(The first task set for the Bedale Savages, April 2017)
Kenichi,
peeked sideways from behind the old cherry tree at the end of the Minato-ku
back street. He strained his eyes into
the shadows between the old timber and tile houses and shops. The old buildings
crowded the narrow pavements. He knew Sanai and Yoshi would be lying in wait
for him. He had to make it to Sanai’s father’s noodle shop to win. Kenichi made a break from cover to dash across the
alley. Made his way behind his house from where he had a line of
sight to the noodle shop. Just as he
made it to the side of his home his mother slid open the shoji screen to
welcome his father back from the office.
Kenichi was torn. He could see Sanai and Yoshi hiding in ambush but
looking the other way. He could see the
shop and a path to a clear win. But his father was home. It was a hard choice but Kenichi slipped off
his street shoes and took his place beside his mother to welcome his dad home
with respect.
The
three kids had formed an unlikely friendship as their families
were quite disparate. Sanai was the
eldest of the three, destined to take over her father’s soba business as the
only child. Yoshi was from Nagasaki but
lived with his aunt who ran a small ryokan for travellers to Tokyo. The kids plotted gentle pranks and in their innocent
play and terrorising soon formed ties with neighbours and between the
families. Ties that grew strongest
between the three of them.
The pre
teen years were marked by school holidays, national and local
festivals like the taiko drum parade where the three of them once performed at the
head of the troupe. Childhood bonds are
most fickle though and as years passed, if it wasn’t for returning home for traditional events, the childhood friendship
would likely have waned, as travel and workloads encroached to pull them
apart.
Thankfully though, the regular local reunions added to their weave of common experiences. Friendships were flavoured by some sexual exploration between them and spiced
by their tales of trysts with others. In time, Sanai did actually take over her father’s soba
shop and was growing it into a packaged soba company. Yoshi became a
popular manga artist. Kenichi, as his
father decreed, completed business studies at Kansai university and was working
his way up a tedious corporate ladder. In an increasingly westernised world he was now known as Ken-san.
Each of
them were career focussed, but the pressure to settle and have families became strongest for Sanai and Ken. The continuation of the family business was
the driver in Sanai’s case, and for Ken, the demand of his parents for
grandchildren. In seeking a partner Sanai
had enjoyed the pleasures of a few but sought in vain for communion. Ken had sown oats, with a fortunate lack of
productivity, but with no real intent to harvest a relationship. A partner could
well demand a focus away from his career. Yoshi, the hedonist, rejoiced under no such pressures.
At the
end of Golden Week 2010 the three had met up once again in their old back
street haunt. The timber homes and shops of their childhood were
now Homat apartments with shop front businesses. The three met in a particular bar and were sitting relaxed, as among friends, Kenichi and Sanai's backs were to the window through which could be seen a red lantern marked in katakana as ‘Yoshi’s’. The bar though was
Yoshi's aunt’s, and named in honour of its slightly famous and occasional client. Today, Yoshi sat opposite the others looking out, making his aunt most pleased. It was the Shichi go san week and the bright Koinobori of local families were flying from balconies in the dank city breeze.
‘You
know,’ he mused, ‘I was jealous of you
two for having your family flags when we were kids’.
Kenichi
and Sanai followed his gaze out the window to see the brightly coloured carp
and dragons moving slowly with the pulse of street air.
‘Yeah, said Kenichi, ‘my dad got me one so it nearly matched the size of his, I remember that’.... ‘But I never thought. Your aunt never flew one for you did she?’
‘Nah,
out of respect for my dead parents I suppose’
‘Oh,
Yoshi, you must have felt a poor little thing,’ Sanai said with genuine feeling.
‘Well, I’m
over it, but, yeah, I felt left out, the only one without a flag.’
‘I can
imagine’ said Sanai ‘ I got really excited to see mine
flying….Actually, funny, I was jealous too... Ken’s family had lots of flags, and mine,
just the pink one for me’
Kenichi
winced ‘Being the ichi-ban son is nothing to be jealous of.’
‘Try
being an only child’ ..
‘Gawd,
give it a rest you two, I was just saying...’
‘Okay.' 'Yeah,
sorry’ chimed Sanai and Ken
‘So how
are your love lives?’ asked Yoshi knowing the response.
Moans of
derision and despair were followed with banter and laughs prior to a
departure into a Roppongi night that was probably best forgotten.
As Ken
reflected now, seven years on, it was that cocktail fuelled night in 2010 that was the start of the
romance. It was not an intended or even
dreamt of connection they made. But over
the next few years, as the trio met up for their Tokyo family duties, the friendship
turned stronger and to a genuine love.
Life always
throws curved balls and while Sanai desperately wanted a family the fact that
Ken seemed unable to sire, and her soba business took her away so much, the
unfulfilled ache in both Ken and Sanai had dragged at them. Yoshi remained blissfully free of paternal
urge but was compassionate to his two friend’s need.
Now it
was 2017, Golden Week, the happy couple had moved to Nagasaki, a complete
change from the previous year’s reunion where the union had been proclaimed. Ken
proudly hoisted a long pole with its spinning disk, windsocks of dragon tails,
two large black koi, one pink, and a bright blue tiddler for their baby boy. The wind filled the fish flags and Sanai giggled.
‘Well,
that’s going to puzzle the neighbours’
‘Nah, they all know us.’ said Yoshi ‘And there is the four of us now. Family.’ and he gave his partner a long,
loving kiss.
‘Oh,
don’t do that Yosh’ said Ken, enjoying the embrace, ‘Sanai will get jealous.’
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