I was awakened in the middle of the night by a persistent light tapping on my shoulder. I turned to see Teruko standing there, looking 12 and adorable in her long nightdress. As soon as she saw I was awake, she clambered onto the bed next to me and huddled up against me, talking softly, probably telling me she’d had a nightmare. I let her talk until she began to nod off, and held her until I was sure she was fast asleep. Once she was sound asleep, I picked her up, amazed at how little she weighed, and carried her back to her room, putting her back in her bed and pulling the covers back up over her. I know she felt comforted by having me near her, I was the only relatively familiar thing in her life right now, but she was a young teenage girl, so it was definitely inappropriate for her to sleep in my bed, for whatever reason, when I was there too.
I woke early to the sound of voices downstairs, mum and Teruko chatting in Japanese, Teruko speaking slowly for her benefit. I wondered how school was going to work, or if we should maybe get her an English tutor, let her learn some of the language before unleashing the teeming metropolis that was Shrewsbury on her. I had a quick shower and shave, and dressed in tracksuit top and joggers, to go for my early morning run before the school traffic built up around the Meole Brace and Priory schools down the road from our house.
I ambled downstairs and into the kitchen to get a diet cola from the fridge, seeing mother and Teruko seated at the kitchen island with cereal bowls. As soon as she saw me, she slammed to her feet and bowed, intoning “Ohayo aniki.”
Mum smiled. “She said ‘good morning, Big Brother!” You should reply “Ohayo imoto.”That means, ‘Good Morning, little Sister’.”
I grinned at Teruko, and did as mother asked. “Ohayo imoto.” I sat her back down again, and took her hand and tapped my chest with it. “Jack” I said, smiling, and tapped my chest again and repeated myself. “Jack!”
“Jakku-san?” she tried, and I grinned wryly; it seemed I was stuck with Grandad’s smelly dog’s name. I nodded agreement. “Jakku-san!”
I looked over at mum.
“Mum, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take Teruko over to Grandad’s today; I think he’d like to meet his friend’s granddaughter.”
Mum agreed, and called him to say we’d be over later. In the meantime I went for my run, down through Kingsland and over the Kingsland Bridge, past St. Chad’s and as far as the Severn Theatre in Frankwell. That was my half-way point, so I turned and ran back over the same route, to give me a solid five-mile run.
When I got in, I had a quick shower and dressed and, grabbing a bowl of cereal, I sat and watched the news channel to catch up with events while I’d been gone. I was absorbed with the England v New Zealand Cricket Test-Match highlights when I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Teruko offering me a mug.
” I made you some tea”
I smiled and took it, looked inside, tea, yuk. I thanked her and manfully drank the horrible stuff, trying to look like I was enjoying it, and touched by the gesture. Mum came in as I was finishing my breakfast, carrying a padded jacket for Teruko, and spoke to her in Japanese.
“Teruko, we are visiting my father today”
She handed Teruko her jacket, and helped her pull her hair out and rearrange it. As she did that her eyes had that faraway look I knew so well. She was about to reminisce at me.
“Oh Jack, if only you knew how often I wished you were a girl when you were small, just so I could sit and brush your hair! Now I really can, it’s a little fantasy come true for me! When we get back, I’m going to make this little girl sit down and I’m going to brush her hair for as long as she can stand it, then I’m going to plait it!”
++++
All too soon I had to go down to London, to get my stuff set up in my room in the student hall of residence, get my books ordered and delivered, and familiarise myself with the campus in Kensington I would be based at. All this took time, and then lessons and lectures began, and once again I was in full-time education. My studies didn’t leave me much spare time, and certainly very few weekends, and besides, I had a weekend job, answering phones in a mail-order warehouse. It was a massively tedious job, but it helped ease the financial burden on mum and grandad.
Teruko had been placed in as a day-student in an international Boarding School in Acton Burnell, a short way from Shrewsbury. Mum had chosen that particular school because a large number of the students were Japanese, both overseas students and the children of the directors of the huge Japanese electronics factories in Telford, so she would at least be among children her age with whom she could converse and learn from.
Father’s estate had been proven, and mum had appointed two legal firms in Shrewsbury as trustees of the money she had inherited. It was a very large sum, easily enough to pay for her secondary and tertiary education, in case she decided to attend university.
Teruko and Granddad had hit it off from day one, and she liked to spend her weekends with him, playing with that bad-tempered scruffy mutt of his, helping him with his chickens and naming all the newly hatched chicks. They couldn’t understand each other, but they communicated non-verbally through the medium of chickens.
What with one thing and another, I didn’t get home until the Christmas break. It was a relief; uni was hard work, and working all weekends was mentally tiring, and I was looking forward to a little family time, to a nice festive family Christmas.
When I arrived home, Teruko came running out to greet me, first flinging herself on me and chattering in Japanese, then drawing herself up and bowing formally, saying “Welcome Home, Jakku-San!”, heavily accented, to be sure, but definitely making progress with her English. She looked better than when I had last seen her, at the end of August, when she had been withdrawn, sombre, quiet, and shy. Now she was bright, cheerful, and happy, completely settled-in in her role as the teenage daughter of a new family. She really had a lovely, dazzling smile, it lit up her whole face; she was a very pretty young girl and one day she was going to be a real heartbreaker.
She insisted on helping me bring my stuff in from the car, although I made sure I grabbed the presents before she saw them. As we came in the house, I was greeted by the sound of barking, and a young black Labrador came bounding down the stairs to sniff and bark at me, smiling at me as only Labrador’s can, as his tail wagged madly. I looked at Teruko, who grinned back.
“Senshi, be quiet, this is Big Brother, Jack!”
Mum came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands, and kissed me on the cheek.
“I see you’ve met the latest addition to the family. This is Senshi, Daddy gave him to Teruko because he’s gun-shy, and the breeder was going to put him down, so he lives here now.”
I hunkered down and like all good Labradors everywhere, he came and made friends, then scampered off into the kitchen, probably looking for food, again, just like all Labradors. I took my stuff upstairs and dumped it in my room, hiding Teruko’s and mum’s presents in my wardrobe, and stretching out on my bed for a luxuriant yawn and stretch.
I was just beginning to doze when 35lbs. of young Labrador landed on my midsection and zipper, occupying my attention fully. As I rolled over, gasping, there was Teruko, politely trying not to laugh. She came into the room and pushed the dog to make him jump off the bed, and sat down next to me, patting my back vaguely, trying to help me get my breath back.
“So sorry, Jakku-san, dog very naughty sometime, I tell him off next time!” she grinned, and I had to grin back; I was impressed, her English had come along in leaps and bounds in less than four months.
“Imoto, do you like your new school?” I asked her, and she smiled, nodding.
“Yes, Jakku-san, there are many Nipponjin, many Japanese there, I have many new friends, they help me learn English, my English is good now, but they teach me not good English words, moth-er tell me what good and what not good words to say!”
I had to smile; her friends, with all the innocent malice of school kids the world over, had probably told her some of the basest obscenities and told her it was okay to use them all the time, just to see what happened when she did. I’d done that myself, to some of the more gullible overseas exchange students at school…
“Are you looking forward to Christmas?” I asked her, and she looked blank. I wracked my brain for the Japanese word for ‘Christmas’ I had committed to memory earlier. Ah, I had it. “Kurisumasu?”
She beamed.
“I have Kurisumasu no Okurimono, a gift for you; I will give it to you at… Christ-mas?” I nodded, and she beamed again.
Christmas was a happy family affair. Teruko’s presence added something that had been missing, and with Grandad and the dogs, it made for a loud, noisy, boisterous time, a big success. Teruko surprised us by knowing a lot of the classic Christmas carols, sung in English, although she’d learned them phonetically, so she had no idea what she was saying. She had a sweet singing voice, and it was a nice touch to hear her sing them for us on Christmas morning.
We had all clubbed together and bought her a laptop and Rosetta Stone language software, to help her learn English faster. Mum and Grandad had bought me clothes, as they had both remarked before that I was looking a little threadbare. The best present I got, though, was a hand painted ceramic plaque from Teruko, with a well-known haiku, a poem with 17 syllables that she had written out for me in beautiful calligraphic Japanese ideograms.
Sugasugashii
(Refreshing)
Bofuu no ato ni
(After the gale)
Tsuki kyo shi
(The moon rises, shining)
I still have that plaque; it has pride of place on my desk and is a source of much interest from my friends and colleagues, even now.