A little black bird fluttered by the open window, chasing a tiny brown.  Akurei watched the pair, through heavily rouged eyes, following their progression as she ate sushi and rice balls with her fingers.

          "You know, you should really eat with chopsticks."  Akurei finished her rice ball before turning to see who was talking to her, but no one was there.  The only evidence that she had even heard a voice at all was a pair of chopsticks rested in the lid of her bento box.  She glanced around again, seeing nothing more than her classmates laughing and eating lunch together.  Picking up the chopsticks, she studied them.  Laquered wood…some kind of cherry or mahogany…shone back at her.  Intricate cherry blossoms were carved deep enough into each stick that she could see the red wood beneath.  She handled them carefully, glancing around once again to see who had given these to her.  No one made a move, though, so she went back to eating, chopsticks ticking together quietly.

          Akurei sat in the train, glancing at her watch.  She hadn't remembered how long these rides were.  Her mother had always given her a coloring book and crayons when they rode the train.  Sae had caught the train earlier because Akurei had to stay after school to finish her art project.  It was nothing much…just a painting of two bums she had seen walking along the Golden Gate Bridge when she lived in California.  No big deal, really.

          When she went back to the lockers for her shoes, though, she found a note in her boot.  It was a simple scrap of paper with a number on it.  Telephone?  Cell phone?  She didn't know.  She slipped it into her bag and quickly changed her shoes.

          Now as she sat on the train, holding the slip of paper in one hand and her cell phone in the other, she contemplated calling this number.  It probably wasn't for her…probably just a mistake.  But she dialed slowly, the blips and beeps of her cell just audible over the yammer around her.

          The phone rang and hazel eyes shifted to the Caller I.D.  It read Hitoshi, Akurei.  The letter underneath was a cell phone number.  She had obviously received the note.  A hand picked up the phone, silent.

          "Hello?" Akurei said loudly over the voices around her.

          "Hello."

          "Who is this?" she asked, plugging her open ear with her finger.

          "A friend."

          "But…"

          "You're staying with Sae Kashiwage, right?"

          "Yeah…?"

          "We'll be in touch."

          Akurei blinked as the line went dead.