After the grocery store stop, Shun brought up gym class, so he and Gaku went out to Target to buy stuff for gym class. Inside the store, Shun had noticed the packaging of American products and goods. It was mundane to most of those shopping there, but to the wolf-boy it was exotic and mystifying. In the boy's department Shun was staring at the packaging for a pack of socks until Gaku told him that he needed to get moving. For Shun, Gaku bought a pair of white athletic shoes with blue stripes and a metal combination lock. Then Shun complained that he was feeling tired due to the jet lag, so Gaku bought a bottle of Coca-Cola, and Shun was able to stay up longer. During the drive home, Shun couldn't stop thinking about the dog-man with the silver hair, the leather jacket, the blue jeans, and the motorcycle helmet. Who was he? What does he do as a living? He looked so… cool, so calm, so confident. Gaku's car stopped outside of the house on Water Front Circle.
Gaku said, "Shun, I'm going to pick up some stuff at Ikea, but I think you should stay home with your dad, now that he's home from work."
"Why?" Shun asked.
"Because he isn't going to be around that much."
"Really?"
"He's a VP in the company now. He's going to be a very busy man."
"Funyuu! So what am I going to do?" While many Japanese fathers have long work days and had little time to see their kids, Ryo Kodori took every effort to be involved in the life of his only child. Now he can't even do that.
"You could hang out with me after work, or see your new friends after school. You could go with me into the city on Saturdays too."
"You mean that Japan-Michigan meeting you talked about in that e-mail…?"
"The education committee of the Japan-Detroit Association. I'm a part of it, and we meet in the afternoon at the Detroit Public Library at 3:45. Your Japanese school program's only from 9 to 3 so I can take you into the city in the afternoon. You can read some books while, or play your 3DS for awhile, and then we can do something fun!" Shun's smile widened at the thought of doing something in the city. He remembered that there were lots of fun things to do in Tokyo, and he loved going to Akihabara and the various arcades. And maybe Gaku could take him to a restaurant with interesting food… there were tacos, like what Melinda had shared with him, but there might be other things too! Shun's father, Ryo, sat on the floor, watching the CBS Detroit channel on a silver flat screen television that he had purchased just after his first day of work.
Ryo said, "Hey Shun!"
"Hi Dad!"
"Why don't you watch the news with me?"
"Okay!" Shun said as he sat on the soft brown leather couch. It was so squishy that he could probably sink into it like quicksand. Then he saw the television. It was the credits to some program Shun hadn't heard of, and the text went away rapid fire. Then the jingle of the television news program came on, and the logo of the CBS Detroit News flashed on the screen. This was Shun's first American news program that he saw in person. Two news announcers, one Asian and one black, sat at a sleek off-white desk with a pop-action style blue background with the CBS logo.
The female news announcer delivered in her crisp voice, "Good evening. I'm Corinna Zhou." Her jaw was sleek and well defined, and her jet black hair was coiffed in a bun. Her makeup, dark red lipstick, black and gray pinstripe suit, and white blouse emphasized her professionalism.
"And I'm Marcus Gray," the male news announcer said in his firm tone. With his broad shoulders, his black suit, white oxford shirt, and striped red and black tie, Gray also showed off his authority in informing the city.
Zhou said, "The top story tonight is the robbery of several students at an elementary school in the eastside of Detroit…"
Against the English of the news program, Ryo cried a piercing "WHAT?" in Japanese. Shun was speechless; now going into the city didn't sound so appealing.
"Joining us this evening is Angela Johnson, who is reporting live. Angela?" The scene shifted to a reporter with strawberry blonde hair and a black suit, holding a microphone. She stood outside of a one-story brick school with a few parents milling around.
"Good evening. This afternoon, a pair of teenagers entered the school and robbed two students at gunpoint. One of the students reported losing 45 dollars in cash, and the other, 8 dollars in cash."
"Christ!" Ryo cried, "…and 45 dollars? Why would a child carry that much money?"
As CCTV footage played on the screen, Angela Johnson said, "According to surveillance video the two teenagers had approached the students and flashed a gun, and the students gave them cash from their pockets, before departing."
"Is America really this violent?" Shun incredulously asked.
"I have friends who have lived in Tennessee, New York, and Los Angeles," Ryo said as the program continued, "and they had never spoke of anything like this." He watched more of the news. A prostitute was found dead in the northwest side of the city, with multiple gunshots to the temple and the stomach. A 16-year old girl in the east side had been shot dead once in the heart, and the motive apparently was that her friend had robbed some drug dealers and they fired towards the friend but hit the girl instead. So much violence, and all of it is happening in the city! At that point Ryo asked, "Uh, Shun, do you want to watch something else?" Shun couldn't say anything; he was speechless. Of course Japan had crime, but nothing at this scale! At that point then the weather person came on, and Ryo said, "Never mind." The news afterwards was fairly bland, prompting Shun to go to his room to play his Nintendo 3DS. After the news was over, Ryo continued to watch TV. The doorbell rang, promoting Ryo to go to the front doorstep and open the door. It was Gaku Kodori, holding a large box labeled in the blue and yellow IKEA logo.
"I got more stuff in the car," Gaku said. Gaku had driven to the IKEA in Canton, a suburb of Detroit, and bought boxes full of furnishings for Ryo's new residence and some Swedish meatballs meals to provide dinner for the members of the Kodori clan living in Michigan. He then returned to Novi, stopping by Ryo's house to drop off the stuff. Referring to the meatballs, Gaku said, "I have dinner for you too."
"Thank you, Gaku," Ryo said.
"Uncle Ryo," Gaku said, "you won't be disappointed. IKEA has great furniture."
"Well, I watched the evening news… I was quite disheartened by it."
"The news?"
"Some teenagers robbed a school! And a boy had forty-five dollars on him! And then the news starts talking about people being killed. Some girl's friend stole from drug dealers and she got shot because of it!"
"Local news in America always starts with the bad stuff," Gaku said before making a sigh.
"Looks like it, but it is really disturbing how much violence happens in the city."
"And there's not a peep about the outer suburbs like Novi. I mean the suburbs aren't a crime free wonderland, but it's like night and day between Novi and Detroit. I go to the library and some places in Downtown, and I know those areas are okay, but most of the city is a total mess." Ryo called Shun to come down for dinner, and he did. The Swedish meatballs had a savory taste thanks to the gravy, the mashed potatoes were pure comfort food, and the ligonberry sauce that came with the meatballs had a tart flavor. But as he ate his meal, his thoughts drifted from the silky flavor of the potatoes to the city of Detroit. His friend Melinda bought those tacos in Detroit, and Japan had nothing like it! Sure, the meatballs were nice, but the tacos really blew his mind and piqued his interest in the city. But then he heard the awful stuff on the news, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. After the three finished their meals, his father brought out his silver laptop, opened it, and tapped the keys, signing onto Skype.
"Stand in front of the camera!" Ryo said. Shun sat in the seat as Ryo and Gaku stood above him.
"Hi!" Yukie said. Her soft, cheery voice sounded a bit choppy, but she was sitting in front of that computer Ryo had used to check the flight status on. It was 8 PM in Novi, but it was 9 AM in Minasato.
"How are you doing?"
"Good, good," Ryo said.
"And Shun! My America boy! How are things going?"
"Pretty good, I made some American friends!"
"American friends!" she said, in an excited tone.
"Yep!" Shun told her about Melinda and Tim, and how she let him try some tacos and how Tim complimented him on his video games.
"Have you introduced nattō to them?" Yukie asked with a smirk, referring to the Japanese fermented bean curd.
"Mom! They wouldn't like the taste!" Shun cried.
"You never know, some people are adventurous," Ryo said.
But everyone held back the horrors that they saw on the television. They didn't have the heart to tell Yukie of the terrible things they learned about on the television. Let's keep things optimistic, shall we? Shun wished he could reach into the monitor and feel his mother's warmth. But he was across the ocean, and this would have to do.
Yukie announced, "Well, Iwao-sama's sleeping, but I have to go to the store. I'll see you later! Bye, Ryo! Bye Gaku! Shun, have fun, sweetie pie!" Just from the tone of her voice, Shun knew that she wanted to rustle his hair and twirl around the ahoge, the lone long strand protruding like she did before her precious boy went to bed.
Shun took a bath after dinner. He then went to sleep at 8:30 PM as the desire to sleep descended upon him, but this meant he was on his way to conquering his jet lag. He woke up at 5:45 AM, and Shun's dad left a note saying Gaku was going to pick him up at 7:30 so they could get to school early to get his gym clothes. Shun made himself another bland American ramen as breakfast. On Shun's second day of school, in addition to his backpack he came with a plastic Target shopping bag filled with his gym class goodies. Gaku and Shun went to the gym to buy his gym shirt and gym shorts. The female gym coach, a portly redhead also dressed in the gym uniform but also wearing a green baseball cap, held up the sizes of the gym shorts to Shun's small body. Each time, she became exasperated, hoping that she would find a correct size to fit the slim wolf-boy.
"This is the smallest we have," the coach muttered as she held up the tiniest pair of gym shorts she could find.
"It fits perfectly!" Shun said. Gaku paid the coach for the gym shorts and the corresponding T-shirt, and they were added to Shun's plastic bag.
Shun then proceeded to homeroom and then to his history class; during his very first working class Mr. Simmons began discussing the settlement of the Indians in North America. Even some of the American students were not terribly familiar with this part, but as Mr. Simmons went through his Powerpoint, displayed on the whiteboard, Shun wrote down every detail in his neatly-filed, organized baby blue binder. Shun knew enough English to keep up with Mr. Simmons's pace, but it took some time for him to convert Mr. Simmons's English into Shun's Japanese. Melinda sat next to him and briefly looked at his notes. Instead of English, Shun wrote it in swirls of katakana, hiragana, and kanji, the Chinese characters used in Japanese. The specific English terms floated in a sea of Japanese.
Melinda, who sat next to Shun, took a peek and whispered, "Your notes are in Japanese.."
"Oh," Shun whispered back, "should they be in English?" It took longer for Shun to write in English than in Japanese, but did Melinda know something he didn't…?
"Write 'em however you want." Shun turned back and continued writing his notes in Japanese. Shun knew she was originally a Detroiter, and he wanted to ask her about the horrible stuff he saw on the news yesterday evening, but he knew he couldn't do that now.
After the bell rang, it was time for gym class. Shun walked straight into the gymnasium, remembering that he needed to go into the locker room and change out first, before appearing on the gym floor to report to class. Passing through the cinderblock gym, he encountered an entranceway labeled "Boys' locker room." The light grew dimmer and dimmer and a musty smell hit Shun's nose. Shun's sandals stepped on a damp artifical-looking blue carpet. Then he saw rows of green lockers, with dim lights illuminating the putrid room. Shun noticed that the toilets, located next to the walkway, didn't have fully closeable stalls, only dividers. He traveled further and gazed upon the shower room, with its green tile and white walls. It just consisted of several shower spouts like tall flowers; no curtains were anywhere. And it looked dry, as it it was never used. There were a few boys inside the locker room, but then more and more trickled in from math classes, English classes, and other classes.
Shun took a slip of paper from his pocket which had the locker number he received yesterday. The indicated locker was in the second row. He walked up and popped it open. It made a little creak as he swung it open further. Then he unpacked the bag, with the shoes, some plain white socks he got back in Japan, the green gym shorts, and the white T-shirt which read "LAKESIDE P.E." on the front. To the upper left of the "LAKESIDE P.E." was a place for the name; Gaku had taken a Sharpie and written "SHUN KODORI" in English in the place. The gym shorts had "LAKESIDE P.E." in a smaller font, and Gaku had also written Shun's name there. Then Shun pulled out the lock-he memorized the combination-and then undid it. Then Shun pulled off his sandals. This time the floor felt dry, so he was relieved that his feet didn't get wet. Then he put his backpack inside the locker. Following that he removed his hoodie sweater and his white T-shirt. They disappeared into the gym locker.
Shun froze briefly; in Japan he didn't exactly like changing for gym class. He knew he had to endure it, but at his old school, when changing in front of others he felt nervous and vulnerable, fearing that somebody would prank him or humiliate him somehow. And sometimes he felt funny when seeing a tall, muscular classmate change clothes. It made Shun feel hot and stiff and he didn't understand why he felt that way. It seemed shameful and he chose to look away and not ask his father about why that happened. And now there were tons of huge American students around him. Many of them were self-conscious like him, but they just wore boxer shorts over their real underwear, or had their gym clothes under their street clothes. But for Shun there was no way out. In any case he didn't like wearing boxers.
So with some reluctance Shun undid his belt and placed his khaki shorts inside the locker. He promptly shut it and locked the locker door shut. Then, as if the timer on a video game was down into its last seconds, he quickly pounced upon his gym shorts and slipped them on over his underpants. Phew! Then he slipped on his T-shirt and pulled on his socks. After tying the laces of his shoes he walked out of the locker room with the other boys, ready to start his class.
Shun sat in a manner that was called "Indian-style" by Americans of an older generation, but now called "criss-cross" by Shun's classmates and by the administration at Lakeside High. Rows of other boys sat in front of the coach, who was muscular and with a tan complexion, but average-sized for an American. He wore a plain white T-shirt and green sweatpants. The big, bushy eyebrows, the well-slicked wavy black hair, and the well-trimmed mustache, all ink black, made him look like Mario's triplet brother! The girls were on the other side of the gym, and they sat facing the fat female coach. Shun remembered from last class that the male coach's name was John Nasser.
First the class had to do twenty pushups. Most of the boys performed their pushups maybe with some difficulty, but it was no biggie. But Shun was barely able to lift himself. By the time he finished, the coach had already switched to jumping jacks. Each of the exercises, including the lunges and the twists, were hard to keep up with. After that was done, Coach Nasser said, "Today we are going to play one court basketball." Shun remembered being teased at his old school for playing sports poorly, let alone one that required being tall. Basketball and Shun Kodori… that mixes as well as oil and water. "It's boys versus girls. There are six goalposts, so I'll go by each one of you and go 'one,' 'two', 'three' up to six, until the whole row is gone, okay?" Then he said, "'one,' 'two,' three,' four,' 'five,' 'six'." Shun got a three so he went to the basketball goalpost labeled "three." There were about 30 boys and 30 girls, so that means each goalpost had five boys and five girls. Unlike in Japan, the girls didn't wear buruma; they wore gym shorts just like the boys do.
At goalpost three, five girls and four other boys converged. Shun was shorter than even the girls. Only one boy didn't tower over Shun; He was Asian, maybe five inches taller than Shun. His hair was in a bowl shape, and he was slightly chubby. The other boys were all non-Asians and were at minimum fairly tall.
Shun assumed the Asian boy was Japanese and asked out of curiosity, "Are you new here or did you arrive the day before yesterday?" in his native tongue. For a moment Shun expected an answer.
"Dude, I'm Chinese," the boy finally said in English. A quick look at the nametag on his shirt, "Jacob Wang," confirmed that he was a Chinese American.
"Ack!" Shun cried upon the realization. His expression looked so comical that some of the boys giggled. "Hanyaa! I'm sorry!"
"Whatever, there are so many Japanese at this school that people mistake me for one," Jacob said.
One of the girls said, "Same here. I'm Korean." The name on her shirt tag read "Mina Kim." She was maybe two inches taller than Shun. She had neatly cut black hair, which went down midway between her earlobe and her shoulder, and parted to expose her forehead.
"Shouldn't we get on with the game?" one girl asked. She was White, 5'6 and had her dirty blonde hair in a straight up ponytail, and she had a few freckles. The name on her tag read "Chelsea Barron."
Then a lanky, bony white kid jokingly suggested, "I don't know, I kind of liked hearing you guys talking about ethnic confusion, why don't we do that the whole period?" His nametag read "Phil Schumann." His light brown hair was quite bushy, and while he was 5'8 he was almost as skinny as Shun was. He had a bit of acne. Shun had watched Scooby Doo in Japanese and he could swear that Phil looked like Shaggy, except without a goatee. Did Phil have the munchies too? Did he have a Great Dane?
"Whatever," Mina said, "let's play." The stocky girl dribbled the basketball and passed it to a redhead bespectacled girl. They traveled with quick speed, but one of the boys, a tall black kid, stole the ball and dribbled it around. Shun tried to follow the ball, but could only do so barely and clumsily. The basketball traveled so quickly. The boys, his teammates, intimidated him just by running around… especially the two huge boys traveling around. Even the girls traveled quickly and stole the ball violently. The fear of being hit by the ball or by someone else and losing a tooth, bruising his face, or knocking out an eye overpowered him. Chelsea stole the ball, but then the ball was stolen by Jacob, who passed it towards Shun. But Shun ducked and the ball sailed over him. It went out of bounds.
"Quit being afraid of the ball," Jacob said as Shun went to collect the ball.
Shun cried, "Funyuu! It's hard.. I feel like it's going to hurt me!" as he threw it back. Mina caught it.
Jacob said, "Shun, stop being afraid and catch the ball. At this rate the girls will beat us," as he stole it from Mina. Shun decided to try his best and Jacob handed him the ball. Shun held his hands out but the ball fell off. Shun barely dribbled the ball and almost lost it once or twice. His little hands were barely able to grip it. The girls decided to go easy and let him take a shot. Shun grabbed the ball and pushed it up, but it didn't even get close to the goal. It just bounced off the cinderblock, and the other students sighed. Shun wasn't able to get the ball for the rest of the game. The boys won, but barely.
Back in the locker room, Shun was to change back into his clothes. Nobody took a shower. Shun undressed and put his gym outfit back in the locker. As he pulled his street clothes, sandals, and backpack from his locker, he peered over down the row and saw the large black guy he had played basketball with just chatting with one of his friends, who happened to be a large American horse-man… a large, muscular horse-man wearing only gray boxer briefs. For just one moment Shun stared at the horseman. His head began to feel warm. His cheeks began to redden, and he began looking like he had been boiled in something. He turned away, looked down at himself, and realized that looking at the horse-man did something to him. He quickly dressed in his street clothes, got his backpack, and walked out of the locker room.
As Shun walked out, from the distance Jacob, now in a black T-shirt and blue jean shorts, "Hey, I'll see you later." Shun was too caught up in being shell shocked on what had happened to even process Jacob's words, let alone reply to him. Jacob assumed Shun just didn't hear him.
At lunchtime, Shun brought a bento box that Gaku had purchased from One World Market the previous day. It had chicken katsudon, assorted tempura, and "hinomaru" rice in the shape of a Japanese flag, where a pickled plum was put in the middle to simulate the red hinomaru circle, with the rice emulating the white. Tim, to Shun's left, had his computer out, and had been going on Reddit, looking up the Detroit subreddit. His peanut butter sandwich was half-eaten and untouched. Melinda, across from Shun, was eating a pita bread stuffed with vegetables. A piece of paper with a pencil sketch stood in front of her. A mechanical pencil sat between Melinda's left elbow and the paper.
"I watched the evening news last night," Shun said after taking a bite.
"Alright," Tim said. He had stopped typing.
"It is so bad." Melinda immediately stopped eating. Shun wasn't eating either.
"You mean the start of the news?" Melinda asked.
"There are so many violent things that happen," Shun said, "Hanyaa! It's horrible."
"Yep," Melinda said. "All in the city too."
"Some shit in Detroit always happens and gets on the news. Guy gets his head blown off in a driveby. A funeral is attacked by guys with huge guns and the guys in the funeral shoot back. My dad yawns when that part of the news comes on." Tim said.
"We do not even have guns in Japan," Shun said. "If someone does something bad it is a stabbing and that almost never happens."
"Boy, we have plenty of guns here," Tim said.
"I heard in many cities in America violence happens, but my cousin said it is very bad in Detroit," Shun said.
"He's right," Melinda said rapid-fire, as if it was all one word.
"My parents were born in Detroit. My dad's family had to move out when his house kept getting robbed," Tim said. "His old house doesn't even exist now, it burned down. My mom's family moved when riots happened and the value of their house began to go down. It's now in shambles."
"Your father's house burned?" Shun asked. Tim nodded his head.
Melinda said, "Well, my old area, Mexicantown, is better than a lot of Detroit. My old house is still standing and my cousins live there. But there were gangs at the public schools, and my parents worked hard to put me through Catholic school to avoid them. Plus the public schools in my area sucked."
"Gangs?" Shun asked.
"In many big cities there are groups of teenagers and twenty year olds that come together and sell drugs," Melinda said. "They shoot each other over the drugs and kill each other and kill innocent people too."
"In Japan the teenagers get on bikes…motorbikes, and make noise in the neighborhoods. It is very annoying."
"I wish the gangs were like that here."
"And you say the schools in Detroit are bad?"
"My boyfriend went to my old Catholic middle school for awhile, but he did something stupid and got expelled, so he's at the public high school in Mexicantown. He doesn't have to study much at all, and he says his classes are bullshit. Half of the people don't even study and there are always disruptions in class and so much gang violence."
"So there are so many bad things that are in Detroit, but there are also good things…" Tim shot Shun a skeptical look. "The tacos."
"Oh…" Melinda said.
"Can't you get tacos anywhere?" Tim asked.
"Tim, the tacos you get in Novi are nothing like the ones you get in Mexicantown. They're different. Try 'em sometime, OK?" Melinda said, "But in a way Shun's right, there are special things in my old 'hood and people get attached to where they're from. But my Dad considered the benefits and the drawbacks, and here I am. It's kinda sad."
"Shouldn't we talk about something happier?" Tim asked.
"Yeah, that's a good idea!" Melinda said with a grin.
"Like the history quiz Thursday of the week after next?" Tim asked. Melinda burst out into laughter.
"Melinda's in my history class," Shun said.
"So am I!" Tim said, "I had a schedule change and it's coming to effect tomorrow. Some elective looked better so I switched."
"Are you keeping up fine with the class?" Melinda asked.
"I think so," Shun said.
"Decide soon, because if you think it's too much, you could try to switch to another class. I know your parents want you to succeed, but I don't think you should go too far over your head," Melinda said as she got the pencil out and began working on the sketch again.
"It does not seem to be bad now, so I think I will stay!" Shun said.
"Shun, where did you learn English?" Tim asked.
"There is an English language school in Yokohama and my Dad enrolled me there when I started junior high. He believed that I needed to learn the language, and I like learning it, so I went every Saturday after cram school. Then he said I could come to America to learn more English, so I came here," Shun said.
"Cool!" Tim said. "Some of the Japanese coming in don't seem to have a good grasp in English at all, so your Dad did something right." Shun suddenly noticed Melinda's tongue protruding, and then saw her trace some shapes.
"Do you like to draw?" Shun asked.
"Yeah, a bit," she said.
"What are you drawing?" Shun asked.
"I'm sketching the school mascot. It looks kinda cool." Somewhere on the cafeteria wall was the symbol of the Lakeside High Tigers, with a cartoon tiger's face surrounded by a thick green circle. Shun walked around to Melinda's side and saw the sketch.
"Hafu! It looks nice!"
"Lemme see," Tim said as he hurried over. "That's pretty awesome!" Tim's computer was in front of them, so nobody would dare snatch it.
"I liked to draw when I was younger. I want to become an artist," she said as she filled in the outlines she traced. "I heard art school costs a lot of money, but I'll see if there are scholarships." She finished the sketch, and it emulated the mascot but looked perhaps fiercer. Tim looked at it and gave a thumbs up.
"Melinda, I really am glad you shared food with me yesterday, so please try some of my bento box," Shun asked.
"Can I too?" Tim asked.
"Yes," Shun said. Shun smiled as his friends took plastic forks that were in their homemade lunch kits and tried the remaining tempura, katsudon, and hinomaru rice, using the forks to move food onto their brown bags from the bento box, which was in the middle of the table. They went "mmmmm," a sound Americans make when they like the food.