“Hisako there’s someone here for you.”
Hisako, how did he know my name, I never told him my name.
“Hisako, where have you been!? I have been worried to death about you! you know not to run off, damn it you could have been killed, you could have been kidnapped.” I looked into his eyes, he was furious; he wanted me dead by his look.
He was red in the face, sweating and about to cry. Now if I said I didn’t feel like shit, I would be the best liar ever.
“Jyukaji-sensei, I am sorry I just couldn’t handle their deaths, I don’t want them to go I need them, I need them to help me I don’t want to live without them. They were my everything.” I started to cry again. My head was hurting and I think I was going to vomit again. I dropped down to the floor crying and begging for forgiveness.
“Hisako, I worry about you all the time you are my favourite student. I never want anything bad to happen to you. You are the smartest five year -old I have ever met; you are good with numbers and can see past a person. You need to remember there are bad people out there, if you go running away you could get kidnapped and if that happened all the happiness in my life would be taken away.”
“All of my happiness is gone, I don’t need happiness, happiness is fake it only covers up the reality of what is really going on.” This was being said with the most melancholic voice I could conjure inside of myself.
He looked pretty impressed, for a five year old to say this about life. “There is happiness; you just have to search for it, and when you find it you will be happy.”
“Happy, I cannot be happy my only family members are dead, gone forever I have nobody, I am an orphan, I know what happens to orphans in Japan. They end up living on the streets with no one.”
“I won’t let that happen to you, you will never live on the streets as long as I have a house to put you in.”
I was finished having nothing left to rebut I accepted my defeat.
I stood up, tears still running down my face and into my torn and semi blooded kimono. I walked towards Jyukaji-sensei and stared at him, I imagined I looked a lot like the girl out of that horror movie ‘The ring’. I told him to hold out his pinkie, and made him pinkie swear that he would never let anything happen to me, he accepted his task.
The butcher was just standing there arms folded leaning against the counter with a smile on his face.
“Can I call you two a taxi?”
“Oh no thank you we will catch the train home.” Jyukaji sensei said with a smile.
We walked out and I thanked the butcher for his hospitality.
“Jyukaji-sensei, I just wanted to say I am very sorry for running away today, I just was feeling so sad and mad. Will you please forgive me?.”
“I already have forgiven you, sure I was mad but I care about you, I did the same thing when my sister died in 1945 I was devastated, I was 7 at the time and I really was sad. She was a very lovely person, we used to cook with each other and tell ghost stories.”
“How old was she Jyukaji-sensei.”
“She was 8 years older than me, her name was Minoko. We were playing in a cornfield near our house in Nagasaki a week before the Americans blew it up. We were playing a game we made up called cat, dog and mouse. It was her turn to be the mouse. She had to run in the field and I had to find her. The next thing you see 3 American fighter jets flying over us showering bullets. I ran down the field avoiding any bullets hitting me. After they flew off I ran in the field screaming out my sisters’ name. I found her; she had been hit several times in the head and chest.”
“I am so sorry Jyukaji-sensei”
“It is ok, we had her funeral in the same cemetery we had your parents just because it was big and beautiful, she always used love the cherry blossoms, while we were having the funeral was when Nagasaki got bombed, in a way I see it as Minoko saving me and my families lives.
We walked into the unknown streets I had gotten us lost in, it didn’t take Jyukaji-sensei long to find our train station, we validated our tickets and sat down, I looked out the window and saw Mount Fuji covered in snow.
I fell asleep in Jyukaji-sensei’s lap.
The next time I woke up it was 1:00am, I walked to the toilet, peed, and got myself a drink, Jyukaji-sensei just got off the phone with someone, he looked very disappointed.
“Jyukaji-sensei, what is wrong?”
“Oh Hisako you gave me a fright, nothing is wrong, go back to bed you need your rest.”
I walked back to bed, Jyukaji had tucked me in kissed my forehead and turned out the light.
“Goodnight Sensei.”
“Goodnight Hisako.”
