Saturday dinner
It is a glimmering night with all the stars hanging on the clear, dark sky. A gray, misty fog merges with it and covers all the light, telling the mysteriousness of the unpredicted future. The village below the fog is a remote place from the urban world, it is called the Laivencoth. In the Laivencoth, all strong people work in the fields to feed their families. The Sanakas is not an exception.
Sanaka Onera is the backbone of the family who joints together his gerontic parent, his graceful wife and his childish son. He had worked in the field until the sun set and cleaned all the used farming tools as he did every day. As he walks into his house, his wife, Chiu Adelynn is cooking in the kitchen intently with their only son Sanaka Akimoto peering over her right shoulder as she is putting in tomatoes and onions into an iron pot to make spicy-favor curry.
“I am back! You are all doing great, is it?” exclaims Onera with his big trumpet-like mouth.
“Welcome back, my dear. We are going to have curry rice for dinner, is that okay with you?” greets Adelynn with her appealing smiling on the rosy face.
“Good evening, daddy! We are going to have dinner very soon!” babbles Akimoto.
“Thank you, my boy, for sharing the housework with mama,” replies Onera. Then he turns to his wife, “And thank you, my love. Your juicy curry always makes me think of those precious time we shared. I will be at the dinner table very soon.”
Onera goes into the room besides the kitchen, takes a quick shower that washes away the sticky, odorous mud on his body and changes into a set of clean clothes. He stretches his rigid legs and aching back and slowly wanders out to the poorly decorated dining room.
It is five minutes later when the family meets again at a rectangular, ticklish table. There lays some hot, delicious food on its bumpy surface and they start to eat under the soft, saffron lightbulb.
“How’s the field?” asks Adelynn, “If you need my help, just say so. After all, it is not reasonable for one person to work in all of our fields.”
Onera consoles, “The field is great. There is a lot of sunshine in these days, and the crops are almost ready for the first harvest of the year. I studied the sky just now, it is going to rain very soon. The field is working quite well. There is no need to have extra help”. He pats her diminutive hands under the table repetitively, “I know I am a little too old to work, but we have our father and son to feed, Adelynn…” Onera calls softly, trying not to make his wife too worry about him.
Adelynn sighs along with a familiar compromise, “Be careful, the weather in Laivencoth changes every moment. Beware of the endless deep holes when you are walking on the muddy roads.”
Onera nods heavily with obedience. Akimoto listens to the conversation silently and remains quiet.
Like this, the family finishes their dinner and goes to their room to have an after-meal chat.
In the room
Three ‘sleepy cats’ are lying casually on their only bed with their breath echo in a synchronize pattern. All of them are thinking about what they are going to do in the upcoming meaningful day.
“Mother, father, tomorrow is my 15th birthday. Can I go to the field with father and learn how to grow crops?” asks Akimoto innocently.
The two parents glance at each other and starts, “Akimoto, you may have a look at our vegatable fields but it is still too early for you to work in the field. You were once taken away by a male wolf at the field. Don’t you remember that? We think it is safer for you to overcome the fear of the creatures in the field first before you work in there. Or maybe you are just too young… What about this, I am going to teach you how to grow crops when you are 16, okay? The mud is slippery, the edges of the crops are sharp enough to cut your skin. It is too dangerous for you,” replied Onera.
“But…” Akimoto knows his parents are right, but he cannot overcome his fear, as well as, he does not want to miss the chance to help his family. He can see how hard his parents have been working in these years to support the big family. Akimoto does not want them to work for too long and get too tired, especially when they are entering their fifties.
“Don’t be upset, my son. I will have some of my Greek books in the old leather luggage as a present for your fifteenth birthday. You wanted them for a long time, isn’t it?” interrupts Adelynn, “Let’s have a nice sleep and we will see what will happen tomorrow.”
The three folks lie on the bed and try to catch the sense of frustration, but none of them can.
Suddenly, the rain pours into the floor outside the house and makes a splashy sound of waterfall. The sky flies into rage, silvery, reflective whips are swaying in the bright sky.
The father cannot stand this situation, “I will go and have a look at the field. You all stay in the house and wait for my message,” he says severely.
“Be careful…” whispers the wife.
“I will…” murmurs the man.
Onera gets off the bed, changes into a set of short pants and blouse, and dashes towards the house entrance facing their field a mile away.
Adelynn sights and hugs her shivering boy, trying to warm him, “Have a sleep, my dear. When you wake up, your dad will be at your side,” says the mother to Akimoto with her bright eyes wide open. She pats his back gently and tries to rock Akimoto to sleep.
She knows – he is afraid of lightning. It was also a lightning day when Akimoto was taken away by a mid-age wolf.
Adelynn has been waiting for an hour, and there is still no news from her husband. Hundreds of ants come and bite her skin while she is watching the blaze of dancing fire. Meanwhile, she feels like her heart is roasted in the crimson fire.
The midnight arrives, striking the reassuring lavenders into dusts in the soil. The neighbor, Ito Eguchi comes to the window of the Sanaka’s cabin and tells Adelynn her husband is safe, and he has saved a wounded man who does not belong to the village. That man is a soldier from the east.
The lethal manjusaka binds Adelynn and buries a budding seed inside Akimoto.
The armed team
It is such a surprising news, but Adelynn knows it is not a good news. In the next day, she sees her husband by her side with his blackened eyes. They wake up and Onera starts the day with a special announcement, “A soldier from the East who is responsible to warn near places that might be influenced by the war recently was saved yesterday on the mountain road and he mentioned there is a big war that is going to be ended, but the defeated arm forces might intercept our area when heading backwards. They might break the peace to occupy this beautiful place. The soldier told the village to be careful and be ready for it. The village has decided to form an armed force to fight against the possible danger.” He continues, “I might be joining the team. After all, there aren’t many men in the village…”
Adelynn listens and sobs, “When will you be coming back?”
“I am not sure, really,” answers Onera.
“Dear son, sorry for disappointing you on your fifteenth birthday, but I promise I will be joining you on your sixteenth birthday. Happy birthday and you can pick whatever you like in our field as your birthday gift. Be happy,” ended the father.
“How, how many, how many people will be in the team?” Adelynn asks chokingly.
“About 50,” the voice disappears in the wind.
The autumnal, howling wind blows to make the unexpected disengagement earlier. The muscular, dauntless man, who is in an olive uniform stands serenely in front of the small livestock farm, staring at the running, lively chicks and ducks in the fair, flexible fence. Then, he leaves behind a heavy, bleak back. The mother and the son are watching speechlessly. They feel like an important part of them is entering a point of no return.
A long time has passed, and Adelynn returned to the house with Akimoto. Suddenly, Adelynn coughs heavily with her back bent and her throat aches.
“Mum, are you okay? Mum, mum!” cried Akimoto as he realizes his mother is sick.
“Find grandpa to help. He has the medicine,” murmurs Adelynn.
Akimoto catches her words, moves her onto the bed, and runs to his grandpa’s house.
Akimoto’s grandfather’s house is at the next door, and Akimoto has been there every autumn to look after his grandfather except for this one.
“Grandpa, grandpa!” Akimoto yells before he arrives.
Toshiya Okuda is at the backyard of the house, he has been growing flowers and plants after he was retired. He calls the secret place the ‘memory garden’. He is now cutting a branch of white rose out of the ordered pattern away from the plant.
When Akimoto finds him standing there, holding a scissor in his left hand and a pure, frequent flower on the other. The sun is shining on the man who ran in years of rain and reflects a sense of calmness.
Akimoto stuns and asks politely, “Grandpa, mother is sick. Do you have any medicine for her?”
“I am sorry, my grandson,” says Okuda, “I have no medicine for her because she is sick in her heart. Your father went out to fight, and she knows her husband might not return. This is very sad and unbearable.”
“Grandpa, please! Don’t you have any idea how to make her better?” begs Akimoto painfully, but there is not a word from the old man.
Akimoto leaves with unwillingness.
After he leaves, a powerful wind brings the rose on her hand away, leaving a visible scar. Okuda drops the scissor on the ground and falls in a daze. “Sakura…” he chases his thought back to sixty years ago.
It was when he met Fujita Sakura, his wife.
Fujita Sakura
Akimoto goes back to his home depressed. He sees his mum lying on the bed breathlessly.
He kneels down by the bed and sobs, “Mum, please get better. I asked grandpa for the medicine, but he said he has no medicine.”
Adelynn half open her eyes, “Akimoto, it is okay. Father will not give out the medicine easily. But it is not because he is heartless – There is love in him, that is why he kept the medicine for years after mother has passed away.” She turns to him, “Do you want to know the story?” Akimoto nods.
Adelynn begins, “Sixty years ago, that was when father was in his twenties. There was war between the two parties in the country. Grandpa was involved because he was working at a restaurant where a fatal mission took place. It was in the middle of the night when the owner of the restaurant was killed accidently while trying to rescue his daughter sleeping in her room. Your grandpa was following the owner at that time. The owner asked grandpa to take care of her daughter and handed some money to him. Grandpa went to rescue immediately, and that is when your grandparents met. The girl’s name was Fujita Sakura.”
Adelynn coughs hardly when she tries to tell the story, “Your grandfather learned swordsmanship from his parents. By using all his strength, he brought the girl through the fire and escaped successfully from the woods. He thought his mission was finished when he saved the girl out of danger, but that was not true at all. The owners was the only parent of the girl, and there was no one to take care of her after he has passed away.
“Actually, you do not have to save me. There is no one who can live alive while being wanted by the ‘assassinators’. I will not be the exception. Therefore, leave me before you regret,” the girl looks straight into his tiring eyes when she is resting on the ground.
“Your father told me to take care of you. I promised to do so - I will do what I was asked to. I will take care of you,” says the young Okuda stubbornly.
“You are really a kid,” the girl laughs relaxingly, the glowing sun shines on her face, revealing the true tenderness, “What my father meant was to ask me to marry you. In that way, you can take care of me for your entire life. But let’s take it seriously like adults. You do not have to do it if you do not want to.”
“Let me think about it,” replied the boy after a long hesitation.
The boy found a hostel for the girl to live and gave all the properties of the restaurant owner back to her. By the time he finished it was already 3 months after the assassination. Sakura was quite dependent and trusted him only. After a while, the boy decided to revenge. When he processed his plan, he received a letter from the landlord of the house he lent for Sakura and a letter from Sakura.
The landlord told Okuda that Sakura went very depressed during the time and spit blood when she stayed in her room. However, the second letter told him she is fine and is very happy about what he is doing.
Okuda was very worried and finished his revenge plan as soon as possible. He found a recipe of curing Sakura’s sickness and went back to Sakura one month after. Yet, he could only find a note from the ‘assassinators’ on Sakura’s desk claiming Sakura was brought away by them. In addition, he adopted a boy who was taken cared by Sakura when she was alive, and that was your father.
Most importantly, Okuda went depressed for months. He could not forgive himself, not only because he did not do what he has promised to, but because it was too late for him to find him and Sakura has love between them. He never married anyone after that. The medicine for depression, was kept under his pillow for over fifty years.
I guess my situation made grandpa though of Sakura – Men went out to fight, and the women who are left behind are sick and resting helplessly on their beds… I really miss your daddy, Akimoto,” finishes Adelynn and falls into deep sleep.
Akimoto takes a thin bed sheet and covers Adelynn carefully. Then he goes to the next door and visits his grandfather.
“You are back, Adelynn told you something, did she?” asks Okuda sitting on a desk, staring at the garden through the window.
“Yes. Sorry, grandpa. I didn’t know…” apologizes Akimoto.
“Never mind, you are just a kid. Take this to your mother. This tie should be untied after so many years. After all, your father is the only one she cared about when she was living on the Mount Asama…” relieves Okuda and hands a clean, transparent box to Akimoto.
“Thank you very much, grandpa. But, I think grandma did not only care about father, she cared about you a lot!” disagrees Akimoto.
“Really,” Okuda laughs heartily, “One more thing. Our family shares one field with the farmer, Nitta Tanaka. Go to find him in the field and he will teach you how to harvest crops. If you refuse, the entire family will not have food for the entire year and we will end up dying in the house. I know you are afraid because of the accident few years ago. But think about your dad fighting in the mountains. Your grandma who lived alone when she was only a little girl. I do not think you have any reason to not take your responsibility. Go and do not let me look down at you.”
“I see. Thank you, grandpa!” says Akimoto truthfully. He quickly returns to his home, feed her mother the precious medicine and runs toward the field.
One month later, Onera returns home and finds everything goes well. The big family celebrates like they never did.
The silver stars shine with an orbicular moon which reveals the peaceful sky.
WORKS CITED
Ashley Matthews. Beach/Tropical Living. Pinterest. May 16, 2019.https://www.pinterest.com/pin/341992165437063440
ULink College Wordsmith Society 2019 
Well done!
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