“Konbanwa.” Obaachan said good evening to us.
Sophie and I tried to wait patiently while Mom and Obaachan spoke to each other in Japanese. Finally, Mom stepped away and nodded to us.
“Domo arigato for the daruma,” I said.
“Yeah, thank you very much,” Sophie said.
“You make wish?” Obaachan asked.
“Hai!” Sophie and I said yes at the same time.
“You work hard, gambatte,” Obaachan said.
“What’s gambatte?” Sophie asked.
“It mean you no give up. You work hard, make wish come true,” Obaachan said. She lifted a daruma with both eyes colored in. “The face, it serious. He remind you, gambatte.”
I frowned. “Wait a minute. You have to make your own wish come true?” I knew there would be rules. There were always rules.
“Yes,” Obaachan said. “Nothing come free. You work hard. You make goal.”
Sophie glanced at me. “That means whatever we wished for doesn’t magically happen?” Sophie asked.
Obaachan looked confused. She doesn’t know a lot of English. Mom stepped in and translated and Obaachan nodded.
“Right. No magic. Hard work. No give up,” Obaachan said.
Sophie looked at me again, but I ignored her.
After we said goodbye to Obaachan, I brushed my teeth and changed into my pajamas. I crawled into bed and faced my wall where I had a collage of flamingos hanging. I reached out and traced a long neck, long legs, and pink wings. If what Obaachan said was right, that meant a flamingo wouldn’t magically appear anytime soon. And there was no way my parents would just give me a flamingo if I asked for it. What was the point of a wish if I had to work to make it come true?
I flipped onto my back and stared out my window at the darkening sky. I liked to leave my shades up so I could see the stars and the moon.
I thought about other wishes I’d made. At New Year’s, I wished I could pound mochi with the men even though the family rules said I couldn’t. But I made my arm muscles strong to convince my family that I could pound mochi. And I did it! For our school talent show, I wished to have a great talent to show off and I learned how to play the taiko drum. Maybe I could make my flamingo wish come true, too!
I was already learning about how to take care of a flamingo. That was a good first step. Linnie had to prove to her parents that she was responsible enough to keep a pet. That’s what I would do next. I would show Mom and Dad I was super-responsible. Then they would get me a pet flamingo! I smiled as my eyes fluttered closed. I had a plan.
ACTION!
On Tuesday, when I got home from school, I went straight to my room and did my homework.
“Mom, look!” I ran into the kitchen, where Mom was working. She raised her finger and I waited while she finished writing. Mom is an editor. She works with writers and fixes their mistakes, kind of like a teacher.
Mom capped her blue pen and turned to me. “What’s up, Jasmine?” she asked with a smile.
“I finished all my homework,” I said, showing her my math paper. “And you didn’t even need to remind me.”
“Good job, Jasmine.”
“I’m going to clean my room now,” I said.
Mom wrinkled her forehead. “Why?” she asked.
“Don’t you want me to clean my room?”
“Of course, but usually I have to tell you over and over.”
“I guess I’m becoming more responsible,” I said.
“I guess you are.”
I ran to my room to clean up. It was a lot of work to be responsible, but it would be worth it when I got my own flamingo.
As I cleaned, I wondered where we would get my pet. The pet store didn’t have flamingos for sure. Maybe I could order one online.
I grabbed my flamingo library book out of my backpack. I’d already read it three times. In class, Ms. Sanchez had taught us how to take notes, so I had pages of fun facts. I knew a lot about flamingos now, like that they build nests out of mud and they have webbed feet. But maybe I missed the part about where to buy a flamingo. I read the book again, but nowhere did it say how to get a flamingo of my own.
The only place I’d ever seen flamingos was at the zoo. Did the zoo sell their animals like a pet store did? I would have to research that. But first I needed to show my parents that I’d be a responsible flamingo keeper.
On Wednesday morning, I helped Dad take the trash out.
“Wow, you’re being a great helper,” Dad said as he picked up bits of trash behind me. “Why don’t you let me carry that bag while you hold this garbage can?”
On Wednesday after school, I helped Mom make our snacks.
“Thanks, Jasmine,” Mom said, wiping the counter. “Why don’t you let me spread the peanut butter on the apples while you get the napkins?”
At dinner, whenever anyone asked for something like the soy sauce or the pepper, I made sure I was the one to pass it.
“Jasmine Toguchi,” Mom said. “Please don’t lunge across the table like that.”
On Thursday, I didn’t have to work so hard at being responsible, since it was only Mrs. Peepers, our boring babysitter, and Sophie after school.
“When are you going to tell me your wish?” I asked Sophie as we walked to our rooms for reading time. Mrs. Peepers made sure we did our homework quietly at the kitchen table. Then, if we were good, we got to read in our rooms until Mom came home.
“Soon. Now that I know my wish isn’t going to magically come true, I need to figure out how to make it happen,” Sophie said. “What are you going to do about your wish?”
“I’m working on it,” I said. I hopped twice on my left foot and twice on my right. I was excited. “I’m sure my wish will come true very soon.”
“Really?” Sophie said. She didn’t seem to believe me, but I didn’t care. She was probably jealous that I was going to have a pet and she wasn’t!
I went into my room and straightened up my desk so it would be neat by the time Mom got home. I patted my daruma on his head. With all my responsibility, Mom and Dad would get me a flamingo for sure!
THE BIG DAY
Friday was the big day. I was going to ask Mom and Dad to help make my wish come true. I’d been responsible all week, and I got the highest mark possible on my oral report on flamingos. I was ready for my pet!
It was pizza night for dinner. Every few weeks we got to make our own pizzas. Dad bought fresh dough on his way home from work and Mom chopped up all kinds of ingredients, like mushrooms (blech), olives (yum), onions (meh), and more. I put cheese and pepperoni on mine.
“Guess what?” I said as soon as we all sat down.
“What?” Mom said.
“I got a 4 on my oral report on flamingos today!” I sat up straight. “Ms. Sanchez liked that I did extra work by doing a flamingo collage with facts. She called me a flamingo expert!”
“That’s fantastic, Jasmine,” Dad said. “I’m proud of you!”
“I know so much about flamingos that I’d make a great flamingo keeper,” I said.
“Maybe you can work at the zoo someday,” Mom said.
I frowned. That was not the answer I was hoping for.
“Don’t you think I could take care of a flamingo now?” I asked.
Mom tilted her head at me.
“Jasmine wants a pet flamingo,” Sophie said.
“Sophie!” She’d ruined my moment.
“What?” Sophie tossed her hair over her shoulder.
“Oh, Jasmine,” Mom said. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
“Why not?” I said, louder than I meant to. “I am very responsible! I did all my homework without you reminding me. I kept my room clean this week. I helped Dad take out the trash.”
Mom reached out to pat my arm, but I pulled my arm into my lap, away from her.
“Sweetie,” Dad said. “Flamingos are wild animals, not pets. If you love flamingos as much as you say you do, you’d want them to be happy, right? A flamingo w
ould not be happy living at our house.”
I thought about how the book said flamingos like to live in flocks. I thought about how flamingos need salty water and those shrimpy things to eat in order to stay pink. I slumped in my seat.
“Jasmine Toguchi,” Mom said. “Please don’t put your head on the table. You’ll get cheese in your hair.”
I lifted my heavy head. “Can I please be excused?”
“You didn’t eat your dinner,” Mom said.
“Sophie can have mine,” I said. I wasn’t hungry anymore.
As I walked to my room, I heard Sophie say, “Jasmine wished for a pet flamingo for her daruma wish.”
“Oh dear,” Mom said.
* * *
Mom and Dad came to my room after they were done with dinner. Mom put a plate of sliced apples and bananas for me on my nightstand.
“I’m sorry you’re disappointed, Jasmine,” Mom said, sitting next to me on my bed.
Dad sat down on my other side and put his arm around me. “You’re allowed to feel sad. I hope you’ll realize that this is best for everyone. It would have been very hard to keep a flamingo in our house. Can you imagine the mess it would make?”
I looked up at Dad, who was smiling.
“Flamingos have long necks,” Mom said. “He would probably knock over our books and pictures on the shelves in the living room.”
I squinted at Mom.
“And I’ll bet flamingos are hard to housebreak,” Dad added. “There would be flamingo poop all over the floor.” He waggled his eyebrows at me, almost making me smile.
“Probably there would be feathers everywhere,” I said, getting the hang of it. “On the couch, in the bathtub, and in our food.”
“Yes,” Mom said. “We’d be sneezing from the feathers.”
I smiled a small smile imagining my family sneezing all the time.
“I would need to make a lake in the backyard, but we have a water shortage in California,” Dad reminded me.
I nodded. “Right. Plus, we like to use our backyard. We wouldn’t have room to play anymore.”
“Or have picnics,” Mom said, patting my hand.
“I learned that flamingos need to live with other flamingos in a flock,” I said.
“Oh,” Mom said. “Then we’d need even more room and we don’t have a very big backyard.”
I sighed. My nose tingled and my heart felt sad. I glanced out my window into the yard, the yard where my pet flamingo would never play fetch with me. I looked down at my bedroom floor, the floor where my pet flamingo would never sleep near me. I wasn’t going to get a flamingo. Not today, not ever. It wasn’t fair. My biggest wish in the world would never come true.
“But we can visit them at the zoo,” Mom said.
I nodded, because I knew Mom and Dad were trying to cheer me up, but I couldn’t help the fat tears that rolled down my face.
Mom and Dad both wrapped their arms around me and hugged me as I cried.
SOPHIE’S WISH
When I woke up on Saturday morning, I rolled over and rubbed my eyes. They felt puffy from crying.
The daruma was on my desk. Even though Mom and Dad had tried to cheer me up, it didn’t change the fact that I could never color in my daruma’s other eye. He would have only one eye forever. This was a huge dilemma.
I climbed out of bed and sat at my desk. Sometimes when I’m sad, I make a collage and it helps me feel better. I would make a collage of dogs for Linnie.
I cut out a picture of a black-and-white puppy from one of Mom’s magazines. She gives me her magazines after she finishes reading them. Then I snip out whatever pictures and words I like.
Sophie walked into my room and stood next to my desk. “You missed breakfast,” she said.
I’d eaten the fruit Mom left for me before I went to bed last night. I still wasn’t very hungry because my stomach was full of sadness. I put down my scissors and got my glue stick.
“Mom said to let you sleep in,” Sophie said. She reached over and picked up my daruma. “I went on an errand with Dad.”
Sophie was bragging about hanging out with Dad. She had promised to tell me her wish, but she hadn’t. I didn’t feel like talking to Sophie. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” I asked as I carefully glued the black-and-white puppy picture in the center of the collage. I always put the most important picture in the middle.
Sophie huffed out a breath like she was annoyed. “Come with me,” she said.
Sophie never invited me to join her, so even though I was kind of upset with her, I followed her to the kitchen. This was very strange. For months, Sophie had pretty much ignored me, only talking to me to boss me around. Then again, she was being bossy right now. So maybe it wasn’t that strange.
“Close your eyes!” Sophie yelled.
I stopped walking and closed my eyes. Yep, she was back to being bossy Sophie.
She took my arm and led me forward. I felt the kitchen table against my stomach, so we had to stop walking.
“No peeking,” she said.
“I’m not!” I kept my eyes closed so tight that I saw pinpricks of light, like stars, on the backs of my eyelids.
Sophie helped me sit down. My heart did a tap dance in my chest. I didn’t know what to expect.
“Okay,” Sophie said. “You can open your eyes.”
When I opened my eyes, I had to blink a few times because everything was blurry from squeezing my eyes so hard. On the table right in front of me was a small fish tank. One bright red fish with a flowing tail swam around in circles.
“Oh, you got a pet,” I said. My shoulders slumped. Sophie got a pet before I did, after all. Maybe this was her wish. At least she’d be able to color in her daruma’s other eye. I was happy for her. “It’s pretty.”
“No,” Sophie said. “It’s your pet. Your very own fish. I know it’s not a flamingo, but this is all yours.”
I glanced at Sophie to see if she was joking. Like I said, sometimes her jokes aren’t very funny. But she was smiling at me in a nice way, like she used to when we did stuff together.
“You got this for me?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I felt bad for you about your wish. I asked Dad to take me to the pet store this morning. Sorry it’s not a flamingo.”
I leaned my face close to the tank and the fish swam over to me.
“Wowee zowee, Sophie,” I said. “I think he likes me!”
“He’s a betta fish and lives alone, so you don’t have to worry about him getting lonesome,” Sophie said. “Make sure you read this care sheet from the pet store.”
I turned to my sister and said, “Thank you.” And before she could pull away, I hugged her. She hugged me back! Now I knew that even if she was bossy or ignored me sometimes, Sophie really did like me. If only I’d wished that, then I could color in my daruma’s second eye.
We watched my fish swim up and down and in circles.
“It’s a bummer that you can’t color in your daruma’s other eye,” Sophie said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get to color mine in either.”
“Why not? What did you wish?” I asked.
Sophie sighed. “I might as well tell you, since it won’t ever come true. I wished we could go to Japan and visit Obaachan,” she said quietly.
I blinked at my sister. “You made a wish for all of us?”
She nodded. “But I didn’t know we had to work to make our wishes come true. I have no idea how to make the trip happen.”
“You can do it, Sophie! I’m sure you’ll find a way. You’re really smart.”
“You think?” Sophie smiled at me.
“I know!” I hoped Sophie’s wish would come true, not only because I wanted to go to Japan, but also because if I couldn’t color in my daruma’s other eye, I hoped at least she could color in hers.
FLAMINGO KEEPER
After lunch, Dad moved the little fish tank onto my desk. I decided to name my fish Daruma, since he was red like my wishing doll. It made me happy to
watch him swim, and it made me really happy that Sophie had given him to me.
I finished my collage for Linnie with both Daruma and my daruma doll watching over me. I wished there were some way for me to color in the doll’s other eye. I thought about what Obaachan had said about gambatte and never giving up. I didn’t want to give up, but how could I get a flamingo?
The only place I’d ever seen a flamingo was at the zoo. I understood now that we couldn’t have a pet flamingo at home, but what if I could get a pet flamingo and keep him at the zoo? I could go there to feed him and take care of him. I’d play fetch with him and he wouldn’t ever get lonesome because he could live with the flock at the zoo! This was an excellent idea!
Mom was in the living room reading. I climbed up next to her.
“Mom? Can I use the computer? I want to look at the zoo’s website,” I said. I hoped I could find out if they would let you keep your pets there. And maybe they would help me find a flamingo of my own.
“Of course.” Mom brought her laptop over to me and put it on the coffee table.
I clicked on the zoo’s website and scrolled around. There wasn’t anything about keeping your pets at the zoo. I sighed. I kept looking, and then I saw something interesting. I clicked on the link and read the first line to myself.
“Mom!” I jumped up and down. “We can adopt a flamingo! It says so right here!”
Mom leaned over to read the screen. “You’re right, Jasmine. You can adopt a flamingo!”
“Can I? I promise to take good care of him! You could drive me to the zoo every day so I can feed him and play with him and pet him…” I kept hopping around the living room. I was full of happy energy.
When Mom didn’t answer me right away, I stopped hopping. She was still reading the page. I walked back over to her.
“Well, Jasmine, I think this is a fine idea and you would definitely get to adopt a flamingo, but it’s not quite like you imagine.”
“It isn’t?” I sat down next to Mom.
Jasmine Toguchi, Flamingo Keeper Page 3
