Chapter 10: Finding her.
" Is everything all set?" Tomimatsu said.
" The identity has been confirmed. No one will suspect a thing." Callaghan said.
" Now about the so called "accident"?" She asked.
" It's all taken care of at the docks. I made sure that it was timed for all the sailors to see it." He explains. " They'll find the body and its hello to the good life and good bye to baby sitting."
" Oh I can't wait for it." Tomimatsu smiles evilly.
" You have the cellphone. Now make the call." He told her.
Tomimatsu press the number into the phone after a few rings, she gets, " San Fransokyo Social Services. How may I help."
Tomimatsu said in a forced cheery voice, " Hi. I just heard about this one kid that has been sent to Katherine Lee's Shelter just yesterday. A Japanese American girl."
" Yes she is. No last name or family on record." The guy said.
" Well of course she does have family. She has me and I miss her so much. Please. You need to help me get my poor baby back."
" I need a name please?" The guy asked.
Tomihatsu tells him the name that Callaghan gave her. They both wait in anticipation for the guy to respond.
Finally they hear, " Hold on. Let me see what I can do."
" You can put your stuff in there." GoGo opens an empty closet door in their room.
" I don't have any stuff." Hiro said to it. All she really has is the clothes on her back and the kanzashi that she has kept hidden in her sweater pocket.
" Don't worry. You will and Kathy will make sure of it." GoGo assures her with a smirk.
Their shared room is definitely not as fancy and big as the one Hiro had back at the palace, but it has a much warmer vibe to it. The walls were painted a nice peachy orange color and the nice dark wood floors. The twin beds in the room have white built in drawers underneath and a large bookshelf is crammed in between the beds. There is also two small desks, one by each bed to give them each their personal workspace.
" You can have the bed by the window, but don't open it without turning off the alarm for it first. Otherwise the whole house will start blaring. Kathy is a nut about safety. Don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing." GoGo shrugs as Hiro sits on her new bed.
Hiro feels the the turqoise bedspread that is on the bed. She never felt something this soft. It wasn't smooth like the imported silk she was used to, but it wasn't as scratchy as the ones at the hospital. It's just feels as soft as a feather.
" Feels amazing huh? Nothing beats clean cotton bedding. Even I couldn't believe that this was where I was sleeping. But you'll get used to it." GoGo said.
" Cotton." Hiro said to herself. She never had cotton in a long time since she was ten. Says it was 'beneath her' according to Tomimatsu.
" If you need any pjs, you can borrow some of my old ones in the meantime." GoGo said to her.
" Thanks." She said before asking, " How long have you been here?"
" Been here since I was sixteen. I'm almost nineteen now." GoGo explains. " What's great about Kathy is that she doesn't demand or give anyone one of us the eviction notice. Even after your eighteenth birthday. She makes sure that we're able to take care of ourselves and can live on our own. She even willing to help us with schooling costs at college because of her connections. I don't know how I can ever repay her."
" Does every shelter do that?" Hiro asked.
" I wished. Most of them don't have the resources like Kathy or kick us out when opportunity is served. Some just doesn't even care about us and do it for the money." GoGo said.
" But that's terrible." Hiro said.
" It is. So where are you from?" GoGo asks.
Hiro doesn't want to be reminded of it and even if she did tell GoGo, She wouldn't believe her.
" I don't want to talk about it." She said.
" That's fine. Everyone here wants to get away from their past but it's not easy. I sure as heck do." GoGo said before they hear a knock on their door. It was Kathy.
" Hi girls. Um...Hiro? We need to talk. It's important." Kathy said suddenly and sounding uneasy.
" Did she do something wrong?" GoGo asked.
" This is something between me and Hiro." Kathy tells GoGo.
Hiro looks skeptical as to what's going on and hesitantly grabs her crutches to follow Kathy out of new her room to Kathy's office.
It was small and very crammed with binders, papers, and other official stuff everywhere on many shelves and on her desk. Operating a shelter is probably not as easy as it sounds.
" Sit down sweetie." She tells Hiro. She seems a little worried.
" What's up?" She asks Kathy.
" Hiro I received a call from Social Services. Apparently your grandmother has found you after your runaway several months ago and wants to take you home. " She said.
" My grandmother!?" Hiro said in outrage. Both of her grandmothers are dead.
" According to Social services your name is Allison Beckworth and you're from Chicago. Your grandmother, Agnes, has been looking for you this whole time."
" Allison Beckworth? Chicago? What woman claims to be my grandmother!?" She said in outrage.
" This woman." Kathy holds her iPhone to Hiro. It held a picture of a woman with long gray hair in a bun and old lady like clothes consisting of a sweater set and pajama pants. She looks no one Hiro knows but upon closer inspection she sees facial features like the extremely thin mouth and long face that only belong to one person. Hiro's face turns into a sheet of ice.
That woman was Tomimatsu. No doubt about it.
" From the look of your expression you know this woman." Kathy said.
" Yes. I do." Hiro said shockingly.
" Hiro. She said she won't give her consent to letting you be here and that she wants to take you home."
" No." Hiro said in devastation. She can't go back to the palace! " Please. You have to do something. I can't go with her."
" Tell me why. I need reason to keep you here. She's already claiming that I kidnapped you."
" I can't." Hiro said shaking her head.
" Hiro. I want to help you. But I'm not going to risk the shelter and everyone else's safety to do so. You have to take responsibility for yourself and tell me why." Kathy said.
Hiro keeps shaking her head in objection. Afraid to say anything against her former mentor.
Kathy wants to drop everything and keep Hiro here despite the possibility of breaking the law. But she has no testimony evidence to support the abuse claim from the doctor. Plus if she did break the law, Her shelter will definitely be shut down immediately and many more people will be vulnerable.
" She's coming in the morning. I'm sorry. You know I want to help you." Kathy said. " But this is out of my hands. But please talk to me. I might be able to convince Social Services to keep you here if you tell me."
Hiro feels anger rise in her body.
" I can't believe you!" She yells at Kathy. " I should never have come here!" Before she grabs her crutches and hobbled as fast as she can out of Kathy's office.
" Hiro." She heard and saw GoGo near the door, but she doesn't care. She has to get out of here. " Hiro!" GoGo grabs her from behind and drags her back to their room.
" No. I have to get out of here! No!" Hiro demanded GoGo to let go as she struggled in GoGo's arms, but she's on crutches and GoGo's much stronger.
GoGo drags the struggling girl back to their room and throws her on the bed gently before locking the door.
" What the hell?! First Kathy. Now you!" She yells at GoGo.
" Did you really think I was going to let you leave?" GoGo said.
" You don't get it! I have to get out of here!" Hiro yells back.
" And what will you do? Go back on the streets? Put yourself at risk? What will happened if the same people who came after you did it again while you're still injured? Huh? Do you think they'll go easy on you?" GoGo tells her off.
" It's better than letting that woman take me back!" She screamed.
" You heard Kathy. She won't let you go if you tell her the truth. It doesn't help that you won't say anything." GoGo points out.
" None of you have any idea what I been through!" She screams.
" You think you have it bad? How come we live here? Huh? Do you think we have it easy?" GoGo said in frustration.
Hiro screams in anger over the idea of going back to the life of terror and pressure. Her brother would hate her again. Her Aunt might hate her. The whole world wanting her to die again.
She doesn't know how long she letting her thoughts wander, but when she starts paying attention to her surroundings, GoGo is gone. Maybe she got sick of her and left. Everyone gets sick of her eventually.
A few seconds later, GoGo comes back. But she wasn't alone. She brought Wasabi, Fred, and a giant white sheep dog.
" Ah!" Hiro reacted from how big the dog. She knows for sure that the dog is bigger than her. He has black eyes and a very friendly face.
He didn't bark at her, but he whines when he sees Hiro and gets up on bed beside her.
" We want you to meet the last member of our gang. Hiro meet Baymax." GoGo said calmly. Not at all like her usual mood Hiro has seen.
" Hi Baymax." Hiro said to the dog quietly. The dog lies down and sets his head on her lap.
" He usually does that when he wants to comfort someone. He always tries to cheer people up." Wasabi said.
Hiro runs her fingers through the dog's thick mane of fur. When he looks up at her with it's pleading eyes, Hiro was tempted to tug a smile on her face. But she decided against it. She just isn't ready at all to let her guard down.
Even there was no obvious signs that Hiro was cheering up or that she's happy about the dog. The group did notice her calming down. That is often a good sign.
" Hiro we want you to stay here, but you can't keep pretending that your past never happened. You have to say something." GoGo tells her.
" So what about it?" Hiro said looking at them.
" We're taking a little night field trip." Fred smiles at her mischievously.
" GoGo are you sure we should be doing this kind of thing?" Wasabi asks worryingly. " I mean we are technically breaking the rules.
" Hey we agreed on the plan." GoGo told him.
" Umm...Guys? What field trip?" Hiro asked confused.
" Don't worry we're going not far. Not even leaving the house. We're going to my mother's office. Be ready at midnight for our little escapade." Fred said.
" Uh...How do we even get in?" Hiro asked feeling pretty sure that the office is locked and alarmed. Since this is a high end house.
" When you're the son in my family. You tend to get very special privileges." Fred said brandishing a set of golden keys to the house.
Don't assume that Kathy is bad just yet. As mention this is out of her hands since Hiro won't admit to the abuse that she endured from Tomihatsu and Callaghan out of anger and fear.
There will be more on Tadashi next chapter. I promise you guys that. He will have a chapter about him and his little sister.
Please review and see you later.