I went to school with Minori and she got me registered and took me on a tour of the school. She took me to the lunch room where I saw a lady that looked like my biological mother and I paled.
"M-Minori...s-she l-looks l-like m-my r-real m-mom" I stuttered and I NEVER stuttered.
"Her? She's a retired school lunch lady. Her name is Eri, her name means blessed prize. As I sure she was for her parents" she told me.
Eri made her way over to us. "Minori, who's the beautiful little girl?" she asked her.
She looked closer. "Oh! She looks just like, Hanako..." she said looking at my facial features.
"I'm sorry who?" I asked her. "Who's Hanako?"
She pulled out a picture of a little girl around my age smiling. Something about her seemed familiar about her.
"OH MY GOD! THAT'S MY MOTHER!" I yelled nearly knocking my new found grandmother over.
I startled both women and apologized for the next five minutes. "I'm sorry, I'm SO sorry" I told them. "What was mama like when she was little?" I asked.
"Oh she was wonderful, kind, smart..pretty...until she met that idiot of a man. A man that had no business sneaking around to see her" she told me.
I held the picture while they went to talk. When Eri came back she smiled at me.
"Jade, honey...Eri is going to take you to the teacher's lounge and talk to you about Hanako, or whatever your mother's name is now" she told me.
I nodded and followed Eri to the teachers lounge and sat down.
She sat across from me. "Jade, I am your mother's mother...her Japanese name is Hanako, but she changed it to Rachael because of your father Allen. He's an ass...I remember the first time she called me crying saying he hit her. I told her to get out of there but she didn't because she 'loves' him. But he never hit her when she was pregnant until after you were born. I'm sorry I wasn't there, but I wasn't allowed to see you at all. This is the first time I'm seeing you my darling girl" she told me.
I ended up crying. "Why would mama date someone so horrible?! She started beating me when I was two...I died a couple of times but both time I was told it wasn't my time and I was sent back...I didn't want to come back...and when I started school when I was five my father would rape me...I really wanted to die then. I wish I had known when I got taken out of the house that you were still around...each foster home was worse than the one before, more rape, more abuse..my social worker was no help, the best thing she did for me was bring me here, even though I suck at being Japanese.." I told her.
"You will learn child, I'm sure Minori and Keesa won't keep you from me, I can teach you what you need to know and since I just volunteer my time here, I can take you home with me to meet your grandfather and get you fed proper and teach you how to cook, clean, sew your own clothes...everything a young Japanese girl needs to know" she told me.
I was excited, I couldn't believe just a few days into being here I'm meeting my grandmother and learning all about my mom. This was amazing way more than what I knew in America. It was all starting to make sense on why I couldn't ask mom questions about my grandma. It was because she wasn't allowed to talk about it.
Now that I had real family here I think I can make it. I can't wait to spend time with Eri, I hope my grandfather's name is just as cool as hers is! I couldn't wait to call Tohru and tell her about today!
