Running Away to Home

By: Rebecca A. “Sinead” Fahey-Leigh

Chapter Two

“So this is the kimono shop.”

“Hai,” Eishin replied.

Ohisa was already ahead, looking to find a festive kimono. They weren’t the only young people who were looking for a new kimono for next week’s cherry-blossom festival. Ohisa turned to look at Faith. “Shinrei-chan! Come! Look at this one!”

Faith walked over, and saw the fabric. It was pure-white with light pink blossoms swirling around the hems and sides. She rested her fingers on the silk. “Why would someone give this up?”

Ohisa looked at one of the attendants, who nodded, allowing her to pick the kimono and hold it out. “There. That rip right on that seam.”

Faith chuckled. “Simple fix.”

“You . . . sew?”

“Yes. I actually did costumes, cosplay, for my friends.”

“Aa! I have found my soul’s sister at long last! And to find that she’s a gaijin!”

“Yes, yes, aho gaijin, also called baka.”

“Baka is putting it harshly,” Eishin said, standing behind Faith.

The American shrugged. “Not really, for those from America. Baka is one of the first insults we learn, and it’s a relatively mild one at that. But I know that at least here you use aho, and in Osaka they use baka.”

“Well, it is a start,” Ohisa said, smiling. “And remember that TÇkyÇ is better than Osaka. Anyway, now I think we should find you the rest of the outfit. I can fix the seam, if you like.”

“If you have thread and a needle at home, I can get it done on my own if you don’t mind, but thank you for offering,” Faith replied, reaching out and touching the silk again. “So what else is there?”

“It’s still a little cold out, so we should find you another kimono to go under this one, even though this one is lined, preferably one that’s just this shade of pink, or if not, then another white one. Aah, Kirichi?” She walked off with the kimono in hand, showing the tear and then started pointing to the blossoms. The employee smiled, nodding, and beckoned for Faith to come over. Ohisa translated. “We have to find your sock size, since you might like having warm feet, and we have to choose the obi.”

“Okay.” Faith nodded to the attendant. “ArigatÇ.”

The young woman bowed in return, and the girls followed her. Eishin smiled, then turned and went to where the men’s kimono were, just browsing, knowing that he had more than enough at home, since he worked at the hotel and all. But he still wanted something that could look decent and didn’t have any stains from cooking for guests or cleaning and polishing the wooden floors. Sighing, he pulled one possible choice out, but then refolded it and replaced it, seeing that the color wouldn’t suit him.

A hand reached around him, touching a midnight-blue kimono with black, dark grey and white stripes tracing vertically down it. He turned to see Faith smiling, passing him with tabi in her other hand and following his sister and the attendant. He pulled the kimono out and followed them, seeing that they were facing a wall of obi sashes for women. His sister was saying something to Faith, who asked, “Sorry?”

“Oh. I was talking in Japanese again. I’m getting used to you. Please forgive.”

“No, it’s fine. But what were you saying?”

“That you might want to go with that sky-blue one there.”

The attendant pulled it out, but Faith looked over at the reds, and touched a shimmering maroon one. The attendant smiled, nodded, and said something to her. Eishin chuckled. “She said that you have the eye of someone who knows colors well. I don’t doubt it at all if you really are someone into cosplay.”

They went over and chose a pair of black-lacquered geta with plain crimson straps, then went up to the counter, the attendant tallying up the total. Ohisa made several noises of contempt and Faith saw her actually start to haggle with the attendant about the price. Both started laughing, and Eishin said something in Japanese, his sister watching him strangely for a moment before nodding. He brought Faith over to the extreme back of the store, where there were piles of cheap yukata, or cotton summer kimono, with some flaw or another. The prices were ridiculously cheap, so the lighting wasn’t as bright as the rest of the store. He looked at the price range that was upon the table. “Right. My sister managed to get us a break. She does part-time work here when they need her help, so she managed to get an employee discount for this. That means that you can get some of these. My sister went to get you another pair of geta, ones that aren’t as ornate, as well as a package of cheap cotton tabi.”

“What’s all this for?”

“Your job. You’re going to be working with me at a ryokan that’s just down the street from us. I’m sorry that you weren’t told last night, but we ended up talking about so many other things.”

Faith nodded, knowing that a ryokan was a traditional Japanese hotel. “So I have to dress appropriately?”

“Yes. You’ll be answering the calls that come in from America and Europe, as well as helping with cleaning and other jobs between calls. I’m one of the . . . waiters?”

“Wait-staff, we call them in America.”

“That, then. I help clean and cook, since I know most of the traditional dishes. Since you also sew, you might be helping with small tears and rips in the yukata of some of the other wait-staff, as well as the yukata that the ryokan supply.”

“Does anyone know how to sew?”

“Not really.”

“Then I’ll most certainly be willing to help.”

“You need a different yukata for every day for a full week. The winter clothing you can get later, but it’s usually really hot in this area during summer.”

“It’s like Boston: freezing in the winter, scorching in the summer.”

“So you know the climate.”

“Generally. Massachusetts is a harsh place.”

Eishin smiled, nodding his head, and then looked over the yukata, saying, “Since you helped me with the kimono that I will wear for the sakura-viewing, may I help your choice as well?” Faith was taken aback. He seemed really grateful for the help. As if he knew what she was thinking, he said over his shoulder, “I do not have your or my sister’s skill in matching colors, and I cannot seem to dress the right way by anyone’s standards, your help is really appreciated. Ohisa said that the kimono you chose would really suit me, making me seem taller and thinner by the stripes, and the color would match well with my hair and all.”

“Since it’s blue-black and the kimono is dark blue.”

“Hai. And I have a white obi and formal geta.” He smiled. “But I know what kind of yukata that the girls at the ryokan like to wear, and what kind they’re required to wear.”

“What do you mean?”

Eishin started going though the yukata, and pulled a few out. One was a solid light pink, one was light green with a bamboo pattern in a darker green upon it, and one had a flowery motif. “They ask that you have a plain one that can be used for cleaning on Sundays, like this pink one.”

“Usually I’m not one for pink.”

He grinned. “I know. I saw your face when I pulled this out. That sky-blue one will do.”

“Good,” she said, pulling it out. And saw a stain. “Actually, I think I might have to go with the pink after all.”

“There are two more tables filled like this one is,” he chuckled, “so don’t worry. When you’re assigned a day to do simply maid work, which is greeting guests and helping them settle in and all, you’d most likely use this hana design.”

“Hana . . . flower?”

“Hai. I knew you’d understand that one.”

“ArigatÇ. And what about the take design?”

Pleasantly surprised that she knew the word for bamboo, he replied, “This is anything in between both.”

“How many will I need?”

“Seven, to begin. These two tables are the really cheap ones, while that table is slightly better. I’m sorry, but I can’t do any better than these two.”

“Eishin, don’t worry. In America, kimono are ridiculously expensive, since they have to be imported and all. And we don’t have second-hand stores like this where we can get decent ones for a cheap price. I’m the one thankful that I’m being gifted with nine kimono in one day. I really have to repay this sometime to you.”

“No, really, you don’t have to.”

“Please, Eishin. I really feel that I should. It wouldn’t be good manners to simply take all this without doing something in return.”

He sighed, then nodded. “All right. But not for a while.”

“Why is that?”

He grinned. “To make it seem to my family that I’m doting upon you.”

“DÇshite desu ka?”

Serious now, he replied, “Because my father has doubts about my intent upon adding to my family line since I cannot seem to keep a girlfriend. I’m sorry I did not tell you.”

Faith looked at him for a moment, then walked to the next table and looked over the folded kimono. She pulled out a royal blue silk one that didn’t look like it belonged. An iridescent white dragon curled up around the kimono, its head upon the right shoulder, the tail curled around the bottom hem. Its flaw was that the bottom of the long sleeves were water-stained. That could be fixed easily.

She turned to look at Eishin, who was watching her silently. After looking around them a final time, as she had done while walking down to the next table, she walked back with the kimono and leaned slightly closer to the young man than before. “It’s because of your sister, isn’t it.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighed. “Your sister isn’t heterosexual.”

“Aa . . . hai. How . . . ?”

“A few of my friends back home are the same as her.”

“She . . . thought that you . . .”

“I know. I could feel her watching me.”

Eishin sighed, a weight somehow off of his shoulders. And then his vision blurred. Faith’s hand wiped a tear away softly. “It’ll be all right. I know that you’re hurting about it. I can see that when you look at her.”

“She’s my twin . . . and she’s always been close to me . . .”

“What are you saying?” she asked gently.

“It might be my fault, since I was her only sibling and she never had a sister to . . .”

“She has one now,” Faith replied gently. “Me. You heard her. And I’m honored.”

Sighing, trying to wipe his eyes quickly, Eishin replied, “But . . .”

“It is not your fault,” Ohisa’s voice said in their birth tongue as she walked over to her brother and Faith. “Don’t think that it is. You know that I’ve had boyfriends before, but . . . I didn’t like it. And how did she know?”

“Friends of hers,” Eishin replied sullenly in the same language. He sighed deeply, then remembered where they were and winced, trying to rub the tears away, ashamed of them.

Faith chuckled kindly, handing him a package of tissues that she had fished out of her handbag. He took them with a quick nod, and Ohisa said, “Everything else is waiting upon the yukata that she gets for work. It’s all up at the counter. I’ll let you and her finish talking.” She stopped, looked at Faith, and asked in English, “So are you as worried about me as my brother is?”

Faith shook her head. “Nah. Don’t like the decision that you made, but it is your choice, as it was my high-school-friends’ choice. But we can always be friends.”

“You don’t mind?”

“No.”

“But you don’t like the choice.”

“It’s your choice, and I don’t have a say in it.”

Ohisa smiled. “Thank you for understanding. Not many people do.”

Faith bowed slightly, more like nodding her head as she had seen Eishin and Ohisa do. The female twin walked back up to the counter, leaving them. “She didn’t seem like she was happy that I knew.”

“Not many people do understand.” Eishin sighed, then looked at his watch once before looking back at the clothing. “And I hope that you understand why I’m doing this.”

“I mean nothing to you,” she said quietly. “I’m a pawn.”

Wincing, he muttered, “Machigaeta,” and sighed again. “Sumimasen, Faith. Sumimasen. I did not mean to make it seem that way. That is . . . it could not be more of a lie, if you will forgive my words.” He sighed again. “And I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you earlier. I . . . I do not want you to be angry at me. I really do want to help you in any way that I can. I want you to be comfortable.”

The Japanese young man sighed, and shrugged, out of words. Faith wasn’t, thus saying to him, “I know what you’re saying, now. And I . . . I’m thankful that you want to look out for me. My only question is why?”

He smiled. “I’m not sure that you recognize me. And I know that you wouldn’t know my voice, either. But I was the one you told that you were coming to Japan, seven months ago.”

“You’re . . .”

“Hai. You met me as YÇkai-tora.”

“And your . . . your sister’s . . .”

“YÇsei-koneko.”

“Oh . . . oh my gosh . . . I . . . I never thought that I’d find you . . .”

He smiled kindly. “And now I’ve been a jerk. Gomen-nasai, Yume-arashi-no-ken. Sumimasen, kudasai.”

Turning her head back to face him, she smiled. “Haven’t I always told you to call me by one of those? Did you seriously just say my entire pen-name?”

“Hai.”

“You . . .” Faith couldn’t get much else out, she was starting to laugh so hard. Sighing, smiling, she finally held up the white dragon kimono. “What do you think?”

“Beautiful. Good eye,” he said, smiling. “Beautiful eyes, too.”

“You!” she said, her cheeks reddening. “Ugh! Guys never change! Fine . . . now let me pay for this one myself, will you?”

“Hai, hai! I promise!”

“Better! Now, what ones would be good for working in?”

Another of Ohisa’s friends, also another girl she had graduated with and a co-worker, snuck back to where the female twin was waiting behind the counter, looking over the kimono that had just arrived in a donation from some old lady’s estate. She had apparently shopped here a few times before dying and had loved the people there, so she willed all but a few of her kimono back to be sold again. The remaining ones had been inherited to female descendants. Ohisa looked up, smirking, saying in Japanese, “Well, Kiri-chi?”

“Hah! I think he likes her.”

“Kawaii!” the girl operating the register said as she rang a customer through.

“It really is! Because he seems to be his normal self around her, unlike when he was around his previous girlfriends,” Takayama Kiritani replied deviously, almost too cheerily. “And he called her . . . something. A long name that sounds like it was from the feudal days.”

“Can you remember it?”

“Uh . . . the-sword’s-dreaming-storm, I think.”

“Wh-what? Are you kidding me?”

“No! Not at all! Is something wrong?”

Ohisa blinked, then replied softly, smiling, “No. It’s just that . . .” Her smile widened. “She’d be good with him.”

“Really.”

“Really.”

“Good,” the girl at the register said.

“Why?”

“Because I think she’s cute with him, too.”

The two girls laughed as Kiritani just looked away, unable to share in the merriment. Her heart tugged in her chest. All too soon, however, Ohisa’s twin and Faith came up. Ohisa leaned upon the counter, watching Faith for a moment. “So. Arashi-rin. Why didn’t you tell him that you were coming sooner?”

Faith’s eyes widened slightly, and she smiled, then gave into a full-hearted laugh, before replying, “Because I was going to email him when I got here, YÇsei.”

“You’re pathetic.”

“Yeah, but I’m a pathetic romantic, you should remember!”

“Hai, so desu.”

“Ara-chan?”

Faith smiled. He had started calling her that before they had even left the store. “Hai, Tora-chan?”

Grinning at his nickname, he asked, “Can I enter?”

“I’m in the bath.”

“I won’t look. I just left something in there.”

“All right.”

“You didn’t lock the door?”

“. . . you can lock that thing?”

Laughing, entering quickly and turning so that he could give Faith her privacy, he replied, “Yes. It’s up at the top of the door.”

“And you tell me this after you walked in on me yesterday.”

“You like baths, apparently,” Eishin replied, reaching and managing to grip the bottle of cologne he had forgotten in the bathroom after leaving for cram school.

“I’ve been on a plane with people who smelled like rotten onions and eggs for over fourteen hours.”

“Aa, that would do it,” he replied, at the door again. “Tomorrow is your first day, hai?”

“It is.”

“I’ll walk you in, then. I don’t have to be in until later on that day, so I’ll be able to help you get to know the people, and translate for a few people.”

“Thank you.”

“Do itashimashite.” He left, closing the door behind him. Faith sighed, then looked up at the ceiling. After a moment, she got out of the tub, drying off thoroughly before dressing again. Her internal clock was still struggling to keep up with the time-zone, but she was feeling better today than she had in a while. Once out of the bathing room, she walked back into the room that she was in.

Someone was in there.

She opened the door, letting it swing inwards.

The teenager stilled his movements. He was gaijin to both her and Eishin’s separate peoples. Opening her mouth, she yelled, “Eishin!”

The boy managed to get past her, his hands holding some of her belongings in his hands, crushed against his chest, but in two quick strides she grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him backwards, pressing two fingers against a pressure-point, keeping his back against the floor. Eishin was there a moment later, and he pried the teenager’s fingers off of the purse and money that hadn’t yet been changed into en, or yen, as it was known on the international market. It was all in American dollars, and there was enough of it to last Faith a month, barely more.

A man walked up behind Fath and Eishin, and growled down at the boy in Japanese, “You are in trouble like never before. Eishin, please tell her to let him go.”

Eishin looked up at the man, then said in English, “Faith, he won’t run, now. Let him up.” She did, and turned so that she would be able to catch him again, while watching the man. Eishin indicated his father. “This is my father, Teragin ShÇgo-san.”

“Hajimemashite, Teragin-san,” Faith said, bowing her head stiffly to Eishin’s father, her blood boiling at the fact that she couldn’t pound the pee out of the thief. But she respected the tone of his voice, and knew that he was a powerful man.

He nodded in return, then said to his son, “I’ve already called the police. They’ll bring this gaijin back with them and deport him.”

“I’m here on business,” the youth growled out.

“Yeah, of the stealing sort,” Eishin growled back. He looked at Faith. “My father will take care of things from here. Please, back this way?”

Faith followed Eishin as Teragin-san gripped the youth’s arm and escorted him roughly to the kitchen. Eishin guided Faith back into her room, then closed the door and sighed, leaning against it. “You’ve got to have some speed, catching him like that. You’re the first one who’s been able to do it. He outran everyone else.”

“Are you saying that he’s been thieving off of people from here before?”

“Yeah. You know how the rules are.”

“Unfortunately. You’re not responsible for any stolen goods.”

“Hai.”

After a short time of silence, Eishin said, “My mother invited you to dinner with us. She said that she knows how Americans like food, but she apologizes because she only learned American and European breakfasts and not dinners.”

“Oh, gosh, Eishin, she shouldn’t worry about it.”

The door opened and that very woman walked in, bowing slightly. “Dinner is soon.”

“DÇmo arigatÇ gozaimashita, Teragin-san.”

“Iie, do itashimashite.” She turned and spoke to her son at length, then bowed again and left the room.

Eishin smiled. “She told me that she was just starting it now, but she wanted to hear your answer. She’s never really cooked for an international guest before, but she thought that you were a nice girl, and she still thinks so.” He sat beside her on her bed, setting down the nearly-stolen things by her hand, seeing her shove them into her bag without looking, then rest her hand upon his briefly, looking up into his face intently. Without thinking, he whispered, “Tempura is for dinner.”

“Thank you for coming quickly.”

“You pinned him, though.”

“But you came and helped me.”

“You’ve been robbed before.”

“Yes. Twice.”

He sighed, then kissed her forehead before leaving the room and closing the door behind him in a rush. On the other side, his voice said softly, “If you’d consider going to dinner with me tomorrow, I’d be honored.”

“Then be honored,” Fath replied in the same tone. “’Cause I’d like to go out to dinner with you. I’ll be out in a minute to see if I can help with tonight’s dinner soon.”

“Mother will enjoy that.”

Click here for part 3