Chapter 39
Wednesday, the day of Taki’s big basketball game, finally arrives. When Taki and Naoyuki return from school, Taki’s aunt and uncle and Kenta are piling out of their van in the driveway. “Hello again!” Taki’s aunt greets them. “Today’s the big day! What time is the game, Taki?” she asks.
“It’s at seven,” Taki replies, “so we have some time to ourselves before we have to go.” Already, she has Kenta in her arms, grinning with excitement.
“I can’t wait!” Kenta cries happily.
“Well, how ‘bout a bike ride to make the time go faster?” Taki suggests.
Kenta nods vigorously, saying, “Yeah! Yeah!”
“A bike ride?” Taki’s uncle asks. “You’re not going to take Kenta too far, right?”
“I can yank out the buggy if you don’t want him to ride,” Taki offers.
Her uncle nods. “Still, don’t take him out too far. I know how you like to go on miles-long bike rides, so...”
“Don’t worry, Uncle Toshiki,” Taki says, wearing a mischievous grin, “we’re only going out to the woods to do some cross-country.”
“You’re very funny, Taki,” her uncle says sarcastically.
“Stay within three blocks, Taki,” her mother calls as she leads her husband and guests up the front walk and onto the porch. “Remember, you have two children with you,” she reminds her. “Be back in about an hour so you can help with dinner.”
“No problem, Mom!” Taki calls back. She lets Kenta down onto his feet and manually opens the garage door. “Wait here, and I’ll grab the bikes and the buggy,” she tells the boys. As she rolls out her bike and the smaller one that Naoyuki was using, she asks, “You think you’re ready for a full ride, Naoyuki?”
They’d practiced a lot, but Naoyuki still could only ride in a straight line up to where the sidewalk ended and the side street came in. “Here, get on,” Taki tells him. “We’ll go ‘til you get it,” she says. “You’re really close.”
“Naoyuki can’t ride a two-wheeler?” Kenta asks, blinking surprisedly.
“He’s just about there,” Taki winks back. She turns to Naoyuki and asks, “Ready?”
Naoyuki starts the bike out and gets it steady. Then Taki lets him go. Naoyuki continues pedaling at a pretty steady pace until he reaches the end of the sidewalk and turns the bike around. He loses his balance then and falls in the grass. “Too sharp!” Taki calls as she hurries toward him and helps him up. “Come on, one more time. You can get this.” She puts the bike back up in the spot where Naoyuki needed to turn. “Just like this.” Taki guides his hands as he uneasily starts pedaling again.
Naoyuki speeds up down the straight sidewalk, then goes for the wide turn in Taki’s driveway as Kenta watches from up the lawn. Naoyuki’s bike teeters a little to the side, but Naoyuki quickly steadies it and makes it back to the sidewalk. He smiles. “I did it!” he cries excitedly. “I did it!”
Taki claps and runs back down toward him and Kenta. “I knew you could do it!” Naoyuki puts on the brakes and carefully climbs down from the bike. “Now how do you feel about going for a ride? Wanna go for it?” Taki asks.
Naoyuki nods. Taki grins and hurries up the driveway to retrieve the buggy from the garage. She lets it roll down the driveway behind her, then stops and hitches it up to the back of her bike. “Okay, Kenta, climb in!” she says. With a cheer, he does just that, and Taki climbs onto her bike, waiting for Naoyuki to follow her lead. Once Naoyuki gets going, Taki starts off behind him. “Naoyuki, let me in front of you, okay?” He stops, and Taki veers off into the street then back up ahead of him. Naoyuki starts pedaling again as Taki starts off at a slow pace and waits for him to catch up.
“Taki, go fast!” Kenta cheers.
Taki laughs. “We’ll get there,” she assures him. Occasionally glancing back at Naoyuki, she gradually picks up the pace as he seems more comfortable. They reach a bigger street, and Taki brings the bike and its buggy to a stop. “All clear!” she calls back to Naoyuki, then starts pedaling again. “How are you doing, Naoyuki? Having fun?” She glances back to see Naoyuki nod and grins. “Good!”
Taki turns a corner, and Naoyuki follows. “I’m gonna turn us back toward the house in a little bit,” she calls back to Kenta and Naoyuki. “Oh–! Car pulling out up ahead!” She puts on her brakes again and waits for the car to pull out of the driveway and off down the street. “Okay, let’s go,” Taki calls back, putting her feet back to the pedals and starting off again. “We’re going to stop again soon, at the next street.”
They ride to the bigger street and stop again. Taki waits for a little van to pass, then starts pedaling across the street when she hears a horn. A car swings around the corner suddenly, and Taki swerves to avoid it as the driver slams on the brakes. The bumper makes contact with her front wheel; Taki is jolted from the bike, and it and the attached buggy start to fall. Terrified, Naoyuki abandons his bike, bolts toward the buggy and grabs Kenta before he falls out onto the cement. “Taki!” Naoyuki cries.
She was already getting up and making her way toward the buggy as well. “Kenta! Naoyuki! Are you all right?” she cries worriedly. Kenta was a bit shaken-up, but otherwise in one piece. Naoyuki nods a ‘yes’. “Thank goodness,” Taki sighs.
The car’s driver climbs out and jumpily approaches them. “I’m so sorry! Are you kids all right?” she cries. “Everyone’s okay?”
“Only the bike’s damaged,” Taki assures the woman.
“Can you still ride it home?” the woman asks. “Do you need a ride?”
“No, that’s all right,” Taki declines. “I can walk it home if I have to.”
“O-Okay.” The woman shakily nods, gets back in her car, retrieves a cell phone from the floor and pulls off.
“Ugh. Distracted drivers,” Taki mutters in disgust. Startled, she realizes that Naoyuki is on the verge of tears. “Naoyuki, it’s all right; no one got hurt.” She pulls him and Kenta to the sidewalk, then goes out to retrieve the bikes. Sure enough, hers was too damaged to ride. “Come on, Naoyuki, put Kenta back in the buggy...”
Naoyuki was shaking. “I thought I was gonna lose you,” he cries. His hands grip even tighter to Kenta. “I thought...!!” The tears come spilling out.
Taki walks over and hugs the boys. “That was really..really scary, Taki,” Kenta says.
“I know,” Taki says gently. “I was scared too.”
Once they’ve all calmed down a little, Taki puts Kenta back in the buggy, and she and Naoyuki each take a bike and walk it the rest of the way back to her house. Her uncle is outside waiting when they arrive. “Taki, your bike – ! What happened?!” he cries. He takes the kids inside and has Taki explain everything while she and the kids get fixed up.
“She was talking on a cell phone?” Taki’s father exclaims. “Boy, if I were there, that woman would’ve been in for the fight of her life!”
“All right, all right, enough,” Taki’s mother breaks in. “Everyone’s all right, so there’s no need to get irate about this.” She turns her gaze on Taki and Naoyuki. “Now, who’s going to help me with dinner tonight?”
Naoyuki follows after Mrs. Soejima as she strides into the kitchen.
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The Soejimas and Naoyuki arrive home after dark, their guests having already departed. Too excited about the game to think about going to bed yet, Taki grabs a basketball and takes Naoyuki outside. “I can’t believe we won!” Taki cries as she dribbles the ball up to the net in the driveway. “And the look on Kenta’s face – man, that makes it all worthwhile!” With a flick of her wrist, she sends the ball aloft and through the hoop.
Naoyuki smiles and watches Taki shoot again under the soft lamp light. All of the sudden, she just stops. Naoyuki glances at the rolling basketball, then, as Taki turns toward him, stares up at her face. “By the way, thank you for saving Kenta,” Taki says. She stoops down and pats Naoyuki on the head. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if he’d gotten hurt on our bike ride today. It’s thanks to you he’s all right.” She lets herself fall in the grass. “Well, I guess the adrenaline rush is over,” she sighs. “You wanna shoot a couple hoops, too, before we go back inside and hit the hay?”
Naoyuki’s hand comes to rest under his chin as he pensively eyes the basketball. He finally scuttles up the driveway and bends down to pick it up. “I suck, you know,” he says.
Taki chuckles. “Those words don’t even sound right coming out of your mouth!” she exclaims. “Just shoot; I won’t laugh,” she calls out to him.
“Promise?”
“I promise,” Taki reassures him.
Naoyuki jumps up and throws the basketball. It swishes under the net and into the grass. He goes to retrieve it, muttering under his breath. When he returns to try again, Taki comes up behind him and puts her hands on his arms. “Sink down,” she coaches him, “hold the ball steady; guide it toward the rectangle on the backboard. Then...spring up and throw.” The basketball bounces off the rim. “See?” Taki encourages him. “Better already.” Naoyuki laughs as Taki lifts him into the air and spins him around. “All right,” Taki says, “it’s getting pretty chilly out here. Let’s go in the house.”
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Kazunori descends the final three steps, then turns and looks back up at the three-story building. The sign outside read: Morinaga Boys’ Home. The insignia was a circle with a lotus held in two hands inside. Kazu folds up the drawing in his hands, stuffs it in his pocket and pulls out his cell phone. “Hello, Professor Ikeda? I found the boys’ home,” he reports. “Morinaga. Run by a committee of older women since 1982. Two years ago, they were sued for neglect and nearly put out of business. The only member of the staff remaining from before the lawsuit is Mrs. Maki Kinomiya. She knew Naoyuki from my description.”
“And?” comes Ikeda’s voice from the other end of the line. “What did she have to say?”
“We were spot-on,” Kazu replies. “She said that Naoyuki threw a fit after his aunt and uncle left him there, and they put him in a room by himself. When one of the caretakers went in with his dinner later that first night, she found him slamming his head into the feet of the bed. They believed he might be a danger to himself and the other boys, so they...”
“They bound him and kept him isolated,” Ikeda surmises.
Kazunori takes a second to compose himself. “Yes,” he answers. “That was when he stopped responding to them.”
A moment of silence on the other end of the line. “So how did you find it?” Ikeda asks.
Kazu frowns. “I contacted the aunt and uncle who were originally in charge of Naoyuki,” he replies. “That was the only concrete lead Shizuyo could give me.”
Another moment of silence. “And they said?”
“Naoyuki had already stopped speaking when he settled in with them,” Kazu replies. “He also got very sick and was hospitalized repeatedly. After only a month, Uncle Takahiko relinquished guardianship over Naoyuki. He didn’t know how to deal with him.”
“I see,” Ikeda murmurs. “You did well, Kazunori. Thank you.”
Kazu hangs up his cell phone and stuffs it back into his pocket. Recalling his conversation with the woman inside the boys’ home makes his blood boil. “There was nothing else we could do for a child like that,” the woman said. “He fought with us and tried to run away. We had to do something. So we put him away until he stopped all the fuss.” Kazu grits his teeth in anger. They left him in there crying for his mother and ignored him. What did they think that would do to a kid? Curse them all...!
Kazunori’s fists unclench. Worry replaces his indignation. Naoyuki,...at first,..were you actually intending to do yourself in...? He couldn’t help wondering it. At the darkest hour, when all the foundations and securities had crumbled, what had been going through his cousin’s mind? What kind of darkness had he fallen into? Kazunori couldn’t even fathom it. It’s no wonder he chose to block it all out, he thinks. It was the only thing he could do to keep himself from falling deeper into that abyss...If Shizuyo hadn’t come along when she did and rescued him from that place, what would’ve happened to Naoyuki?
Deep in his pondering, Kazunori hadn’t even noticed the flakes of snow drifting down from the dark night’s clouds. “I guess winter isn’t over quite yet,” he murmurs.
