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On the Wednesday a couple of weeks after I had started school I was sitting at lunch with Dani and Nobuko, a girl whose family had moved to Colorado from Japan over the summer and who was still trying to deal with culture shock. She was the girl I had seen sitting by herself at lunch my first day at Alpine High, and when I realized that she always sat by herself I tentatively approached her. She spoke excellent English, though her accent got pretty heavy when she got flustered, which was often. She was in three of my classes, and from what I could tell she was really self-conscious and had a difficult time making friends. I saw a kindred spirit in her, because even though I worked hard to be outgoing and amicable, I still felt nervous and flustered inside when I met new people. That, and I was used to moving and knew what culture shock felt like.
Dani and I were talking with Nobuko about the cartoons she had watched when she was little, wondering if all Japanese cartoons were like the shows that made it to the states. We had a great time with it, laughing about how ridiculous some of the shows seemed to Dani and I compared to American Saturday morning cartoons, and Nobuko poked fun at Americans for how our shows were either completely surreal or incredibly dull.
It was a perfect segue into a question I had been dying to ask since I had seen the monsters and ghosts in the graveyard. The context of our conversation wasn't serious, but I doubted we would ever have any sort of conversation to lead me to ask this seriously.
"Man, could you imagine what our world would be like if stuff like that actually existed? You know, the supernatural and magic and whatnot?"
Dani giggled. "That would be so cool. I'm not afraid to admit it: when I was little I wanted to be a superhero so badly. You know, have a magical gem that turned me into a princess warrior or something like that."
I looked at Nobuko expectantly. She made a little movement with her head that was kind of a little half-bow and said, “A lot of Japanese people practice Shintoism, at least a little bit. Long ago we believed that there were spirits and demons everywhere, and though some beliefs have faded, there are still many, many shrines that people visit to honor the gods and spirits. My grandparents gave me and my siblings charms to keep the demons away, too. They were very devout."
"But isn't that a religion? I'm talking about the supernatural. You know, zombies and ghosts and stuff."
"Yes, but all religions have an element of the supernatural to it. Do you believe in The Bible?" I shook my head, but Dani nodded emphatically. "Then you believe that a talking snake tempted Eve into eating a magical fruit, that an army of men could collapse a city from noise alone, that a group of young boys had power bestowed on them to resist fire so they wouldn't be burned to death, and that a man could have the power to banish demons from a human being. It is not so different from Shintoism, really."
"No, wait, I don't think you really understand– " Dani protested, but I quickly interrupted.
"Do you believe in Shintoism? You don't really talk about it like you do..."
"My grandparents were devout, but my parents were too busy with work to practice too much. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I haven't seen any proof of the existence of spirits or gods or demons, but I do not want be disrespectful towards them if they are there. What do you believe in, Kenna, if you do not believe in the Bible?"
I shrugged. "My parents didn't really raise us to be religious. I once asked my dad why we didn’t go to church, and he said, ‘Just know that there is at least one greater being out there that has a hand in your life. Pray to them however you see fit, thanking them for the good in your life and being honest about the things that are not so good.’ So I'm trying to figure things out for myself right now. Anyway, back to what you were saying... if, say, a dragon flew over our school right now, you'd be totally cool with it?"
Nobuko thought about it for a second, and then nodded. "I think I would believe it. It is said that sometimes spirits take the physical forms of dragons. How about you?"
"I think so, yeah."
"Well, you guys are crazy. God created every man and animal and he didn't create dragons. We'd have found evidence of them by now if they existed," Dani asserted. I quickly switched the topic, seeing that this was clearly going to be going in a bad direction.
"So have either of you been to that consignment store on center street? I want to go, but I'm afraid I'm going to spend all my money if I go in by myself. I'm a sucker for all the cool stuff people try to get rid of through consignment stores."
Dani shrugged. "I don't really like secondhand stores. They smell funny and only sell grandma clothes."
Nobuko looked interested, though. "I have not seen this store before. I would like to go with you, if that's okay."
"Is this afternoon okay?"
"Yes, that would work."
Dani didn't seem too happy, but then again, I was quickly finding out that there were few things that did make her happy.
Since it was a Wednesday it meant that there was an official dance practice, so I invited Nobuko to join us. She seemed really uneasy about it, but Dani (always excited to invite new people in) assured her that if she had gym clothes she could use those, and even if she didn't want to join in she was welcome to just watch. She decided to just watch, but afterwards she had so many questions about it, fascinated at how we could come up with dances with no predetermined moves. She didn't say yes or no to joining the club, but I was going to be surprised if she didn't end up as part of the team.
Nobuko had her own car, so I left my bike at school and we just went straight to the consignment store.
“Does Dani not like me?” She asked worriedly as we browsed the awful blouses with loud, seventies-style floral prints.
“From what I can tell she has a difficult time with new ideas. I’ve said a few things that got her pretty upset, but she’s usually resilient and lets it go quickly. I dunno. We haven’t known each other long, but she seems pretty cool,” I answered.
“Oh. Does she get upset often?”
I laughed. “Yeah, it seems that way, doesn’t it? Like I said, I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks, but she’s put up with me so far, so she’s pretty cool in my book.” I didn’t really want to talk about Dani, so I switched topics quickly. “So I’m, like, crazy interested in the Shinto religion. You said that your grandparents gave you charms to ward off demons. Did you actually keep them on you?”
Nobuko nodded and untied the bracelet she had on and handed it to me to look at. “I lost most of the charms they gave me when I was little, but this was the last one they gave me before they died. It is very precious to me and I wear it always.”
I studied it closely. It was an oblong metal piece with what I assumed were Japanese characters inscribed on it that had ribbon attached to both ends so it could be tied around the wrist or maybe even around the neck as a choker.
“What does it say?” I asked as I handed it back.
“I do not know exactly. It looks a little like someone was trying to write something along the lines of, ‘protect from evil and impure;’ but that is not how you actually write those words. I am not sure where my grandparents got it, but I think whoever etched those characters cared more about how it looked than what it actually says.”
“That’s too bad. It looks cool, though. Do you think it actually keeps demons away from you?”
She nodded and smiled. “I have not had any troubles with demons so far. But I keep it on me more as a keepsake than an actual charm.”
She was nice, but she said it in a way that suggested she didn’t want to talk about it any further.
“Kenna, why did you join the dance club? If you do not mind me asking, that is,” she asked after a couple of silent moments of browsing the jewelry.
“Honestly, I had no intention of joining at all. I’ve never been interested in dancing before. Really all that happened was that Dani wore me down and I finally said
yes.”
“So you hadn’t done any dancing before? But you are so good!”
“I think I have gymnastics to thank for that. I had never really considered gymnastics and dancing super closely related before. I mean, I know a lot of people do, but for me gymnastics was a way for me to compete athletically against other gymnasts. Dance always seemed like a competition to judge a person’s creativity against other people’s creativity, which just doesn’t seem like an objective system of judgment to me. Just because someone sees the world differently than someone else doesn’t mean their way of expressing it is better or worse than someone else’s’ viewpoint. But I’m getting up on a soapbox here. The point is, these people are super athletic and have found a way to use that to express how they feel to anyone that cares to watch.” I gave Nobuko an encouraging smile. She asked me more questions about the dance club, and by the time we went to the register to purchase our items I had convinced her to actually join the club.
We went to go get ice cream afterwards and admire our purchases. Nobuko had gotten a couple of books and some vintage broaches that she pinned onto her backpack. I found a mini dress from the sixties or seventies that was just toned down enough that it would actually look good with some leggings and a jacket. I had also gotten a book, since Nobuko and I dared each other to buy and read a paperback romance novel. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading the first chapter of our books and reading some of the cheesiest lines out loud to each other, laughing at how predictable the writing from both of our books were.
When she dropped me off at my house afterwards I said, “I had loads of fun today. We should totally do this again sometime!”
Nobuko brightened up at that and said, “Yes! I had so much fun as well! Thank you so much!”
As she drove off I reflected at how content I was that life had already settled into a solid routine. I had a decent friendship with Dani and the potential for a very strong friendship with Nobuko. The dance club was a ton of fun, school wasn’t that bad, and Jack hadn’t spoken another word to me, which I was just fine with. While every time I saw him I was reminded about what went on just beyond my backyard, if he wasn’t going to harass me I was going to try my best to stay out of his way and pretend that we had never met.
Until that next stupid, hateful, fateful Thursday afternoon.
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