Part One

ROOTS

I

Yuri Kikuchi, 5 years old, sat in the playground under the great tree, on a bench.
  Her little face, filled with a youthful chubbiness, her body too, sought to hide from the onslaught of the afternoon sun.
  Next to her, her friend, Akiko Yamamoto, sat twirling her long hair to a plaited ponytail.  
  “Yuri, I have a secret.” Akiko whispered under her breath.
  Yuri noticed that Akiko’s hair twirling became more frantic, much like her peers playing with the skipping rope out on the white-hot tarmac of the playground. She turned to her friend slowly, a quizzical look causing her chubby chin to ripple.
  “What’s that, Akiko?” She replied.
  Akiko leant in closely, to a point where her lips almost touched Yuri’s ear. Yuri felt uncomfortable and edged away slightly. Akiko whispered.
  “Akira keeps pecking me on the cheek. I like him, but what do I do back to him?”
  Yuri’s little eyes opened wide. She had never had a boy kiss her, let alone show any interest in her. She was never really concerned with what the boys were doing anyway. She nodded her head slightly.
  “Peck him back of course.”
  Akiko looked startled for a moment.
  “I think I’m too shy.” She looked about her, making sure if anyone could hear their conversation. “That, and I’m only allowed to kiss mama and papa. They said I shouldn’t be kissing boys until I’m much, much older.”
  Yuri’s eyes opened wider. “You told them he kisses you?”
  Akiko shook her head. “No, but I think they know. It’s just like them.”
  Yuri nodded.
  Akiko’s parents were overly protective of her. Yuri had a vague realisation why. She had overheard Akiko and her own parents talking about ‘the loss of another.’ To Yuri’s young mind, she did not know what that meant, but to the adults, it meant something sad.
  “I still think, when he comes over and pecks your cheek, you peck back. And hold his hand.” Yuri smiled, her cheeks puffing up.
  Akiko smiled back, nervous, but feeling good. “You’re right Yuri. I will!”
  With a firm nod of the head, she ran off to into the sunny playground, looking for Akira.
  Yuri sat on the bench, still looking out as her peers hopped and skipped about, playing little games with each other, or bonding in their little clique of Kindergarten.
  She lost Akiko in the crowd for a moment, when suddenly, she appeared amidst a group of peers, standing in the centre with Akira. The pair were holding hands, Akiko’s lips pressed against the young lad’s cheek. Yuri smiled, bowing her head. Her peers looked on, captivated at the start of a young romance, that little Yuri had brought into being. She felt a blossoming happiness in her chest, a warming feeling of satisfaction and happiness filling her.
  In the distance, the school bell rang, and the great and noisy exodus back to class began.
  Yuri did not raise her head, nor followed as the last trickles of the student body re-entered the school. In-fact, no one really noticed her sat on the bench.
  Like a God from the machine, she had quietly motioned an event into being that had once had no resolution.
  She remained out in the shade, until the end of the day, when the shadow that had loomed above her had stretched off into the distance, and the white-hot sun began sinking into a low and less violent, golden haze near the fringe of the horizon.

Next Chapter: Part 1 - Roots: II