Ms Yukari Takeda looked at the pile of books.2 weeks of homework from 30 6-7 year olds. This is what she got for being ill and taking time off. Picking up the first book, she flipped it open to the correct page and read.
"WHAT I DID AT THE WEEKEND:
On Saturday ,I was supposed to go shopping with Papa for something pretty to wear at Saki-Chan's birthday , but something even better happened-my baby sister was born .Papa got a phone call just as we got off the train, and we had to rush all the way to the hospital again.
At first, I was not meant to be with Mama, so I sat in the waiting room. The nurses were very nice to me …but I was still bored, but then I got to see her and my new sister and SHE IS SO CUUUTE AND TINY!
Mama said she looks like me but just with red hair. Pink hair. I think it is pink but Mama thinks she called her sister is called Aki.
"Kirie and Aki, my pretty girls", is what Mama said. I even got to hold her, and I was able to hold her better than Papa could!
Look at the pic!
The next day we went home, without Mama and said that they would be home by Wednesday and I CANNOT WAIT. Papa says Aki will cry a lot but I don't mind at all.
My little sister is the most exciting thing ever. I love being a Onee-chan already"
The piece was short, in big up-and down handwriting. The picture , stuck in with prittstick showed a little girl sitting on the end of a bed, dark brown hair in braids , fringe messy , big hazel almond shaped eyes wide with laughter , holding a tiny baby ,red cheeked , sleeping , with a tuft of reddish hair on its head and wrapped in a pink blanket. The girl was laughing.
Ms Yukari Takeda picked up her pen to mark it, and then paused.
Kirie….Surely that was the name of...
She turned back to the front cover of the homework book.
Kirie Izayoi, Class 1-2 It proclaimed in rainbow bubble writing.
Yep, she was right. This was the book of the girl who was in her daughter's class. The girl who had died just 5 days after this entry had been written.2 days after the little sister whose arrival she had been waiting for came home. She had no idea how the book had ended up in her tray, but she put her pen down, let the book fall closed.
The right thing to do would be to return it to Kirie Izayoi's parents.
No, to return it to Kirie Izayoi's sister.
Not sure how this idea came up, but I see it as a potential springboard for a new multichapter story. What do you think?