{"id":2274,"date":"2013-12-06T04:02:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T04:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=2274"},"modified":"2013-12-06T04:02:38","modified_gmt":"2013-12-06T04:02:38","slug":"journeys-by-lyn-g-farrell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/journeys-by-lyn-g-farrell\/","title":{"rendered":"Journeys by Lyn G Farrell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dock\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Journeys<\/h1>\n

by Lyn G Farrell<\/p>\n

The huge sign says \u2018Japanese Culture Day.\u2019 An arrow points at an ugly building with square windows like blisters. They are greeted at the door by two smiling, bowing Japanese girls in kimonos. Alice bows back and the girls giggle. Her mother hangs back, surly, still upset.<\/p>\n

\u2018Come, please.\u2019<\/p>\n

They are taken down a narrow corridor, the girls\u2019 wooden sandals clacking, into a crowded hall decorated with calligraphy-festooned hangings. Another twenty or so kimono-clad girls, slender as reeds, stand at different stalls. Alice and her mother walk to a stall where girls are demonstrating origami. The table is loaded with paper swans, cranes, roses and lilies.<\/p>\n

\u2018Aren\u2019t they beautiful mum?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I suppose so,\u2019 her mother says, glancing up before fussing again with her cardigan buttons.<\/p>\n

They browse the raffle gifts; a red lacquered address book, floral notecards, ornate square boxes with chopsticks inside. Alice buys a ticket and then they sit down at the refreshments table. Huge dishes of rice crackers, spicy peanuts and shiny, bean-paste sweets sit next to steaming flasks of green and black tea. An astonishingly beautiful girl with a glossy bob presents them with handle-less, china cups. Eventually her mother speaks.<\/p>\n

\u2018I suppose it\u2019s this sort of thing you\u2019re after?\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m going to Beijing mum, not Japan.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I need you \u2013 here. I\u2019m a widow in case you\u2019ve forgotten.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t be mean. It\u2019s hard for both of us. And it\u2019s been three years now, you have to be more independent. Anyway, I\u2019m only teaching for a year.\u2019 Alice says nothing of all the possibilities floating like lights in the back of her mind.<\/p>\n

Her mother wipes her eyes with a hankie. Alice grabs her hand.<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t cry mum. Let\u2019s enjoy today.\u2019<\/p>\n

Two Japanese girls place two chairs and a large, upside-down cardboard box in the middle of the room. They draw yellow stars at opposite edges of the box and a red circle in the middle. They place two paper Sumo wrestlers \u2013 vertical folds down their middles for stability \u2013 onto the circle. The beautiful girl points to the box.<\/p>\n

\u2018We will try?\u2019 she says to Alice.<\/p>\n

The girl gently smacks the stars with her open palms. The wrestlers softly bounce. Alice copies her and their combined force sets the figures leaping. People gather round, saying \u201cooh\u201d as the wrestlers advance towards the circle\u2019s edge. Alice slaps harder and her opponent\u2019s figure falls outside the ring and the audience clap and cheer. Grinning, she looks at her mother, expecting a smile. Instead her mother sits motionless, clutching her handbag. Alice walks over to her and hugs her.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m starving mum. Let\u2019s grab lunch.\u2019 They walk to the exit where girls hand them bags of tiny sugar flowers tied with ribbons.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve booked my Christmas flight you know,\u2019 Alice says. It\u2019s only a white lie; she will buy the ticket – soon.<\/p>\n

\u2018What do you fancy mum? Chinese?\u2019 Her mother smiles, at last, and links arms. Alice decides to believe that their fight is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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