Death Be Not Proud

Inwe Tasartir

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe go,
Rest of their bones, and souls deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppie, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleep past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

Sonnet 72

John Donne

Chapter Four: Owabaki and Sushi

Sean woke up around 5:30 the next morning and handed me a uniform and a note from dad. The note read, "Train to school leaves at 0700."

I crumpled the note in my hand and threw it on the floor. Groaning, I rolled back over and tried to fall back asleep. I figured that it had to be about 2 in the morning back home (since there's about a fourteen hour difference between us). It was way too early to be up and fully functioning at the same time. In fact, I had almost fallen back asleep when Sean busted into my room nearly scaring the life out of me.

"We have to leave in ten minutes for the train Bay. Get up." He said hurriedly pulling me out of the bed. I looked over at the clock. It read that it was around six in the morning. We still had another hour before the train left. "Can't dad give us a ride to the train station?" I asked.

"He's not here." That made me wake up a little more. I was starting to panic. He couldn't have left us already? Right?

"What do you mean he's not here?" I mentally kicked myself for letting the panic show in my voice. I knew he had heard it when he looked at me worriedly. Poor Sean was probably already feeling guilty especially after my little outburst last night.

"He just went to work Bay. He left us a note giving us directions to the train station and which train to board." I calmed down a little and shoved Sean out of the room so I could get dressed. Walking the two steps it took to get to the other side, I grimaced as I picked up my new uniform. Never in my life had I ever worn one and now here before me was a blue and white. I had seen the same uniform in so many movie and cartoon but had never thought I would wear one.

I got dressed as fast as I could and went to the living area. I took one look at Sean and almost started laughing. My uniform wasn't nearly as bad as his. He looked extremely uncomfortable as he walked around stiffly clearly not used to the outfit. Suddenly he turned around and took a look at my outfit. He groaned and said, "That's not as bad as mine," making me erupt into a fit of giggles.

"Shut up," he said angrily and stormed out the door. I laughed harder grabbing a muffin as I ran trying to catch up with him.

We reached the train station a half an hour later and encountered a major problem as neither of us spoke or read a word of Japanese. None of the signs were in English and we had yet to encounter someone who spoke our language.

"What are we going to do Sean?" I asked scared that we were going to end up lost in the middle of Tokyo.

"The best we can Bay." He sounded irritated by the whole situation and I didn't want to irritate him further so I kept the rest of my comments to myself. We stood in silence for a few moments trying to decipher the words on the machine. Finally Sean sighed angrily and pounded on the machine.

"Maybe we can find a phone and call him?" I asked softly. He scoffed at me and replied, "One problem Seafoam," he said turning to me, "he didn't bother to leave us a number."

"Maybe he doesn't have a phone Big Bird." I said him annoyed by the nickname he had given me when we were five years old and retaliated with one of my own.

"Oh, stop sticking up for him Bay," He said angrily and I swore I heard a bit of a growl in his voice, "You know damn well that it didn't even cross his mind to leave us a phone number in case we got lost. You know I bet you that he secretly hopes that we'll get lost so that he'll never have to see us again. He doesn't give two shits about us Bay. He never did then and never will now."

He had so much anger and malice in his voice that I couldn't help but to shrink away and give a tiny nod.

"Sorry." I said quietly, turning to the paper dad had left for us with the instructions on how to get to school. I heard him sigh and out of the corner of my eye, watched him turn back to the machine.

"I think this one's it Bay," Sean said startling me out of my quasi-concentration, "At least, it kind of looks the same as the one on the paper." He finished sounding slightly unsure.

"Only one way to find out." I said and with that he pushed the button and grabbed the two tickets as they came out.

It turned out that we did take the wrong train. Luckily, the conductor spoke English and was able to guide us in the right direction. We arrived at school an hour late. It took us awhile to find our classroom and when we did we walked right into the middle of a lesson. The teacher was a nice lady, though she didn't speak a word of English. I was struggling to make it through the lesson and caught myself nodding off a few times. On the plus side I did learn the Japanese word for slippers.

Two hours later (an incredibly long and excruciating two hours mind you), the bell rang for lunch. As soon as the bell rang Sean shot up and started packing his stuff. I merely shook my head and remarked, "You're moving mighty fast for someone who was asleep just two seconds ago."

"I wasn't sleeping Seafoam," he said in a huff, "I was just resting my eyes."

I just laughed and said teasingly, "Whatever you say Big Bird." With that I tossed my hair back and flounced out the door. He followed right behind me.

"So," he said, grabbing my books out of my hands, "Where do we go?"

I looked down at the map of the school that the principal had given us when we had arrived reading the words that he had scrawled down in English.

"This way." I said, turning left and grabbing the backpack from Sean's shoulder.

We got to the cafeteria a few minutes later. I stopped in the middle of the doorway overwhelmed with noise and the smell of fish. I only started moving a second later when Sean pushed me forward toward the line. Never in my life had I seen food like the kind I was staring at now. It was the most bizarre arrangement of food I had ever seen. I tried looking for something normal. I ended up with rice and sushi.

We managed to find seats at the other side of the room. We were somewhere in the middle of the table. Sean was on one side I was on the other. I was in the middle of taking a bite and Sean was examining something purple at the end of his chopsticks when someone came up to us.

"Japanese food is like the army," he said taking a sea next to Sean and sliding his backpack on the table, "Don't ask, don't tell. Name's Twinkie." He looked between us for a moment as if he was expecting an answer. After an awkward pause he kept talking. "Hey, I noticed you two ain't got laptops." With that Sean turned to him.

"Yeah?" Twinkie noticeably perked up and got more excited now that he had Sean's attention.

"I'll hook you up. Half price."

"No, I'm cool." Sean stated, turning back to his food.

"What about you princess? Fifty percent. It's a good deal." Twinkie said looking over at me. I stood quiet hoping Sean would tell him to go away. I wasn't that good at meeting new people. I'm more the shy, open up to you type of person.

"She ain't interested either." Sean answered for me and I gave a slight sigh of relief sending a grateful smile his way. You have love the twin vibes.

"Sixty percent off," Twinkie said not giving up on the potential sale. "Since we're all army brats and everything."

"We ain't got no cash man," Sean replied aggravated. "And we ain't army brats."

"Alright, alright." He said putting his hands up in defeat. He stood silent for a moment as Sean and I continued our eating. "What about a cell phone? Everybody needs a cell phone."

I couldn't help but laugh thinking of the donkey in that Shrek movie one of my friends had made me see a few years ago. However, he seemed to be getting on Sean nerves with every statement coming out of his mouth. Yeah, they made the perfect Shrek and donkey. I decided then and there that those were their new nicknames.

"No offense," Sean said irritated, "but I'm probably not gonna be here long enough to remember your name." As soon as those words left his mouth I glared at him. he better not fuck up again. I was not going to move for him again. He looked to me apologetically making me soften a little bit.

"Then you're gonna need some new shoes to book town with man," Twinkie said completely undeterred by Sean's remark. He put his bag on the table. "You like Michael Jordan? I love Michael Jordan. Check this out." He pulled out a pair of red shoes. "Not even out yet. LeBron James couldn't even get his hands on those." Sean wasn't even looking at the shoes.

"You selling that Sparco steering wheel?"

"Sean." I said quietly. He looked over at me and I shook my head and mouthed 'No.' He just shrugged and looked back over at Twinkie.

"Hell no." Twinkie said and I never loved him more than that moment. "That's mine right there. Man, I even paid retail for it."

"What you drive?" Sean asked him now more interested in the conversation than he had been before. Meanwhile, I was getting angrier by the second.

"Oh, my ride?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, my ride's one of a kind." He said sounding like a father whose son had just won the Olympics.

"Show me." With those words I threw down my chopsticks and angrily stared at Sean. He glanced over at me briefly before turning back to Twinkie.

"Thought you weren't sticking around," he said looking amused. Sean just shrugged in response. "Alright, but first I need to know your names," he said giving me a wink. I didn't have a good feeling about this.