why aren’t you in juku?
even they ask me
even though they know I study
in an English group
once a week
and my tutor comes
twice a week
what they mean is
why don’t I go to cram school
so I can test into a private school
so I can avoid going
to the local middle school
where people like
Shunta, Yuki, and Gō will rule
together with other thugs
from all three elementary schools
that feed into our middle school
I haven’t told them
that I’ve already applied
to an international school
that I’ve already been accepted
and could start right now
I don’t want to tell them
that the only problem now
is money
which is why
Mom is teaching extra classes
and why she’s not home on Wednesdays
when Cora’s grade lets out early
and why she’s trying to get a full-time job
like Dad at a university
and why she goes on interviews
and fills out applications
and tries to publish papers
and speak at conferences
and why I’m learning to cook
and buy groceries
and take care of Cora
I don’t want to get into this
with Yōhei, Shō, and Ken
so I tell them
I’m studying with my tutor
but we just don’t know
which schools I’ll apply to yet
since my Japanese is weak
they shrug
and don’t ask more questions
about schools
just
who’s on whose side
for two-on-two soccer
after barely a game
they all have to leave
so I go home, wash up
and head out again, still with
forty minutes till five o’clock chimes
I ride my bike downhill
in and out of back lanes
to the butcher shop
and order four skewers—
chicken with scallions
to go I say
I wait while they grill the skewers
and when they hand me an extra
and say sābisu
I ask them to add that
to the bag, too
I hang the bag from my handlebar
ride to the main road
then the side lane
and park my bicycle
along the riverside path
where the motorbike
must have been left
and the sandal
must have been dropped
I take the bag to the gate
and ring the bell
when no one answers
I ring again
then that slurry voice
comes over the intercom
it’s me, Jason, the boy
you gave the sandal to
during the fire I say
ah! the voice says
dōzo!—come in
I push at the gate
the front door opens
and he stands there
I bow, hold out the bag—
I brought some yakitori
and suddenly I think
this was a mistake
because he’s scowling
and maybe he can’t
chew it
or swallow it
or digest it—
can you eat it?
yakitori? he says
sure! come in!
so I follow his
flapping hand
and step up to the
entryway
and into
Takemura-san’s world
Chapter 14
BRAIN LEAP
after my tutor session
after Yūsuke has left
after dinner
in our room
Cora is furious
when I tell her
where I went
Takemura-san’s? the man with the stick?
why didn’t you take me?
I solved the crime as much as you!
I was the one actually listening to him!
after my bath
Cora tries to keep me out of my our room
hiding my box of international coins
which I search for and know is missing
the second I finally barge in
so I scoop up
stuffed animals as hostages
and go outside to the laundry balcony
and threaten to drop them over the edge
to the dark ground below
she screams
yells at me
and sends me
downstairs to wash
all the dinner dishes
the rice cooker
and even the smelly
composter pot
when I go up later
Cora is the one who says sorry
so after a while
I sit down in the cave
of her lower bunk
and tell her about
Takemura-san
how sometimes his speech is clear
but other times not
how his mouth scowls
from the Parkinson’s
how he gets stuck
and can’t move
and how his daughter
was there and showed me
how to put my foot
crosswise in front of his
to make his leg think
it has to step up and over I tell Cora
which gets him moving
in our bedroom
I show her the way
that Takemura-san’s feet
seemed glued to the floor
then I make her
put her foot
crosswise to one of mine
and I unstick my foot
and step over
I don’t tell Cora
how weird it felt
being there in a stranger’s house
in the home of a scowling old man
or how at his kitchen table
I wanted to escape
as I listened so hard
but couldn’t understand
even after he repeated words
again and again
until finally his loud daughter came in
the one who’d been standing with
hands on hips after the fire
and served us barley tea
and explained things
like the crosswise foot
and that her father doesn’t smile
because of the disease
and that he looks angry but isn’t
and that it’s okay to ask him
to repeat his words
again and again
and again
it’s like a miracle Cora whispers
your foot making the top of a T
across his foot
the way it makes
his stuck foot think
it can move
I don’t know about a miracle
maybe more like a brain leap
like mind over matter
but then I’m thinking
what if someone’s not with him?
how long does he stay stuck
before his feet
move forward again?
Chapter 15
RESOURCES
weekends are so much better than weeks
because they start with double aikido
on Saturday morning
then soccer in the park
and Sunday is a family hike
then chore
s and homework
but weekdays
follow weekends
and Sunday nights
I have to center myself
and prepare to return
to the Dragon’s Mouth
it’s not actually called
Dragon’s Mouth anymore
that name goes way back
to when the school was connected
to Dragon’s Mouth temple
now the school’s called
Ridge Way Elementary or
Ridgeline Pass Elementary
or however you want to
translate the Japanese
but Dragon’s Mouth
seems a better fit
to me
this Monday at school
I manage to hold my center
all day long
but by the time Mom and Cora pick me up
I feel like I’ve been at the dojo for six hours
alert
ready every second
my whole body trembling
from concentration
and exertion
I sleep all the way to Yokohama
in English group
the olders and youngers both
are still doing economics
supply and demand
goods and services
then we olders have to look at photos
and decide which are the
human
natural
or capital
resources
and teach the youngers
I’m so tired of this unit
and can’t wait to start the next
on marine ecosystems
and intertidal life
since Mom promises to take us
down the coast of Miura
to a place where the tide pools
are full of everything—
anemones
crabs
sea slugs that squirt purple
urchins and abalone
and sometimes
an octopus
but Trina’s mom announces
that we’re extending this unit
another couple weeks
for a special project
Trina and Ami seem happy
since they think they want to start
their own business
in fashion or shoes
but Nenita, Will, and I groan
and use our capital resource—our brains—
to petition the parents to also extend
the marine unit by two weeks
and we win
hah!
Chapter 16
BROOMS
just like Monday
Tuesday morning
at school goes okay
so long as I’m always
on alert
but when lunch recess ends
I discover
someone has taken
my indoor shoes
it’s not the first time
and I know the places
I can look:
toilets
tops of high cabinets
first graders’ cubbies
but it’s cleaning time
and I’m late
so I head
to the music room
in my socks
and late means
the brooms and mop
are already taken
and I’m stuck again
with the dustpan
in the music room
desks have been pushed aside
Naho and Yuki are sweeping
Mika’s riding a mop
and Shunta and Gō
have unscrewed and removed
both of the wide broom heads
and they’re running around
waving the long handles
like samurai swords
cleaning in socks? Shunta says
in fake surprise
no indoor shoes? Gō says
slicing the air above my head
Shunta points to a dust pile
and commands me to
sweep it
into my dustpan
to use a dustpan
you have to squat down
and as soon
as you start to sweep
into the pan
you lose your center
and you can be whacked
on the butt
with a broom
or mopped
on the head
the question is
whether to duck
and roll out of the way
or not
Naho taunts
missed a spot she says
I sweep
here
she points
and here
faster and faster
I sweep up dust pile
after dust pile
then Yuki
starts pointing at random
do it
she says
I don’t
and suddenly
a broom handle
cracks on my head
just above my ear
I drop the brush and dustpan
put one hand to my head
and keep my other hand
fisted
ready
for the rest of cleaning
I just sit on a desk
in the corner
my back to the wall
facing them all
it’s not bleeding much
but I smear it over my palm
so they can see
and finally
they leave me alone
Mom yells at me
for my filthy socks
and makes me scrub them
and hang them out myself
I don’t tell her
about my missing indoor shoes
finally found with the guest slippers
at the front school entrance
I don’t tell her about the lump
on the side of my head that I dab
with a soapy washcloth before rinsing
and climbing into the tub
I don’t tell her that the floor
in our school is filthy
because brooms are not so much used
for sweeping
I don’t tell her
because I don’t want her
interfering at school
making things in the Dragon’s Mouth
even worse
Chapter 17
DANGO
on Wednesday
at the after-school center
I take off my shoes
nod to the women
in the closet office
and search for Cora
in one room, two boys are
climbing over stacks of foam blocks
in another room, four kids
play soccer with a book
in a third room, kids hurl a rubber ball
high speed, wall to wall
I slide open the doors
to the backyard
step down and into
some plastic sandals
across the yard
I can see Cora
in the sandpit
making dango
not dango to eat—
gluey balls of mochi
with sweet sauces on top—
but doro dango
mud dango
dirt balls
Cora is a doro dango expert
ever since preschool
in the back garden at home
there are always dango
decorated with flower petals
or blades of grass or leaves
or sprinkled with dry sand
or topped with a red berry
Cora’s Doro Dango Recipe
fill a cup of water
from a tap
dampen dark sand
scoop a handful
to mold
add mo
re sand
smooth it
add more sand
smooth it
and smooth it
to form a perfect sphere
each takes five minutes or more
and sometimes they break
another girl is with her
in the yard making dango
and they have ten dango
lined up along a tree root
wow, you made lots
I say to her in Japanese
knowing better than to speak to her
in English in front of a friend
un—yeah, she says
let’s go I say in Japanese
mada—not yet, she says
she’s polishing a dango
I wait awhile longer
say let’s go again
and once more she says mada!
so I switch to English
we won’t have time for an adventure
she smooths the dango
gently sets it down
by the tree root
where it promptly splits
I think we’re stuck here
for another ten minutes
but the other girl
hands her a leaf
Cora thanks her
sets the leaf
over the crack
and turns to me to go
she doesn’t speak to me in English
until we’re outside
practically halfway up the hill
to our neighborhood
it’s better there in the garden she says
then she shifts back into
her pain-in-the-neck sister self
what’s our adventure today
it better not be just a park
and it better not be a fire
do you even have a plan today?
when I don’t answer
she says see?
so I start walking fast uphill
which is pretty impossible since
the road is so steep there are
circles cut in the concrete
to keep cars from slipping
we trudge ahead
crest the hill
run down the other side
turn left at our road
climb again to our house
and inside on the table
in the kitchen
is a note
two cups
two bananas
and some coins
Drink some water
eat the bananas
then you can buy snacks
at the futon shop.
But save enough money to buy
milk on your way home!
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Mom
Cora cheers
and we eat our bananas
fast
the futon shop
where we park our bikes
is Cora’s favorite shop
because this futon shop
doesn’t sell only
futons, pillows, and blankets
but also dagashi candies
soda-flavored sours