How could she be hoarse? She had swallowed almost all of Akari’s hard candy. Barely left any for us.
“Forty years ago, right? I wonder if she’s still alive.” Akari spoke in a wistful voice.
“If she were alive, she might be about sixty,” I said.
“That’s too young,” Yūsuke countered.
“But some manga artists start out in their teens,” I pointed out.
Yūsuke’s grandma coughed again. Akari began digging in her bag for another candy.
“Yeah, your sister’s manga books said something about that,” Yūsuke said.
“You guys read girls’ manga?” Akari asked, surprised.
Yūsuke’s grandma coughed a third time.
Akari and I both dug in our bags. Surely one piece of candy was left.
“When are you going to ask me what I might know?” Yūsuke’s grandma piped up, glaring at each one of us.
At first, I could barely process what she was saying.
“OH WOW!” The three of us practically screamed.
“Grandma, do you read girls’ manga?!” Yūsuke wanted to know.
“Do you know Mia Lee?” I asked.
“I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it!” Akari looked ready to cross her hands and start hopping again.
“You need someone from this town who knew Kazu’s grandpa, right?” Yūsuke’s grandma asked. “Use your heads. Kazu’s grandpa and I were the same age. I grew up at Takamatsuya, the center of this neighborhood. Who better do you have to ask?” She chuckled. “I’ve forgotten the name, but I got a copy of the same magazine your grandpa received.”
“YOU DID?” We cried out together again. We must have been louder this time, because Yūsuke’s dad turned around.
“Eyes on the road!” Yūsuke’s grandma commanded.
“So, you don’t remember the magazine called Daisy, but you remember the author?” I asked, my heart pounding.
“Of course, I do. Mia Lee was ahead of me in school.”
Mia Lee was from Masuda, and from this very district! And in her eighties. I began to get a premonition. My jaw dropped.
“The girls in my class knew why she used that pen name,” Yūsuke’s grandma went on. “When we were young, it was fashionable to take one sound from each character in our names and create a nickname. Silly, isn’t it? I was called Tashifu.”
“Cool, Grandma. Like a pirate name!” Yūsuke was into it.
“You used one sound from each character in your names, so Ta from Taka in Takamatsu,” said Akari.
“Right, and the character for matsu, pine, can be read shō, which includes the sound shi,” said Yūsuke’s grandma. “So Ta-shi. And my first name is Tomi, which can be read fu. Ta-shi-fu.
“I could have made other names, too,” Yūsuke’s grandma pointed out. “But each of us chose the combination we liked best, and we told our closest friends. Then we used those names and wrote letters back and forth.” She laughed, thinking of her youth.
I thought about my hunch. It checked out. “Mia Lee is old granny Minakami!” I blurted out.
“Correct, Kazu,” Yūsuke’s grandma answered. “I believe you know Ms. Minakami, don’t you? You ought to call her something besides old granny.” She frowned.
Yūsuke and Akari both seemed bewildered. They had no clue who Ms. Minakami was.
“I always thought Mia Lee was a lovely name,” Yūsuke’s grandmother went on. “I envied her. She was a class ahead of me. She was stylish and smart, and everyone wanted to be like her.”
“Wow, really?” Yūsuke couldn’t quite believe that his grandmother had envied someone.
“She finished school and then moved to Tokyo. I heard that she wanted to be a manga artist, which was still quite rare for a woman back then.
“Anyway, just about the time I stopped getting news of her, her parents gave copies of a magazine to their neighbors and acquaintances. They must have been proud of their daughter. I think I read it too, but …”
She shook her head, not sure she remembered.
“So my grandpa got a copy of Daisy from Ms. Minakami’s family,” I said. Then he gave it to Mrs. Andō.
“Is Mia Lee, Ms. Minakami, still alive?” Akari asked, looking from Yūsuke’s grandma to me.
“She lives right here in town, fit as a fiddle,” I grumbled.
“Kazu. Are you mad or something?” Yūsuke asked.
I was scowling again. And with good reason. Everything that was wrong was Ms. Minakami’s fault: “The Moon Is on the Left” had no ending, and Akari might vanish at any instant.
“Don’t you think she could have written the rest of the story, even though she moved back here?” I asked. I wanted them to think I was interested only in the story.
“She came home because her father fell ill. They lived near where your place is now, Kazu, but their store was on Minami Ōdori,” Yūsuke’s grandma told us. “It was a furniture store. Ms. Minakami had to take it over, so she must have been busy.
“She closed it some time ago now. It used to be in that spot where the convenience store and community parking lot are now.”
We nodded. That area was large. The Minakamis had sold furniture, so they must have had a big store.
“She was new to the family business and to managing a staff, and she bore a heavy responsibility,” Yūsuke’s grandma continued. “I’m sure she had no time to write.”
I understood. But what about now?
We reached Yūsuke’s parking lot before five. His dad must have floored it, because we got home much faster than usual.
“Kazu, are you rushing somewhere?” Yūsuke asked when he saw me running in the opposite direction from Kimyō Temple Alley.
“I’m going to Ms. Minakami’s place,” I answered.
As soon as I said that, Akari ran over. “You’re going to see Mia Lee?” she asked.
“If you’re going, so am I!” Yūsuke said.
“Me too!” Akari echoed.
Akari’s eyes sparkled. Mia Lee officially had fans.
The three of us ended up barging into Minami Heights. Ms. Minakami was home, in apartment 902. So was Kiriko.
“Kazu, I hear you came yesterday as well,” Ms. Minakami said through the intercom, before buzzing us into the building.
When she opened her door and saw all of us, she asked, “What’s this? Have you all come to call me ‘bullheaded’?”
It seemed the super had relayed my message.
Before Ms. Minakami could scold me, Akari pushed me aside and asked, “Are you Ms. Mia Lee?”
I hoped Akari would control herself. I had no clue what had become of the Kimyō Temple statuette, and I did not want Ms. Minakami knowing Akari’s identity.
“We’re fans of yours,” Yūsuke said. “We love ‘The Moon Is on the Left.’”
Ms. Minakami stood there, clearly in shock. “How … how did you know I wrote that?” she asked, looking from one of us to the other.
“It took ages to figure out,” I answered. “I had to call your publisher in Tokyo.” I made a show of exhaling loudly.
Resigned, Ms. Minakami let the three of us inside.
“We read ‘The Moon Is on the Left’ in Daisy,” Yūsuke explained.
“It was amazing!” Akari added.
“What happens next?” I asked.
Ms. Minakami looked at the three of us, perplexed.
She had assumed that we’d come about the Kimyō Temple statuette. Now she saw that wasn’t the case. Good. If I said nothing about the connection between Kimyō Temple and “The Moon Is on the Left,” she might never know about Akari.
“Kazu, how did you and your friends find a story from so long ago?” Ms. Minakami asked. All three of us were red from the sun and so excited that we looked ready to burst. She served us cold juice.
“I was looking up stuff on my grandpa for summer homework,” I said. “My first topic didn’t work out.” I knew she would know what I meant.
“That’s how we came across
‘The Moon Is on the Left,’” I continued. “And Yūsuke’s grandma told us that Mia Lee is actually you.” I turned to Yūsuke. “Oh yeah, this is my friend Yūsuke, from Takamatsuya in Minami Ōdori—”
“Oh, you’re Tomi-chan’s grandson, are you?” Ms. Minakami said to him. “Both Gen-chan and Tomi-chan had such nice grandchildren,” she added.
“And this is Akari Shinobu, a classmate from the neighborhood—” I said, introducing Akari. I nearly mentioned where she lived, same as I’d done for Yūsuke. Then I realized this was a bad idea, because her address is Kimyō Temple Alley.
“Anyway, the three of us read your story, and we want to know what happens next.”
Yūsuke and Akari nodded fervently. Their eyes shone with expectation. I felt just as eager, but I was suspicious of Ms. Minakami. I had a serious bone to pick with this granny.
“Did you write the rest of the story?”
“If you didn’t write it, did you finish it in your imagination?”
Yūsuke and Akari leaned forward as they spoke.
“Well, I stopped writing a long time ago,” Ms. Minakami answered.
“You always do this!” I said, sulking. “You never answer yes or no. Which is it?!” I demanded.
I was in a foul mood. Yūsuke and Akari looked puzzled, wondering what had come over me, but I could hardly bother with that. I was fighting mad.
“You’re so—unclear!” I said.
“Come, come, there’s no need to lose your grip. Until now, I had forgotten all about ‘The Moon Is on the Left.’”
Ms. Minakami pursed her lips.
“If you forgot about it, then please try to remember now! Is there an ending?” I asked.
“I gave it some thought once, but—”
“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, stopping in the middle like that?”
“I’m not ashamed at all.”
“That’s a lie! There’s no way you could write so much of a story, and then stop and not care.”
By now, Yūsuke was yanking on my collar. He couldn’t believe my reaction. “Settle down, Kazu,” he said. “What’s gotten into you?”
But I had no plans to give up without a fight. I’d done that once already with the Kimyō Temple statuette.
“You told me you live life so as not to have any regrets,” I said to Ms. Minakami. “That you would never want to come back to life, because you’ll die with no regrets.”
“I said that, did I?” said Ms. Minakami. She looked away.
Akari sensed something. Her mouth formed an “O.”
“Yes. Now write the rest of the story,” I said to Ms. Minakami.
“Yes, please!” Akari pleaded. “I so want to read it!”
“Me too!” Yūsuke added.
Yūsuke and Akari both bowed.
“And write it quickly. We’re in a hurry,” I said. “Akari, you have the copy, right?”
I shoved the copy at Ms. Minakami.
“You probably remember it, but here’s the story up to the December issue.”
Ms. Minakami neither agreed nor declined, but I shot her a glare and stood to go.
When we were outside the apartment building, Yūsuke whistled at me. “Kazu, I’ve never seen you get that worked up before! You were in a zone.”
“You and Ms. Minakami acted like grandma and grandson,” Akari said, giggling.
“I can’t stand her,” I said. My hands clenched into fists.
“Are you kidding? I thought you two were close, or maybe related,” Yūsuke said. He was clueless as usual.
“I’m going to her place every day from now on to make sure she writes it,” I said.
Akari looked concerned, or maybe happy. It was hard to tell. “Yeah, I want to read it,” was all she said.
I wanted to cry. Her future reminded me too much of the story as it was.
“Kazu, you can’t boss Ms. Minakami around just because you know her. You made me nervous in there,” Yūsuke said. “If I said that stuff to my grandma, I’d be a goner.”
“Ms. Minakami’s got quite a few years left,” I commented.
“Yep. My grandma too,” Yūsuke replied. He nodded happily. Clearly, despite his grandmother’s crossness, he loved her. But I still hated Ms. Minakami.
The next day, my summer vacation got hectic.
In the morning, I went to radio exercises and checked to make sure Akari was alive. She was. Next, I headed to Minami Heights. I rang the bell for apartment 902 and woke up Ms. Minakami.
“Kazu, I am not an early riser!” she whined through the intercom.
“This is no time to sleep,” I reminded her.
“Do you plan not to let me sleep at all?” she asked.
“You’ve slept thousands of hours before today. That should be enough. Wake up and finish the story.”
“Writing without sleep is impossible.”
“There’s no time.”
“I can’t just whip up an ending like magic.”
“You could if you tried.”
The two of us had a yelling match over the intercom. This routine repeated itself the next day. And the next. The super began to buzz me in as far as Ms. Minakami’s hallway to avoid disturbing the people coming and going.
We began to have the same shouting match on the intercom by Ms. Minakami’s door.
Finally, on the sixth day, she gave in: “OK, OK! I’ll write. I promise. Stop waking me every morning! I write at night!”
Akari was still coming to radio exercises with a smile on her face, and she practiced her swimming at the school pool.
After Ms. Minakami promised that she would write the rest of the story, I began to call her apartment in the evenings.
“Kazu. You’re driving me crazy,” she said on the phone.
“Crazy is as crazy does. We have no time!” I said.
“Stop calling every day!”
“I can’t just sit here waiting for you.”
“Boys like you won’t make any friends, you know that?”
“Some people love boys like me.”
All we did was bicker every time we talked.
I lost count of how many days passed. The August season of Obon began, and for the first time ever, Ms. Minakami called me rather than the other way around.
“Listen, Kazu, I had plans to travel over Obon. This story has wrecked my trip.”
“Did you finish it?”
“I don’t know if it will meet your high standards, but, yes, I’ve finished.”
“I’ll be over with Akari and Yūsuke,” I said, hanging up. I shot out of the house.
Ms. Minakami invited us in and handed us a stack of papers. They’d been printed out, so she clearly knew how to use a computer. I handed the stack to Akari. Ms. Minakami looked tired. She gave a yawn, and Kiriko yawned too.
Akari started reading immediately. Yūsuke watched her, barely able to wait his turn.
“Shall I, um, rub your shoulders?” I asked Ms. Minakami reluctantly.
She laughed. “No need. I’m content to have your phone calls stop.”
“I drove you crazy, huh?”
“Um, yes, you certainly did. Which reminds me, Kazu—I might need a favor from you later on. When that time comes, I hope you can help me out.”
I got a bad feeling. “What do you need?” I asked.
“Nothing to be concerned with today,” she answered.
Ms. Minakami lifted Kiriko to her lap. Kiriko meowed as if to agree with everything her owner had said.
Ms. Minakami’s favor could hardly be nothing. As I considered that, Akari and Yūsuke finished the first page and handed it to me. I forgot all about the favor. The new manuscript even had more illustrations of Adi and the other characters.
As Yūsuke began to chat merrily with Ms. Minakami about his grandma, I began to read.
Chapter Eleven
“The Moon Is on the Left”
PART THREE
Having taken her son back to the castle, Stonebird descended the stairc
ase. I sprang away from the door of the prince’s cell.
Brushing snow from her head and body, Stonebird peered into the prince’s cell window. “Where is the pearl, then?” she asked.
“You promised to free us,” he replied, searching for me from the corner of his eye.
The prince was bluffing. He did not know the exact location of the pearl. But he, the woman in the next cell, and I had an idea. I had a feeling something was in the area we had discussed. I didn’t know if it would lead us to the pearl, but I sensed it was our only hope. I nodded to show this—though I felt my heart pound.
The prince saw me nod. “Let us out,” he commanded.
“I’ll keep my promise,” Stonebird replied. “But I wonder if you really want that. You’ll never survive outside.”
“Better than withering away in here!”
“Really? Well, I suppose a prince should have a princely way of dying.” Stonebird hunched her shoulders.
She seemed to harbor a fondness for the prince, whom she had once made call her “Mother.”
“Where is the pearl?” she asked again.
“You will find it below the cliffs at the north shore, toward the east,” the prince told her.
“That’s the area you searched long ago, isn’t it? Can she find it?”
Stonebird looked at me. I nodded vaguely, knowing that I would be the one to dive.
“I see we’re going to need both of you,” Stonebird said. She took the key from her pocket and unlocked the door to the prince’s cell. I heard a bang.
“There’s no way I can take you both on my broom. We’ll use the boat.” Stonebird beckoned the prince out with her hand.
“Let me out too. Let me out!” the woman in the other cell cried. “Don’t leave me here alone like this! I can’t take it anymore!”
“The three of us will go together,” the prince declared.
“She’ll just get in the way,” said Stonebird. “But suit yourself, you’ll be lucky to survive another day as it is.” Stonebird sniffed and opened the woman’s cell.
The woman ventured out, gingerly feeling her way. I took hold of one of her hands with its black fingernails like mine.
Temple Alley Summer Page 13
