Chapter 1
A gong sounded, summoning all the children to the woman who was holding it. There was a smile on her face as she looked at them all.
"Time for the egg hunt!" she told them, happily.
Squeals of joy were the response from the crowd of children ranging from four years old to the ripe old age of nearly ten.
"Does everybody have a basket?" she asked, searching for any child that had missed out, but none had – they were all waving their brightly coloured paper baskets above their heads. The woman was glad that the fake straw was stuffed firmly in and wasn't falling out, there would be enough mess after this party without fake straw everywhere.
"There are eggs hidden all over the garden, all wrapped up in coloured foil, and I don't want to see anyone stealing another's eggs. Am I clear?"
"Yes Miss Haru," the little ones chorused.
"Run along then," she said, holding the door open for them to rush out into her little garden.
"It's a good thing the only plants you have are the indestructible kind," observed another woman, her skin more tanned, her hair bleached from the sun.
"You know me Hiromi," answered the one the children had called Miss Haru. "I've got brown thumbs. The only remotely delicate plant I keep is on my windowsill."
"Yeah, your bonsai is really a thing of beauty Haru. Have I mentioned how jealous I am?"
"Miss Haru! Miss Haru!" cried a little girl as she ran up to the women leaning against the doorframe. "I found this in the garden, is it supposed to be there?"
Haru stooped down to look more closely at the thing the child was waving about.
"No Yuko, it's not. Thank you for finding it," Haru said, taking the mud-covered object from the also muddy child. "You'd better get back to the egg hunt now though, or all the chocolate will be gone."
The girl gave a distressed cry and ran back out into the garden.
"How can you tell what it is, Haru, let along whether it's supposed to be in the garden? It's covered in muck!" Hiromi exclaimed, looking at what was apparently a stick of mud in her best friend's hand.
Haru straightened and removed a handkerchief from her pocket – she had many of both today, the children would invariably make mess all over themselves as well as everything else – and started to wipe the mud away.
"I can tell, Hiromi, the same way that I can tell about the weather, and matching orphan children to adopting couples, and how I knew that Tsuge was going to propose to you last week," answered the brunette, her chocolate-amber eyes soft as she busied herself with her task.
"All of which are still a mystery to me," quipped the tanned blonde in an accusatory tone. "Just tell me, alright?"
"I don't keep anything in the garden on a day-to-day basis except garden, and this is not part of my garden," Haru explained. The worst of the mud was wiped away now, and the women could see that it was a statuette, a figurine a little over a foot tall. "I'll finish cleaning you up after the children have gone to bed if that's alright," she said to the dapper figure now resting in her hands.
"I'd say he's handsome, but I think he has just a little too much facial hair," Hiromi said, looking past her nose at the thing.
"He's a cat, of course he has facial hair."
"How many cats do you know that wear suits?"
Haru didn't answer, but there was a smile on her face that Hiromi couldn't remember every having seen before – and they had been best friends for just about their entire lives.
"I'm going to put him in my room until after supper, you'll watch the kids while I run upstairs?" asked the brunette, her feet already pointing to the stairs, beyond which was her room.
"Course," the blonde answered with a wave.