Chapter Eleven Ren #2
Everyone begins to speak at once. Tempers flare and it’s like I can see it, anger stoked hotter and hotter.
Makes it seem like something has to happen, like camp is a water glass on the edge of a counter, so precariously placed that it’s going to plunge to the floor and shatter.
Makes me cold to my center while everything else is so hot.
I notice the shadow above has grown. With every shout, it swells. More eye holes appear and then, suddenly, they all start blinking furiously. I have no idea what’s going on with Akira’s shadow, but I’m not an idiot. I can tell it’s bad.
Suddenly, Akira appears in front of me, springing up like a monster from under a kid’s bed. I recoil instinctively as he reaches for me. I hit the wall, hard. His hands settle on my shoulders. He pulls me toward him. Feels as though I’m held by a skeleton. His fingers are bony, bloodless, thin.
“Two o’clock.” His gaze is as sharp as a knifepoint, but he doesn’t seem to see me, even as he speaks to me.
The crack in his cheek is worse. It’s livid and revolting and makes me want to puke.
Its edges have started to separate even more, curving up toward his eyebrow.
The red meat of his cheek glistens inside it. “For tea.”
Then he releases me and strides out the door. By now everyone is shouting. The guard steps forward and raises his rifle. It sends the WRA officials and secretary scurrying out the door, pushing by me. People begin to stream out. I go with them, stumbling out into the bright sunshine.
“Hey, Dragon!” Kai spots me. “Did you see? We shook them up.”
James and the other guys circle around each other. They are excited and agitated and look like they want to smash something. I grab Kai’s arm. He’s as jittery and jolty as a car driving down an unpaved road.
“Hey, calm down, buddy. Let’s go for a walk.”
The adults talk tersely among themselves, and some go back inside. I notice Mr. Nomura scowling in my direction. I pull Kai away. We walk through camp and stop when we reach a bunch of benches, which are going to be used in an auditorium.
I can’t help but notice the benches are really nice.
Furniture has been popping up everywhere lately.
Carpenters have been repurposing crates and spare lumber into tables, sets of drawers, and chairs so families can function in their barracks.
Materials are cheap as dirt, but the craftsmanship is incredible—I saw a set of drawers with mortise-and-tenon joints and consistent grain patterns the other day.
It’d been sanded, making the plywood as smooth as glass.
Kai props his foot up on one of the benches. I lean against its side.
“So, you said you were going to break up council meetings,” I say, taking a long and measured breath. “That’s what you were doing?”
“Yeah.” Kai’s face is flushed with excitement.
Reminds me of how he gets at the key moment in a baseball game, when the bases are loaded and he knows he’s gonna crank the ball to the stands and bring his teammates home.
But this isn’t a baseball game. “You know what the guards say about our council? They say it has no more authority than a high school student government. They think we’re a joke. ”
“Okay. But what does busting up the meetings do?”
“It proves they can’t control us. It sends a message to the traitors who support the authorities. You know there’s guys brownnosing the officials so they can be block managers? Power handed out like candy! Like we’re nothing more than a bunch of kids!”
“The traitors…You mean anyone who complies with the authorities? Kai, no one wants to be here. Some people are just trying to make everything run smoothly.” I want to knock sense into that thick head of his.
He doesn’t get it. He never has. Why won’t he wake up?
If something pops off here, everyone will be in danger. “Mr. Nomura is there. He’s no traitor.”
“Who? The veteran who wears the uniform? The one who’s always giving you a hard time for getting locked up?”
“Yeah. Him.” Life has twisted everything up, and somehow, I’m defending Mr. Nomura. What’s next for me? Getting coffee with Dr. Suzuki? “The guy has a broomstick up his ass but he’s only trying to make things better for us.”
“Make things better for us?” Kai’s voice gets higher and angrier. “Ren, he’s part of the JACL. They got us sent here!”
“You think the JACL got us sent here?” My own temper sparks. I want to shake Kai. Anything to get his head screwed on right.
“They stopped us from banding together and rising up. Told us all to go. To sell our stuff off for pennies, pack our bags, and report like good little doggies.”
Hurt swims through Kai’s eyes. I’m shocked by how raw his expression is. Then again, he’s never had to hide his emotions. If he’s angry, he lashes out. If he’s happy, he smiles. I get it and accept it about him. Hell, I envy it.
But not here. Not now.
I inhale deeply. Try to treat Kai like I treat Mama when she’s drunk. De-escalate everything, keep things calm.
“Look. Maybe you’re right.” Kai must think I genuinely mean it, because some of the anger leaks out of his face.
“Just try not to stir things up too much, okay? Especially with Emi being unwell. There’s lots of people here, you know?
Kids and elders and all that. Maybe take a page from the elders’ book and calm down? ”
“Shikata ga nai?” Kai asks. Elders say it all the time, so much so that I understand what it means.
It translates to a sort of “it can’t be helped.
” I understand it now. Some adversity must be faced, endured, weathered so that it shapes you into something new, like water carving crevices through stone over centuries.
For the first time, I realize it’s good for me to say, too.
Shikata ga nai. I can’t change who Kai is, so I must reason with him and not try to manually beat sense into him.
“Exactly, Tiger.” It’s about time for tea at Akira’s barrack. “I got somewhere I need to be, but stay out of trouble.”
“I will…for now.” Kai is fully restored to his usual upbeat, cocky temperament. “A caged tiger can only be peaceful for so long. Though I think there might be something worse than a caged tiger.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
I’m already turning away when he answers.
“A chained dragon.”