Chapter 2
"Little Chair! Little Chair!" a small kid said to Rukawa. Rukawa groaned. The last thing he needed was to be called Little Chair. He had soon learned that the kids had asked for his name and he had said Little Chair. Although he tried telling the children that his name was Rukawa, all the children found it hard to say so they stuck to Little Chair.
Rukawa knew from his mother, an hour before she left that he was in the country of the Philippines. He did not get to see that much of the view since he had been sleeping the whole time that the taxi was traveling.
Rukawa glared fiercely at the kid and walked off. The little kid shrugged her shoulders and played with her playmates.
Rukawa walked around the corridors of the small hospital that consisted of ten floors. He did notice that nurses and women were staring at him as he passed by.
Ptoui! he thought, If you all knew that I am just a senior, what would you do?
He entered the elevator and there he saw a girl who was bouncing up and down. She looked like she was fifteen although he wasn't so sure since she was bouncing.
"Hurry, hurry!!" the girl said. Rukawa looked at his back and found no one so he thought maybe the girl was talking to him. Not looking at her, he coolly and slowly made his way to the elevator. He pressed the button for the ground floor. The girl kept jumping.
When the elevator reached the ground floor, the girl suddenly whizzed ahead of him. Rukawa, not caring for those kind of things, went to the direction of the basketball court. His mother had left him just two days ago and showed Rukawa the basketball court that she found while walking at the back of the hospital. Then she gave him a basketball so that he could have something to play with. Rukawa sighed when he remembered that he left the basketball in his room.
Nevertheless, he walked to the basketball area. Once, he thought that he lost the way to the back of the hospital when he saw at a not well-lighted corridor, a door at the end. Rukawa's eyes shone when he saw the door and took not one moment to notice the sign at the side that was written in big bold letters, and walked in the door.
The moment that his mother showed the basketball court, he realized that he could not wait to play in it. There were the benches at the side and the paint was well done. He placed his hands in his pocket and stared at the hoop. He could feel his hand itching to play. He could nearly feel it wanting to dribble the ball and shoot it.
"Don't tire yourself too much." the doctor had said.
Rukawa shook the thought away. Since when would he listen to what the doctors would say? Itching to run around and play basketball, he pretended to imagine that he was dribbling the ball and he had imaginary opponents. He imagined the first Ryonan and Shohoku practice match. He tried to remember the scene and the panting members of Shohoku and Ryonan. Then he started playing the game and made moves, wondering if which move could've made them win that very first match. Then he did a lay-up and his imaginary ball shoots the ring.
He was about to start another lay-up when he heard giggling. Rukawa looked around. No one was there. He was a man who did not believe in ghosts, much less, he was not afraid of them. He made another lay-up. This time, he heard the giggling again. This time, it wasn't faint but solid in voice.
Rukawa looked around and was surprised to see a woman sitting in one of the benches. The sun was pouring on her and she had a sweet smile. She was wearing a thick pink dress and a hat that had a red ribbon to secure the hat. She even had an umbrella to protect herself from the heat of the sun.
Rukawa shook his head. Was he dreaming? He looked at the woman again and she was standing up, delicately holding up her skirt so that it won't be spoiled. She still had the umbrella on top of her. It was then that he noticed that she was wearing pink gloves.
She walked up to him. Rukawa stayed rooted to the spot. He recognized that the dress she was wearing might have come from a rich family in the 18th century.
She had a confused expression as she looked at him. "What were you doing?" she asked, tilting her head sideways in a confused expression.
Rukawa ignored her and started to walk to the door, to leave the basketball court.
"Come back tomorrow will you?" she said softly and calmly. She wasn't even shouting even thought Rukawa felt like she wanted to shout to make sure he heard it.
Rukawa pretended not to hear and closed the door.
"I've often wondered why you aren't staying in your room." Anton said.
Rukawa ignored Anton. He didn't want to stay in his room. It was boring. He really did not like kids but it was much better than staying in his room and doing nothing. There was nothing to do there and there was no TV. At least in the children's area, there was a TV and the TV was on to a basketball game.
The little girl tugged his shirt. Rukawa looked at her. She was so small that he towered over him. His blue eyes showed that he did not want to be disturbed. The girl looked shyly at him. In her other hand was a teddy bear. "M-my name is Kyla." she said, looking shyly. Rukawa looked at her for a second and then looked back at the TV screen where the team from San Miguel (San Miguel is a beer company who formed a basketball team) shot the ball.
Ptoui! Rukawa thought, I could do much better than that. But deep inside, he knew that he couldn't. He couldn't wait to go downstairs to the basketball court later after he watched the game.
He slowly turned open the knob. He was greeted by a warm smell of flowers. It did smell good and made him feel enthusiastic to play. There was even a soft song playing in his ears. He closed the door and saw the woman again, sitting in the bench with the same clothing as yesterday. He saw the musical box that was the source of music in the court.
"...close that..." Rukawa said as he walked beside her and looked at the musical box so that she'll know that he wanted the musical box closed. She nodded and closed it. Rukawa went to the middle of the court and then dribbled the ball and did a three point shot. From the corner of his eye, he saw the girl look amazed. He felt pleased with himself that in this country, someone was able to see how good he was in basketball.
After an hour of practicing basketball, he placed his hands on his knees panting. He was tired. He was even sweating.
"Here..." said a voice beside him. He looked up and saw the girl again. She had placed her pink umbrella over Rukawa so that he won't get to hot. In her gloved hand was a handkerchief, pink and embedded with laces. Rukawa looked away. The girl looked confused.
"It's not right to not accept a handkerchief from a woman when she gives it to you...?" she said, confused with Rukawa's actions. Rukawa suddenly lost the appetite to play and he took his basketball and left the court.
"Rukawa! Cawee me!" a boy said.
"No! Me cawee first!" another kid said. Rukawa sighed. It all started when he carried the girl named Kyla because she wanted to be carried. She kept saying hi to Rukawa whenever he was there so when she asked if she could have a ride on Rukawa's shoulders, he let her, not even knowing what he was doing.
Instantly, the little kids were swarming up to him.
"Cawweeeee Meeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!" the kids kept saying. Rukawa was so tall that they wanted to feel. Rukawa could hear the nurses giggling. He could hear that they were saying that how cute he looked like with all the kids swarming over him. Too bad, he didn't want these kids swarming over him. His head suddenly felt dizzy and his eyes showed that it was going in circles.
"Ok, ok.." the girl nurses and Anton said, "It's time that you leave Rukawa alone ok? He needs rest too and he musn't be stressed out to much ok?"
The little children sadly walked away and engrossed themselves with other activities.
"Did they irritate you?" Anton asked, with an amusement in his voice.
Rukawa did not answer and instead, looked the basketball game in the TV. He watched as a member from Alaska (Alaska is a brand of milk and my favorite team who made their own basketball team) grab the ball from a member in from San Miguel. Rukawa watched with intensity at the game, hoping that he would have someone to play with.
Anton broke his line of thoughts. "You know," he said, "These kids can get rowdy at times but just you wait till Halloween comes. They get even rowdier than usual. They are going treat or treating in a few days. Care to come?"
"...."
"Ok, I take that as a no." Anton said as he helped a kid who accidentally bumped his head on a table.
"Oh hey!" the girl said again when Rukawa closed the door to the gym. Rukawa looked at her and then started to dribble the ball. He's been going there for five days and the girl had been always there. Sometimes, she would politely offer him a sandwich (which he totally ignored), or lent her handkerchief when he was sweating (that he totally ignored too). Now, she had a small picnic spread out at the side of the court with a picnic basket. Rukawa noticed the picnic when he was halfway shooting a three point. He missed the shot.
The girl apparently noticed that Rukawa was looking at her direction. She waved her hand to him. Rukawa, feeling like an idiot, held up his hand as id waving back. The girl smiled and motioned for him to come to the picnic she had.
She really must love that umbrella... Rukawa thought, She always has that over her head. And she even has a hat with a red ribbon... Girls... he thought.
Rukawa sat down at the opposite of the picnic. She had laid out a large cloth so that they could sit in it. It was pink and red checkered. The girl took out from her basket sandwiches, chicken, pasta, two plates, two forks, two cups, and Coke. Rukawa stared at the food laid out for the two of them. It was almost as if the girl was so sure that he would eat with her!
She placed a sandwich, a chicken, and some macaroni in his plate and handed it to Rukawa. Rukawa, who was still surprised, took it. He was even more surprised when he saw that the plate was made of glass, china glass. And, not to his surprise, the plate was of the color pink.
"Who are you?" he suddenly blurted out.
The girl who was halfway about to eat her macaroni, placed the macaroni back to the plate and looked at Rukawa. It was then that Rukawa noticed that she had such a delicate face. Her eyes were black and seemed to shine. Her cheeks looked so soft and she had such a graceful manner!
She smiled gently, "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself." she said, giggling as if wondering how it was that she forgot to introduce herself, "My name is Claire. Some people call me Clara. You can call me any name you wish to. I'm fifteen. And you are?"
Dumbfounded, Rukawa nodded. He wasn't falling for her but he was just surprised that there could be a woman like her! Claire looked at him confused.
"Rukawa." was all Rukawa said as he started eating. He did try his best to eat in a polite manner. When they had finished eating, Claire poured Coke for Rukawa and her.
"Here." she said as she handed the Coke to Rukawa. Rukawa took the Coke and drank it. He stretched his legs and looked around the basketball court staring at nothing.
"What were you playing?" Claire asked. Rukawa looked at Claire, surprised that she did not know what basketball was. As if reading Rukawa's mind, Claire said, "We are not allowed to play any game that men play." she said.
Rukawa nodded in understanding. He stood up to play another game, completely forgetting that he still had to answer Claire's question.
"Can you teach me?" Claire asked as she stood up. Rukawa looked at Claire from head to foot. He could not imagine Claire play. She was the classic girls from the past who could not even take breaking their toenails or anything.
Rukawa looked at the sky and saw that it was nearly dark. "Tomorrow." he gruffly said as he ran to the door and closed it, leaving Claire to fix the picnic up.
How was it? Was it all right? Pwease Review!