Despite Obon with all its colour, noise, and activity, Chiemi was really mesmerized by the black surrounding forests and the distant mountains. She felt she could walk among the trees while bowing below the welcoming branches and melting into the serene darkness. The fresh smell of cedar alone was intoxicating. But she admired the presence of the mountains most of all. Something that would last for all eternity.
The evening went well. The elderly Takanaka paid her respects to her parents as the family sat together on portable chairs watching the dance.
“It’s so hot!” Takanaka-san complained as she wiped her neck with a hand towel while fanning her face with an open paper fan.
Akamatsu Okaasan nodded agreement and observed, “There’s a cooling wind coming in. You’ll be able to sleep tonight.”
“Ach!” she complained. “I don’t sleep with shoji open. Too dangerous. Who knows what would come in and kill me?”
Takanaka-san was paranoid and believed that one day she would die in her sleep, probably by some tragic agent. Chiemi and Chisato always laughed about her in their bedroom. Okaasan would scold them if she caught them, but always with a half-smile as she reproached them.
***
“Can I tell you my secret now?” The voice was timid, soft, and somewhat reticent.
The Bon dance was over, and men started to tear down the kiosks and the tower. Some cleaned up the grounds. Merchants counted their profits. The musicians gathered their instruments and music before heading to a local café to celebrate their performance with sake and song. The women, old ladies, and young wives, put away the precious leftover food into convenient boxes for people to take home for later consumption.
Otousan left the proceedings soon after the mayor thanked him once again for the use of the land. Okaasan supervised the food packaging. Hideki left with friends to carry on somewhere away from prying eyes. The two girls strolled to the house, taking their time since their reverie had diminished to a post-celebratory dullness.
“Well, can I?” Chisato asked insistently.
Chiemi had forgotten about the secret. It was her baby sister after all. What could be so important: did she break Mother’s porcelain dish sent to her by Hideki’s chum in Kuomintang? She stole something from Takanaka-san’s store? She was in love with some boy? Now that would be a secret, but why tell Father?
“I’m getting married,” she said with a dry mouth.
“Yes, one day you will.”
“No, I mean now...well, not now exactly but soon.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chiemi harrumphed. “You’re too young.”
“I’m sixteen.”
“Too young.”
“Okaa was seventeen when she married!”
“Yes, well, a year makes a big difference.”
“Don’t tease. I am serious. I asked Otousan and he said exactly what you said, but he listened to reason. He saw I was serious.”
Chisato didn’t wait for a reaction as she pouted and continued to explain. “I went to Otousan and asked him to arrange a marriage. He argued but gave in as I knew he would.”
Chiemi recovered enough to gain control of her doubt and dismay. “Why do you want to do such a thing, and at your age?”
“I’m not a baby!”
“I know but—”
“I want to see the world. The Emperor said we should. He did.”
“So, you’re royalty now. The world is in a terrible state.”
“All the more reason to go to Kanada.”
“Kanada? You don’t even know where that is.”
“Near Amerika, I think. It doesn’t matter. Kiyoshi will take me there and protect me.”
“Kiyoshi? Who’s Kiyoshi?”
“The man I’m marrying. Father’s arranging it with his friend from Kure.” In the heated pause, Chisato continued. “He lives in Kanada. Has a good life there.”
“You’re marrying a gaijin? Are you—?”
“Am I what?” Chisato said with some anger.
“A gaijin! Chi-chan, it’s bad enough you’re marrying so young, do you have to marry a foreigner?” she said with disdain. “Marry someone here. What about Shiomi-san? He’s a good catch with a good rice farm.”
“Shiomi-san? He’s bucktoothed and a simpleton.”
“That’s not true!”
“Oneesan, you have to understand, this is a modern, exciting world. Everything is changing. And I want to be a part of that change,” she insisted. “Talk to Father. He understands.”
Chiemi shook at the implications. Her sister was the youngest in the family. She should, at least, wait for her older siblings to marry. It just wasn’t done. But she knew her young sister was headstrong and, once her mind was made, she would not listen to reason. All Chiemi could do was accept the facts. Marriage crept into her thoughts as well.
“Well, at least, you are appropriately named,” Chiemi sighed as she watched her sister walk into the darkness of the house. “You will live in a thousand homes.”
Chiemi began to feel abandoned. She knew her responsibility; she must take care of her parents. Impermanence.
***
Chiemi suddenly remembered that her dream had turned into a nightmare when her flesh became enflamed resulting in a painfully black crust rapidly spreading over her skin. She stood horribly naked before crumbling into the darkness that was the entire world.
She shivered in the wake of the apparent premonition. Life is suffering.