2
TWELVE YEARS EARLIER
“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”
Sam and Aimi were playing in the backyard, surrounded by swirling growths of cherry tomato and strawberries. It was late afternoon and the sun, poised to drop beneath the horizon, had lost most of its heat. It was something to be grateful for. He could tolerate the sun, but he didn’t love it the way he knew Aimi and other children did.
He liked it out in the yard — here amongst the riotous knots of living things. The plants provided shelter from the raw gaze of the sun. The yard was so clustered with foliage that there was no danger of the neighbours seeing him which meant he didn’t have to wear his hat or a hood. He liked not having to wear anything on his head. It made him feel free — honest even.
Aimi sat opposite him, small and delicate and dressed in tiny overalls. He knew they probably shouldn’t be in here. If Hikari found out, they might get in trouble. He’d been told by his master that the plants shouldn’t be disturbed when they were growing but today … well, today he was just feeling a little rebellious.
They were playing sticky fingers. It was a simple game taught to him by Hikari two years earlier. He in turn was trying to teach it to Aimi with varying degrees of success. Three year olds, he had learnt, had short attention spans. She was quick to learn and had reflexes like a baby tigress, but she kept stopping to grab a tomato or strawberry which she popped into her mouth with a cheeky smile and small sigh of satisfaction. The juice of one or the other dribbled down her chin like blood.
He coaxed her back into the ready position. She placed the back of one of her hands against his palm, her other hand reversed so that her palm sat flat against the back of his. They moved their hands together in a gentle circle. Then one or the other would strike out. The object of the game was to keep in contact so that any aggressive move was always countered and blocked. He was winning but she had snuck in a few lightning quick blows.
Picking up the pace, Sam’s left hand darted out. Her hand stuck to his like glue and blocked it so he reversed the motion and struck with his right instead. He connected with her face in a light tap.
“I don’t want to play anymore.” She pouted at him.
Sam smiled. “Hikari told us we had to practise.”
“Don’t care,” she said grumpily. Aimi reached out for another cherry tomato. He followed the movement but it was just a feint, and felt the lightest of taps on his right cheek.
She laughed at him, but it wasn’t a mocking sound — more of a joyous, cheeky giggle that he found he loved. He smiled back at her as he stood up, and Aimi reached up in a motion that was all too familiar, fingering the tiny horns on his head. He let her do it. She liked to play with them and he didn’t mind the touch.
“Do you like having them?” she asked, not for the first time.
He shrugged, humouring her as he always did. “They’re ok, I guess.”
“They feel funny,” she said, looking up at him through her long black hair.
He nodded. He knew just how they felt, having touched them very much in the same way Aimi was doing now, over and over again. They felt like they looked — a horn. He’d handled the horns on a bull once and they felt exactly the same; the only difference was that his were glossy black instead of off-white.
“Why don’t I have any? Can I get some? Why do you have them?” She’d never asked these questions before. Now she fired them off so fast it made his head spin.
He answered the first two questions the best he could. “Because you don’t. No, probably not.”
The last question made his heart flutter nervously, but he answered anyway because it was Aimi.
“And I have them because I’m a demon,” he said.
Hikari called them in for dinner. The small, tightly-knit Japanese man waited for them on the back porch as they scampered inside. Sam could tell from his stern gaze that he knew they’d been in amongst the plants but he didn’t say anything. The gaze, as always, was enough admonishment for Sam.
They ate at the dinner table. It was Hikari’s tradition that the dinner table was a place of conversation. The TV and radio always remained off during these times. Sam vaguely remembered the lively and happy banter that Hikari and his wife had when she was still alive. He missed those times and her presence as much as Hikari.
“So, what happened at pre-school today?” Hikari asked Aimi. She shrugged in a way that made Sam want to laugh.
He didn’t though. He never laughed.
“Made some friends. Played some games.”
Hikari tried unsuccessfully to hide a chuckle. “What sort of games?”
“The usual,” she said, in between mouthfuls of rice and fish. “Tag, hide and seek. I made a sandcastle with Sue and Thomas in the sandpit. That was fun.”
“What else?” asked Hikari, steepling his fingers in front of his face.
Aimi sighed before answering. “Did some finger painting and I learned to count to ten.”
Hikari smiled. “Good.”
There was a momentary silence at the table, so Sam seized his chance.
“Sensei, why can’t I go to school?”
It was a question he’d wanted to ask ever since Aimi started going to pre-school. Before that, he had thought that it was normal for children to stay at home. His experience with other children was, after all, rather limited. Other than Aimi, Sam had only ever seen other kids from the house windows or on the occasional outing with Hikari, and even then, it had been from a distance. The few times that he’d left the house during the day, Hikari always made sure he was wearing something on his head. He’d had had very little proper interaction with other children — other people, in fact.
Sam felt pleased that he had finally plucked up the courage to ask. The question hung in the silence for a moment.
Hikari levered a piece of fish into his mouth with his chopsticks, chewed carefully and swallowed before answering.
“I would like you to, my son, but I think you know the answer to that question.”
Hikari was right. Sam did know the answer. For a boy aged five, Hikari had told him, he was more advanced than he should be. Hikari would know, too. He was once a school teacher himself.
The answer pained Sam. He couldn’t go to school because he was different. If the other children saw his horns and the blackness of his eyes, questions would be asked. Questions that if answered, would not be believed.
Hikari stopped eating and looked sadly at his ward. “I am truly sorry, my son. I know this is hard but you have another purpose. A greater purpose. Something far more important than playground games and making friends. I wish it wasn’t so, but it is.”
Something rebelled inside him. He knew his master spoke the truth, but it was still painful. He surged to his feet, knocking over his plate in the process. Shame brought a blush to his cheeks.
“May I be excused?” he asked stiffly. When Hikari nodded, he ran from the table to the security of his room.
