U.S.A to Tokyo ch.8 final
By: Heartless-loveI know I have to finish this for two reasons. One, I hit a bit of a block but I did plan ahead for the ending. Second, School has started and I'm in my final year of middle, so it is harder, I need to concentrate. I will have other stories and maybe an After story on this one if I have the time. Other than that, Thank you for reading and I hope this final chapter will answer your questions and you will enjoy it as well.
THX! Heartless 3
"Oh it's hopeless, we have been looking for weeks and we haven't even seen her." "No honey, she is here and safe, we will find Iris, no matter what." said Mr. Watson reassuring Mrs. Watson, he held he close as she sobbed into his old shirt. They were strange looking, usually they wore work uniforms and monkey suits, but they were wearing old raggedy shirts and pants, they looked as if they hadn't slept in weeks. Dark circles rounded the bottom of their eyes, their hair was untamed, and my dad needed to shave. Now, I noticed all these things as the slow cab rolled right by me.
"Oh shit!" I stared at the cab going by until my father finally looked up toward my direction, I swiveled quickly and took a detour through a small alley. I dragged Amaya by her elbow through the tight dirty crack in the wall. "What's wrong, where are we going?" She rambled questions at me as I towed her to a block several yards away form the cab. I finally stopped so she could repeat her list and so I could catch my breath. "What's wrong, who were they, why are you running, are the cops or something, did y o u," she was going to continue but I cupped my hand over her mouth. "They're my parents, I don't want to leave yet, no they re not cops, and I did nothing wrong."
"Why don't you want to leave, this is your chance to go home, hurry and catch them, you may never have another chance." She ran their direction and stopped six paces away. She looked back to see me crouched there staring at the ground. "Come on!" she urged me. "No." "What?! What do you mean 'no'?" "I mean No!" I looked up from the crack in the ground I was concentrating on to see Amaya looking down on me with sadness, confusion, and anger, all mixed into her deep eye's. "Why?" she whispered in a saddened voice. "You can go home. Why?" "Because I hated my life there, here it is so beautiful, and I have you guys." "But your parents miss you, by the look of it they have been here a while and are searching for you. They love you" she began to stutter holding back tears. "But don't you, and Junko too?" I stood up to speak to her at eye level challenging her to disagree in some way. "Yes, and we want what's best for you and that is for you to go home, Junko would agree." "How would you know what Junko would say?!" I was angry and yelling at her. "I don't need to leave, I don't want to leave, I have a life, a body, a say here, but not there! As long as I have you guys, I'll never leave." I was yelling and I had a look on my face I couldn't see but I knew I had never made it before. Amaya's eyes swelled with tears and she yelled back at me, "NOT ANYMORE!"
~A while later~
I stood there, my face frozen in shock, my body just sagged and drooped there, Amaya was long gone, she had spoken and ran off crying. She probably ran back to Junko to tell him. I could take a hint, I was officially homeless, and friendless. I finally collapsed of hunger, tiredness, and sorrow. Sorrow most of all. I sat on the dirty street crying and sulking there with my hands over my face. The blow of her words was like a slap to the face. Like I was dreaming and then splashed with ice water. I had the taste of blood and chocolate in my mouth, one as hateful as the other. Blood, my old home in the U.S. Chocolate, my adopted home in Japan. Both lost, both as painful to remember as the other. It was late afternoon so I stood up and blankly walked down the sidewalk. I didn't care, it didn't matter if I fell, or if I got hit, or lost. I would stand back up, I would arise, and I would keep walking till my mind fell behind, my soul blew away, and my body simply became an object moving in the wind, a fragment not even worth noticing.
~SWITCH~
Why did this have to happen, now, Iris would never come home? She would take my words and leave, roaming the streets of Tokyo alone. Would she look for her parents or live s a homeless forever, the thought tore at Amaya's brain. She imagined Iris in old dirty rags begging for her next meal. It had been at least two or three hours since Amaya had yelled at Iris and ran off. Now she sat in a white chair staring at a clock in her room as the hours pasted. "Ding-dong." The doorbell rang and Amaya dashed out of her chair sliding down the hall in her socks and stumbling for the door. 'Please let it be Iris, please, please." She opened the door with a wide smile and the beginning of tears in her eye's to lose all joy when she saw Junko at the door. "Hey, your mom called me and told me what happened, you coming?" "Where?" Amaya had turned around and crossed her arms in anger and disappointment. "To go find her and take her back in., duh." Amaya turned around swiftly and angrily; she balled her hands to fist and extended her arms straight down. "Why?! Huh? She can find her parents and go home, if we accept her back she'll never go home." Junko shifted his weight and sighed. "I believe that is her choice whether she feels ready to leave, but until then as good friends we should protect her in this state. Amaya loosened her fists and mellowed her whole frame. "Your right, let me get my jacket."
"Iris?" "IRIS!!!" Junko, my mom, and I were out in jackets and flashlights searching the dark for Iris. "Iris?" I was worried; it was dangerous at night in this part of town. Iris could be anywhere by now. We searched high and low, then, we heard something, suddenly I could feel Junko and my mom lighten at the sound of footsteps near by. "Iris!?" I yelled. The feet walked closer, I smile with relief then the person emerged from the dark, it was the woman from the taxi, followed by the man. 'Iris's parents!' "Um, do you know our daughter Iris?"
~A few minutes later~
"SHE"S LOST!!!" Her parents yelled in harmony. I looked at the ground shamefully. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. Mrs. Watson was smiling slightly at me. "Thank you so very much for taking care of my daughter. I can't thank you enough." Mr. Watson stepped forward and smiled too. After a while of searching together we started to lose hope again. Then I heard Junko gasp. I turned and saw him staring in horror at a dark lump on the side of the road. I walked slowly fearing what I might see. My heart thumped with each reluctant step toward the faintly throbbing lump. I lifted the flashlight to the lump…
there lay Iris. She was bruised and cut up, it looked like she clutched at something in her side. I quickly fell to my knees and rolled her over as Junko signaled the others over. I heard gasps of horror and sighs and moans, and even my own breath catch in my throat as we saw what she clutched. She had a huge bruise on her gut. I dare put my fingers over it, she groaned. I heard her labored breathing in the dead silence. Junko then put his arms under her and lifted her up. Iris's mom dialed 911 and searched around for a landmark. I stood in my crouch, staring down at a small puddle of Iris's blood where she was a second ago. I was frozen with fear, sadness, and something else I dare not bring to mind, a while later I saw red and blue lights and I was pulled into the ambulance with Junko.
~Switch~
It was dark, I remember walking, just walking with no place to go. I was crossing a street and then a figure came out and hit me, it was a large lump of skin. I doubled over in pain where I was hit and collapsed in darkness and I felt pain. The person kept hitting me and picking me up to punch me and kick me when I fell. But after everything went black I felt no more pain. I knew he hadn't left but I felt nothing, pain, happiness, nothing. Then I saw me life, starting from birth. Did this mean I was dead or dying? What did my life mean? Was I supposed to stay here with Amaya or go home? Was I supposed to love Junko or not? What did I do wrong that brought this upon me? "Nothing." There was someone here? The black surrounding me lifted and white replaced the darkness, and then a red dot approached me slowly. "No way." It was Barry. "You learned to trust, and that there is more for you out there. Now that you have learned you should go home." "But I don't want to yet. I love it here. Couldn't I stay?" Then Barry stood there for a while thinking. He then light up and smiled back at me. "Yes, there will be the opportunity to stay but if you choose to stay you may never come back to the U.S."
Barry stood there smiling, I stood there, waiting for him to continue but he was done. "When?" I asked him. "Whenever you want it to, but first, you must wake up. Wake up Iris, wake up." "WAKE UP IRIS!!!!" I snapped my eye's open to see Amaya crying by my side as I lay in a hospital bed. "Iris, forgive me." She mumbled. "You are my friend and I shouldn't have left you, it was your choice. Not mine. Can you please forgive me?!" "No," I half whispered. Then Amaya's head snapped up sending tears flying to my bandaged face. I barely smiled because it hurt too much. "What? Why?" Amaya looked like a wrecked car that got hit by a train, twice. "Because I should be apologizing to you, I was taking advantage of your kindness and hospitality, it was time for me to leave and go back were I belong."
I felt the gauze around my face expand and scratch me. I was crying, hard. I sat up as much as I could and looked Amaya straight in her burred, teary eyes and said, "Amaya, I loved to be with you and Junko so much, I didn't want to go back to the dull life I had before. I loved the excitement, the feeling of belonging, the joy, the adventure, and the fact I was with the perfect guy and the perfect friend." I would have continued on forever but my voice failed me and my eyes teared up. I couldn't see but I felt Amaya wrap her arms around me and hugging me very hard to her, I felt the wet spots on my shirt where her eyes were. I put my arm around her and smiled as I wiped my tears away with the other. Junko, sitting there next to Amaya's dad quietly hiding 'manly' tears got up and hugged us both. The pressure of his weight and Amaya's got to me and I let out a sigh of pain. Junko let off gut Amaya still clung to me like a child to their mother. "Oh, Iris," Oh Amaya…
After a while, the doctors saw no need to keep me there so I was released in a wheelchair and a mob of those I loved most, my mom, my dad, Amaya, Mr. And Mrs. Akane, and Junko. We filed into two cars, barely, and we drove to Amaya's home. There we sat and exchanged stories of our times in Japan. Mrs. Akane made tea for everyone and Amaya gladly told my story for me. "So Amaya, what made you let our daughter stay at your house?" Amaya looked surprised at the question as If it was so obvious. "She didn't look like she belonged there, I was curious, and she didn't seem like a threat to me and my family. Call it having a big heart." "I'm so glad you do have that big heart, without it, I would fear of what might have happened to my baby!" I was tired of listening to 'my baby' so while no one was watching I quietly wheeled to the back porch. I sat there in my little wheelchair looking at Amaya's beautiful bonsai garden, watching the small ripples in the koi pond, and the gentle sway of the bamboo mini forest. I felt someone behind me and then someone's long muscular arms wrapped around me. "Junko," "Hm?" His sweet voice drifted to my right ear. I dare not move from his grasp. "I feel as if I still do not want to leave," "Then don't, stay with me, and Amaya," as he said this he stroked my neck with his lips very tenderly. My arms covered with goose bumps, "But I also feel it is time for me to go." He stopped then and faced me straight on. He stared into my eyes very seriously, as if we were examining something. Then he said, "Do what you wish, but you will always have a home here or, with me." He blushed as he said this but he never took his eyes off me. I wanted to smile from eye to eye and jump into his arms and squeal 'yes' like a little schoolgirl but Barry's words came to mind, it wasn't the time, was it? No.
The next morning my mom woke me early so we could catch our flight back. I was sad but I believed there was a time, so I waited. I sat in my chair as we packed waiting, in the car with Amaya, waiting. Waving good-bye, waiting. Not until I got on the plane did I realize I either missed it or it would never happen. I sat crying on the plane thinking how silly I was to think I could stay. "DING…. DING! Now boarding, New York!"
"HUH?!" I woke in an uncomfortable plastic blue chair in an airport. "Come on Iris, that's us!" It was Barry! Wassleeping, did I dream all that? Damn! I did, didn't I? Oh well. I got up and followed Barry to the plane port. There, a nice woman stamped my ticket and I boarded the plane. I was in seat 23e, in the middle of 23d and 23f. Barry was in seat 14b. As Barry sat down I continued back. I watched the numbers grow bigger and bigger until, 23. I looked down to see my seat and the other two passengers sitting. There was a skinny Blond girl with a ponytail and a black greasy hired boy by the window. He had huge muscular arms, like long! The blond girl looked up at me and smiled as she got out to let me in. The boy was quiet and didn't even notice me accidentally jabbing him with my elbow. The girl sat down and said, "Hi, are you a student? I'm Amy." She leaned forward and said, "Hey, Jared! Be nice and introduce yourself." The boy turned around as if he was asleep before and smiled. "Hi, sorry if I was rude, oh, heh, you're kinda' cute." He blushed and Amy looked at him with a playful smile. I liked these two, but they seemed familiar.
~FIN~