leadership and at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
Dr. Szobel received her doctorate in January 2008 from the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. Her dissertation won the 2007 Ben Halpern Award for Best Dissertation from the Association for Israel Studies. Her scholarly interests encompass a broad range of issues regarding identity with a particular sensitivity to cultural, political, and social processes of inclusion and exclusion. In her teaching, she underlines challenges posed by feminism, disability, war and peace, the Holocaust, family structure, economic and cultural dislocation as compelling entry points for students to engage Israeli society and culture. She reaches into personal and collective traumatic experiences which have left an indelible mark on Israeli culture as a way to open up and recast Israel's conflicted history. She adroitly draws upon an impressive variety of conceptual paradigms: psychoanalytic and feminist theories of trauma, disability studies, witness theory, memory studies and film theories.
All of these tools are brought to bear in her book A Poetics of Trauma: The Work of Dahlia Ravikovitch (Brandeis University Press, 2013). This book is the first comprehensive examination of the entire oeuvre of Israel Prize Laureate Dahlia Ravikovitch.
Szobel is currently working on a book project, Flesh of My Flesh: Sexual Violence in Hebrew Literature. The book explores the literary history of sexual assault in Hebrew literature, and situates the rhetorics of sexual aggression within the context of gender, ethnicity, race, disability, Zionism and national identity.
Dr. Troen has served as dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion University in Israel and as director of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute and Archives in Sede Boker.
Troen has authored or edited numerous books in American, Jewish and Israeli history. He is also the founding editor of Israel Studies (Indiana University Press), the leading journal in this new field, and co-edits the Schusterman Series in Israel Studies. His publications include Jewish Centers and Peripheries: European Jewry Between America and Israel 50 Years after World War II (1998); The Americanization of Israel (2001), with Glenda Abramson; Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel and America (2001), with Deborah Dash-Moore; Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement (2003); with Jacob Lassner, Jews and Muslims in the Arab World; Haunted by Pasts Real and Imagined (2007); and most recently, with Maoz Azaryahu, Tel-Aviv, the First Century: Visions, Designs, Actualities (2012) and with Donna Divine, Zionism in the Twenty-First Century (2014).
He has lectured widely including Tufts, Brown, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Pennsylvania, Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati), Notre Dame, Northwestern, Chicago, Lake Forest, Michigan State, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Virginia Commonwealth, Emory, Florida Atlantic, Tulane, Texas and UCLA in the U.S.; Torino, Thessaloniki, Osnabrück, Duisburg, Amsterdam and Oxford in Europe; Witswatersrand, Pretoria and Cape Town in South Africa; Sydney and Canberra in Australia; Hong Kong, Peking and Renmin (Beijing) in China; Bilkent and Koc in Turkey.
He has also been scholar-in-residence at such communal settings as the B'nai B'rith Scholar in Seattle, numerous congregations such as the Hillcrest Community Center in New York, the Hampstead Synagogue on Long Island, Mishkan Tefillah in Boston, Solellim in Chicago as well as for the GA and federations.
Troen was born in Boston, educated at the Latin School, Hebrew College and Brandeis before taking his PhD at the University of Chicago. He was at Missouri and Princeton before making aliyah in 1975. He is married to Dr. Carol Troen. They have six children and make their permanent home in Omer, a community outside Beer-Sheva.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sacramento Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein is in town to help out the Jr. NBA Philippines National Training Camp that will be conducted on May 19 and 20.
The camp, which features 75 of the top young talent of the country aged 10-14, aims to identify the Jr. NBA Philippines All-Stars who will travel to Shanghai for the NBA China Games later this year.
And for the third-year Kings big man, he is excited to see the passion of the Filipino fans.
"I heard that the fan base out here is ridiculous so I'm excited to see that especially coming from Kentucky and the Kings, they're notorious for their fans," Cauley-Stein said in an interview on Tuesday at Dusit Thani hotel in Makati. "So I'm excited to see how crazy the fans here are."
Cauley-Stein is joined by WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes as they look for the top eight boys and eight girls that will represent the Philippines in Shanghai.
"I think the Jr. NBA just puts on such a good [program] like the way they run things is so well together," shared the 24-year-old center. "Like a kid cannot have a bad experience."
"With that being said, the learning aspect, the respect, all that is good to me because it's bigger than hoops. You don't just use those things for hoop. You use them for every day life," he added on the impact of Jr. NBA.
Cauley-Stein's passion for reaching out to the youth and exploring things beyond basketball is exemplified with his relationship with fellow Kentucky Wildcat Karl-Anthony Towns. He revealed that he was just talking to the Minnesota Timberwolves star early in the postseason and their bond goes beyond the basketball court.
"I was talking to him like second or third game in the playoffs. But me and him kind of have a different brotherhood. We don't really talk about hoops," he shared as they focused on each other's well-being and families instead of just basketball.
Aside from Towns, Cauley-Stein actually has a couple of fellow Kentucky Wildcats around the league namely Trey Lyles, Andrew Harrison, Julius Randle, and Devin Booker. With a number of his peers scattered on different teams, is there a possibility of a Kentucky reunion?
"That's crazy. I literally just asked Booker about three weeks ago. Like 'I think we should get a super team together,'" he said chuckling about the idea of his former teammates joining together with his former teammates.
Jokes aside, Cauley-Stein is extremely happy to be in the country and help out the Filipino youth.
The Jr. NBA National Training Camp will be held on May 19 at the Don Bosco Technical Institute and May 20 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena Music Hall.


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About Us
Our Pastor
Rev. Dr. Jim Earley
An Introduction to Pastor Jim and his wife, Phyllis:
The Rev. Dr. Jim Earley was appointed to serve Tabernacle UMC at Annual Conference this June. Our new pastor will be coming to us from Walker Chapel in Arlington, Virginia, where he has been since October 2006. He has served as a United Methodist pastor since being appointed to Good Hope UMC in Chesapeake, Virginia, in 1974. He has been in ministry in rural, small town, suburban, and inner city congregations in Tidewater and Southside Virginia, Northern Virginia, and western Georgia.
Jim is a native of Norfolk, Virginia, and graduated from Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake. He received a baccalaureate degree in Religious Studies from Virginia Wesleyan College, and a Master of Divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He earned a Doctorate of Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., in 1995. He and his high school sweetheart, Phyllis, were married in 1975. They have an adult daughter, Alacia (who will be married in June 2016), and an adult son, Nathan (who teaches elementary school music in St. Mary's County, MD); both were born in Portsmouth in the early 1980's. They also have a Golden Retriever, Goldie.
Jim's wife of 40 years, the Rev. Phyllis R. Earley, also has a BA from Virginia Wesleyan, and a Master of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary. Phyllis has served as the pastor of several United Methodist congregations in Virginia, including Trinity UMC in Alexandria, Plantersville, Bruen Chapel, St. Marks, Trinity (McLean), and Epworth in downtown Norfolk. She is presently on medical leave, and that status will continue until at least June 2016.
Their daughter, Alacia, holds baccalaureate's and master's degrees in Health and Human Services, and works with Cornerstone (previously Reston Interfaith) in the area of transitional housing for those in need. Nathan, with similar degrees in Music and Education, teaches elementary school music in the St. Mary's County, MD, public schools.
Pastor Jim enjoys a wide variety of interests, including woodworking projects, home repair, music, and travel.... both as a missionary and for personal relaxation. He and Phyllis have been most often to southern Mexico, as well as to Paris and London, but their favorite places include the Outer Banks and the mountain towns of North Carolina. He also likes TV's NCIS (especially trying to spot the bad guy in the first 3-5 minutes), a range of online authors, and live music presentations. Jim has played the autoharp and mountain dulcimer since the early 1990's.... mostly for his own amazement!
Pastor Jim grew up in a faith-filled household, and was formed by their life in a small Presbyterian--and then United Methodist congregations. He carries from those years a tenacious personal faith, a love of mission, belief in the church as the Body of Christ, and a great love for service to all of God's people, both inside and outside the church. He has served on several United Methodist Volunteer in Mission teams to central Mexico, eastern North Carolina, Honduras, and Ghana, in western Africa. He has also been a part of the diverse work of the church in district and conference ministries, though his first love remains in the local congregation. He enjoys preaching and leading worship, as well as being among God's people in a range of settings.
Church History
Tabernacle has a wonderful and exciting past. Below are just few of the major events shaping it. If you would like to know more, please contact us and we will be more than happy to talk to you about our church.
On March 20, 1817 Tabernacle Church was formally established. It was called the Methodist Episcopal Church, and changed to Tabernacle Methodist Episcopal a few years later.
In 1855 The church was sold and another building was constructed.
The church building was destroyed by a fire in 1883.
On August 24, 1884 a new church building was dedicated on the present site. The cost was $2,000.
In 1902 Tabernacle and Trinity become the East York Circuit.
Additions were built in 1912 and 1927.
Tabernacle became a station church in 1950 with its own full-time pastor.
In 1956 Tabernacle built a separate education building.
On June 4, 1972 Tabernacle's fourth and present building was dedicated which brought all educational, office and worship facilities under a single roof.
A new education wing was consecrated on November 12, 1991.
Hurricane Isabel struck the church causing massive flooding and damage to the sanctuary, the chapel, music rooms, some classrooms and the offices on September 18, 2003.
On February 27, 2005 there was a groundbreaking ceremony for a building project. Construction started on the Fellowship Hall and kitchen the next day. On November 20 that year the new kitchen and Social Hall were dedicated.
Office Hours
Monday – Thursday
9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Lunch hour may vary


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f you could see Nebraska through my eyes, you would see St. Benedict Center, an oasis of peace, 4 Miles North of Schuyler. We, Missionary Benedictine monks share our hospitality and spirituality in this ecumenical retreat and non-profit conference center; we have done so for 20 years. The peaceful setting with reflective pond and sculpture gardens allows visitors to relax and experience personal growth, spiritual guidance and healing. Lodging is available. The center sponsors a variety of retreats and Schuyler community events, such as the annual Christmas Craft Show. Theatrical productions take place regularly, as well as musical performances. The center also provides room, board, and conference facilities for a wide variety of groups, ranging from churches of various denominations to professional groups, quilters and businesses. Find out how first-time guests can receive a complimentary one night's lodging. The Center is an architectural masterpiece, decorated with unique artwork from around the world. The large gift shop offers books, religious gifts and statues, and much more. Across the road, our monastery is located. There we monks pray, work and live; currently there are seven of us. It also houses our second largest ministry, the Benedictine Mission House, which serves as development and education office for the Missionary Benedictines of St. Ottilien and raises funds for numerous ministries and social projects around the world. Tours are offered by appointment.
When you visit our new website, www.christthekingpriory.com, don't miss the videos which introduce you to our lives as monks!
My name is Fr. Thomas and this is St. Benedict Center and the Benedictine Mission House through my eyes.


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Wicker Furniture – Light And Sturdy Furniture For Your House And Gardens
Are you looking for magnificent outdoor furniture? Want them to be durable? Do you want to save your money? Do you want light furniture that you can basically move around? The answer to all your questions is wicker furniture. Classy and durable pieces of work add sophistication to the exterior of your house at low cost.
Wicker is usually hand – made stuff made of a number of materials such as fibers of plant or synthetic origin which are woven together. The wicker goods are very classy and were even used by the Egyptian pharaohs. They are hand-made hence unique in nature. Magnificent and lavish are the words which properly describe the wicker outdoor furniture. Apart from being extremely light, the woven nature of this furniture makes them extremely hardy. A few big chairs surrounded by a wicker table will give your patio a completely classy and new look. In modern days the wicker tables stands are topped with fiber glass which makes it look chic. You can add a zing of color to the chairs by adding cushions which will step up the comfort level too. Each of this furniture is made meticulously so as to meet the modern day decor. They are highly budget-friendly and hence it won't even cost you a fortune to revamp your house. However you may avoid the branded products to cut down the cost even more. You may also consider utilizing the simple wicker furniture as the complicated ones are costlier and often less hardy.
The summer and spring are perfect times to go for outdoor trip, soaking up the sun, having outdoor lunches and lazing around in the afternoon sun. The wicker outdoor furniture helps you enjoying the outdoor to the fullest. People often prefer outdoor wicker furniture primarily because they are very easy to clean compared to their plastic or leather counterparts. Unlike the wooden furniture, the wicker ones are resistance to insect attacks and can withstand heat, snow and rain equally. Another facility of this furniture is they are extremely light weight. So you can move these around as you please to restyle your outdoor whenever you please. They are made of inter-latticed bamboo or rattan which makes them very sturdy. They are cheap and hence won't cost you a fortune either.
Outdoor furniture has gained huge popularity over the years. They add a zing to your garden and are the perfect comfort factors which allow you to enjoy nature in a classy way. You can get your outdoor furniture custom made according to your taste. Online availability of the stores has eased the job of choosing even more. The outdoor furniture mainly consists of chairs and tables. The outdoor table chair in Singapore is made keeping the modern requirements yet there is an ethnic touch to it. .
Outdoor furniture are absolutely handy when you want to get a taste of Mother Nature and a break from the indoor regularities.


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Collusion with Russia
November 9, 2017
Filed under News
According to the New York Times, new leads are being pursued in the Trump-Russia investigation. On Monday, the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, announced charges against three of the Trump Campaigns advisers and found the most interesting and promising evidence throughout the entire investigation. Paul Manafort, the former Trump Campaign manager, has had accusations against him for years. Recently, he surrendered to the FBI and pleaded not guilty to charges that he laundered millions of dollars through overseas shell companies that he used to buy luxury items, including cars, real estate, antique rugs, and expensive clothing. Rick Gates, Mr. Manafort's long-time associate was also charged and turned himself in to the FBI. Hours later, George Papadopoulos, a policy adviser to the Trump campaign, plead guilty to lying to the FBI, an obstruction of justice, about cooperating with Russian investigators. He had agreed to cooperate with investigators in exchange for the dropping of the obstruction charge. Russian intelligence representatives offered to meet with Trump officials in an exchange of adverse information about the presidential nominee of the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton. According to the Washington Times, an operative connected with Russia offered "thousands of emails" regarding Clinton and her campaign.
Special counsel, Robert Mueller
Head of the Trump-Russia Investigation
Mr. Papadopoulos has been working for months with the Mueller investigation and secretly pleaded guilty to the crime weeks ago. He surrendered emails and admission regarding a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016, that offers promising evidence about the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. United States has concluded that President Vladimir V. Putin attempted to alter the outcome of the 2016 election to ensure that Donald Trump became the new leader of the United States of America. Russian operatives hacked Democratic accounts and released embarrassing emails about the Clinton Campaign. Mr. Manafort had connections with a pro-Russia party in Ukraine in exchange for proceeds that he hid in Bank Accounts throughout the world, in places such as: Cyprus and the Grenadines. According to the prosecution, over $18 million were laundered. He can serve a sentence of up to 20 years in jail for this crime against security in the United States. Many believe more evidence will surface as the prosecution is offering leniency to Mr. Manafort in exchange for information about others that were involved in the controversy.


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Smart glasses help the partially sighted to see
Beeline Reader
We're constantly looking for innovative ways to improve the Springwise experience, and so we're now introducing BeeLine Reader, a new technology that helps you read more quickly and efficiently. To learn more about BeeLine Reader, an award-winning startup funded by Intel Capital, see BeeLineReader.com.
The development of smart glasses has great potential to help those with disabilities understand the world around them better. In our Top 10 Health innovations list, we saw the use of enhanced glasses as a means of helping autistic children understand the emotions of their companions. Now, the Royal National Institute for Blind People — RNIB — have developed smart glasses for the partially sighted, which will help them regain their independence. The RNIB Smart glasses are being developed by Dr Stephen Hicks of Oxford University, with funding from the Google Impact Challenge. They consist of transparent spectacles with two…
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2019 Class Announced!
|The 2019 Class of the Cleveland International Hall of Fame has been announced. Over 100 worthy candidates were nominated and these 6 outstanding people (alphabetical order) will make up the 10th Class and be inducted on April 16, 2019. (save the date)
Photos, bios and more information will be posted soon. Congratulations to these 6 outstanding individuals!
Order individual dinner tickets now (the event always sells out.) Click on the Buy Now button below to pay securely via credit card and PayPal. ($77 per ticket)
Contact Debbie for tables, program book ads, sponsorships, etc. at firstname.lastname@example.com
What a Night! The 2018 Class of the Cleveland International Hall of Fame was inducted in front of over 500 people on April 17, 2018.
Click on the name to see photos and videos from the induction ceremony and read a bio.
- Sister Alicia Alvarado (Puerto Rican heritage)
- Sheila Murphy Crawford (Irish heritage)
- Dr. Atul Mehta (Indian heritage)
- Abdullah (Abby) Mina (Lebanese heritage)
- Ralph Perk Jr. (Czech and Italian Heritage)
- Judge Ray Pianka (posthumously) (Polish heritage)
See photos and video from the Induction Ceremony
See photos of inductees and attendees
Thanks to TV20 you can watch the entire ceremony on their YouTube channel. Just click on the arrow to begin. Click on the icon in the lower right to make it full screen. Make sure your speakers are on.
Read the Press Release about the 2018 Inductions
Thanks to Cleveland 19 News anchor Chris Tanaka for sharing the MC duties at the induction ceremony.
Thanks to the very talented actor, singer and voice over artist William Clarence Marshall for leading us in the National Anthem with his rich bass baritone voice.
Celebrating Cleveland's Diversity
How you can help support
the Cleveland International Hall of Fame
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ASCC Publishes Position Statement #27
Latest in a series on key issues for concrete contractors
The American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC), St. Louis, Mo., has published Position Statement #27, the latest in a series of papers on key issues of interest to concrete contractors.
"Formed Surface Requirements for Waterproofed Walls" explains the level of finish ASCC contractors will provide for waterproofed walls based on ACI specifications.
"The position papers deal with issues that constantly cause concern for concrete contractors," says D. Thomas Ruttura, a past president of ASCC. "The better we can explain to designers and specifiers what can and cannot be expected from concrete, the more likely we are to have a successful project. These Position Statements go a long way towards telling that story."
Copies of all of the Position Statements may be ordered by calling toll free at 866-788-2722 or online at www.ascconline.org.
About the Author
Beverly A. Garnant is the Executive Director for the American Society of Concrete Contractors.


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Christmas time is a magical time for you and your family, so we thought it would be cool to share a couple of magical facts about Christmas that you probably never knew before.
The X in the X-Mas stands for Christ as X stands for Christ in Greek.
Santa has to visit over 90 million homes on Christmas Eve so his sleigh travels at the speed of light which equals 671 million miles per hour.
And the most magical of all; Santa Claus has a wife named Mrs. Claus who has been married to him for a hundred years and has been alive for so long because of the magic of Christmas.
Enjoy a magical Christmas this year from Santa and KLM…[featuredvideo][/featuredvideo]


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i've mentioned before how much i adore lykke li. and tomorrow night, i get to see her! i'm heading to santa barbara for a little mini-festival to see her, foster the people, peter bjorn & john, cage the elephant, manchester orchestra, and sleeper agent. although i've loved lykke li since her first album, i'm unfamiliar with the other bands for the most part–i know a song here or there. but they all come highly recommended from good friends and live music is always spectacular. so i am obviously quite excited. however, the forecast calls for 60's so i am praying for some better weather!
but in the mean time, i'm jamming to this.


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Pairing: Shunsui/Nanao
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG
Status: One-shot
Contains: Spoilers for manga chapter 511, mild canon-typical violence, mild foul language.
Summary: When Nanao was a child, she spent a day with a young boy at the invitation of someone unexpected.
Nanao helped Captain Kyōraku through the open doors to his bedroom. He leaned heavily on her, and even with her support the strain of his efforts showed on his face. She maneuvered him to his bed. "Now, slowly—no, your legs first—"
It didn't work out as she'd planned. They fell in a heap on the bed, Nanao on her knees, her Captain's back pressed against her chest. He slid lower, until his head rested on her lap.
"Captain Kyōraku."
His eye met hers. He only had one eye now, at least until the Twelfth completed generating a new one for him. "Please, Nanao-chan."
Her heart twisted painfully in her chest. If he wanted to rest on her lap, she couldn't deny him now. She shifted her legs to be more comfortable. "Only for a little while," she said without weight.
He nodded, his eye slipping closed. "Thank you, Nanao-chan."
She looked out at his undamaged garden. So much of Soul Society had been leveled or burned to ash by the Quincy invasion, but this spot was untouched. There was a small pond fed by a rippling stream a short distance from the house, surrounded by gardens and trees. A large willow hung over the area. There was something about that tree and pond—something familiar—but Nanao couldn't quite place the memory. She'd been here before, but never had this feeling of history pressing up under her thoughts this way.
Captain Kyōraku made a sound of pleasure and she glanced down at him. She was stroking his hair absently. When had she started doing that? She should stop, but the enjoyment on his face was too precious to her. Her other hand came up to remove his hairpins and unknot his hair tie. If she was going to stroke his hair, she might as well do it properly.
"You're very kind today, Nanao-chan. Do you feel sorry for me?"
She studied his face, always rugged but today looking worn. "I am sorry about Captain Commander Yamamoto. I know that he was very important to you." Her free hand came up to rub at an ache in her chest. She hesitated. "It is—uncomfortable for me to see you like this."
His hand came up to cover hers where it rested below her collarbones. He squeezed once, gently, and drew his hand away.
She was relieved that he'd understood what she couldn't quite say.
"I don't like to see you in pain either, Nanao-chan." Feather-light, his fingertips traced the right side of her jaw and cheek.
"That's just bruised. It's nothing." The Quincy she'd fought had gotten a good strike to her face. It was Nanao's own fault. She hadn't expected that incredible quickness, and her attention had faltered for a moment when the Captain Commander fell.
"It was a hard enough hit to give you a bad black eye, Nanao-chan. Did someone look at this? I don't remember." He'd been in and out of consciousness at the hospital.
"Isane-san looked at it. I'm fine." She didn't mention that it was only a quick brush of diagnostic kidō and an offer of pain medication before Isane started working on Captain Kyōraku.
He regarded her with some suspicion, but said nothing. She imagined he thought that it would be easy to keep watch over her while she was tending to him. The hospital was damaged and overloaded. As soon as he'd been stabilized, she'd offered to take him home. He'd do better here at home than he would at the hospital, anyway.
He dropped his hand from her face and shifted to look out at the pond and the willow. A long time passed in silence, Nanao stroking his hair. It was night and the hour must be late, but there was no moon in the sky tonight. The memory lingering at the edge of her mind finally flowed to her in a wash of images.
"I can't quite believe that Yama-jii is gone. I know it, but I can't believe it." He sighed.
"He always seemed invincible and frightening," Nanao said with a shiver in her voice. She'd never stopped being wary of Captain Yamamoto after he'd nearly suffocated her with his reiatsu during the Ryoka incident.
"I'm sorry that he frightened you that day. You were never able to know his kinder side. He was like a father to me, Nanao-chan."
She nodded. "I know. But it's hard to imagine him being kind and gentle."
"Kind, yes. Gentle? I don't think he was ever that, really. He never smiled much, but he did care." Captain Kyōraku smiled.
"Do you know—" she started impulsively, wanting to see his smile stay.
"What is it, Nanao-chan?"
"I had a dream about him once."
His eye widened. "Nanao-chan, I'm thrilled to learn of your nocturnal interest in older men, but Yama-jii? Really?"
"Not that kind of dream." She shuddered and a small laugh escaped at the thought.
He chuckled. "Do you often have that kind of dream, Nanao-chan? Please tell me everything in detail, with lots of description."
She shook her head. "Absolutely not."
He opened his mouth to protest and she covered his lips with her palm until he quieted.
"It wasn't that kind of dream. Actually, he was only in it for a few minutes. This happened when I was a child, but I'd forgotten until now. The pond, the tree—it's like a place in my dream."
"Tell me about it, Nanao-chan." He was focused on her now.
"I'm sure it's not that interesting to you, it was just a child's whimsy." Now that she'd remembered the dream fully, she wasn't sure that she wanted to tell him.
"Serious Nanao-chan's whimsy? Now I have to know."
How could she disappoint him today? The relief this distraction might give him was worth any discomfort over her childhood foolishness. "I'll tell you. It was a long time ago and I've only just remembered, so please let me tell it straight through to the end."
"I'd love to hear a story in your voice, Nanao-chan. I won't interrupt." He shifted to see her face more fully, still resting in her lap.
She smoothed her free hand over his bandaged chest, her thoughts far away. "It was the first of the month, and the Captain's and Vice Captain's shared office was empty."
Over One Hundred Years Ago
Nanao peeked in the window, but there was no movement inside the office. She moved to the porch door. "Hello? Vice Captain Yadōmaru?"
There was no answer.
She tentatively opened the door a crack. "It's Nanao Ise. I've come to read with you."
There was a faint whisper of sound.
Nanao opened the door, standing in the opening, her book of stories clutched in her arms. "Is someone here?"
She stepped into the office. The Captain's chair was empty and he was not sleeping on the floor as he sometimes did when Nanao came to see Vice Captain Yadōmaru. Her chair was empty, too. Maybe there was a meeting?
Nanao turned to leave. She'd come back in an hour, and maybe Vice Captain Yadōmaru would be here then.
Over here.
She froze. "Hello?"
Come closer, the voice urged.
Nanao tiptoed across the floor towards the Captain's side of the office. The voice was coming from over there, though it wasn't really a voice as much as a presence. She hesitated when she reached the Captain's desk. She'd never come over here before, and maybe she shouldn't be here now.
Come here.
She crept forward. The voice wasn't coming from the desk, but something beyond it. An ornate sword rack sat on a low bookcase against the back wall of the office behind the Captain's desk. Two swords sat in the rack; they had to belong to Captain Kyōraku. Nanao had never seen them out before.
Come closer.
"Are you a zanpakutō spirit?" She'd heard about them at the Academy and read about them, but she'd never spoken to any, not even to her own yet. Her tantō communicated in wordless pictures only. It was a bit frustrating for someone as fascinated by words as Nanao.
Yes. My name is Katen Kyōkotsu.
"I'm Nanao Ise. It's very nice to meet you." She bowed a little, awkwardly. She wasn't sure if the sword spirit could see her or not.
Would you like to play a game?
She glanced around. "I don't think that I should. It would be rude for me to play with the Captain's swords while he's not here."
He wouldn't mind. Will you play?
She shook her head. "Even if it would be okay to play with the Captain's swords, I'm a shinigami. If I can't read with the Vice Captain now, I should be working."
You're too serious for a child.
The sword spirit sounded cross. Nanao sighed. "I have to be serious. I have to be a shinigami."
Have you ever hurt anyone with your powers?
Nanao gulped. How had the sword known about that? "Once. I didn't mean to do it, but they took me away to the Academy anyway. So I have to be a shinigami."
Do you play with your friends?
She shifted her book from one arm to the other. "No. There aren't a lot of kids, and—" she continued in a smaller voice. "I don't think they want to be friends with me. Gin-kun said that if his friend Rangiku-san finishes at the Academy, she might be my friend."
Gin isn't your friend? He doesn't play with you?
"He's busy a lot. He's really strong, and he doesn't want any friends. He told me so." Nanao stared at the floor, miserable.
Do you even know how to play any games?
The sword was clearly annoyed with her. "No. I'm sorry."
If you learn the games, then we can play.
"What? I can get some books out of the library—"
No. He'll teach you the games. Come closer.
Nanao stood directly in front of the sword rack. "Do you know someone that wants to be my friend?" Her voice rose on a hopeful note.
Yes. Put your hand on me.
"Um, I don't know if I should do that while the Captain is away—"
He won't mind. Touch my handle, just a little.
Nanao extended her fingers. Maybe it would be all right just to touch one of the handles. The sword said it knew someone who would be her friend. It would be so nice to have a friend, and the Captain wouldn't mind if she'd touched his swords to make a friend, would he? He had lots of friends.
Her fingertips brushed the silk wrapping the handle.
The room wavered around her. She felt sick, her stomach rolling, and she shut her eyes. Maybe she'd made a mistake.
But the room stilled and her sick feeling passed. She opened her eyes.
She wasn't in the office anymore. This room was small and messy, a Go board with pieces falling on the floor in one corner, puzzles half-finished with pieces scattered everywhere, wooden toys and books piled on each other in another corner. A futon was laid out, untidy—someone had slept there and not put it away. The sword rack holding Katen Kyōkotsu was smaller and simpler.
This was someone's bedroom.
She should leave; she could figure out what happened later. Nanao eyed the book titles with some interest as she hurried to the door and slipped out. In the hallway she glanced behind her to see if anyone noticed her coming out of the room.
Suddenly she ran into something and fell back on her butt, rubbing the side of her head.
A boy mirrored her pose in front of her, rubbing his forehead. "Ouch. Hey you—you're a girl." His eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes. I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going." There was another hallway crossing the one Nanao had been walking down. The boy with dark, curling hair must have been coming from there.
"That's okay." He grinned easily, standing and extending his hand for her. "I don't think we've met before. I'm Shunsui."
Nanao accepted his hand, so that she could hold onto her book and get up. She stood with his help. "I'm Nanao. It's very nice to meet you. Thank you for your help." She released his hand, bowing her head to him once.
"Are you from one of the families by the river? You talk like them." He watched her, his gray eyes bright and curious.
He didn't seem to be teasing and there was no cruelty in him, the way there was sometimes was in Gin when Nanao talked to him. "No, I used to live somewhere else. It wasn't by a river."
"You don't have to tell me, I was just wondering. Do you know anybody else here?"
She wasn't sure what to say, since she wasn't quite sure where she was. This wasn't Eighth Division—the halls and floors and smells were all wrong. "I don't have any friends," she said honestly.
He looked very solemn for an instant and then he smiled. "We'll be friends. Are you hungry? Come on."
She blinked at his easy offer of friendship and the sudden change of topic. "You want to be friends?"
Now he was surprised. "Sure, why not?"
She adjusted her glasses. "I'm not very much fun."
His eyebrows went up. "What? How do you know if you're fun or not?"
"Other kids told me that I'm not."
He tilted his head to the side.
"So it's okay if you don't want to be friends. I just thought I should tell you, so that you won't be mad later. I'm not fun." She clutched her book tightly to her chest.
He laughed. "Who told you that? What a weird thing to say. Everybody can be fun sometimes. We'll have fun together, anyway. Let's go."
She stood still. "What? You still want to be friends?"
"Yes, and I'm hungry."
"I'm sorry?" She wasn't sure what to do; she didn't have any food.
He looked a little exasperated. "Come on, Nanao-chan." He grabbed one of her hands, leading her through the winding halls.
"Where are we going?" She'd never held hands with someone her own age before. Adults sometimes lead her by the hand, but it wasn't like this. They rushed and then snuck as Shunsui checked the corridors before darting down them.
"Kitchen. It's not lunchtime yet. I slept through breakfast again. Yama-jii tries to get me to wake up earlier by not letting me eat until lunch if I miss breakfast, but I have a way around that. Did you miss breakfast, too?"
"No, but I didn't eat much." She'd usually have tea and snacks with Vice Captain Yadōmaru when they read.
"We'll get enough for both of us. Stay quiet and follow my lead, okay?" Shunsui glanced around a corner. "The kitchen is over there."
Nanao nodded. "Okay." His hand was warm in hers and he smelled like grass and cedar. He was a little taller than her and she wondered if he was older, but since age could be tricky in Soul Society she couldn't be sure.
He led her to an open door. He peeked inside and then darted forward. Rice balls were laid out on a high table in the large space. Shunsui grabbed one, handed it to Nanao, and reached for another.
A large hand closed around Shunsui's wrist. "Caught you, brat! You want to get me in trouble with the boss?" The voice was booming.
Nanao hid behind Shunsui, daring a look at the speaker. He was a man nearly as wide as he was tall, a pristine apron covering a vast expanse of belly. When he spoke, his body rippled like a pudding.
Shunsui gestured innocently with one hand, his other still trapped. "You won't get in trouble if he doesn't know, Shimura. I'm a growing boy, I need food. You don't want me to faint in the hallway, do you? And everyone will say, 'oh, that's the boy that used his last bit of strength trying to reach Shimura's delicious food—'"
"You won't get out of this with flattery, kid. Not this time. I'm going to—" he broke off and Nanao froze when she realized he'd seen her. "Who are you?"
Shunsui pulled his wrist away from Shimura and shifted to the side, revealing some of Nanao. He dropped his hand reassuringly on her shoulder. "This is Nanao-chan. She didn't want to take food, I made her come."
She turned her head to Shunsui, surprised. Was he trying to keep her from getting in trouble with him?
"Nanao-chan? You've found a girl, Shunsui? I didn't know you were making new friends. How long will you be here, Nanao-chan?" The large man leaned over the table, his cheeks jiggling.
"I don't know," she said, because it was the truth and she didn't know what else to say.
Shimura's face turned serious. "Don't know? That's all right. You're here today and that's what matters. I'll tell you what, kids. I'll make you a little picnic lunch and you go and play today, okay? I'll take care of the boss."
"You're the best, Shimura!" Shunsui grinned.
"Oh, but—shouldn't we be working instead?" Nanao asked.
Shunsui shook his head. "No way. When someone offers you a picnic, you should take it, Nanao-chan."
Shimura turned around in the kitchen, depositing items in a basket. "You sound like a good girl, Nanao-chan. Normally you'd be right. Working is the best thing to do. But today you're here, and you don't know how long you can stay. You should enjoy the day with this brat. Kids should get to play sometimes, even kids stuck in this place."
What was this place, exactly? It wasn't a part of the Gotei 13 that Nanao had seen before, but she didn't want to ask and be told she shouldn't be here at all and she was in a lot of trouble. "Are there other kids here?"
"Just me, right now." Shunsui shrugged.
Shimura rifled through a cabinet. "When does that other boy come back again?"
"Ukitake won't be back for at least eight weeks. He'll come back for a week then, if he's not sick." Shunsui looked a little glum.
"Well, you can play with Nanao-chan today, and work hard at your lessons until your other friend comes back." Shimura closed the picnic basket, turned to the high table, and opened it again to add a few rice balls.
"We'll go to the best spot," Shunsui murmured to Nanao.
Shimura held out the picnic basket with a flourish. Shunsui accepted it with a smile. The huge man rested his chin on one hand, leaning his elbow on the table. "First love is so sweet. Have fun today, kids."
"Thanks, Shimura!" Shunsui strolled out of the kitchen with the basket.
"Um." Nanao held out the stolen rice ball.
"Keep it." Shimura waved her off.
"Thank you, Shimura-san." Nanao bowed her head quickly.
"Come on, Nanao-chan," Shunsui said, sticking his head back in the kitchen.
Nanao hurried out of the kitchen. "Sorry, Shunsui-kun."
"It's okay. Let's go. Until we're out of the compound, we're not free. If Yama-jii catches us, we'll probably still get spanked." He grabbed her hand, surprised by the rice ball there. He took it out of her hand and took two big bites. "Finish the rest fast. We need to get out of here."
Nanao pushed the remaining rice into her mouth, chewing quickly. Shunsui took her hand again and ran through the corridors until they burst out of an open doorway into the bright sunlight. He set the basket down to pull his sandals onto his bare feet, glancing at Nanao's feet to make sure she had sandals on.
"Yama-jii is teaching a sword techniques class in the main courtyard at this hour. We'll go out the back way." Shunsui stood, grabbing the picnic basket with one hand and tugging Nanao off the porch with the other.
They walked at a quick speed, trying not to attract interest. A pair of older boys, almost men, noticed them. "Hey Shunsui, is that your girl?" one of them called.
"Yes," he said over his shoulder without slowing. "If we stopped to explain, we might get caught." He lowered his voice for Nanao.
"I understand," she said, although she wasn't quite sure that she did. Still, no one at home was willing to claim her as a friend, so it was nice to have someone claim a connection with her, whatever it was. Maybe it was like dating? Vice Captain Yadōmaru read magazines taken from the Living World that said dating was a popular thing for boys and girls to do.
"There are only a few girls here, so it's unusual to see a new one," Shunsui said. His pace slowed as they exited an open gate in a high wall.
"Where are you going, Shunsui?" a rough-looking guard grunted from a barrel he sat on just outside the gate.
"To the east pond."
The guard nodded to them and Shunsui and Nanao walked away through the woods, Shunsui wearing a triumphant smile. He released her hand to lift branches out of the way of their path.
"Is your friend Ukitake-kun related to Captain Ukitake?" Nanao watched Shunsui's back as he cleared the trail for her.
"Maybe. I don't know of any Captains or whatever from their clan, but the Ukitake family is huge."
"I see. Do you stay here all the time, Shunsui-kun?" Nanao was curious about the boy, but not sure how much she could ask about him without being rude.
"Yes. I don't get to visit my family very much." His words were a bit clipped, as if his throat had tightened.
"I see." Was he like her? Did he have to be here because of his powers?
"This is it." They entered a clearing in the forest. A sparkling pond fed by a smaller river and shaded by a large willow tree sat in the center.
"It's pretty." Nanao liked the burbling sound of the water, the smell of wildflowers, the way the leaves of the willow tree were heavy like a canopy.
"This is the best spot in Soul Society. I want to live here." They walked side by side to a spot under the tree. Shunsui laid out the cloth Shimura had packed in the basket.
"You want to live under a tree?" Nanao eyed the willow dubiously.
"Not right under the tree, just here. Nearby, so I can see the pond and sit under the tree." Shunsui sat on the cloth, rummaging through the basket. "He even put sweets in here."
Nanao sat on the cloth, putting her book down next to her. "What kind of sweets?"
"Konpeito candy. Do you want some?" He turned to see her face.
"We can't eat the sweets first," she said, scandalized.
He grinned. "Do you always follow the rules, Nanao-chan?"
"Mostly." She didn't want to tell this boy who so obviously liked to break rules that she always followed rules, but that was the truth. "Why doesn't your friend Ukitake-kun stay here all the time? Is it because he's sick?" she asked, mostly to change the subject.
He stopped searching the basket, his eyes shadowed. "He is sick. But that's just one part of the reason. His power isn't as strong, isn't as—dangerous as mine, at least for now. He can stay at home because he's not a threat to others. I am." His tone was matter-of-fact, but Nanao still felt bad.
"I hurt someone," she said impulsively. "I didn't mean to, but I hurt someone, so I have to serious and careful and work hard, so I don't hurt anyone else." She stared at her hands in her lap.
She heard him moving and then felt his hands on her shoulders, firm and warm. "It's not your fault. You hurt someone, but it was an accident, and now you're trying to control your powers. That's something good, Nanao-chan."
"Is it enough? I try hard, but I'm not very good at sword work or martial arts or anything but kidō, really. Sometimes I feel like adults are only interested in me because I might set something on fire by accident, and other kids think I'm too weird and scary to want to be friends with me." She huffed a little sigh.
She looked up at him.
He flicked her forehead lightly with one finger. "You worry too much. You're doing the best you can. Who cares what other people think? The people that are important to you wouldn't think like you said, so why should the thoughts of people that aren't important to you matter?"
"You're not weird and scary. You're my friend." He scowled at her and she felt better.
"Will you stay my friend even if I don't get to stay here?" It would be so nice to have a friend, even when she was back at the Eighth Division and Shunsui was here, wherever that was.
He smiled. "Yes. Now you can't ever say crap like, 'I don't have any friends' again."
Nanao glanced around and leaned closer. "That's a rude word."
He mimicked her glance and leaned in. "I know. That's why it's fun to say. Do you want to try?"
"No. I want to eat." Food would be distracting enough to keep Shunsui from trying to make her curse.
They ate slowly, picking through the many delicious things Shimura had packed in the basket.
"What games do you want to play this afternoon?" Shunsui asked with his mouth mostly full.
She thought of Katen Kyōkotsu's disgust at Nanao's lack of knowledge of games. "I don't know any children's games. Can you teach me a few, maybe?"
"You don't know any?" His eyes widened.
She frowned, embarrassed. "You don't have to teach me if you don't want to do it. We could do something else."
He shook his head. "We'll play some games. Not all of them work with only two people, but some of them are still fun."
She nodded. "Thanks, Shunsui-kun."
They played for hours. He knew all of the games, and he was good at all of them. Nanao suspected he'd let her win a few times so she'd have fun playing, but she couldn't be sure.
Finally he brought her to a fallen log at the edge of the pond. "This is the best spot to rest your feet in the water. The little fish will nibble on your toes." He grinned, rolling up his hakama and throwing his sandals at the picnic basket.
"Is it dangerous?" Nanao sat on the log, looking at the water cautiously.
He laughed. "Not at all. The fish are too small to hurt."
She removed her sandals and socks, setting them neatly beside the log. She rolled up her hakama and dipped her toes tentatively into the water. It was cool on her toes, which were hot from playing, and she sank her feet in up to the ankle. "That feels good."
He made a sound of agreement, looking out over the water. His hair was messy from their games and his face bright. He really was a cute boy, Nanao realized, and it made her uncomfortable.
Vice Captain Yadōmaru had told her a few times about what Nanao should and shouldn't do with cute boys, but it all seemed muddled together in Nanao's mind, since Vice Captain Yadōmaru's advice was often beyond Nanao's grasp of boys and relationships. But it had to do with dating. That was the word, wasn't it?
Vice Captain Yadōmaru would be proud of Nanao if she was bold, wouldn't she? "Shunsui-kun?"
He turned his head to face her.
"I was just wondering, do you have a girlfriend?" She couldn't believe she'd actually asked. "I mean I'm sure that you do and even if you didn't I wouldn't be—that is—"
"What's a girlfriend?" he asked, when she trailed off.
Had he never heard of dating? Maybe he wasn't as aware of the Living World as Nanao was, thanks to Vice Captain Yadōmaru's interest. "It's a girl that you go places with and sometimes you hold hands and kiss. If you had a girlfriend, that's what you'd do with her."
"I get it. It sounds a little like courtship. I think some of the guys have someone like that, but they've never used that word. I don't have a girlfriend."
Courtship was an old-fashioned idea, wasn't it? But at least he didn't have a girlfriend. "I see." He was watching her closely and she wiggled her toes in the water, tense and embarrassed.
He narrowed his eyes. "Do you want to be my girlfriend, Nanao-chan?"
She felt panic rising in her stomach. "Well, I just thought if you didn't have one already and you wanted one, maybe it could be me." Her heart pounded loudly in her ears. Why had she thought this was a good idea? What if he rejected her and laughed at her and didn't even want to be friends anymore?
He was silent for a few moments and then he grinned widely. "Sure, why not?"
Nanao blinked rapidly. "What?"
"You can be my girlfriend. I like you, and it might be fun."
Her hands fidgeted in her lap. She felt relieved and victorious, though she wasn't sure of exactly what she'd won. "I see. That's nice."
"There's a lot of stuff that I'm curious about. I've heard the older guys talk about girls and kissing, but they don't really explain stuff well. I don't think they want to tell me. So I want to find out for myself." His eyes were lit up with excited curiosity.
"Learning things through your own work is always good, but I'm not sure kissing works like that." Nanao adjusted her glasses. As someone that loved learning, she could understand his impulse, but she thought he might be wrong in this case.
"What do you mean?" A fat frog jumping into the pond caught his attention for a moment, but he turned back to her.
"It's in my book. Let me show you." She lifted her feet out of the water and picked up her socks and sandals on the way to the picnic cloth. Her book was still there, and she flipped through to the story she had in mind.
Shunsui followed her and sprawled out beside her.
"It's in this story, see?" Nanao pointed at the page.
"I don't recognize all of the characters," he said, his brows drawn together.
That was odd, since Nanao had found him to be a smart boy so far. Maybe he didn't read enough? "I'll read it to you, if that's okay."
She read the story aloud, and it confirmed what she'd thought about kissing. "You see, Shunsui-kun? Kisses are something that gets given as a reward to a person for doing something impressive or heroic, and there should be lots of flower petals and romantic stuff, too."
"Is that in all the stories?" Shunsui looked skeptical.
"It's in all the stories," she said firmly.
"I still think curiosity is a good enough reason for kissing." He raised an eyebrow.
"The stories say kissing is important, and people should have a meaningful reason to do it." She closed her book with a thwack.
Snapping sounds from the trees interrupted him. Shunsui stood, facing the source of the sounds, still hidden in the trees. Nanao stood up, too. "What is it?"
"I don't know yet. Stay behind me." Shunsui stayed focused on the trees.
An inhuman shape burst into the clearing, long spidery legs digging deep into the earth. The leering white mask was instantly recognizable to Nanao. "Hollow!"
It charged towards them. Fear flew up Nanao's throat. The words for Bakudō Number 4 rang in her head. She wasn't sure if she'd gotten them right, but then yellow ropes circled the Hollow, binding it.
The ropes weren't going to hold, Nanao could see them cracking already. Shunsui was shouting the incantation for another kidō, a much more difficult one. "Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings—"
The kidō ropes creaked and snapped, the Hollow roaring as it charged towards them.
Shunsui stood in front of her, unmoving. "—march on to the south! Hadō Number 31, Shakkahō!" The fire kidō flared out at the Hollow. Two of its spindle legs dissolved. The monster howled in outrage, striking out and hitting Shunsui. He fell a few feet away.
"Shunsui-kun!" Nanao ran towards him. The Hollow chased her and she knew she should summon up another kidō, even as she knew there wasn't enough time before it would catch her.
A rush of hot air knocked Nanao down next to Shunsui. She looked back, expecting to see the Hollow ready to strike, but instead she saw the back of a shinigami. He cleansed the Hollow with a single strike of his blade.
"Fan out and find the rest of the pack," he barked. Nanao realized they were surrounded by shinigami. They disappeared in flashes of shunpo.
"Yama-jii, what are you doing here?" Shunsui sat up, rubbing his chest.
"What are you doing here?" the shinigami countered. He had two crossing scars on his face, adding to his intimidating appearance. "You had lessons today."
"But Nanao-chan was here today, so we went for a picnic. I told the guard where we were going." Shunsui winced.
"Are you hurt, Shunsui?" The man bent down on one knee to look at Shunsui's chest.
"It hit me, but I'm fine," Shunsui said.
"But it hit you hard, Shunsui-kun." Nanao frowned at him.
Yama-jii eyed her and she felt his reiatsu brush over her, taking her measure in a way that many people had done since Nanao was taken to the Shinigami Academy.
"Carry on here, I'm returning to the compound," Yama-jii said to a nearby shinigami.
The shinigami nodded.
"We need our stuff," Shunsui said. The waiting shinigami handed Yama-jii the basket, tucking the cloth and Nanao's book inside.
Yama-jii hung it on his arm and then scooped up Shunsui with one hand and Nanao with the other. "Hold on."
"Yama-jii, don't carry us like little kids." Shunsui frowned.
"You are kids." There was a disorienting sweep of the landscape and then they were back on the porch of the compound. He deposited the two of them and the basket on the wood. "Little girl—"
"She's Nanao-chan, my girlfriend," Shunsui interrupted.
Yama-jii gave him a severe look. "Nanao-chan, where did you—"
"Sir, there are more Hollows appearing to the East!" A breathless shinigami appeared, shouting.
Yama-jii nodded. "Shunsui, get your chest looked at by the medic." He turned to Nanao. "You stay with Shunsui. This is a good place for someone like you to be."
Nanao nodded. The man was intimidating and brisk, but he didn't seem cruel or cold. He'd been careful when he'd carried them through shunpo.
Yama-jii disappeared with a flash step. Nanao picked up the basket.
"Let me do that," Shunsui said, reaching for it.
"No, you're hurt. It's not heavy. I can carry it." Nanao tightened her grip on the basket.
"I'm fine." He blew an exaggerated sigh when she refused to yield the basket.
"We have to go to the medic, Shunsui-kun."
"Yare, yare, Nanao-chan. I said I was fine." But he took off his sandals and waited for her to do the same.
She removed her sandals, setting down the basket to do so.
He snatched it up and started down the hall.
"Hey! That wasn't fair," she hissed when she caught up.
He shrugged.
She pulled her book out of the basket as they walked; it was the heaviest thing in there, since they'd eaten so much of the food.
He ducked into an open room where a shinigami was arranging jars in a cabinet. "Hey, Yamada. Yama-jii sent me to be checked."
Yamada turned to face them. "Come and sit on the exam table. What happened to you two?"
Shunsui hopped up on the exam table, leaving the basket on the floor. Nanao followed suit, clutching her book to her chest.
"There was a Hollow attack at the east pond," Shunsui said.
"I'm fine, but Shunsui-kun got hit in the chest." Nanao studied Yamada. The shinigami had kind eyes and a gentle demeanor.
"I see. Can I take a look, Shunsui-kun?" Yamada asked.
Shunsui nodded and Yamada opened Shunsui's top to check his chest, calling up a kidō.
"Were you playing out at the pond?" Yamada spoke in a low murmur as he applied the kidō to Shunsui's reddened skin.
"Yes. Nanao-chan and I had a picnic." Shunsui's fingers drummed on the table.
"How lovely. That must have been fun." Yamada shifted the kidō slowly around Shunsui's skin.
"It was a lot of fun. Nanao-chan is my girlfriend."
Nanao frowned at Shunsui. Was he going to tell everyone they saw that?
"We're almost done here. Let me get a salve for the bruising." Yamada checked the cabinet. "I'll have to go to the storeroom. I'll be right back."
Nanao turned on the table to face Shunsui, pulling one leg up under her. "What you did back at the pond was really brave."
His brows rose. "Do you think so, Nanao-chan? But I have to protect you, since I'm older."
"How do you know you're older?" Nanao tilted her head.
"Well, how old are you?"
"I don't know," she confessed.
A flash of surprise ran through his eyes. "That's okay. I'm taller and bigger, so I'm older."
"That's not proof at all," Nanao protested.
"Sure it is. I'm older, and I have to protect you." He smiled, his white teeth straight and shining.
Nanao decided it was better to let the argument go. "Anyway, what you did was really brave, and you did Hadō Number 31, which is really impressive."
"Hadō Number 31 is the best one I can do. You were impressed, Nanao-chan?" He turned his upper body to face her fully on the table.
"Yes. The highest Hadō I can do is Number 19."
"That's pretty good, Nanao-chan. And I would never have had time to do Hadō Number 31 if you hadn't tied the Hollow up right away." He was earnest in his praise and a warm feeling spread through Nanao.
"It was like this in the story, wasn't it?" She opened her book to the story she'd read to him, setting it down on the exam table.
He glanced at the page. "It was a little bit like that, but I didn't do very much."
Nanao shook her head. "No, you were really great. I was impressed. So I thought that if you wanted, maybe—um—"
His forehead wrinkled while he tried to follow her words, but his confusion cleared when she trailed off. "You think I earned a kiss, Nanao-chan?"
"If you wanted a kiss, this would be the right time." She adjusted her glasses, trying to be cool even as she felt her cheeks blushing pink.
"I want a kiss," he said immediately.
"I know how it works. First we both close our eyes, and then we touch mouths, and it's a kiss." She thought so, anyway.
"I'm ready." He was resolute and serious.
"We'll start on three. One, two, three." She closed her eyes and leaned closer, but how would she find his mouth if her eyes were closed? Nanao opened one eye and saw he was also cheating. "You're peeking!"
"I wasn't sure how to find your mouth without looking."
She sighed, even though she'd had that exact problem. "We'll start from closer together, then. We both close our eyes and no peeking," she said sternly.
He nodded. "If we're close enough, that should work."
They leaned in closer, until she could feel his breath on her cheek. "We both close our eyes." She closed hers first, but wasn't sure when to move, so it was a relief when she felt his lips touch hers, warm and soft. It lasted only a few seconds and neither of them dared to move or breathe. But they'd definitely done it right. They'd kissed.
She pulled back, wiping her glasses on her hakama—they'd smudged against his skin.
"So that's what a kiss is like," he murmured, looking dreamy. "It's kind of nice."
"I guess so." Nanao didn't think it was as big of a deal as the stories had said, but it was nice enough.
He grinned at her and she smiled back—his good mood was catching. "I'm having a really good day, Nanao-chan. I'm glad you came."
Her eyes widened. "I'm glad, too."
Yamada appeared in the doorway. "I'm sorry that took so long, kids. I had to go all the way to the south storeroom for the ointment." He had three identical jars in his hands. Two he put into the cabinet and one he brought to Shunsui. "Put this on before bed and in the morning after you've washed, for a week. It'll help with the soreness."
"Thanks, Yamada." Shunsui took the jar and hopped off the table.
Nanao picked up her book and followed Shunsui.
"If you need any help, come back any time," Yamada called after them.
Shunsui led her through the hallways to the kitchen. "Shimura will want his basket back."
The kitchen was empty. He left the basket on the high table.
"Let's go to my room, Nanao-chan." Shunsui brought her to his room, opening the door with a flourish.
Nanao was surprised to see it was the room she'd first been in when she'd arrived at this place. The sword rack holding Katen Kyōkotsu stood against the wall. "Are these your swords?"
"Yes. I know it's unusual to have two. Do you have a zanpakutō?"
Maybe his swords only looked like Captain Kyōraku's; they couldn't both have the same swords. "Yes, I have a tantō. It won't talk."
He laughed. "I'm sure it'll say something eventually. It takes a long time for a lot of people to get their zanpakutō to talk."
"I hope so. Can I look at your books?" They were the most interesting objects in the room to Nanao.
"Sure, go ahead." He sat on his futon, slouching against the wall. "Nanao-chan?"
She looked through his books. He had a lot of different things: stories, art books, and textbooks. "Yes?"
"Can you stay here? I'd really like it if you could stay, Nanao-chan, even if it's only for one more day." There was a yearning in his voice that Nanao understood well. He didn't want to be alone.
She adjusted her glasses before turning to him. "I don't know, Shunsui-kun. I'd stay if I could."
He nodded. "I understand." He smiled, but it wasn't as light as the smile he'd had in the medic's room.
Nanao didn't know what to say. She didn't know how long she'd be here, and she didn't want to mislead him. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry, Nanao-chan. I'm glad you were able to stay today."
She nodded, looking through his books again. He had several stories with interesting titles. She opened the story book she'd selected, but was dismayed to find after half a page that she couldn't read all the characters. "Shunsui-kun."
"Can you read all of the characters in this book?" She held it out so he could see the title.
"I can, Nanao-chan. Are you having trouble with it?"
She was reluctant to say that, although it was true.
"I'll read it to you. It'll be like when you read to me earlier." He patted a spot on the bed next to him.
She sat down next to him, handing him the book. It was strange that she didn't know all of the characters in his book, and that he hadn't known the ones in hers, but she forgot that as he started reading aloud and she was absorbed in the story. His voice was soothing and she caught herself yawning several times. Eventually her eyes slipped closed and she leaned against his shoulder, but she was still listening.
Finally she fell deeply into sleep accompanied by the sound of Shunsui's voice.
"Vice Captain Yadōmaru found me asleep on the floor of the office when she returned from her meeting. I must have fallen asleep while waiting for her." Nanao's lips curved up.
"Nanao-chan, I remember that day." Captain Kyōraku looked serious, but she couldn't believe him.
She shook her head. "I know that the boy in the dream was named Shunsui, but you don't have to tease."
"I'm not teasing. I have a clear memory of that day with you." He sat up with difficulty, and she steadied him with her hands.
Uneasiness crawled through her. "But that's not possible. You can't remember that day. It's not possible for us to have been children together, and it was only a dream."
He narrowed his eye. "You wouldn't let me catch frogs, even though I told you I'd bring them back to the pond. You though it was mean to take them away in the first place."
She brought her hand up to her mouth, covering it as if that would hide her shock. "I didn't tell you about the frogs."
"No, I remembered it. That day was real, Nanao-chan." He watched the emotions running across her face.
"It's not possible," she whispered.
"I think that it would be a mistake to call it impossible. Soul Society is surrounded by the dangai, and time here sometimes runs in different speeds compared to time in the Living World or Hueco Mundo. Time is a tricky thing, Nanao-chan." He looked contemplative.
"Does Katen Kyōkotsu have that kind of power, though? Perhaps she pulled me into your inner world, and we lived that day there." At least that would make a greater amount of sense than the idea that his swords could bend time.
"It could be possible, but that day was real. You left your sandals, Nanao-chan."
She shook her head. "I thought I'd lost them somehow. It was very strange, because I was always so careful with my things."
"The sandals were yours, Nanao-chan. There was no one else with feet so small at the compound then."
She considered that. His sword did have some distinct powers, so perhaps it was possible. "She lets you move through shadows. Isn't that a kind of dimension bending?"
"You're not wrong. Either way, it's frightening to me. When I think of what she could have done to you—" He shuddered.
"She's never hurt me," Nanao said. "She wouldn't hurt me."
"Nanao-chan, that makes it sound like it wasn't the only time she talked to you." The tension in his face upset her; she'd wanted to share a cute story, not make him worry.
"Come back here and lay down. I'll tell you everything, but please rest." She gestured at her lap.
He looked like he would protest, but he lay back with his head in her lap instead. "You'll tell me everything."
"Yes. Katen Kyōkotsu never spoke to me again while I was a child. Perhaps she lacked the desire or an opportunity."
"I should have been more careful. I shouldn't have left my swords in the office unguarded." His voice was full of self-recrimination.
"Stop. Zanpakutō spirits seek contact with outsiders so rarely that it's barely been documented. There was no way for you to know that she'd have an interest in me. She's never hurt me, and I don't believe that she would ever hurt me." She stroked his hair soothingly.
"You know what kind of games she likes to play. She's not entirely stable, and she's definitely not safe for children." Bitterness leaked into his voice.
She sighed. "Would you forgive her if she'd hurt me seriously?"
He breathed in deeply. "No. I might still have to work with her, but I wouldn't forgive her for that."
"And she knows that. Whatever her flaws are, she knows you, because she's a part of you. There are lines that she won't cross. She wouldn't hurt me."
He smiled faintly. "You're so sure of her."
"No, I'm sure of you." She flicked his forehead lightly, the way Shunsui had done when they were children.
"Sweet Nanao-chan. Tell me the rest." He sounded easier, the bitterness absent from his voice.
"That afternoon with you was like a dream. The next time she spoke to me I was already your Vice Captain. She wanted to play, but I thought that would be unwise, so I offered to read to her instead."
"If you weren't afraid of her, why didn't you agree to play with her?" he asked, sounding curious.
She hesitated. "I wasn't sure if she'd pull me into your inner world, and I thought that it would be a terrible invasion of your privacy if she did."
He brushed her cheek with his fingertips. "I wouldn't want you to see my inner world, Nanao-chan. I think it might disturb you."
"Perhaps it might. But it wouldn't change the way that I feel about you." That was much too revealing, she realized, and hurried on. "Katen Kyōkotsu spoke to me several times after that. I read her children's stories sometimes. She never said or did anything particularly frightening. I think she was just lonely."
"Everyone gets lonely sometimes, don't they? She doesn't speak to anyone else. She told me that, and I do believe her, because other people would have told you or reported it to the First Division."
"But you wouldn't tell on her, Nanao-chan. Not even to me?" There was surprise in his voice, and she couldn't blame him for that. Nanao always followed the rules.
Except when she didn't follow the rules. "You would have made her stop. You'd think she was a threat to me—and she is dangerous, I wouldn't dispute that—but she's not a threat to me. What she wanted was so minor, but it made me feel that I was doing something for you, because she's a part of you. It made me feel close to you. I didn't want to give that up." She stared at the pond and the willow as she spoke.
It was a confession, but she thought they'd passed the point where she could hide her feelings away. She wanted to be close to him, and in his house with the willow and the pond nearby, with the warmth of their shared childhood memory between them, with the bloody bandages covering his wounds beneath her hands, she no longer wanted to pretend otherwise. He was what she wanted.
He traced the contour of her lips. "My first kiss was with you, Nanao-chan."
She shook her head, smiling. "I thought I knew exactly how kissing worked."
"Your fundamentals were sound. If we closed our eyes and touched mouths, it would be a kiss." He smiled at her.
"The fundamentals don't lead to a very good kiss."
"You didn't enjoy our kiss, Nanao-chan?" He pouted.
She laughed. "I was very proud of myself. I'd kissed a boy for the first time and gotten a boyfriend, all in one day. I thought Yadōmaru-sempai would be pleased."
"Was it Lisa-chan who'd given you the idea of boyfriends and girlfriends? I thought you were from far away, because you used words I hadn't heard and the characters in your book were unfamiliar."
"She told me about dating, but I couldn't remember the specifics. I wasn't that interested at the time." Her brows drew together. "We couldn't read each other's books because hundreds of years of language evolution were separating us."
"Hundreds of years were separating us, but we still managed to connect. I was sorry that you were gone when I woke up. I wanted to spend more time with you, and Yama-jii wanted to keep you at the compound, as much for my sake as for yours, I think." His voice was heavy with nostalgia.
"He wasn't frightening in my memory of that day. I'll try to remember him like that from now on."
He nodded. "Yama-jii would like that, I think. The Ryoka invasion was not a proud moment for him. He apologized in his own way to me and to Ukitake afterward."
They sat quietly for a while. Nanao watched the willow sway in the breeze. "You didn't recognize me when you met me again at the Eighth."
"No. There were too many years between the meetings, and it didn't occur to me that the events could be connected. I recognized your name and it made me think about that day. I hadn't thought about it in a long time then, but I thought about you a lot when I was still a boy at the compound." He found her free hand and clasped it in his. She allowed the contact without acknowledging it.
She thought of the boy he'd been, outgoing and yet lonely, and hated the thought of him wondering where she'd gone. "Would it have been better if we hadn't met then? If Katen Kyōkotsu had never interfered?"
"No," he said immediately. "That day was precious to me. I made a friend, sweet Nanao-chan became my girlfriend, and I earned my first kiss. I'm glad you came, even if it was for a short time."
"I would have stayed, if I could have. I was happy." People had cared for her during her childhood, but it'd still been years after that before she'd really started to make friends.
He grinned. "You know, Nanao-chan, we never broke up."
"You're still my girlfriend, Nanao-chan." His eye was bright with mischief and pleasure.
"That's ridiculous." She shook her head, but she liked the idea, liked that he'd thought it.
"We could be happy together now, Nanao-chan." He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her palm.
Words escaped her. She swallowed heavily.
He seemed to take her silence as an answer, and released her hand. "Of course, I'm not a young boy anymore. It's been hundreds of years, and parts of me have been tarnished or lost completely. I am not entirely whole. Some would say I am not entirely sane, given the prevailing theories on zanpakutō soul connections. Nanao-chan is still so young and clever and beautiful. Of course you deserve more." His voice was resigned, calm, as if it was easy to dismiss the possibility of their romantic relationship.
Fury washed over her in a cold wave. "Don't talk about yourself that way. Don't put me on a pedestal and say that I can't have you. If you don't think that a relationship between us could work, just say it. If you'd give up on us so easily, we would never have a chance to succeed." She lifted his head off of her lap, rising and stalking out to the porch and then towards the pond. Her eyes burned. It was anger, she told herself, anger that he would reduce them both that way. If he didn't want her he should just say so, instead of pretending that she was too good for him, that he was letting her go for her sake.
He'd put a bench under the willow, close to the water. She sat, allowing herself to sink into the despair of the day. Soul Society had fallen, Captain Commander Yamamoto had died, and Captain Kyōraku had been maimed. But it was the memory of her happiness on that day in her childhood that made her close her stinging eyes. It seemed so far away now.
"We could catch frogs. If we hide one in the medic's room, Yamada will be shocked when it hops out." He sat down heavily on the bench beside her.
"It's a different Yamada at the Fourth Division now, and I think he's too busy to be shocked. Besides, it's mean to take the frogs away from their home." Her voice was little more than a whisper. She kept her profile to him; she didn't think she could look at him without breaking down.
When he spoke his voice was low and heavy with weariness. "I'm in love with you, Nanao-chan. This isn't the way I wanted to offer myself to you. I wanted it to be romantic, with flower petals, the way Nanao-chan said it should be. I wanted to look my best, so that you'd forgive my age. But this is the spot I would have chosen."
"This is the best spot." She took several deep breaths, trying to remove the tremor in her voice. "I was thinking that if you didn't have a girlfriend already and you wanted one, maybe it could be me."
"We never broke up, Nanao-chan." His hand cupped her chin, turning her head to him gently. "And I can still do Hadō Number 31."
She laughed, a pair of tears escaping her eyes. "That's impressive, and you were very brave today." Her hands came up to cradle his face.
"Do you think I earned a kiss, Nanao-chan?"
She nodded. "If you wanted a kiss, this would be the right time."
"I want a kiss." His hands caressed her shoulders.
"We both close our eyes, and no peeking."
He closed his eye and she studied his face. He was not a cute boy, as he'd been the first time they'd kissed. His face was damaged and worn by loss and age. He was a man, and she loved him. She pressed her lips against his softly, only for a moment.
She pulled back slowly. "The fundamentals are sound, but I think we can improve on them."
His arms wrapped around her, his hands large and warm on her back. "Can you stay here? I'd really like it if you could stay, Nanao-chan, even if it's only for one more day."
This time she could give him the answer she'd wanted to give him before. "I can stay. I can stay with you for as long as you want me here."
"Stay with me always, Nanao-chan." He kissed her in the moonless night, while the willow swayed and the frogs sang in the pond.
She thought she heard the sound of children laughing and playing, and smiled against his lips.
Notes: After we saw young Shunsui in the recent manga flashback, I couldn't resist writing this story. I hope people enjoyed it! ^_^


text: "The Puppetoon Movie" (U.S.A., 1987, 7:30 p.m.). Before he produced and directed his famous science-fiction features, the late George Pal animated a charming series of stop-motion shorts known as "Puppetoons." Arnie Liebovit's uneven compilation includes some of Pal's most famous work: "Tubby the Tuba," "John Henry and Inky-Poo" and the anti-war parable "Tulips Shall Grow." But Pal never intended an audience to sit through 90 minutes of these miniatures, and the result is a bit like eating an entire box of bonbons at one sitting. In a heavy-handed new prologue featuring Gumby and numerous other characters, Liebovit suggests that Pal invented stop-motion animation--which simply isn't true.