3
B y the time Kara left the school grounds for the short walk home, the afternoon shadows had grown very long and a crisp chill touched the air. It might officially be spring, but on the first day of April, the memory of winter still lingered. Once again she found herself breathless at the beauty of Ama-no-Hashidate. Late in the day, the pine-studded causeway had an almost mythical aura around it, as though if she went for a walk among those trees, she might encounter things that now existed only in ancient legends.
The day had felt even longer than she anticipated and Kara had been very tired when she left school. But with the cool air and the blue sky and the fading sunlight, she drew in deep breaths and felt like running. All of her preparation had paid off. The days would be hard work, but Kara knew now that she could handle it.
More than anything, she wanted to immerse herself in her new home, to learn the streets and the houses and walk the shore of the bay, to go into Miyazu City and visit the shops, and to discover the history of local prayer shrines and festivals.
Unfortunately, she had homework.
But she’d have all year to explore, and she’d already made a start. Right now, school had to come first, especially since a lot of the students she’d met were also attending cram schools- juku -which meant that while she now headed home for dinner, they had gone into the city for more school. The idea made her shudder. Kara wanted to have the full experience of what it meant to attend school in Japan, but she understood now that it would be impossible. At some point, she’d return to the United States, either for her senior year of high school or for college. No matter what she did, she would never feel the kind of pressure that her classmates felt.
As she started up the path to the front of their small house, she smiled to herself. Cram school. The idea made her cringe. She’d live with the guilt.
“Hi, sweetie,” her father called as she walked in.
Kara found him in the kitchen chopping vegetables. She dropped her backpack and gave him a short hug, picking up a slice of onion and eating it raw.
“Hey. How was your day?” she asked.
He took a sip from a cup of sake, then went back to chopping. “Good, but exhausting.” Rob Harper grinned. “I’ll never learn all of their names.”
Kara crossed her arms. “Oh, come on. Don’t give up already. It’s only the first day.”
“What about you?” he asked, turning to face her. He studied her intently. “Was it everything you hoped it would be?”
“Everything I hoped and everything I feared.”
Her father looked at her in alarm, but Kara brushed his concern away.
“No, no, it was fine. I don’t mean, like, utter disaster feared. It’s just so weird being the only outsider.”
“Were the kids that bad to you?” her father asked.
“Some,” she said. “But I made a couple of friends today. At least, I think they’ll be friends, given some time.”
Picking up his sake cup, he nodded. “It’s a start. What about school itself? Any trouble understanding the teachers?”
“Not enough to be a problem. I really like the art teacher. And I think I’m going to love learning social studies from a different perspective. Now if I can just figure out what club I want to join, I’ll be pretty much set.”
Her father turned on the stove and poured a bit of sesame oil into the pan. “Right, right,” he said, chopping up garlic. “Did you see anything you liked?”
“Too many things.” Kara took a step away as he dropped the garlic into the pan. “It’s an interesting way to go about it, almost like a career fair. After o-soji, all of the clubs met in the gym, and I just kind of wandered around, talking to different people. It stinks that there’s no photography club, but I guess I take enough pictures. I wouldn’t mind doing judo or working on the yearbook. Miho, one of the girls I met today, does Noh theater, which is totally fascinating to me. But Sakura, her roommate, belongs to the calligraphy club, and that’s pretty interesting, too. The only thing I’m sure of at this point is that I don’t want to play soccer.”
Her father sliced raw chicken on a dish, but he paused to brush all of the chopped vegetables into the pan.
“Why’s that?” he asked as he scraped the chicken in as well.
Kara wrinkled her nose, only partially because of the smell of frying garlic. “Snotty girls. I mean, I guess they were okay. But you can always tell popular girls by their attitude. That requires zero translation. I couldn’t stomach those girls at home, so I don’t think I’m going to like the subtitled version any better.”
Her dad blinked, brows knitting. “Meow?”
“Was that catty? I guess that was catty. But my cup isn’t running over with regret.” She shrugged. “Sorry. I’m not, like, a diva or something. But I don’t want to be anybody’s token gaijin girl. I’m a little odd, so I’ll stick with the odd ones.”
“Does that go for the boys, too?”
“Huh?”
“Just wondering if you met any boys today.”
Kara arched an eyebrow. “None worth mentioning,” she said, then thought better of it. “Actually, there was one-”
“Aha!” He pointed at her with the wooden fork he’d been using.
“No ‘aha.’ I’m not looking for a boyfriend. Hachiro was just nice to me. He’s this big, friendly kid, sort of like a Great Dane puppy, already huge but hasn’t grown into his size yet.”
And, yes, great smile, pretty charming, she thought. She remembered the little jump her heart had given when Hachiro had smiled at her the first time, but she wasn’t about to mention that to her father.
“Observant girl. You picked up a lot on your first day,” he said.
“You taught me well.” As her father took another sip of sake, Kara studied him. He did seem awfully upbeat after a long day. Drinking sake. He might even have been humming when she came into the house, now that Kara thought about it. “What about you? Anyone catch your eye in the teachers’ room?”
Her father only smiled and reached for plates.
“Dad?” Kara prodded.
“Do you want some sake?”
Her mouth curled up into an eeeew face. Sake-nasty stuff. “You’re dodging the question.”
“I’ve already said you were observant.”
Kara laughed and poked him. “Which one is it? No, wait. Is it Miss Aritomo? She’s pretty and really nice. It’s her, isn’t it?”
Rob Harper nodded, surrendering before Kara had really begun the needling in earnest. “She’s beautiful. But I barely spoke to her. And you know I’m not looking.”
Kara’s smile vanished. All the good humor, the excitement after their first day, was sucked from the room.
“Hey,” her father said, reaching out to touch her face. “I didn’t mean to-”
“There’s nothing wrong with looking, Dad.”
Kara’s friend Anthony had lost his father to cancer when they were in eighth grade, and she had other friends whose parents were divorced. Most, if not all of them, had serious issues with the idea of their parents getting romantically involved with someone new. At first, she had felt the same way. But her father kept to himself too much, and when Kara thought about what her mother would have wanted for him, it gave her an entirely different perspective.
“She wouldn’t have wanted you to be alone,” Kara added.
He nodded. “I know,” he said and bent to kiss the top of her head. “I know, sweetie. This is our new beginning, right? But it’s only day one. I might need more time to adjust than you.”
Kara forced herself to smile. “Who’s adjusting? I’m freaking out.”
The moment passed, and dinner was ready. Kara went to change-she made a habit out of dropping food on herself at the worst times, and she didn’t want to stain her uniform. As soon as she returned, they sat down to eat.
