My eyes fluttered open and harsh bright light shone down on me. A woman's head popped into view. She had kind eyes. "Now then dear, do you know where you are?"
"Mother" my voice was soft and whispery "where is mother?". The woman's face paled and she looked uncomfortable. "Do you know where you are?" she asked again. I tried to shake my head but pain shot through it like lightning when I moved, a shriek burst from my lips "Try to remember dear". And then I remembered. It all came back to me. How I tumbled down the stairs in the flats. How the last thing I saw was the nasty dogs face, saliva dripping from its teeth and the stench of dog food and dead rats washing over me. Then I blacked out. That was as much as I could remember. I raised a hand and saw thick surgical bandages wrapped around where the dog had bit me. There had been so much blood. That's why I had fallen. I was running from the dog. The big, nasty, scary dog who always barked at night and was always in fights with other dogs.
When I woke up again the woman wasn't there. Neither was mother. I gingerly raised a hand to my head. There was a bandage wrapped around it. I touch a spot at the nape of my neck and cringed with pain. That was where I hit my head. The woman walked into the room and sat down. "Now dear, do you remember where you are?" she questioned looking down at me with her kind eyes. "Yes, I'm in the hospital" I answered "Because I hit my head". She nodded and looked satisfied. "Where is mother?" I asked again. The woman looked embarrassed and averted her gaze to the floor. "I don't really know how to say this... But... Well your mother has left you here." she looked back at me "Sorry". What did she mean? Mother would never leave me. She always came back. Even at night when she'd had to go to work. "From now on you will live in a care home." the woman looked back at me. Waiting for some sort of response. Once she realised I wasn't going to say anything she cleared her throat and said "This person here" a pale woman walked in "will be your social worker"
"Hello" she smiled warmly at me "I'm Su-Yun Park, Nice to meet you" She was Korean. I recognised it from the name. I remembered that before father had died he was a koreanophile and always made kimchi and various other Korean foods. He had always dreamed of visiting Korea; the flight was only 1 hr 30 mins from Tokyo to Seoul. I still miss father and I think about him sometimes at night even though I was only five when he died. I wonder if we would've come to England. Or if mother would have to do her job at night. Or if we would live in that small flat. Or if I would have fallen down the stairs. Su-Yun was very pretty. She looked like Mother. Dark hair and flawless porcelain skin with dark brown eyes. Her eyes were kind to, like mother's. "Once you get better you're going to a place with lots of other children. Ok?" I shrugged. They didn't realise mother would come back.
I looked out of the window. We were passing lots of trees; green and full of life. The embodiment of spring. Blue skies with the occasional fluffy, white cloud. The sun was shining, bathing everything in its golden light. I could barely see over the window, my eyes only just peeking over the window edge. I reclined back into the leather seat and inhaled the smell of expensive perfume. We had just left the hospital, I was in there for 4 weeks before they would discharge me, my hand was still wrapped in a bandage, my head was nearly fully healed. Su-Yun was dropping off back home so that I could wait for mother.
We were entering the horrible part of town now. The grey, bleak, dirty part. The part where not even the most scabbiest, dirtiest one legged pigeons would land. The part where mother and I lived. Su-Yun parked the car outside our block of flats and we got out. We walked through the desolate court yard. Su-Yun looked so out of place in her expensive, designer clothes and her gold jewellery. Dogs barked, youths swore, children yelled and babies cried. I hated it there. But I understood that was all we could afford and that mother was doing her best. Luckily, mother is really pretty so she gets a lot of customers. We tried to get in the left but there was sick in it so we decided to walk it. Up and up and up and up and up. When we reached the flat the door had been kicked in and the tv was missing. We stepped over all the dirt and unopened bills into the small bedroom we shared. All of mothers jewellery was missing. All that was left were my toys and the dirty futon we shared. On the futon was a note. I reached over and picked it up. On the front it said Akimi. I opened it, inside it said Akimi, I'm sorry, Mother. The pen was running in some places and the paper was wrinkled in other parts as if someone had been crying on it. Why was mother crying? What did she mean by sorry? Su-Yun was peering over my shoulder. I handed her the note and she scanned it quickly, then she looked up at me with sorrowful eyes, "Sorry" she said. Why was she sorry too? I took the note back and tucked it into a pocket on my cardigan. " Gather up all your stuff and put it into a suitcase." Su-Yun said gently and walked out of the room into the kitchen. I reached Into the closet and stretched out my hand to grasp the handle of the suitcase but my hand closed on empty air. I frowned and looked into the closet " It's not here!" I called out "It was here before!". Now that I looked in the closet properly I realised that only my clothes were in there. Where were mother's? Nothing of hers was left in the room only my things. Who had taken mother's clothes? Su-Yun came back in to the bedroom with some bin bags. "Use these instead" she dropped the bags onto the bed. I gathered all my clothes out of the closet and put them in the bin bag. As I was toying through the closet to get the last of my stuff I found a picture. It was of me, mother and father back in Japan. As I gazed down at the photo a single tear splashed down on our faces.