A Girl's Turmoil

Extra 3 - A Detective's Background

A certain young girl roamed around the house, playing a little chase with her other elementary friends. Giggles and playful chats scream from every room, all the while the parents do not mind their play-through and continue chatting with their neighbor. Not just a little "tag, you're it!" Game. The young girl is playing cops and criminals with her friends. And she is playing her role as one of the police officers in the game.

She and the children sprint all over the house, acting that they arrest criminals if caught with a bit of rope. The others pretend to shoot at each other with their bare fingers and take cover at any cover they can find. Childish laughs emitted along the way, the little girl was soon called over by her father, to which she responded and sprinted back at him with a small toy gun in her hand. The father then kneels before her.

"Sumida, my girl," the father said. "Could you put that toy gun down and help me in the kitchen?"

"Oh? Are we making a pie?" the little girl asked.

"Your favorite, my darling," the father replied with a smile.

The little girl takes a deep breath. "Apple pie?"

"Yes!"

"Yay!" the little girl dropped her toy gun and immediately ran to the kitchen

A couple of chuckles emit from the father's mouth, picking up the toy gun and catching up with his precious sweetie child. On the other hand, the mother was still in the living room to talk with their neighbors. Entering the kitchen, he finds his daughter is already sitting on the chair, and before her, the dough and components for the filling.

"Sumida," the father called as he walked over to that counter. "Help me with the dough."

"Hai, Otō-chan," Sumida nodded, soon grabbing a small part of the dough and begin rolling it on the floured counter.

The father smiles warmly at his precious girl, taking a circular ceramic bowl onto the counter and filling its base with the dough. Looking back to his daughter, she had made several dough strips, small and large, for the roof of the pie. The father even assists her in decorating the pie. As they are almost finished with it, the daughter then asks.

"Otō-chan."

"What is it, Sumi-chan?"

She looks at him with starry eyes. "Is working as a police officer is awesome?"

"It is, Sumi-chan," the father replied. "But it's also hard."

"Why is it hard, Otō-chan?" the innocent girl asked back. "Do catching bad guys is hard?"

"It's not all about catching bad guys, Sumida," the father replied. "As police officers, we also have to do investigations to bring justice to the bad guys. But most of all, we keep the peace, not just for ourselves, but for everyone."

"Oooooh," the girl looked quite astonished. "Investigation? Peace?"

"Investigation is like what you always do, Sumi-chan," the father playfully booped her nose. "Always finding interesting things in unlikely places. As for peace, well, when no one and nothing wants to give us a hard life."

After finishing the decorations, the father places the pie into the microwave and sets it to cook. He then turns to find his daughter holding something in her hands, a piece of paper.

"Here is for you, Otō-chan!"

The father accepts the paper and reads it. A childish abstract drawing of the father himself and the daughter, one in blue uniform and another covered underneath a brown coat. He couldn't help but smile at such images of the girl's mind.