Quite Joyful

Old skeleton Zaken's story was deeply moving to a living person, but among the Forgotten, his experiences might have been the most insignificant of all. Forgotten who fell and then crawled back out of their graves rarely got to experience a normal journey through life again. Their stories seldom contained brilliant sunshine or joy. The only comforting thing was that Zaken's story had at least reached a fairly happy ending—happy, that was, for an undead being who only wished to protect his daughter and live together with Nina.

"I'm very satisfied with my current life," Zaken said, his badly worn wrist clicking as he turned it and patted the Little Zombie's head. "It's much better than the circumstances of most dead people, and I've even found myself a wife..."

I expressed an appropriate degree of shock. I'd heard of old trees blossoming in spring and elderly romances, but this was the first time I'd seen someone who, even after dying, hadn't forgotten to find himself a mother-in-law. This old skeleton Zaken's afterlife was certainly colorful—he had not only gotten his daughter back, but found himself a companion too?!

"Bashali is a very understanding skeleton," Zaken said, scratching his skull a little sheepishly. "Her charming molars touched me deeply, because she has no front teeth. Old Zaken feels that everything worth pursuing in life has now been fulfilled: a complete family and work that makes you feel fulfilled. Look, this is the sweater Bashali knitted for me—"

As Zaken spoke, he suddenly lifted his cloak in a showy manner, revealing the "sweater of love" he was wearing. I saw that each of his twenty-two and a half ribs had been fitted with a perfectly sized woolen sleeve. Knitting a sweater for a skeleton really was a job that tested one's innovative