Chapter 6
Mimi kicked a random piece of rock and watched it as it flung in the air before it disappeared below a pile of snow. She looked around for any more decent sized rocks to kick and when she realized that there was none, she just kicked some dirt out of frustration. She had been running to Tai's house just few minutes ago, determined to see Mrs. Hinamori and tell her exactly what she had seen, but instead, she had somehow ended up in a corner of an ally next to an old building.
She was starting to have doubts about seeing Tai's mom which for some reason she couldn't figure out and it made her frustrated. Perhaps it was because she didn't want Mrs. Hinamori to get hurt just like her mom or maybe it was because she was afraid of what people might think of her dad. Despite how much she might dislike her dad, he was still her dad and she didn't want people pointing their fingers at him, saying terrible things. Also, there was a big possibly that a gap between her friendship with Tai and Kari would appear when they find out her dad had cheated on their mom. Could she possibly risk their friendship by telling them the truth? They would hate her dad and some of the hatred may be thrown at her without any of them realizing it.
"What should I do?" said Mimi out loud to herself. As far as she knew, she had two choices. One was to tell Mrs. Hinamori the truth while hurting her at the same time and the other was to just keep her mouth shut and pretend that nothing had happened.
Mimi sighed at the second choice. She just hated lying even though not telling the truth wasn't really like lying. Well sort of...
"What the..." said Mimi, blinking as she felt something land on her cheeks. Looking up at the sky which was turning darker and darker, she noticed that it was starting to snow. Great. Now she's going to have to find some place to stay unless she wanted a big pile of snow to land on her head.
Gripping her back pack, she slung it over shoulders with some difficulty due to it's weight and started to leave the alley. She might as well as go see Mrs. Hinamori now...
Mimi stood in front of the mail box of her house. She had actually gotten to Tai's house but when she was about to ring the door bell, she chickened out and left. She just didn't have enough courage to tell Mrs. Hinamori so she just came home.
Dusting some snow off of her head and clothes, she turned around to face the road. The road was blocked due to a car with yellow tapes surrounding it. There was a dent in the car as well as what looked like little pieces of glasses lying beneath the car where no snow could land. She guessed that someone must have gotten into a car accident while she was gone and hoped that whoever was in that accident didn't get hurt too seriously. She'd hate it if someone she knew had gotten into a car accident like that.
Turning back around, Mimi took a good look at her house to delay as much as she could from walking up the front steps. She didn't want to admit this to herself but she was a little unnerved of the thought of facing her dad. He would no doubt in her mind try to come up with some lame excuse of her seeing him leaning into some other woman's face. He would have probably kissed her if she had come few seconds later...
Mimi shrugged away that thought and walked up to the front door after passing by her dad's car that was parked in the drive way. She was first hesitant about ringing the doorbell but when the wind started to blow hard, she quickly ringed the bell two times. She felt like she would freeze and become some ice statue if she didn't go inside somewhere warm.
Seconds passed by like minutes with no one answering the door so Mimi pushed the door bell once again. However, there was still no answer which brought great annoyance to Mimi. With another push of the doorbell, she took her keys out and opened the door herself.
As soon as she stepped inside, she was met darkness with none of the lights in her house turned on. She was sure that her dad would be home watching the television or something since his car was outside but there was only silence in the house. It freaked her out slightly.
"Dad! Are you home? Dad?"
Turning on one of the lights, Mimi took her back pack off along with her coat and went over to the telephone to check if anyone had called while she was away. Her eyes became wide and she stared blankly at the sixteen messages left on the answering machine. Worry suddenly crept up to her and she pushed the 'play' button to listen to the messages.
"Mimi? Where are you?" There was a short beep before the next message came on which was from the same person. "Hello? Oh come on... I need-"
Before the message ended, the telephone suddenly rang, causing her answering machine to be stopped. Mimi hastily picked up the phone.
"Who is this?" said Mimi, ignoring the fact that she must have sounded rude to the other person on the line.
"Mimi! Where the hell were you? I've been trying to contact you for the last few hours!"
"Do I know you?" asked Mimi and her grip on the phone became tighter. The person on the other line had the same voice as the one on the answering machine.
"I'm a friend of your dad, Allison. You met me a while back at his work place and this afternoon before you ran off," said Allison in one breath, rushing all of her worlds.
Mimi frowned. What would she want with her? "Oh. Well dad's not home so I'll just hang up."
"No wait!" said Allison and she took a deep breath, trying her best to keep her voice in line but she had failed. Her voice came out as a strangle. "Mimi... your dad... I'm so sorry. He-"
"If you have something to say, just spill it!"
"Your dad's here at the hospital. He... he didn't see the car and..." Allison's voice shook and tears rolled down her already tear stained cheeks.
Mimi's heart suddenly felt heavy and she found gripping on her phone even more tighter. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Perhaps Allison was... lying? No, she wouldn't lie about something this serious... "Which hospital?"
Allison thought for a while before answering. Her mind had been so hazed when she had arrived to the hospital that she didn't even think about where she was. "I'm at the one near the bridge on route ten. The one-"
Before she was able to finish her sentence, Mimi hung up the phone and grabbed her keys along with some money and ran out the door. She didn't need to hear the rest of Allison's sentence since there was only one hospital near the bridge on route ten.
Without even making sure that her house door was locked, Mimi ran down the drive way before stopping dead in her tracks in front of the mail box. She stared at the same car that she had been looking at a few minutes ago before and covered her hand to her mouth. Her dad couldn't have been hit by that car... No. It just can't. She knew he must have gotten into a car accident from what Allison had said about him not seeing a car but...
Mimi shut her eyes tightly and hastily wiped her tears before reopening them. She needed to get out of her neighborhood and into the big street if she wanted to grab a taxi and so she began running.
"Hello grandma. Back so soon?" said Tai with an annoyed look on his face.
His grandmother ignored him completely and walked over to Kari with a smile. His grandmother was back again and this time instead of trying to take Kari away, she was here to see the guy that his mother was getting married to. It wasn't really much of a surprise to him but apparently, it was to his mom. She was just standing with her mouth wide open.
"Hi Kari. My, I think you've grown since the last time I've seen you," said their grandmother, extending her arms to give Kari a hug and Tai rolled his eyes. Although she was back for another reason this time, it was obvious that she still hasn't given up on taking Kari with her if her being too nice was any indication.
"Mom, you should have called before coming over," said Mrs. Hinamori, quickly going over to pull Kari away before her mother was able to give Kari a hug. She was angry with her mom for trying to take Kari away from her and didn't want her going near Kari. She was sure Kari felt the same too.
"If I did, you would have told me to not to come, dear. All I want to do is meet that Tachiwaki person. There's nothing wrong with me wanting meet him."
Tai snickered at the way that their grandmother had said Mimi's last name while his mom looked at their grandmother with a frown on her face. "It's Tachikawa grandma."
Once again, she ignored her grandson. For some strange reason, she seemed to not like him very much. "Why don't you call him and invite him for dinner? I know it's on short notice but..."
"No," said Mrs. Hinamori, cutting her mother off. "I don't think he would very much appreciate you calling him over for dinner on such short notice. Besides, how can I introduce you to him if can't even remember his last name correctly?"
Tai's grandmother's eyes narrowed. "I am your mother and you'll do as I say!"
"My mother? No mother like you would try to cause pain to her own daughter! You always only think for yourself and not what you're doing to the others! You're making my life harder than how it already is!"
Tai's grandmother raised her hands and before anyone knew it, there was a loud slapping sound that brought Tai to raise from his seat. His mom's hand slowly reached for her stinging face and looked toward the end wall.
"You..." said Tai's grandmother, pointing her finger at her daughter. "You have always been the weak and troubling kid out of all of my children. Look at your siblings. Do you see any one of them divorced or living in a dirty old apartment that you can barely afford? No and that just proves that you will never ever be as good any of them! I'm ashamed to call you my daughter!"
Mrs. Hinamori's lips slightly parted in shock and she stared at her mother in disbelief. She could understand her mother liking her the least out of her siblings despite it hurting her greatly but her existence bringing shame to her mother was something she had not expected.
Tai's grandmother put a hand over to her heart and looked at her daughter with an apologetic look. She had not meant what she had just said. She was just so angry that her own daughter wasn't listening to her that those harsh words just came out of her mouth. She wanted to take her words back or at least say that she didn't mean them but her lips felt as if they were glued as guilt weighted heavily on her heart.
The telephone rang but no one moved from their spot. Tai was hesitating whether to answer it or not but he was too late in deciding as the answering machine came on after five rings. "Hello. No one is availably to take your call so please leave a message after the beep."
There was a short beep before a voice belonging to a woman spoke. "This phone call is for Laura Hinamori and it's from the hospital. Mr. Tachikawa had gotten into an-"
Tai's mom's eyes widen before she quickly ran up to the phone and picked it up. "This is Laura! What happened? Is everything all right?"
Taking deep breaths, Mimi ran down the hospital hall ways, ignoring the warning looks that some of the nurses gave her as she ran past by them. She knew people running in the hospital wasn't something that the doctors or nurses recommended incase they got hurt but she wanted to find her dad and no little glare was going to stop her. The nurse in the front desk had told her that her dad was on the fourth floor where she would have to take a right turn when she got out of the elevator or the stairs and take another right.
Mimi stopped in front of the elevator and pushed the arrow that pointed up and waited and waited until she couldn't wait anymore. She sprinted toward the stairs.
It took her quite a while to get to the fourth floor and when she did, she had to lean against the wall for support. Trying to run in the skirt of her school uniform with shoes that weren't designed for running was definitely something she hoped to do never again.
Reaching for the exit door after catching some breath, Mimi turned right and jumped slightly when she almost bumped into a small child who was on a wheel chair. She immediately apologized but the child only smiled before being wheeled alway by someone. Mimi looked sadly at the child before she started running again. She took a right at the first turn and she took another right before seeing Allison sitting still on bench.
"Where's dad? How is he? What happened to him?"
Allison rose from the bench while she silently wished for the courage to answer the younger girl's questions. Her voice was already hoarse for crying for the last few hours and she felt what little strength that she had in her fade away from her like the sun setting down to bring darkness to the world. Allison closed her eyes much to Mimi's annoyance before she opened them and forced herself to look into Mimi's eyes before speaking. "Mimi, your dad... after you ran off, he went to go after you but he didn't see the car and... Your dad... He..." Allison paused briefly, fresh new tears forming in her eyes. "I'm so sorry. He's gone. He didn't... he didn't make it. I'm so sorry."
Mimi opened her mouth to say something but ended up bringing her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from letting out a strangled cry. Tears welled up in her eyes and they soon fell down her cold cheeks.
Allison reached her hand out to her. "Mimi? Are you-"
"Don't touch me!" yelled Mimi, backing away. "He... he couldn't have died. Where is he? I want to see him."
Mimi's eyes wandered to the door that Allison was standing next to and walked over to it. She had a feeling her dad would be in there but as soon as she was about to push open the door, Allison stopped her by holding onto her shoulders. Mimi struggled to get free but Allison wouldn't let go and the fact that her shoulders were still hurting badly due to carrying her heavy back pack for hours wasn't helping.
"No Mimi. I don't want you going in there," said Allison, gripping onto Mimi's shoulders more tightly, not knowing how much it was actually hurting her. Allison had already been inside the room as soon as a doctor had came over to tell her that Mr. Tachikawa did not make it. Allison let out a steady breath as the image of her friend kept playing over and over in her mind. There had been blood everywhere on his body... Seeing her friend like that had scared her and that was why she was refusing to let Mimi go. She didn't want the last memory that Mimi would have of her dad to be all bloody with him looking so... lifeless.
"Let go! Please..." whispered Mimi before she stopped struggling and fell onto her knees. She couldn't stay standing up anymore with her legs feeling like huge rocks were tied around them. "He can't be gone. What happened? How did dad... What happened to him?"
Allison got on her knees as well and hugged her crying girl. "I'm so sorry. I..." Allsion hesitated for a moment to decide if it was the right time to tell Mimi how her dad had gotten into a car accident but she knew Mimi would want to know sooner or later. She just hoped Mimi wouldn't blame herself. "I had accidentally bumped into the door of my car and your father had leaned in to see if I was all right but... you saw us at a bad position. After you ran off, he went to follow you but he didn't... he didn't see the car coming his way and..."
"So, it's my fault? If I didn't run away-"
"No. Mimi, it's not your fault," said Allison, shaking her head. "The driver of the car had been over speeding. If he hasn't been driving so fast, your dad wouldn't have... Don't blame yourself."
Mimi, however, wasn't listening to a word that she was saying. She wasn't listening or paying attention to anything as all she could feel was the coldness that started surrounding her heart.
"Mimi!"
Mrs. Hinamori, Kari and Tai ran up to Mimi and someone they did not recognize. Mrs. Hinamori's eyes were red and watery and her usually neatly tied hair was down. She looked at Mimi with sad eyes and told her children to stay with her while she walked aside from them before disappearing though the door that Mimi's dad was suppose to be in. She had came straight to the hospital with her mother back at home, not knowing anything about Mr. Tachikawa's condition. When she had picked up the phone after the answering machine, the nurse had told her that Tom had gotten into a car accident and which hospital he was in. Besides that, the nurse wasn't able to tell much and ever since than, she just couldn't shake off the feeling that she would never be able to see Tom again.
Allison moved her arms away from Mimi as the boy whom she guessed as Mimi's friend got on his knees to hold her close to him. He took a deep breath and let Mimi cry on his shoulders just before he heard his mother calling Mimi's dad's name in sorrow behind the closed door.
Mimi kicked a random piece of rock and watched it as it flung in the air before it disappeared below a pile of snow. She looked around for any more decent sized rocks to kick and when she realized that there was none, she just kicked some dirt out of frustration. She had been running to Tai's house just few minutes ago, determined to see Mrs. Hinamori and tell her exactly what she had seen, but instead, she had somehow ended up in a corner of an ally next to an old building.
She was starting to have doubts about seeing Tai's mom which for some reason she couldn't figure out and it made her frustrated. Perhaps it was because she didn't want Mrs. Hinamori to get hurt just like her mom or maybe it was because she was afraid of what people might think of her dad. Despite how much she might dislike her dad, he was still her dad and she didn't want people pointing their fingers at him, saying terrible things. Also, there was a big possibly that a gap between her friendship with Tai and Kari would appear when they find out her dad had cheated on their mom. Could she possibly risk their friendship by telling them the truth? They would hate her dad and some of the hatred may be thrown at her without any of them realizing it.
"What should I do?" said Mimi out loud to herself. As far as she knew, she had two choices. One was to tell Mrs. Hinamori the truth while hurting her at the same time and the other was to just keep her mouth shut and pretend that nothing had happened.
Mimi sighed at the second choice. She just hated lying even though not telling the truth wasn't really like lying. Well sort of...
"What the..." said Mimi, blinking as she felt something land on her cheeks. Looking up at the sky which was turning darker and darker, she noticed that it was starting to snow. Great. Now she's going to have to find some place to stay unless she wanted a big pile of snow to land on her head.
Gripping her back pack, she slung it over shoulders with some difficulty due to it's weight and started to leave the alley. She might as well as go see Mrs. Hinamori now...
Mimi stood in front of the mail box of her house. She had actually gotten to Tai's house but when she was about to ring the door bell, she chickened out and left. She just didn't have enough courage to tell Mrs. Hinamori so she just came home.
Dusting some snow off of her head and clothes, she turned around to face the road. The road was blocked due to a car with yellow tapes surrounding it. There was a dent in the car as well as what looked like little pieces of glasses lying beneath the car where no snow could land. She guessed that someone must have gotten into a car accident while she was gone and hoped that whoever was in that accident didn't get hurt too seriously. She'd hate it if someone she knew had gotten into a car accident like that.
Turning back around, Mimi took a good look at her house to delay as much as she could from walking up the front steps. She didn't want to admit this to herself but she was a little unnerved of the thought of facing her dad. He would no doubt in her mind try to come up with some lame excuse of her seeing him leaning into some other woman's face. He would have probably kissed her if she had come few seconds later...
Mimi shrugged away that thought and walked up to the front door after passing by her dad's car that was parked in the drive way. She was first hesitant about ringing the doorbell but when the wind started to blow hard, she quickly ringed the bell two times. She felt like she would freeze and become some ice statue if she didn't go inside somewhere warm.
Seconds passed by like minutes with no one answering the door so Mimi pushed the door bell once again. However, there was still no answer which brought great annoyance to Mimi. With another push of the doorbell, she took her keys out and opened the door herself.
As soon as she stepped inside, she was met darkness with none of the lights in her house turned on. She was sure that her dad would be home watching the television or something since his car was outside but there was only silence in the house. It freaked her out slightly.
"Dad! Are you home? Dad?"
Turning on one of the lights, Mimi took her back pack off along with her coat and went over to the telephone to check if anyone had called while she was away. Her eyes became wide and she stared blankly at the sixteen messages left on the answering machine. Worry suddenly crept up to her and she pushed the 'play' button to listen to the messages.
"Mimi? Where are you?" There was a short beep before the next message came on which was from the same person. "Hello? Oh come on... I need-"
Before the message ended, the telephone suddenly rang, causing her answering machine to be stopped. Mimi hastily picked up the phone.
"Who is this?" said Mimi, ignoring the fact that she must have sounded rude to the other person on the line.
"Mimi! Where the hell were you? I've been trying to contact you for the last few hours!"
"Do I know you?" asked Mimi and her grip on the phone became tighter. The person on the other line had the same voice as the one on the answering machine.
"I'm a friend of your dad, Allison. You met me a while back at his work place and this afternoon before you ran off," said Allison in one breath, rushing all of her worlds.
Mimi frowned. What would she want with her? "Oh. Well dad's not home so I'll just hang up."
"No wait!" said Allison and she took a deep breath, trying her best to keep her voice in line but she had failed. Her voice came out as a strangle. "Mimi... your dad... I'm so sorry. He-"
"If you have something to say, just spill it!"
"Your dad's here at the hospital. He... he didn't see the car and..." Allison's voice shook and tears rolled down her already tear stained cheeks.
Mimi's heart suddenly felt heavy and she found gripping on her phone even more tighter. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Perhaps Allison was... lying? No, she wouldn't lie about something this serious... "Which hospital?"
Allison thought for a while before answering. Her mind had been so hazed when she had arrived to the hospital that she didn't even think about where she was. "I'm at the one near the bridge on route ten. The one-"
Before she was able to finish her sentence, Mimi hung up the phone and grabbed her keys along with some money and ran out the door. She didn't need to hear the rest of Allison's sentence since there was only one hospital near the bridge on route ten.
Without even making sure that her house door was locked, Mimi ran down the drive way before stopping dead in her tracks in front of the mail box. She stared at the same car that she had been looking at a few minutes ago before and covered her hand to her mouth. Her dad couldn't have been hit by that car... No. It just can't. She knew he must have gotten into a car accident from what Allison had said about him not seeing a car but...
Mimi shut her eyes tightly and hastily wiped her tears before reopening them. She needed to get out of her neighborhood and into the big street if she wanted to grab a taxi and so she began running.
"Hello grandma. Back so soon?" said Tai with an annoyed look on his face.
His grandmother ignored him completely and walked over to Kari with a smile. His grandmother was back again and this time instead of trying to take Kari away, she was here to see the guy that his mother was getting married to. It wasn't really much of a surprise to him but apparently, it was to his mom. She was just standing with her mouth wide open.
"Hi Kari. My, I think you've grown since the last time I've seen you," said their grandmother, extending her arms to give Kari a hug and Tai rolled his eyes. Although she was back for another reason this time, it was obvious that she still hasn't given up on taking Kari with her if her being too nice was any indication.
"Mom, you should have called before coming over," said Mrs. Hinamori, quickly going over to pull Kari away before her mother was able to give Kari a hug. She was angry with her mom for trying to take Kari away from her and didn't want her going near Kari. She was sure Kari felt the same too.
"If I did, you would have told me to not to come, dear. All I want to do is meet that Tachiwaki person. There's nothing wrong with me wanting meet him."
Tai snickered at the way that their grandmother had said Mimi's last name while his mom looked at their grandmother with a frown on her face. "It's Tachikawa grandma."
Once again, she ignored her grandson. For some strange reason, she seemed to not like him very much. "Why don't you call him and invite him for dinner? I know it's on short notice but..."
"No," said Mrs. Hinamori, cutting her mother off. "I don't think he would very much appreciate you calling him over for dinner on such short notice. Besides, how can I introduce you to him if can't even remember his last name correctly?"
Tai's grandmother's eyes narrowed. "I am your mother and you'll do as I say!"
"My mother? No mother like you would try to cause pain to her own daughter! You always only think for yourself and not what you're doing to the others! You're making my life harder than how it already is!"
Tai's grandmother raised her hands and before anyone knew it, there was a loud slapping sound that brought Tai to raise from his seat. His mom's hand slowly reached for her stinging face and looked toward the end wall.
"You..." said Tai's grandmother, pointing her finger at her daughter. "You have always been the weak and troubling kid out of all of my children. Look at your siblings. Do you see any one of them divorced or living in a dirty old apartment that you can barely afford? No and that just proves that you will never ever be as good any of them! I'm ashamed to call you my daughter!"
Mrs. Hinamori's lips slightly parted in shock and she stared at her mother in disbelief. She could understand her mother liking her the least out of her siblings despite it hurting her greatly but her existence bringing shame to her mother was something she had not expected.
Tai's grandmother put a hand over to her heart and looked at her daughter with an apologetic look. She had not meant what she had just said. She was just so angry that her own daughter wasn't listening to her that those harsh words just came out of her mouth. She wanted to take her words back or at least say that she didn't mean them but her lips felt as if they were glued as guilt weighted heavily on her heart.
The telephone rang but no one moved from their spot. Tai was hesitating whether to answer it or not but he was too late in deciding as the answering machine came on after five rings. "Hello. No one is availably to take your call so please leave a message after the beep."
There was a short beep before a voice belonging to a woman spoke. "This phone call is for Laura Hinamori and it's from the hospital. Mr. Tachikawa had gotten into an-"
Tai's mom's eyes widen before she quickly ran up to the phone and picked it up. "This is Laura! What happened? Is everything all right?"
Taking deep breaths, Mimi ran down the hospital hall ways, ignoring the warning looks that some of the nurses gave her as she ran past by them. She knew people running in the hospital wasn't something that the doctors or nurses recommended incase they got hurt but she wanted to find her dad and no little glare was going to stop her. The nurse in the front desk had told her that her dad was on the fourth floor where she would have to take a right turn when she got out of the elevator or the stairs and take another right.
Mimi stopped in front of the elevator and pushed the arrow that pointed up and waited and waited until she couldn't wait anymore. She sprinted toward the stairs.
It took her quite a while to get to the fourth floor and when she did, she had to lean against the wall for support. Trying to run in the skirt of her school uniform with shoes that weren't designed for running was definitely something she hoped to do never again.
Reaching for the exit door after catching some breath, Mimi turned right and jumped slightly when she almost bumped into a small child who was on a wheel chair. She immediately apologized but the child only smiled before being wheeled alway by someone. Mimi looked sadly at the child before she started running again. She took a right at the first turn and she took another right before seeing Allison sitting still on bench.
"Where's dad? How is he? What happened to him?"
Allison rose from the bench while she silently wished for the courage to answer the younger girl's questions. Her voice was already hoarse for crying for the last few hours and she felt what little strength that she had in her fade away from her like the sun setting down to bring darkness to the world. Allison closed her eyes much to Mimi's annoyance before she opened them and forced herself to look into Mimi's eyes before speaking. "Mimi, your dad... after you ran off, he went to go after you but he didn't see the car and... Your dad... He..." Allison paused briefly, fresh new tears forming in her eyes. "I'm so sorry. He's gone. He didn't... he didn't make it. I'm so sorry."
Mimi opened her mouth to say something but ended up bringing her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from letting out a strangled cry. Tears welled up in her eyes and they soon fell down her cold cheeks.
Allison reached her hand out to her. "Mimi? Are you-"
"Don't touch me!" yelled Mimi, backing away. "He... he couldn't have died. Where is he? I want to see him."
Mimi's eyes wandered to the door that Allison was standing next to and walked over to it. She had a feeling her dad would be in there but as soon as she was about to push open the door, Allison stopped her by holding onto her shoulders. Mimi struggled to get free but Allison wouldn't let go and the fact that her shoulders were still hurting badly due to carrying her heavy back pack for hours wasn't helping.
"No Mimi. I don't want you going in there," said Allison, gripping onto Mimi's shoulders more tightly, not knowing how much it was actually hurting her. Allison had already been inside the room as soon as a doctor had came over to tell her that Mr. Tachikawa did not make it. Allison let out a steady breath as the image of her friend kept playing over and over in her mind. There had been blood everywhere on his body... Seeing her friend like that had scared her and that was why she was refusing to let Mimi go. She didn't want the last memory that Mimi would have of her dad to be all bloody with him looking so... lifeless.
"Let go! Please..." whispered Mimi before she stopped struggling and fell onto her knees. She couldn't stay standing up anymore with her legs feeling like huge rocks were tied around them. "He can't be gone. What happened? How did dad... What happened to him?"
Allison got on her knees as well and hugged her crying girl. "I'm so sorry. I..." Allsion hesitated for a moment to decide if it was the right time to tell Mimi how her dad had gotten into a car accident but she knew Mimi would want to know sooner or later. She just hoped Mimi wouldn't blame herself. "I had accidentally bumped into the door of my car and your father had leaned in to see if I was all right but... you saw us at a bad position. After you ran off, he went to follow you but he didn't... he didn't see the car coming his way and..."
"So, it's my fault? If I didn't run away-"
"No. Mimi, it's not your fault," said Allison, shaking her head. "The driver of the car had been over speeding. If he hasn't been driving so fast, your dad wouldn't have... Don't blame yourself."
Mimi, however, wasn't listening to a word that she was saying. She wasn't listening or paying attention to anything as all she could feel was the coldness that started surrounding her heart.
"Mimi!"
Mrs. Hinamori, Kari and Tai ran up to Mimi and someone they did not recognize. Mrs. Hinamori's eyes were red and watery and her usually neatly tied hair was down. She looked at Mimi with sad eyes and told her children to stay with her while she walked aside from them before disappearing though the door that Mimi's dad was suppose to be in. She had came straight to the hospital with her mother back at home, not knowing anything about Mr. Tachikawa's condition. When she had picked up the phone after the answering machine, the nurse had told her that Tom had gotten into a car accident and which hospital he was in. Besides that, the nurse wasn't able to tell much and ever since than, she just couldn't shake off the feeling that she would never be able to see Tom again.
Allison moved her arms away from Mimi as the boy whom she guessed as Mimi's friend got on his knees to hold her close to him. He took a deep breath and let Mimi cry on his shoulders just before he heard his mother calling Mimi's dad's name in sorrow behind the closed door.