Maverick
1. It's a Girl
"It's a girl."
His raspy voice was scornful, the harsh tone matching his words. The petite young mother who cradled the newborn in her arms sobbed quietly, barely managing to choke out the words, "I'm sorry."
The first addition to the Taji family was a girl, and her father seemed unable to forgive her for it. Taji Akiko. Her father didn't like her; or more accurately, he despised and hated her. Her mother ignored her after giving birth to her three younger brothers in quick succession. Akiko was thrown into the background, but she survived, aided my an innate desire to live and grow stronger.
Akiko. Autumn child. But she pulsed with life as thought it were spring. She was so different from other girls – quiet when they were cheerful and smiling, rough when they were gentle, and tough when they were crying. She also looked rather different.
Father doesn't like me because I'm a girl. Even five-year-old Akiko knew that. And more than that, she knew that if she ever said this aloud, he would never like her. She stood in front of the mirror one day when her mother was out grocery shopping, her father at work, and her brothers in the living drawing on the floor with bright crayons – something she was sure to bear the brunt of the punishment for later in the afternoon. Taking a deep breath, she took a lock of her hair and snipped it off with her mother's sewing scissors. Hair fell to the ground, in wispy black strands. Thus it was that five-year-old Akiko chopped off her locks in hope of becoming accepted.
"It's a girl!"
The voice was incredulous. The boys in the playground laughed. The girls sitting at the edge giggled. Akiko stood alone under the falling sakura blossoms. Her short hair distinguished her. Though not in the way she wanted. Her father still hated her. Her mother still ignored her. Her brothers still teased her. Her schoolmates joined the ranks. But she wanted short hair. It seemed to her it was a lesser evil – bearing the teasing for short hair instead of the fact that she was a girl, an unwanted girl.
~rurouni