A/N just a short story that I used for an English project inspired by CCS this is my first story so go easy. I've finished this story so I will update every week or it depends on reviews! Lol
A Japanese Cinderella
Chapter 1
I sit here and think about how I got here. I can reminisce all I want, it doesn't change the fact I was dying. This all started when I was younger…
I was living in Japan in the small town of Tomeda. I loved it there, I had amazing friends, I loved my school and my house, and life was good… back then. Though the best thing was that we were all together: my Okaasan, Outasan and me.
I was only 7 when it happened though. My Okaasan got ill and had to stay in bed all day. She lost a tremendous lot of weight and when I went in to give her breakfast, she told me to go away. But I gave it to her anyway.
The doctor said he had never seen this disease before and that there was no western or eastern cure. One day when I went to give her lunch she looked up at me and mouthed to me: 'Help me.' The problem was no one was home and so I couldn't. I never felt so helpless. When I looked her in the eye I saw the sparkle was gone, she could not smile she only frowned in pain, the sight was horrible.
Then the next day Otousan went out to work. He thought I was a big girl and I could look after myself? I went to give Okaasan her breakfast but when I knocked on the door there was no answer. I went into the room and set the tray on the bed. I went up to Okaasan and gently shook her, 'Kaasan, Kaasan wake up, please!' it was then that I saw her chest was not rising or falling. My Okaasan was dead.
The funeral was a sad day. Everyone had loved my Okaasan. I was too young to understand that she was dead, but I knew enough that she wasn't coming back. When I had to say goodbye one last time before she was buried, I only let one tear out. Okaasan looked like an angel in her coffin. Her hair was spread out like a halo, and she had her hands clasped together. But her face was what gave her away as dead. She looked so pale and unhappy, her normally glittering, emerald eyes were dull and lifeless, and her cherry red lips were cold and blue. The only thing I had left to remind me of her now was me. This proved it… my beloved Okaasan was dead.
After a couple of months Outasan lost his job as he had sunk into a depression after Okaasan had died, nothing I could do helped. It felt like anything I tried to do, made him worse because I reminded him of Okaasan. We soon began to lose money. I slowly saw the luxuries of my life disappear and the cheerfulness of my home gone. My house had become bare, like it had lost its soul when my Okaasan died.
On my birthday at the beginning of spring the first shoot of the cherry blossoms opened. It was like when I was born the first cherry blossom outside my Okaasan's room had opened. That was how I got my name: Sakura, it meant cherry blossoms in my native language, also Okaasan's favourite flower. My birthday came and went with little celebration. Then just two weeks after it Outasan came into my room and told me not to bother getting dressed into my school clothes because we were moving to Tokyo! There was no time to say goodbye to my friends and I had to pack lightly with a couple of changes of clothes and my treasured possessions. Everything would be coming later once we had settled into our new home.
Everything happened so quickly, too quickly for my liking I was not to bothered about clothes because them they were only material items. It was the sentimental items that took up the most room, like the pictures of Okaasan and me. I knew they would come soon, but I wanted them near me. The thing that was most important was a pink key with a star in the middle with little wings on each side. Okaasan had given it to me when I was young and I have never taken it off.
On the ride up I felt restless. We went on a steam train all the way to Tokyo; it was my first time to the capital or even out of my hometown. We went past cities and countryside and then into Tokyo itself. I didn't see Tokyo until we got off of the train because we were on the coastal railroad, but I could see the outskirts and it was huge. As we got into the station, I had to hold onto Outasan or I would have gotten lost. We went to the side with our suitcases and Outasan hailed a rickshaw and told him where we were going.
It was only then that I began to appreciate how big Tokyo was. As we trundled past people doing their everyday thing, all walking with a purpose. There were women in beautiful kimonos and men in traditional ones as well, but also young men with modern western suits that I had never seen before. The gentle rocking of the rickshaw lulled me to sleep.
I was woken up to the gentle shaking of Outasan telling me that we were there and that I had to get off. When I opened my eyes, I had to do a double take because in front of me was a huge house. Not a traditional one-storey Japanese house but a two storey beautiful house. It looked like the western and eastern architecture joined together to make this amazing house. It was like the one out of my dreams. It was pale yellow and at the front it had two water features that made a smell of cherry blossoms. As I looked around there was a whole avenue of cherry blossom trees leading to a bench by a small pond. It was beautiful. Then I saw a woman with a smile on her face wearing an exquisite kimono on and two beautiful girls standing next to her in identical kimonos but they were not as pretty. When I looked at my Outasan I could tell that he was not just here for work.
