Adventures of Young Tezuka Kunimitsu
Chapter 12: Destiny and Wishes
It was early July and Summer was upon them. At 11 am, it was sweltering hot even on the shaded bench. Kuniharu, as usual, was with his golf buddies out on the green. Ayana fanned herself as she watched the tennis coach dismissed the morning class. The older children, two ten-year-old girls and a boy had paper forms with them. Ayana smiled as they ran eagerly to their awaiting families.
"Mama!" Kunimitsu ran to her side. She passed him his water bottle and wiped his face with a wet towel.
"Tezuka-san," the coach followed behind Kunimitsu with some papers in his hand. "The club organises a tennis tournament every year. I would like to enter Tezuka-kun into the U9 Singles category. It's for 8 years old and below."
"Tournament? He is too young ..." Ayana looked indecisively at Kunimitsu. It meant he would be playing against boys older than him. She wasn't sure if Kunimitsu was ready for the competitive aspect of tennis. She didn't want him to get disheartened and discouraged from playing. Nor did she want to over stress him with competition. Tennis was for fun and to let him socialise with other children.
"Please, Mama?" Kunimitsu hugged her arm excitedly.
"It is not as competitive as you think. It's mostly for young children and beginners."
"Umm ... I need to discuss with my husband."
"Take your time." He handed a stack of papers to Ayana. "These are the registration and consent forms. These are the details and rules of the tournament. It's on 25th August, during the summer break. It won't interfere with his school. If you have any questions, please contact me."
Ayana nodded as the coach excused himself to talk to another parent.
"Mama! Say yes! Say yes! Yanagi-san is going too." Kunimitsu said eagerly as he pointed at a girl who was giving him a thumbs up.
She recognised her as the girl who was training with him after lessons some time back. Her parents gave her polite nods while her younger brother looked at Kunimitsu calculatively. He looked about Kunimitsu's age.
After exchanging pleasantries and introductions with the Yanagi family, Yanagi's mother reassured her that yes, her son was also going to join. He was also 5 years old and no, 5 is not too young. Besides, all the children in the lower categories will get a prize just by participating. The unspoken reassurance that all the children will be treated like winners, win or lose.
"For the U9, they only play one-tiebreak game to 7 points. It should take less than 10 minutes so it won't be too tiring for the young ones," Yanagi's mother explained. "Depending on the number of participants, they will probably play 4 to 6 games each. It won't be too tiring for the little ones."
"All of them will play the same format?" Ayana asked.
"No. Reiko is going for the U-13 category. They will play one full set, between 6 to 13 games. The older ones, U-17 and above, play 3 to 5 sets format."
"Are you going to join the U9 Singles too?" Kunimitsu asked the other boy.
"No," the boy said disdain. "I only play doubles."
"Eh?" Kunimitsu never heard of 'doubles' before.
"Renji is going to join U9 Doubles," said Yanagi.
"Doubles?"
"Yes, doubles," Renji said. "Nee-chan, I told you this club is lousy. He doesn't even know what doubles is. You should have come to my tennis school."
Yanagi shook her head. "I'm not going to join a club full of spoilt brats and little monsters. Besides, I like Singles. And my club is better than your club."
Renji stuck his tongue out at his sister. "No. My club is better than your club!"
"No, mine!"
"Mine!"
"Enough!" Yanagi's father said. Her mother excused themselves and ushered her family off.
"Doubles?" Kunimitsu looked at his mama.
Ayana shuffled the papers around. "It says here, it's a game with four players instead of two."
"Oh." Kunimitsu scratched his head. How would he play tennis with three others? It was hard enough to concentrate on one opponent. Akira must be right. Yanagi-san's brother must be really good.
A few days later was July 7th. It was Tanabata festival. Tezuka family went to the temple for prayers. When they were done, they went for a walk around the temple grounds. Mama showed Kunimitsu a stand of bamboo hung with colourful paper decorations. There was a long wooden table with a stack of papers and some pens and crayons.
Mama gave Kunimitsu a strip of blue coloured paper. "Write your wish down," said Mama as she handed Kunimitsu a crayon.
"Wish?"
"Yes, anything you want. Then we'll hang it on the bamboo branch and the wish will come true."
Kunimitsu paused a moment. His Mama and Papa had not made their decision on the tennis tournament yet. So he wrote: I wish Mama let me join tennis tournament. He pause a moment and added please. Kunimitsu had learned early on that speaking a full sentence with Please tacked on would get him anything from his parents. Throwing tantrums, screaming and crying would not earn him anything except forfeits and punishments.
He gave Mama the strip of paper. Then he saw Papa had a green one. "Mama, can I have a green one like Papa, please?"
Mama gave him a green one. He wrote: Grow taller and Hokage-senpai not calling me Shorty please.
He thought some more. There are more colours from the stack where Mama took the papers. So many wishes waiting to be wished. A white one fluttered on top of the pile, held down by a piece for smooth stone. "Can I have the white one please?" he pointed.
Mama gave Kunimitsu the white one. He wrote: 6-kyu belt grade, please. Ojiisan promise.
He gave Mama the white one to hang up. Mama have a yellow one in her hand. She saw his face and said, "You want this?" Kunimitsu nodded eagerly. He was feeling rather hungry. He wrote: Unagi, unacha, shira-yaki, unadon, unaju, uzaku everyday. No kimosui. Please.
Mama blinked when Kunimitsu gave her the yellow strip. Her son had a serious summer addiction!
He took a black strip from the top of the stack himself. "Can I have this one, please?" Mama nodded. He tried to write on it, but his red crayon did not show up properly. It was like a special secret wish paper. He thought for a while. It needed a special secret wish. He wrote: Beat Yoshida-san. Please. He nodded to himself.
Ayana frowned when she saw what Kunimitsu wrote. He did not know the kanji for Yoshida, so he had written it with hiragana. "Who is Yoshida-san?" asked Ayana.
Kunimitsu tilted his head at Mama. "Ojiisan's friend."
"Why do you want to beat Yoshida-san?"
"Because he is good at shougi. Kunimitsu not win a game yet."
"Shougi? Aahh ..." Ayana was relieved that Kunimitsu was not thinking of anything violent. "Do you like playing shogi with Yoshida-san?"
Kunimitsu nodded.
"Even when you always lose?"
He nodded again.
"Why do you like playing with Yoshida-san?"
Kunimitsu scratched his head. "Yoshida-san plays sideways."
Ayana thought she had misheard him. "Yoshida-san likes to play sideways?"
"Like ... like ... " Kunimitsu furrowed his brow.
Ayana waited patiently for him to work out his response. He was too much like his grandfather, preferring to observe silently than chat incessantly. He also seemed to have better developed nuances of body language, preferring it to verbal communication. It was difficult for her to gauge his level of vocabulary and grammar compared to his more talkative peers.
She had hoped some of his father's charm would rub off on Kunimitsu, but he had not shown any sign of it. Kuniharu seemed to be able to talk non-stop. He could make any conversation engaging and interesting. Yet, at the end of the conversation, it left everyone feeling like they had a good time without any idea what they were talking about. Unfortunately, it also made him impatient and bored with slow speakers and those with slow reactions.
"Like?" Ayana prompted.
"Like ..." Kunimitsu frowned. "Like windows!"
"How is Yoshida-san's shougi like windows?"
"Umm ... when Kunimitsu put king inside house and lock door. But Yoshida-san come in window. Like that."
"Is it fun to play with Yoshida-san like that?"
Kunimitsu nodded. "Make new house. Yoshida-san cannot open. Open windows in Ojiisan house, like Yoshida-san," he said earnestly.
Ayana laughed and tweaked his nose. "Kunimitsu is clever. Kunimitsu makes new houses that is defensible against Yoshida-san's attack. And Kunimitsu is using Yoshida-san's techniques to attack Ojiisan's house."
Kunimitsu shook his head. "Yoshida-san always open Kunimitsu house. Eat Kunimitsu men. Then eat King. Ojiisan house is hard. More hard than Yoshida-san house."
"I'm sure you will find a way to attack Ojiisan's house. Kunimitsu's way."
"Kunimitsu way..." he said thoughtfully as Mama led him away.
Another 2 or 3 more chapters should cover 5-year-old Tezuka. Then, it'll be time to get him to grow up a bit more.
I have a question for my readers: How do you feel about story notes at the end of the chapters? These are my personal fact-pointers I used for story elements and quick guide/reminders. If they are too distracting, I will remove them in the future.
Notes:
* Unagi - grilled eel
* Unacha - Rice with tea (ochazuka) and unagi topping.
* Shira-yaki - grilled eel without basting sauce
* Unadon - unagi on rice bowl
* Unaju - unagi on rice served in a box
* Uzaku - unagi salad
* kimosui - clear soup with eel liver
Ayana's conversation with Kunimitsu is a form of Motherese, a child-directed-talk to encourage young children to speak and an important process in language learning. Motherese have several types, such as using repetitions, rephrasing, extensions and taking turns in conversation. It is not about correcting the child's grammar or pointing out mistakes. But to provide samples of speech variations, vocabulary and expose the child to progressively complex language schematics. Another tactic of motherese is upping the ante: encouraging the child to form complete or longer coherent sentences, rather than giving single word answers that might had been acceptable at earlier levels. It is subtle message to the child that what was previously acceptable is no longer so.
In contrast, 5-year-old Tezuka is using simple words and short sentences to convey complex ideas beyond his vocabulary. Note not to make Tezuka sound too young with baby talk or too old with too complex speech/vocab.
Reference to shougi - house (castle) is Tezuka's simplified understanding castling; building defences for the king, where the king is surrounded and protected by other pieces.
Tanabata actually falls on the 7th day of 7th month of Lunar calendar. But Tokyo and parts of Japan have converted the day to Gregorian Calendar's 7 July. If following Lunar Calendar, the day falls somewhere in August. Hence, certain parts of Japan still holds the festival in August.
