Shin Sawada stepped off the plane, and blinked at the early morning light. It was only a few minutes after dawn and the sun was rising steadily over the mountains. He sighed and walked into the airport to get his bags.
"Has it really only been three years? It seems like I've been gone so much longer." Shin thought as he retrieved his luggage and called for a taxi. He closed his eyes and sighed as he stared out the window of the taxi; the scenery seemed so familiar, like from a different life, he thought as the taxi drove by a Japanese garden. He had been in Africa for the past three years ever since he graduated from Shirokin High. He had kept in contact with a couple of his close friends and had called Kumiko more commonly known as Yankumi once or twice, but that was about it. No one knew that he was back in Japan and he intended to keep it that way for a while, just until he could figure things out. If everyone knew that he was back, they would ask why, and he wasn't ready to tell people the reason he was back living in his old and near empty apartment. The taxi pulled in front of his old apartment, he paid the taxi driver then looked up. It seemed like an eternity that he stood looking up at the window of his apartment. He was just thankful that his parents were willing to keep paying the rent while he was away, their reasoning for this being "just in case he came back." Shin took this as his mother's way of trying to talk him out of going to Africa. Shin took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he walked into the building and unlocked the door.
He was halfway in his apartment when he heard a male's voice call his name.
"Sawada! Is that really you?" the voice said from behind, slowly Shin turned around and came face-to-face with his landlord, Shin looked up at him awkwardly, not sure what to say.
"Uh, yea. I'm back in town." Shin muttered to the floor, his landlord smiled.
"You've definitely grown up Sawada." He said, Shin nodded.
"Uh, look...no one knows that I'm in town and I'd like to keep it that way for a while, so would you please not tell anyone I'm back." Shin's landlord stared at him puzzled, then offered Shin a wry smile.
"I never did understand your logic when it came to certain things. Don't worry Sawada, I won't tell anyone you're back if that's what you want. It's none of my business, as long as you pay rent on time, or are your parents still going to be paying it?"
"No, I'll be paying it." Shin replied, he had thought of this, so he had written his parents telling them he felt like he should be paying for the apartment since it was legally his responsibility and it wasn't fair for his family to be paying the bills. The landlord nodded, then offered Shin another smile, Shin nodded back.
"Thank you." Shin replied before walking into the open apartment door and locked the door behind him. He threw his luggage on the floor then plopped down on his bed.
"Why is this happening to me?" Shin thought as he closed his eyes and fell asleep as the sun fully rose into the sky, flooding the apartment with light.
Shin didn't wake up until the next morning, groaning he pulled himself out of bed and into the bathroom and washed his face, he stared at himself in the mirror. His hair fell messily over his face and his eyes were slightly red. He sat down on the bathtub and pressed his hands into his face, trying to block out the nausea he suddenly felt. His mind began to wander.
"What would happen if he did tell his friends why he came home?...forget it everyone would just give me sympathy and be concerned for me, and that is the last thing I need." Shin took a deep breath, then after a few minutes stood up again and walked into his bedroom and got dressed. After he had finished dressing, he looked out the window, his mind still running wild. He closed his eyes remembering the events that had caused him to come back to Japan.
Shin looked up exhausted from a hospital bed into the face of the African doctor who had been trying to figure out what had been causing him to be sick the past couple of weeks. He knew immediately by the doctor's stern expression that he was about to hear some bad news, slowly he pushed himself up in the bed.
"Well Sawada, do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Shin rolled his eyes.
"Just tell me what's wrong with me? You've been trying to figure out what's wrong with me for weeks then you show up on my doorstep and tell me you want to hospitalize me to run some tests, enough with the secrecy, what's wrong with me?" Shin replied irritated that the doctor kept sugar coating everything, the doctor sighed then sat down in a wooden chair next to Shin's bed.
"Alright Sawada. I'm sorry for the inconvenience that I've caused, but for the record you've only been here two days." Shin continued to scowl at the doctor's expression as he continued talking, two days in the hospital was two days too many
"Well, as you know your symptoms were very common symptoms for any number of diseases as common as the flu. Nausea, vomiting, fever, and stomach pain, but obviously as the pain got worse it became clear that you didn't just have the flu. But after running these tests, we've found that your symptoms are being caused by a bacterium in your stomach."
Shin looked up at the doctor at these words.
"You mean the same bacteria that was being spread around at the place that I worked? How's that possible, I quit that job almost three months ago for that exact reason and found a similar job in a place that was bacteria-free. And if I had been infected wouldn't I have had symptoms earlier?" The doctor sighed.
"I'm aware that you quit that job, but this certain bacteria can be extremely difficult to diagnose as you have found out. Sometimes, people don't show any symptoms at all. It's likely that you contracted the bacteria while still working at your old job and didn't show any symptoms." Shin cursed under the breath so the doctor wouldn't hear, and then looked up at him, after an awkward silence.
"So, what's the good news?" Shin asked darkly.
"It's treatable; eighty-five percent of the people infected with this bacterium have had successful results from the treatment." Shin looked out the window at the African scenery and absentmindedly watched some kids playing soccer in the open field, then slowly turned his attention back to the doctor who had been watching him intently.
"And what about the other fifteen percent?" Shin asked staring at his bed sheets. The doctor stared at Shin seriously.
"Don't think that way Sawada. You can't give up before we've even tried anything."
Shin shook his head bringing himself back to the present, he was still having trouble accepting that he had this bacteria, even though there was no way of denying it. Especially when he woke up nauseated every morning and when he had what he called "his episodes," which included severe stomach pain and constant vomiting, followed by chills, dizziness/light headedness, body convulsions and usually dehydration. The first time he had an episode, he had refused to see a doctor claiming that he just had a bad case of the flu. He went on with his days for the next two weeks or so, but still felt sick. After he had another episode one of his friends/co-workers practically forced him to go to the local clinic to get checked out.
"Damn it all." Shin though irritably as finished getting ready for the day.