Spring Flower (Chapter 1: Sayonara Tokyo) Novel Chapter Assignment

Spring Flower

Chapter 1: Sayonara, Tokyo.

            “Let’s eat. Itadakimasu,” Haruka’s mother, Natsumi clasped her hands together as if she was praying.

            “Itadakimasu,” Haruka’s father, Harold and the three children mimicked. The family of five snuggled at a kotatsu, a low wooden table with a built-in heater at the bottom and a futon slit through between the table top and the table frame. Haruka, the eldest of the three children, was the first to get a ladleful of ozoni, a soup containing mochi rice cakes and other ingredients such as veggies and chicken which Japanese people only eat on New Year’s Day. She poured it into her favourite red and black bowl. She crossed her legs comfortably under the thick, blue futon. Twins Megumi and Nozomi had a chopstick war over a plump white mocha rice cake floating on the surface of the pot.

            “Move over! That’s mine!” Megumi snapped.

            “There’s more in the pot, dummy! This one’s mine!” Nozomi yelled.

Haruka sighed and ate her meal like a good girl. She was the apple of her parents’ eye. She scored straight A’s in every test and wowed her family, teachers, and classmates with her beautiful paintings. Her specialty was her cherry blossom art. She would create the perfect clumps of dainty pink flowers blooming proudly in a cool spring background.

“This is delicious, Mom,” Haruka smiled after nibbling a piece of mochi rice cake from her bowl of steaming hot soup.

            Natsumi looked at her British husband Harold who sat next to her. She nudged her elbow lightly against his right arm. The English teacher looked up from his bowl of Ozoni.

He finally put his chopsticks down and said, “Everyone, I have something to tell you.”

            Haruka placed her chopsticks down and looked at her father eagerly. Megumi and Nozomi were still clinking their chopsticks against their target.

Natsumi suddenly raised her voice sharply, “Yamette!”

The two 5-years-old girls immediately froze and stared at their mother with eyes wide as saucers. Harold cleared his throat and looked at his beloved family with his blue eyes.

 “What if I say…we start 2015 with…a whole new chapter of the Clark memoir.”

The children stared at their father blankly. Natsumi nudged her elbow against his arm again.

            “What are you talking about, Dad?” Haruka asked.

            Harold took a deep breath and replied calmly, “We won’t be living here anymore.”

            “We’ll move to another neighbourhood?” Haruka asked.

            “Um…not exactly,” Harold started to stammer.

            Natsumi finally said, “We’re moving to Canada.”

The room got so quiet you could hear the humming of the heater from the kotatsu. Haruka just stared at them.

            “Canada?” Megumi and Nozomi repeated curiously.

            “That’s so far,” Haruka said.

            “Yes, it is really far but I’m sure you all will love your new home there,” Harold replied.

            “But why? Why do we have to move?”

Harold and Natsumi looked at each other for a few seconds.

Harold explained, “I got a new job in Vancouver.”

            “A job?”

            “Yeah! The cram school in Chiba city has gone out of business. I no longer teach English there.”

            “You mean you got fired?”

            “I’ll still teach English, but to immigrants. The salary is not too bad either.”

            Haruka turned to her mother, “Do you know about this, Mom?”

            “Yeah, for a while now,” Natsumi replied.

            “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Haruka asked.

            “Your Dad thinks that it would be fun to make our plan a surprise,” her mother said, “In fact, I got a job there too.”

            Haruka’s jaw dropped, “You too, Mom?”

            Natsumi nodded, “Do you still remember Ojisan? Uncle Junya?”

            “Of course!”

Her mind flashed to a memory when she was a six-year-old girl in a pair of high ponytails. Uncle Junya had given her a piggyback ride under a night sky exploding with colours at Tokyo Bay. His glossy grey beard stood out to her the most like Santa Claus.

            “Well, it turns out that he has moved to Vancouver not long ago, and he has just opened a sushi restaurant close to his neighbourhood. He tells me that he’s had a pretty rough start and he asked me to help him out with his business.”

            “Why can’t he ask someone else?”

            “Because he knows that I need a real job. I’ve been cleaning the house and watching over you three for 11 years so…why not?”

Haruka turned from her parents back to her still-full bowl of ozoni. She was looking forward to her final year at her elementary school. What about her final year as the top student in class? What about the mini best bento lunch box competitions with her friends? She was so ready for going back to school. However, at that moment, she was not too sure.

            “Haruka, sweetheart, I know that you don’t want to miss your sixth year at Tsubana Elementary School, but we thought it would be better for us to move to Vancouver for better opportunities,” Harold said.

“Canada!” Megumi and Nozomi shared grins of excitement.

“Think about it, Haruka dear. You’ll go to a new school, make some new friends, and explore more exciting things.”

“New school? New friends? Dad, I don’t want to leave my friends here!” Haruka’s voice cracked. She tried hard not to cry in front of her family.

Harold continued, “We know, sweetheart, but you’ll also find friends that are as great as the ones here.”

Haruka placed her chopsticks down. Her feet were slightly numb but she got up anyways. Her eyes were covered by her bangs.

            “Gochisoosama.”

            “Really, Haruka? You haven’t even finished your meal,” her mother exclaimed.

            Haruka mumbled, “I’m not hungry.”

            “Haruka! Wait!” Harold’s eyebrows furrowed.

But Haruka made her way upstairs and locked herself in her room. She didn’t switch the fluorescent light on. It took a couple of seconds for her to crash onto her bed and sob. Her Cardcaptor Sakura bedspread was cold against her body and her cotton pillow was stained with tears.

*          *          *

Haruka combed her hair with her fingers while she looked through the small rear view mirror of her mother’s Toyota. The only person she felt like talking to was her best friend, Michiro. Michiro was her comforter.  Michiro was always there for her whenever Haruka had lost her cheerful, giddy self. Now that she’s about to leave her dear friend, she couldn’t bear to picture Michiro hiding her tears away from her sight when she left.

There was no turning back now. She knew she had to tell her.

            “So what time do you want me to pick you up?” her mother, Natsumi said as she parked her car in front of the gate of Michiro’s double-storey house. Haruka got out of the car without answering her mother. She walked into the house where an 11-year-old girl with a neat bob haircut had just finished preparing two plates of green tea cakes. Her heart-shaped face lit up when Haruka walked in.

            “Konichiwa, Haruka-chan!” Michiro grinned.

            Haruka replied, “Konichiwa.”

Michiro’s smile faded when she saw Haruka’s face hung low.

            “Is something the matter?”

Haruka looked at her with tears rolling down. She immediately knew she couldn’t hold back her sadness any longer.

            Michiro, as usual, was kind enough to lend an ear; she even understood Haruka through her sobbing. When she finished, Haruka looked up to see Michiro weeping. Throughout her life, Haruka had never seen her best friend cry.

            They hugged and cried till they began to regain their composure.

            “This is unfair! Fukooheina!” Michiro blurted out.

            “I know right?” Haruka agreed.

            “You’re not really gonna go, are you?”

            “I wish I could stay, but I know they wouldn’t let me.”

            “Well that just suck,” Michiro sighed, “Do you have a suitcase for me to squeeze in? I bet your family will be delighted to have me in your trip.”

             Haruka laughed and rolled out of the couch. She then reached out the coffee table for a plate of green tea cake.

            “When is your flight?” Michiro asked.

            Haruka thought for a moment, “January 15, I think.”

            “We should hang out as much as we can before you leave.”

            “Definitely.”

            “How long do you think you’re gonna be in Vancouver?”

            “I have no idea. Hopefully not too long.”

            “It won’t be the same without you here, Haruka. Higashi Sensei and the rest of our class will be really sad to lose their top student too.”

            “Yeah…I’m really gonna miss showing them my cherry blossom art as well.”

            “Oh yeah…they won’t be getting new Sakura paintings to be displayed on the bulletin board anymore.”

            “Yeah…”

*          *          *

Aside from saying goodbye to her elementary school and packing up her things, Haruka had chosen the perfect place as her last hangout with Michiro.

 Haruka and Michiro raced each other down the gravel road of a park. Haruka’s face battled against the frosty breath of Tokyo winter. When they sprinted past steel street lights and bald leafless trees, Haruka replayed a memory when her 7-year-old self ran past the same background with Michiro. They were jogging without knowing each other at first, but as they realized that they were heading the same direction and running at the same speed, they found themselves racing down the winding road. It was like they could read each other’s minds that they were planning to reach to the end of the road.

The memory faded shortly after they both came to the “finish line”, they caught their breath before gazing at a brilliant galaxy of diamonds above them. A large lake was a few yards in front of them. There were only four street lights around the circle of trees, but their white bulbs flashed a crystal clear reflection of the stars onto the water.

“It’s been a while since we came here huh?” Michiro smiled.

“Yeah, good times!” Haruka agreed. “Do you wanna come with us to the airport tomorrow? My Dad can pick you up before we head to the terminal. ”

“I would love to, but I can’t,” Michiro said.

“What? Why?”

“I have a piano lesson tomorrow.”

“Aw man…can you reschedule it?”

“Nope. No can do…You know how my mom would react if I postponed the lesson without a good reason.”

Haruka and Michiro had their eyes fixed on the stars. Haruka pretended to connect the dots from a small clump of the stars to form a huge cherry blossom flower. Suddenly, she saw herself in a completely white background with a cherry blossom tree in the centre. Its branches were full of bright pink flowers and Haruka thought that she could see a ring of sparkles swirling gently around the tree.

            Haruka blinked, the vision disappeared in seconds. She looked back into the sky but couldn’t remember where she had traced her tree.

            “By the way, I want you to have this,” Michiro said.

Haruka looked as her best friend fished in her jeans pocket for a necklace with a heart-shaped ruby locket.

            “Oh, Michiro! You shouldn’t have!” Haruka gasped.

            “I just hope you won’t forget about me.”

            “Michiro, I will never forget you! Ever!”

Haruka took the necklace from Michiro’s hand and put it on. The locket sparkled just like the stars.

            “Promise that you’ll Facetime and Snapchat me every day, okay?” Michiro asked.

            “Absolutely!”

They paused for a moment. Michiro sighed sadly, “Everything won’t be the same without you here, Haruka-chan. What if we won’t be best friends anymore?”

Haruka took a deep breath and looked at her in the eyes.

            “Michiro, believe me, I don’t even want to go but I have no choice. I’m sure that I will come back here and I will see my best friend again.”

            “Pinky swear?” Michiro put out her right pinky.

            “Pinky swear!” Haruka wrapped her left pinky around Michiro’s.

The two girls shared a hug before racing back to the park entrance. The vision of the cherry blossom tree was still in Haruka’s mind. As she took one last gaze at the sky, she managed to forget about it and enjoyed her last stroll with Michiro all the way back home.

*          *          *

            “Ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready for take-off. Please be seated,” a flight attendant announced from the PA system.

            “Haruka, do you want to sit by the window?” Harold asked with a smile.

Haruka, slipped to the window seat on the right without looking at her father. She had her bright pink Beats headphones on with Ariana Grande’s ‘Break Free” blaring into her ears. She didn’t want to turn to her left where the rest of her family obviously had excitement written all over their faces. Even the twins stopped fighting for once.

            Haruka wanted to believe that it wasn’t entirely goodbye. She didn’t want to cry but she couldn’t hold back her tears. As the Japan Airlines plane left the runway, she hid her face with her hair and cried silently. Even the waterworks from the grey clouds above accompanied her sadness.

            Haruka whispered, “Sayonara , Tokyo.”