Reality Strikes Read online

  He gave me a knowing smile. “You were the perfect birthday girl.”

  His charming words made me flash on Kenzo. Sure enough, he stood by the front door laughing and talking to the harem. As he glanced my way, I felt the sting of regret. He dragged Brena all the way to the boonies so she could talk to me, and I snubbed the offer. I owed him an apology, but now was not the time. Instead, I turned my attention back to Fudo. “Want to grab an early dinner?”

  He helped me out of the chair. “Yes. I know a great place near here.”

  We walked past Kenzo and his groupies. His eyes followed me towards the door. I gave him a quick smile and took Fudo’s arm.

  Kenzo broke away from the girls and stood blocking our way. “I didn’t know you and Fudo were an item.”

  Jealousy seemed to be on the other foot. I let go of Fudo’s arm. “He’s just being a good friend and taking me to Akihabara to get a camera.”

  Kenzo nodded. “Glad you are finally going to get one. That means there will be no more last-minute machine purchases in my future.”

  I laughed as Fudo stood clueless. “It’s an inside joke. Let’s go get that dinner.”

  We strolled out the door and into the packed streets of Seda. Flanked by vibrant yellow ginkgo trees, Fudo led me down Soto Street. We wound up standing in front of the Curry House around the corner—my favorite spot.

  “How did you know I was dying for some chicken curry?”

  “I can read minds.”

  So not only was Fudo handsome, but he had a sense of humor. My weakness. Too bad he was already taken.

  We wove our way through the crowd of students and grabbed two spots at the counter. I ordered the chicken curry special and a Coke. Fudo must love his food spicy as he ordered the mapo dofu, a fiery curried tofu dish.

  Fudo broke open his chopsticks. “That was a bit uncomfortable back at the lounge. Have you been dating Kenzo?”

  I shifted in my chair. “We went out once, but I’m just one of many.”

  “Oh, sorry.”

  I breathed in the aroma of the curry-filled room. “It’s fine.” I puffed out my chest. “I’m a big girl.”

  His eyes grew large. “I can see that.”

  I gave him a weak smile and changed the subject. “I’m so glad you offered to help me buy a camera. We’re going to Kamakura on the field trip this Friday. I heard it’s beautiful.”

  “Of course. Kamakura is the ancient capital of Japan.”

  The chef plopped our bowls down on the counter. “Yeah, the pictures I’ve seen of the old temples look beautiful.”

  Fudo beamed. “I love the place.”

  I shoveled down the rest of the curry as my excitement grew. “Can’t wait to take pictures of the giant Buddha.”

  Fudo polished off his dinner and stood up. “Then we better purchase you a camera.”

  We paid our portions of the bill and headed straight for the train station. Leaning up against the door as we sped along, I couldn’t help but be grateful for Fudo’s offer. “Thanks for coming along with me. I know you have better things to do with your time.”

  Fudo gave me a big smile. “I love spending other people’s money.”

  I couldn’t wait to get to what the Japanese thought of as tech heaven. As soon as I got off, at the station, I knew this was a special place. Akihabura had more neon signage per square foot than the Las Vegas strip. Every electronic manufacturer you could think of had its name about twenty times in one block. Fudo led me down the main drag filled with tall buildings chock full of every electronic gizmo imaginable.

  He stopped in front of a building covered in mirrors with an image of a band of elephants holding each other’s tails casually walking across the top. “This is my favorite store for cameras. Ten floors of fun.”

  After just two floors, I was overcome with sensory overload. There seemed to be twice as many models as back in the States. How was I going to choose from the silver, black and multicolored sea of cameras?

  Fudo had no such problem as he dug right in and waved me over. “Erin, I really think this one is good.”

  He handed me a camera almost the perfect size. “This has auto everything. All you have to do is hold it up and it does the work. Best of all, it is only eleven thousand seven hundred six yen—a hundred dollars.”

  I held the camera in my hands, enjoying all the features compared to my flimsy disposable model. “Thanks for showing me this slice of tech heaven.”

  Fudo pulled me to the side of the aisle. “Look over there. Is that your boyfriend?”

  Two aisles over stood Kenzo pretending to check out cameras. “No. He couldn’t have followed us here.”

  Fudo gave me a smile. “Guess he likes you more than you think.”

  “Maybe.”

  Kenzo continued cruising the sea of cameras. Fudo took the Cannon Powershot from my hand. “Let me pay for this. Then you can talk to Kenzo.”

  I handed him the money and as Fudo walked away, I wondered if that was such a smart idea. If Kenzo had followed us here to check up on me, maybe ignoring him would drive him nuts. But curiosity got the better of me. I stood in front of Kenzo. “Funny meeting you here. Did you need a new camera too?”

  He smiled. “Busted.”

  “Look, why are you really here?”

  His eyes drifted down to a camera display. “I just wanted to make sure you picked out a good camera. Fudo doesn’t strike me as the shutterbug type.”

  He had a point. I never saw Fudo whip out his phone to take a picture. Not even once. “So, did you see what I picked out?”

  He nodded. “A Cannon Powershot. Good choice for the money.”

  “Glad I have the Kenzo seal of approval.”

  He smiled. “I’ll leave you to it. Have to meet Ryo at rehearsal. It’s nearby.”

  I didn’t know if I bought his excuse for crashing my camera buying party, but I needed to cut him some slack after what happened with Brena. I touched his arm to keep him from leaving. “Before you go, I just wanted to apologize for blowing off Brena. You brought her all the way to the boonies so I could talk to her, and I was super rude.”

  “It’s okay. Like I said, I should have given you a heads up. I’ll arrange another meeting if you want. Have you seen or heard anything since the last time we talked?”

  I bit my lip and nodded. “Yes. It spoke to me again.”

  “What did it say?”

  Before I could answer him, Fudo showed up with the shopping bag that held my new camera. “Are you okay Erin? You look upset.”

  “I’m fine.” I gave Kenzo a smile. “See you around the academy.”

  He waved and took off out the door. Fudo led me out of the store and down the main drag to the train station. He handed me the shopping bag as we stood at the station waiting for the train to pull in. “I’m going to meet a friend. Have a safe trip back home.”

  I wondered if he was going to meet his girlfriend. She was a lucky girl. “Thanks for helping me, in more ways than one.”

  He gave me a smile. “Any time.”

  I waved good-bye to Fudo as I boarded the train. Why couldn’t I fall for someone like him?

  Back at home, I went upstairs and practiced using the camera. I took a couple of test shots of my desk. Maybe the lens could find evidence of the ghost my human eyes couldn’t see?

  As I scrolled through the shots, something looked different. Not only had Tori’s list gone missing again, but in its place, someone had put up a Hello Kitty calendar with all the months torn out except for June—the month I was leaving Japan. What the heck? I thought Okasan had declared a truce. I swallowed hard. It had to be another message from the ghost. But once again I had no idea what it was trying to tell me. In frustration I decided I better make sure it wasn’t something Aki did. It was a Hello Kitty calendar after all. I pulled down the calendar and trudged over to Aki’s room. Faced with enough pink kitties to drive me crazy, I knocked on her door. Aki barely got the door open before I shoved the calendar in her
face. “Did you put this in my room?”

  She stared back at me with a look of total innocence. “I put that in the garbage. How did it get in your room?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know.”

  Aki sighed. “Maybe it is a joke Hiroshi played.”

  “Maybe.”

  Back in my room, I dove under my bed. My hand grazed paper and I let out a sigh, relieved the map of Japan I purchased lay just where I left it.

  If the ghost was messing with me, I needed a distraction, or I was going to lose another night’s sleep. Spreading the map out across the bed, I ran my fingers across the towns till I hit the X that marked Tori’s relatives’ village.

  A sudden pang of guilt hit me. Oh crap! In my last email, I told Tori I’d call on her birthday. I forgave her for not calling me. My birthday was the same day as her parents’ wedding anniversary. Her mother had to be taking the first one without her husband hard.

  Hmmm. The clock’s hands pointed at 11:30 PM. That meant it was eight in the morning in Idaho. She might be awake. I was grateful Okasan had gone to bed. No one would give me a hard time about using the phone so late. I tiptoed down the stairs, just to be on the safe side, and headed straight for the phone nook. The smell from the urinal was only partially covered up by the lemon-scented ball Okasan hung from the top. The sound of running water stopped me dead in my tracks. Two butt cheeks peeked out from the hallway. Someone hummed Heartbreak Hotel—Hiroshi.

  I ducked behind the phone nook and waited for him to head back to his room. Why couldn’t an alarm go off every time the men of the house went near the urinal? Once the Hiroshi’s bedroom door closed, I picked up the phone. My fingers shook as I dialed Tori’s cell. I crossed my fingers I didn’t wake her. Tori and mornings were archenemies.

  The phone rang five times. I was about to hang up. “Okay, this better be super important.”

  Oh great, I woke her. “Hey, how are you and your mom doing? I still can’t believe your dad is gone.”

  She took a deep breath as if she could suck in her emotions. “We’re okay. Yesterday we packed up Dad’s clothes and took them to Goodwill.”

  “Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I should have been there to help you.”

  “My cousins are here. People have been really supportive.” There was a long awkward silence. “You’re three days late, you know.”

  I sighed and sat down. “I know. I missed your birthday.”

  “I’m just messing with you. I completely forgot yours. Sorry, I had my hands full with mom. She’s been a wreck for weeks and she just had her first wedding anniversary without him.”

  “It’s okay. I totally understand. So how was your big day?”

  “The gang took me to Disneyland.” Tori thought Disneyland really was the greatest place on earth. Her friends knew it was the only place guaranteed to cheer her up.

  “Wow, that’s awesome!”

  Sounds of Tori making something came through the phone. “I had a great time until the tea cup ride. Noah kept turning it so fast I started to feel sick. When I got off, I threw up all over his shoes.”

  I tried not to laugh and wake up Okasan. “Well, he deserved it. I hope he wore his Bally boots.”

  Tori dropped what sounded like a glass. “Bingo.”

  I covered my mouth to hold back another laugh. “Oh, man, I bet he freaked. Those are his babies. He spent over five hundred bucks for them.”

  The noise of running water filled the phone. “He hasn’t spoken to me since. It’s not like I did it on purpose. So, how was your birthday? Did you get my card?”

  “Yeah, thanks. The party was great. Had some new friends over. Don’t laugh. It had a taco Tuesday theme. “

  The sound of muffled laughter. “So, what was it like eating chips and salsa with your sushi?”

  “Very funny.”

  “Things must be going well with your host family.”

  I let out a sigh so deep I almost stopped breathing. “Not exactly. My host mother thinks I’m the devil.”

  “She figured out your secret already?”

  “Ha. Ha. I could go on forever about all the things that drive me crazy about the family.”

  Tori happily munched away on her cereal. “Well, I think it’s pretty cool to have a host brother who’s an Elvis impersonator. Has he rocked your world yet?”

  This was exactly the reason I debated telling her about Hiroshi’s hobby. “Actually, he’s proposed twice.”

  “So, he’s got the whole Pricilla thing going.”

  Someone stirred upstairs.

  “Tori, it’s late,” I whispered. “I’m going to have to get off.”

  There was a loud banging at the top of the stairs. For once I wished it was the ghost instead of Okasan. She truly scared me.

  Tori let out a sigh. “Some birthday phone call I get.”

  “I know…sorry.” I moved slightly down the hall, anticipating Okasan would come flying down the stairs any second.

  “Just one more thing. How’s the list coming?”

  I knew she couldn’t resist asking. “Fantastic. The photo album is half full and my trip to your relatives is all planned out. I’ve beat down a whole harem of girls to win a super handsome rocker boyfriend. I’m expecting to move in with him any day.”

  “So, your competitive streak is alive and well. Glad someone else was the victim this time.”

  Ouch. I thought she’d forgiven me. I decided to ignore her little dig. “Well, what do you expect when he’s a ‘rock star?’ You wouldn’t believe the hair pulling I had to do to get him. I could make a wig.”

  Tori burst out laughing. “So, basically you’re saying you haven’t even finished half the list.”

  Spoken like a friend that knew me all too well. “Okay, so I fibbed a little.”

  The loud racket pierced through the phone. Sounded like Tori’s breakfast smoothie was almost ready. “You better get busy. You’re not going to be in Japan forever.”

  Had she been talking to Kenzo? Heavy footsteps came from the top of the stairs. I looked up to find Okasan’s familiar blue terry cloth slippers.

  “Okay, I got the message. I need to go. Great to hear your voice again.”

  Okasan was now standing in front of me. Her cheeks were puffed, and her hair stuck out every which way, giving her the look of an angry blowfish. She motioned for me to hang up the phone.

  I began to put the receiver down when Tori said, “I’m coming to see you next month. Happy birthday.”

  Chapter 3

  Kamakura Land of Monks

  November 15-5:00 AM

  “Meow, meow, meow.”

  I flew out of bed as if someone had screamed, “Free chocolate all you can eat.” Nightmares of Tori flying into Takao to read me the riot act about her to-do list haunted me all night. Thankfully the ghost didn’t make an appearance so I could be truly haunted. There really was no reason to worry. I couldn’t imagine her leaving her mother alone and flying off to Japan before Christmas. She had to be kidding, right?

  Like our last field trip, I had to leave almost before sunrise to get to campus on time. The fact that we were required to wear our uniforms made getting dressed a breeze. I was up and out before Okasan could scream at me for waking her up.

  Once on the train, I slept till I got to Shinjuku then woke up and switched to the subway. Picking up the pace a bit, I broke into a sprint when I looked at my watch and realized I had five minutes to get to campus before the buses left. When I hit the parking lot, the gang was lined up. I jogged over to meet them.

  Gina tapped her foot. “Gee, could you cut it any closer?”

  I tried to catch my breath. “Hey…I’m… here…now.” Gina slid to the side while a couple of the students protested. Why was anyone in a hurry to be packed into a creaky old bus?

  Adam tugged at my backpack. “I heard you got a fancy camera. Can I check it out?”

  Gina had to tell him everything. “Who blabbed?” I dug through my bag and handed him my shin
y Cannon. It looked like a small silver blob in his enormous palm.

  “This should really do the job. It even takes panoramic shots. Impressive.”

  We made our way onto the bus. I sat with Gina and Adam, while Setsuko sat directly behind us. The engine roared as the bus suddenly sprang to life.

  A girl in the back shouted, “We’re off to Kamakura—land of the monks.”

  Chuckles spread through the bus. Gina nudged me and said, “Guess someone else has a monk fetish too.”

  Once we escaped the city, the scenery turned into a blanket of fall colors. Kamakura was a seaside town, so I looked forward to seeing the ocean. Gina and Adam chatted away beside me. Adam had been kind enough to give me the window seat. Gina sat on just a sliver of vinyl. Adam, the football player, took up the rest. Maybe Gina asked me to join them so she could be closer to Adam. Whatever the motivation, I sat content with my nose pressed to the glass taking in the changing scenery.

  The fall foliage could easily smoke Idaho’s. Kamakura looked like the pictures I’d seen of Santa Barbara, California. Endless hills rolled by my window, dotted with country houses. We had left the concrete jungle of Tokyo far behind. I gazed out the window at the sailboats and the die-hard windsurfers as they vied for space out in the bay. Licking my lips, I could almost taste the salt water. But this wasn’t a beach tour. This field trip was all about temple hopping.

  First up, the famous Diabutsu or Giant Buddha. He held the top position on the Kamakura must-see list. I raced out of the bus only to be faced with hundreds of steps that seemed to rocket straight up in the air. My enthusiasm for seeing the Giant Buddha quickly faded. “This will beat any machine at the gym.”

  Gina smacked me on the butt. “Guys love tight buns.”

  I wondered if she was speaking from experience as we slowly climbed the never-ending hill to the temple complex. A large sign greeted us at the entrance that was almost as imposing as the Buddha himself.

  Adam read the sign aloud. “’Built in twelve-fifty-two, the Buddha was originally housed in a beautiful temple. That was until his first brush with fate in fourteen-ninety-eight. A huge tidal wave tore apart the temple.’” Adam laughed. “Man, he sure got left high, but I bet he wasn’t dry.”