Chapter V: Food, for the Soul.
0830hrs, 30 May 2013, "Top Secret" Medical Facility, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
"How can I describe it? Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only to be aware to stop and savor it." Chef Auguste Gusteau, Ratatouille
"Hello Mina." Nurse Kuroi brought in breakfast for the young girl. She looked so helpless, especially after since they told her the separation of her and her family. Mina often stroked her semi-bald head now, although hair was growing back fast. She looked blankly at the popular culture magazines she had asked for.
"Hi Kuroi-sensei," Mina said weakly.
"You can just call me Kuroi." They needed informality to win the girls' trust. "Here's some breakfast for you." She set a breakfast tray on the bed.
Mina looked at it. Green tea, rice, miso soup, tamagoyaki, and some salted salmon, with umeboshi on the side. It all smelled so good, and it looked even better sitting there on that tray.
Her stomach grumbled for food. She reached for the chopsticks on the side.
"Itadakimasu," she mumbled. Her bandaged hands trembled as she picked up a piece of salmon.
"Here," Kuroi said. She steadied Mina's hands and brought the salmon to her mouth. It was enough for Mina to take a bite and enjoy it.
"You got it?" Kuroi asked.
"Yeah…" Mina's hands had stopped trembling. She picked up the cup of tea and drank some.
"I'll leave you to your breakfast. Call me if you need anything."
Mina simply nodded. She waited for Kuroi to leave, then piled into food, savoring every bite that she took.
"And how are you doing Amy?"
Amy was doing much better than everyone else. In better spirits, while a bit sad at times, she had quickly adjusted to her surroundings. She had prodded for more information about the reasons for being here, but all that Kuroi could give was that they would receive more information once they had healed more.
"I'm doing fine, Nurse Kuroi. What's for breakfast today?"
"The usual." She put the tray down in front of Amy.
Looking at the meal, Amy seemed a bit disappointed by it.
"Can't we have a western style breakfast? We've had the same meal now for a week."
"Later," Kuroi stated. "The doctors want to keep tabs on your digestive tract and don't want to have anything too rich going down."
Amy sighed. Of course, having the guts on the outside of your body wasn't conductive to good digestion.
"I understand. Thanks Nurse Kuroi." She picked up the chopsticks and began eating.
"You're welcome." She turned to leave, but then thought of something.
"Amy…"
She looked up from eating. "Yeah?"
"Think you can go for a stroll?"
Amy thought about it for a minute. "I've been getting around pretty good in this room. Why?"
Kuroi sighed. "Well, it's Mina. She's really down, and I think she needs someone to cheer her up."
"I wasn't really friends with Mina," Amy replied. "She was more toward Serena than I was."
"But you know her. And well, let's put it this way, the other girls are not in any shape to help Mina."
Amy sighed. "What do the doctors think?"
"I put it past them yesterday. They think you and her are ready for some light physical activity."
Another moment of pondering. "Okay…" Amy said. "I'll do it."
"Good." Kuroi smiled.
In the afternoon, with some help from a couple of orderlies and Nurse Kuroi, Amy and Mina walked out to a tea garden in the middle of the medical facility.
They sat on a bench near a bubbling spring, watching the koi fish swim aimlessly around.
"Soo…" Amy said to Mina.
Mina just kept staring.
"You okay?"
No answer.
"Look…"
"I'm not okay!" Mina shrieked.
Amy was taken aback a bit, but regained her composure. "They just want me to help you out."
"Help? Help?!" Mina stood up quickly, but lost her balance and fell back onto the bench.
"Fuck me, I'm a mess. I can't…I can't…" She started sobbing. "Can't see my mom or dad. Can't see my other friends. Don't have any hair. Can't take my college exam. I have to wear these bandages all the time. I can barely walk…" She trailed off, looking at the koi.
Amy looked at her for awhile, then spoke to her again.
"You know, Mina," she began. "When I was younger, my dad…my dad left me and my mom."
Mina looked at her.
"He did what?"
"He…left us. He was an artist, and a good one too, but he just wasn't a good dad. One day he got up and went to live in a cabin in a forest. And you know what? The only way I know him now is from the postcards he sends on my fucking birthday."
Mina was quiet for a little bit. "That…that blows."
"Yeah, it sucks. But I turned out okay. And we can get through this."
For the first time in weeks, Mina gave a little smile.
"You think so?"
"I know so. Life will go on."
More silence. "Thanks Amy," Mina said after a little bit.
"No problem," Amy replied. "Say, I'm kind of hungry…"
Mina giggled. "Me too. Let's get something to eat."
Lita struggled to lift the fork to her mouth. She had asked to eat with one after chopsticks proved to be difficult. Not having a left arm kind of made everything harder.
She dropped the fork. Again. Rice spilled everywhere.
"Crap."
Knock knock knock.
Someone was at the door. No one came to the door except for the nurses.
"Who…who is it?"
"It's us!"
"Who the fuck is us?!" Lita yelled in frustration.
"Mina and Amy."
Oops, Lita thought. "Well, come on in then."
The door opened, and Mina and Amy walked in, followed by two orderlies carrying their tray of food. They had gotten the go-ahead to have supper with Lita.
"Hi there," Mina said bubbly. She was in a much better mood.
"Hey." Lita was surprised. Last time she saw Mina, she had a full head of blond flowing hair. Now it was mostly gone. Of course, last time Mina and Amy saw Lita, she had a left arm.
"I'll help you there," Amy said, seeing the dropped fork.
"I can get that Ma'am," one of the orderlies said.
"Oh…okay."
The orderly picked the fork and gave it to Lita.
"Thanks."
The orderly nodded and left with the other one.
Lita started to struggle with the fork again, slowly scooping up the rice and trying to lift it to her mouth.
"Let me help you," Mina said. She guided Lita's hand to her mouth.
"Say 'ah'", Mina chirped, as if she was talking to a baby.
"Ahhhh." Lita swallowed the food whole. So good.
"How are you coming along?" Amy asked, picking up some sashimi and dipping it in soy sauce.
"Besides not having a left arm? Peachy," Lita snarled. She immediately regretted it. "I…"
Amy looked a little bit hurt, but it wasn't the first time someone had snapped at her today.
"I'm sorry," Lita replied. "We're all hurting here."
There was a brief moment of silence while everyone chowed down on food.
"Have you seen Raye or Serena?" Lita asked. She hadn't been out much as they wanted the stump on her shoulder to heal.
Mina shook her head. "They won't let us seem them, for now. It's really bad though. I remember…"
She stopped.
"No, it's okay," Amy said. "Please…"
Mina continued. "I remember Serena that day. She didn't have any legs at all, and she was burned all over."
"Shit." Lita said. "What about Raye? I don't remember anything after running out into the road."
"She was saying something, but I couldn't hear her because I was deafened at the time."
Everyone remained silent after awhile after that. Healing was going to be a difficult process, and they knew it.
"I heard there's a school for people like us," Amy said after awhile. Lita looked embarrassed at that; Amy and Mina were the least wounded out of the entire group and were doing just fine. They didn't have to put up with dealing with a missing arm, or legs, or burns all over their bodies. But Lita realized that Amy was just trying to cheer them up, in her own intellectual sort of way.
"Yeah, it's up in Sendai somewhere," Lita replied, almost dropping her fork again. "Of course, there's also a school where they use holographs and battle each other over classrooms." That had gotten quite a stir in the media in the last couple of years.
"I wonder, after all of this over," Mina wondered out loud, ignoring Lita's previous comment. "That we'll complete our education there."
"Not you two," Lita groaned. "Maybe me, Serena and Raye."
"We'll come and see you," Amy reassured, picking up another piece of tuna.
"Maybe you'll meet some nice guys," Mina smiled. "Perhaps get some action in too, hmm? Hmm?"
She winked at Lita. Lita rolled her eyes at that statement.
"Hey, we haven't been condemned yet," Lita retorted, sticking her tongue out at Mina. "Plus, you have plenty of experience in those matters. Perhaps you could teach me some of your ways."
Mina, blushed, not out of embarrassment but out of remembering those fondling…er, fond memories very well.
"I will be more than happy too, mistress." Mina put her dinner down and leaned in close to Lita.
"That's enough you two," Amy interrupted, laughing at Lita's unconfortableness.
Mina leaned back, smiling at Lita.
"You're so weird sometimes," Lita said, finishing up her meal.
"I know," Mina replied. She looked at a clock up on the ceiling, protected by a wire mesh cage to prevent destruction by unruly patients. "It's about time for me and Amy to get going."
"Thanks for eating with me," Lita said to Amy and Mina.
"It was our pleasure," Amy replied, smiling faintly.
"No problem," Mina chirped up. "We can do this more often now, I asked the Nurse about it, and we can eat together whenever we want!"
Everyone in the room was smiling now, something that hadn't happened nearly as frequently during their stay at the medical facility. Amy and Mina left, letting Nurse Kuroi come into the room and give Lita her checkup. Lita, instead of being grumpy about it, allowed Kuroi to perform her exam without any complaint. Things were at least, looking up for the time being.
Well, for most people anyway.