Chapter One: Sucks Weed
"Bluebell is…lame?" I heard my friend Ying utter. Her insult (a poor one at that) became a question and lost its glory rapidly.
"You gotta put some heart in it!" Even though Kana was whispering in Ying's ear, I clearly understood what he told her. I mean, they had this discussion at least five times every day. "Like this...Bluebell sucks weed!" Kana yelled this time, and there was no question as to whether or not the teenagers on the other side of the mine could hear him.
We were only three teenagers, but that was hardly an excuse for the immature thing we were doing today. Actually, it was more of a daily ritual, how we snuck into the abandoned mine tunnel. The tunnel used to connect two happy, friendly villages, until it caved in. Now the members of both the villages, Konohana and Bluebell, hate each other. My friends and I huddled in the darkness each evening, only to shout insults and jeers to the teenagers of Bluebell on the other side. We always got a response.
I only heard the "Konohana" part of the retort thorough the rocks, but that was because I tuned out the profanity stringed onto the end of their insult.
"Bluebell sucks weed!" I heard Ying yell out confidently, and I felt Kana tense as the realization set in.
"Look, you're turning our precious Ying into a dirty bully!" Even though I was the motherly figure of the group that never resorted to insulting the village on the other side of the block in the tunnel, I was just kidding when I said that to Kana.
"Impossible! Heck, the girl still carries around a panda bear stuffed animal for heaven's sake."
"Gee, be nice. Mother gave me Moo." Kana and I both spontaneously decided to change the subject. None of us, not even Ying knew for sure who gave Ying the panda. We liked to imagine it was a kind, loving mother, but we all were fairly sure Ying had never had one. She was raised by her "grandmother" who had found her abandoned up in the mountains, holding the stuffed animal she called "Moo."
"Wow, very smooth of you. Using two of the same jeer in a row. That all you got, Konohana?" We all heard the boy yell through the rocks, but decided not to respond.
"Seriously guys, lets go. We are the better village, and we can leave before we say something we regret." I said to my companions.
My friends both got up, and we followed the path by the light coming from the outside of the old mine tunnel. "I would stay, but I got to go take care of the horses. Hayate will literally start eating the others if he doesn't have food sometime soon." No matter how much of a bad boy Kana pretends to be, Ying and I will always know he's a sucker when it comes to his horses and their safety.
Kana didn't have parents either, but he was strong about it. When his parents passed away, he was only sixteen and he took care of the family horse renting business. When people from far away towns stopped through Konohana on their way to the mountains, they would rent a horse from him. He made a good sum of money, and Kana obviously enjoyed the company Hayate and his hoofed friends gave him.
Kana, now eighteen, Ying, fourteen, and I, sixteen, were all fairly close friends and we talked all the time. It used to be just Kana and me, spending practically every second together. He taught me how to hand fish in the river at the bottom of the mountain. I taught him how to plant crops at my ranch, but of course his puny turnip didn't earn me any money. We loved each other, but had only ever been friends. Our relationship still wasn't like brother and sister though. It was pretty obvious Kana liked me. He gave me those puppy dog looks all the time, and totally freaked out every time I didn't show up at his doorstep promptly at ten every morning. But Kana never did cross any lines.
We started to notice Ying around town, humming to herself and sitting on rocks just staring at the butterflies fluttering over her head. Yeah, it was sad, so I took her under my wing. Kana, of course, was game for anything I suggested, and he made a great effort to become friends with her. It worked, and now I have more that one buddy by my side. Even though Ying is still a little shy, (and is never seen without her "Moo"), she has made really great progress.
My thinking was just then interrupted by giggling. "Oh, look who it is, Muscles, Panda and Green Thumb."
My first instinct was to throw my arm in front of Kana to keep him from flinging himself at the girls that had just crossed our path. I knew he was too weak to resist the temptation to beat up the bullies, even though they were girls. "Kana, don't even think about it." I whispered so quietly I wondered if Kana could even hear me.
"Reina, Nori, what have we ever done to you?" I said to the girls.
I heard some whispering on their part about stealing a hot guy to share, and the word yummy multiple times before the two erupted into a fit of giggles, again.
Reina was the one who spoke to us first. "Well, you guys were just looking so dorky, we couldn't help it. She shook her head, and her long braids jerked around. Not for the first time, I was stunned by the beauty and unusualness of her hair. It was cut short, chin length all around, but in the back a few locks were left long. Today they were braided.
"If you guys really think our village is so much better than Bluebell's you need to get along with every member of Konohana. Even us." Ying surprised us all when she spoke, her voice barley above a hiccup.
Now Nori stood foreword. "Fine, dorks. Can't spend too much time out here with the nerd herd anyway or my hair will frizz."
These girls annoyed me so much, I couldn't help it. Of course I didn't say anything mean; I just had to say something. "Nori, you should be ashamed of yourself. If only your poor old grandfather knew how you acted. He would be so disappointed in you he would send you back to your Mom and Pop."
Nori gasped and turned on a heel. "How dare you suggest such a thing? If Gombe could walk all the way down here and see you guys yelling at the Bluebell kids, he would flip his lid and call Ina in. Then she would kick you all out faster that you can blink crop dust out of your eyes." Ina was the mayor our town Konohana. It was true, she was so stern she would kick us out without a second thought.
"Come on girls, stop fighting." Kana spoke now, stepping between Nori and me before something terrible could happen. "No more bickering, okay? If we can't be friends, lets at least stay away from each other, all right?"
Reina replied: "Can't argue with that logic," before grabbing Nori's hand and pulling her around us, and continuing to head the opposite direction down the path. But she stopped and whispered something in Ying's ear before they went on their way.
Whatever Reina had said to her left Ying shaking and holding Moo like a lifeline. I quickly thought of something to get Ying's mind off of whatever Reina had hissed in her ear. "Well, they're not really good at hiding the fact they have the hots for you Kana, are they?" I smiled and glanced at Kana, and could understand what they saw in him.
He had large, dark almond shaped eyes that were kind and open, that were always just begging you to let go of your secrets. His shoulder length hair was messily thrown back into a ponytail, making him look both boyish and grown up. The way it was so casually thrown back everyday made him look important, like he had better things to do than to play with his hair. Of course, Kana did have better things to do, including running his own business. He wore a cut off sweatshirt that he could amazingly keep from looking trashy. And two delicate rings of Japanese character symbol tattoos took up a few inches of his heavily muscled arms. I think Kana noticed me staring.
He chose not to respond, just to stare back at me. Ying interrupted our intimate moment and we both jumped. "Kana, you could be dating either one of those two." She meant Reina and Nori, I assured myself.
"And why would I do that? They're jerks!"
"True dat." I said and we all laughed. The three of us started walking back on our way down the path, listening to the birds chirping and enjoying the feel of the sun on our backs.
"I need to get back to the ranch. My crops will all die if I don't water them soon…"
"And I am sure my grandma will need help in the tea shop." Ying said as we stopped where the path forked.
Kana walked straight to his house, Ying turned right to the busier part of the village where her "grandma" lived and worked, and I went left to the next path that would take me to my ranch.
We all yelled our goodbyes, and then I escaped to the serenity of my ranch.
I could hear cicadas running their obnoxious cycles and smell the rich scent of the earth. My favorite place in the world lied in front of me. The whole village of Konohana wasn't really that big at all, so of course my ranch was almost nothing. Not the acres over acres of straight rows of vegetables and apple trees one would probably imagine, but still, the food I grew supported the great majority of our village.
I could see the turnips and potatoes and radishes I was currently growing, and felt good to know that they were all mine. And between the patches of tea leaves and orange trees was a little serpentine path that led to my house and twisted Behind to a small vacant chicken coop and empty barn that had room for a cow or two and a few chickens.
The house itself was flat-out adorable. It was very small, with a red thatched roof and large shingles that overlapped one another. It had a window pot that was overfilling with flowers and the whole placed seeped happiness. Colorful paper lanterns hung from the eves, decorated with exotic cherry blossoms. I just sat down, leaning my back against a tree trunk to absorb all the overfilling emotions coming through me. Konohana was so great, I thought, why shouldn't I let Kana insult Bluebell? There was no way Bluebell could ever compare to this.
The next day I was watering my flowers when someone came up behind me. I jumped, and when I lost my grip on the hose I felt the cool splash of water on my skin. When I turned, the hose was still going and it sprayed the boy who had startled me.
Right when I got my breath, I threw myself into hysterics again, this time laughing at a dripping-wet Kana. He stood there, mouth open, looking like a wet rat. His clothes stuck to his body so I could see the muscle underneath. Despite the fact that I knew I wasn't into him in that way, I could still appreciate how attractive he was.
Kana started laughing; shaking his wet hair and pointing at my crotch. Of course, the only part of my clothes that were wet was the crotch of my pants. It successfully looked like I had wet myself. We both stood there for awhile, lost in our laughs. When I finally pulled myself together, again, I yelled: "Kana! Why did you scare me like that?"
He chuckled. "Didn't mean to. I just wanted to talk." I hit the dial on the hose, causing the water flow to cease.
"And you couldn't have waited… how long is it again?" I teased him, mimicking looking down at a watch on my arm. A half hour until I came by your place?"
"I was…bored." Kana blushed slightly and his voice sounded young and vulnerable.
"What was it that you needed to tell me?"
"There's a cooking festival tomorrow. I wondered if you could help me cook."
Shoot. That was right. It was about the time for another cooking festival at the mountain top. These things are pretty important, so I kicked myself in the butt for not remembering.
"Kana, you have lived in Konohana for what, eighteen years of your life? Do you not yet know that no one can help you cook your dish for the festival? If the Bluebell mayor finds out, he will happily disqualify Konohana from the contest, which will prove that Bluebell is better than Konohana. Which it's not, by the way." I smiled at that last bit.
"Well I just thought that you could teach me something, like how to turn on a stove?" He grinned down at me sheepishly.
"Kana, why you have a kitchen I do not know. Well the gourmet, Pierre, who is judging the contest, said that we need to enter a salad. And as far as you are concerned, that does not require an oven."
"Ah. Forgive me."
"So that's the reason you scared me out of my wits?" I gestured to my crotch and his body in turn.
Kana grinned. "Is it a crime to want to see you?"
There it was. In a few minutes, an average conversation had turned into a declaration of love. I quickly thought of a way to change the subject, which I seemed to be doing fairly often lately. "How bout you go get Ying and we can meet outside your place and go fishing. Just please give me a little bit so I can finish my farm work and clean up a little."
Kana's face brightened. "Okay, sounds good. Did you want to hand fish in the pond or should I gather my poles so we can fish in the river?"
When we went fishing in the river, we saved our catches to clean later and eat for dinner. But when we decided to hand fish, our puny catches were always returned to the pond. Hand catching was for sport, river fishing was for food.
"Just hand fish, if that's okay. I really don't need any more fish. I mean, I have a whole refrigerator full as it is."
"Yep, that sounds fun. So it's a date?"
"Kana, how can we make a date when we already spend our whole lives less than a mile apart?"
Kana blushed again. And now it was his turn to change the subject. "I need to change too. Then I'll head down to the village and get Ying. Not like she's going to fish with us anyway…" He said. It seemed like he didn't want Ying to come for some reason.
"I know, but she will enjoy spending time with us, and be delighted that we want to spend time with her. Plus I like adding another girl to this party."
Kana laughed, tilting his head back until his long dripping hair brushed against his back. "See ya later, Kenz." I watched him walk away, bending down slightly to keep from hitting his head on the plants hanging overhead. Then I turned the hose back on and got back to work.
I hummed while watering my crops, making my own music that perfectly blended in with all the outside noise. Sparrows chirped along with crickets, the breeze rustled the paper lanterns hanging in the yard, and the tinkling of water falling from a fountain helped me form my song. I inhaled the thick, rich scent of the fertile Konohana soil, and lost myself in the farming. Ina, the Konohana town mayor, was the one who had taught me how to grow crops. I guess you could call her my mother; she always helped me out even though I have lived on my own as long as I can remember.
I remembered the things she had taught me after she helped me plant my first seeds. Ever since she told me to, I always took a deep breath before touching any plant, whether it is fruit, vegetable, flower, tree or weed. That enables nature to touch the calmest, most serene part of your being. If you go wildly picking blossoms and fruits, and chopping down forests at random, Mother Nature won't take kindly to you. And following those principles was exactly how I became such a good farmer. I always respected nature, so she respected me and responded with bountiful harvests to feed friends and fellow villagers (including the horrid girls Reina and Nori).
I believed I was blessed when I was given this opportunity; to come so close in contact to nature with my small farm, rather than using harsh iron tools and the cold metal of electricity. And I always loved what I did. Plowing the fields, sowing the seeds, watering the ground and harvesting the crops took me many hours, but I didn't see any of it as a chore. I took my job, my livelihood and used it like a gift. A present I woke up excitedly everyday to greet.
After I was done with my day's work, I ran into my house and showered at the speed of light. I chose one of the many pairs of blue pants and red shirts to wear out with Kana and Ying. I liked to mix and match and layer clothing to form my ensembles. All the Konohana villagers incorporated the town's sacred blue and red into their outfits, so I always did my part as well.
I quickly brushed my teeth and fixed up a large bottle of green tea I had made myself from leaves I had grown in my garden, and literally skipped out the door. Vaguely I heard bees and smelled honeysuckle as I jogged down the worn out path that connected my ranch to the rest of Konohana. I passed the Smithy and waved at Sheng, the middle-aged owner, before continuing down the path to Kana's house.
He and Ying were sitting on the cement wall outside his house. Kana's hands were folded behind his head; his eyes were closed in the perfect imitation of sleep. Ying, on the other hand, was swinging her feet impatiently and blinking hard like she had something in her eyes. She tightly grasped her stuffed animal. They both perked up like delighted dogs when they heard the familiar sound of my humongous boots on the dirt road.
Kana jumped from the wall and gentlemanly held out his hand to help Ying get down. She grasped his hand awkwardly in her own, but still slipped a little as she tried unsuccessfully to slide down the wall as gracefully as Kana had done. They walked up to me and we headed on our way out to the mountain.
"We aren't going all the way up, are we?" Ying asked fearfully.
"Kana, did you not tell her what we were doing today?" I said, sounding once again like his mother.
"Uh, no. Actually, I fell asleep on the wall and she found me."
Yeah, right, I thought, but let it go. There was no way Kana had really been asleep a moment ago on the wall. "To answer your question, Ying, no were not going all the way up. I thought we would just hand fish for a while at the base."
"Good," she sighed.
When we approached the stream, Ying found a flat, dry rock to sit on and she threw her toy on her lap. "You guys have fun, I'll just watch." She said quietly. This was not the first day we decided to fish and she decided to sit out.
"That's too bad. Are you sure you don't want us to teach you how?" I asked her politely.
"No, that's okay. I can't afford Moo to get dirty." She patted the panda-ish creature on her lap like it was alive. I would have liked to say something along the lines of; If you don't want it to get dirty, then why would you bring it to the mountain? But I held my tongue, like always, not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings.
Kana and I headed down near the water, looking for small fish in the crystalline depths. I let my fingers trace the cool water, refreshing myself from the walk in the heat. Then I stood up and moved to a flatter area where I wouldn't lose my balance. Kana moved silently to my side. For a moment it was just us, not Ying, not the slowly flowing water, not the hot sun on our backs, just Kana and I. Then the water stirred ever so slightly and I saw a small blue fish swimming carelessly through the water. That's how good Kana and I were. Not even the fish noticed us there.
I reached down slowly, holding my breath rather than taking deep, calm ones as I would before I touched one of my beloved crops. My hand lowered into the water, closer to the fish. The water wasn't deep at all, just deep enough that I could touch my fingertips to the smooth stony bottom with my elbow still dry and above the water.
Then I lunged, grabbing the fish smoothly without harming it, and pulling it out of the water. I cupped it in my hands so it wouldn't escape back into the water, but moved my fingers so I could peek at it. I vaguely noticed that Kana inched toward me, leaning over so he could look at my catch.
In my palm rested a little fish, all silver and about two inches long. The sunlight peeking through the gaps between my fingers caused it to sparkle; the light danced upon the little flecks of gold and periwinkle in the fish's scales. The fish flopped slightly in my hands and its gills flapped impatiently trying to get some oxygen that wasn't quite so pure. In my hands laid the pure essence of life. A small, living, breathing creature that's life depended entirely on me. I could let it die or release it; the fish's fate relied solely on me.
Kana leaned in closer, his chest brushing against my shoulder and back. I could feel his breath was held too, just waiting to see what I would do. I didn't really like animals at all. Its not that I thought they were filthy personality-less creatures with no right to be here besides human food, it's just that I didn't know much about them. I had grown up in Konohana, the village centered on crops, not Bluebell, the village centered on livestock. I stared at the little being whose life totally depended on me, and I felt powerful, huge, bigger that myself.
I remember Kana whispering in my ear. "Let it go." And that's when I woke up. My hands lowered into the water, fingers separating, and the little fish swam swiftly away under a rock, never to be seen again. The power and beauty of the last few minutes stunned me, and I wondered if I might cry. I finally released the breath I was holding, but my eyes remained on the chilly stream's water.
Ying was what finally awoke me from my trance. "Kenz, it's been over an hour."
Wow, that much time had passed? Amazing. Kana stood up with me and we made our way to the uneven mountain path. Instead of heading back home, to Konohana, we turned left and headed up the mountain hill. Ying organized her little stuffed panda in her hands, and hurried up to follow us. "How far are we going?" She trilled.
Neither Kana nor I responded. It wasn't like we were ignoring her. It was a friendly, peaceful silence+ and Ying knew that. She followed us like a puppy dog, willing to go to the ends of the earth wagging her tail all the way.
It was peaceful, walking up the steady slope of the mountain, feeling the earth close around us in the rocks below, the trees overhead, and the air all around. We walked silently for a time, enjoying each other's company even though we weren't chattering. This wasn't unusual, Kana and Ying both preferred the quiet, and I always had a crazy thought brewing in my mind, so we normally walked together without saying a word. I heard Ying's heavy breathing after a little while, and decided we should stop walking. Kana made the same decision at the same time and we all sat on a fallen tree like three ducks in a row. I pulled out my water bottle, took a sip of the sweetened green tea and offered it to my friends. Ying took a sip first; she looked tired so I handed it to her. Kana took the bottle next, swallowed and passed it over to me. More than an hour had passed since we left the little pond where we had fished, and I had had plenty of time to think about my little episode.
I fished all the time, so I wondered why today of all days it had bothered me so much to see the minute life squirming in my calm grasp. It wasn't my first time fishing, and I love the taste of fish. Like I had told Kana before, I had a fridge full of the stuff, freshly caught, that I was planning on eating for dinner. For some reason, that little fish in particular seemed to pass a message to me. Things are going to change. It's pretty weird, I know, but at the time I didn't realize the message the little physic fishy was passing on to me. My thoughts were bugging me, even though they were not straying very far. At the time all I could think about was that weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and the tingle of my toes I had never felt before.
Tired of musing over this fishy stuff, I struggled for something to say to my friends that would get my mind off of all this. "Kana, what do you think Bluebell looks like?"
He looked kind of stunned, but answered my question straightforward and polite. "I imagine the other side of the mountain looks more or less the same as Konohana's side. It can't be too different, being only so far away." He used his finger and thumb to indicate a small amount of space. "And the same stream, and the same sky, and the same birds, and the same moon, and the same stars. The mountain probably looks a lot like what we are seeing now. But for the village itself, I could only guess.
'I've heard the paths are different, more like big city streets. And there aren't crops and bamboo and beautiful foxtail grasses waving in the breeze. It probably smells." Kana grinned jokingly. "Supposedly there are animals everywhere. Livestock animals like cows and sheep. Besides the fact that there are no crops and lots of furry critters in pens, it's probably not that much different than here."
"But the people," I said "From the voices we hear through the old mine tunnel, they sound cruel. They seem smarter than us, more fierce and cruel"
"You should never judge a book by its cover. Ever though this cover is padlocked, and all the rumors about it are vague."
And that is exactly one of the reasons that I like Kana so much. He can seem rude when he stands up for himself, but deep down there is some wisdom. The words that just came from him were educated and kind. Basically, when you got down to the point, Kana wanted us to treat Bluebell fairly even though we hear terrible things about them. It is actually funny how Kana was up to this wise-cracking yet he enjoyed yelling at Bluebell through the rocks so much. And let me tell you, "Bluebell sucks weed" was not the worst thing that came out of his mouth.
"Why do we even bother with this? Why does Konohana hate Bluebell so much, and vise versa?" By now Kana had got used to the way I change the subject and space out sometimes. The dude had grown up with me, and he like to call me "random-minded".
"I think the mayors used to be great friends. The villages coexisted peacefully, and that's why there is that old tunnel cutting through the mountain. The villages probably traded fresh crops for animal products like milk and eggs. But they got in a fight, and generation after generation has despised the opposite village, and now they still quarrel. The proof is in the blocked mine tunnel down the street from my house."
"That makes since Kana. I wonder if the villages will ever make up."
"I doubt it. It had become a kind of sport for the villages to fight, and compete in cooking competitions against one another. The mayors even have us fighting against each other."
"You know we should stop that."
"You mean the cooking competitions, or the fighting against other teens?"
"You know exactly what I mean. I understand you have fun doing that, but you are really not a kid anymore. Kana, you're eighteen and you have to be responsible. I wish you would start acting as wise as you do with me all the time, and treat everyone else like you treat me."
My words seemed like a verbal slap in the face for Kana, but he eventually understood what I was saying.
"I'll try my best," He said before offering me one of my favorite Kana smiles that revealed a chipped tooth. For some reason, I found the not-perfect teeth so appealing…
Through the whole conversation Ying hadn't said a word, and I wondered what she was doing. Like telepathy, Kana turned his head to look at her just when I wondered what was wrong.
"She's asleep." He whispered. Yes, Ying definitely was sound asleep. She didn't snore, but breathed softly. Her tiny hands grasped her stuffed toy's paws, and she held Moo tightly, even in sleep.
I whispered to Kana. "It looks like we wore her out with the walk. She should get out more often." I smiled over at my two friends on my left side.
"Want to mess with her?" Kana said playfully.
"Why not? I asked, and we both leaned forward to tickle our friend awake.