Читать книгу A Hero's Heart - Joseph David Hightower - Страница 4

Kokoru Hanabashita was your average nineteen-year-old male living in Japan. He was 5’8 with a slim build. He was not what you consider muscular or athletic. There was, however, a most distinguishing aspect to him that he at times found quite troublesome; this was the color of his eyes. They were an astonishing color blue, unlike any other eyes in his village. This was a trait that had been passed down in his family for years, and can only be traced back to his family, the Hanabashita family. Other than the fact that his eyes often drew unwanted attention from his female counterparts, he was for the most part invisible to those around him. Jocks would knock him around, teachers would forget he was in the room and turn out lights and lock the doors to later apologize for not seeing him. This was a fact that Kokoru has grown accustomed to.

Today was his birthday and like the years before he graciously accepted the gifts and cards from his family. His mother would make a fuss about him being the man of the house, because his father had died three years ago, and he has since had the responsibility of the house on his shoulders. He was so extremely tired of all the fuss and stress that he ended up blowing up at his mother and storming out of the house. Of course, it couldn’t be a clear night, it had to be a nasty stormy night with fierce lightening and crashes of thunder, and it was fitting to the mood that he had been in for several days. Everything just seemed to come to a boiling point and he could no longer hold everything in. As he was running down the road a strange sensation started to travel down his spine, it was as if there were eyes on his back, he turned and tried to look back but his glasses had fogged up with the rain. By the time that he got his glasses cleared, the sensation was gone. As his anger began to wane he thought it was time for him to return home and try to straighten things out with his mother.

With the rain now coming down in steady sheets he turned back towards his house. There was that feeling again; eyes on him, making the hair on the back of his head stand up and chills to race across his spine that had nothing to do with the chilly night air. When he looked back over his shoulder all he could find was rain drenched streets and loneliness. He slowly turned back and started walking again trying to ignore that feeling of eyes on him. He decided that he would go the back-way home and if someone was following him than he would be able to lose them in the back allies that surrounded his village. He let out a loud breath and began the tiresome journey again, this time though, as he was walking a man appeared; it seemed out of nowhere. This was a large, well defined man, with a hat that covered most of his face, and a long dark trench coat that drug the wet ground. As they stood facing one another, the old man reached out to lay a hand on Kokoru’s shoulder, but Kokoru jerked back as if struck by a bolt of the lightening that continued to slash the night sky around them. Kokoru tried to walk away from the man, but every move that he made, the old man mirrored. So Kokoru decided to just go straight at the old man, but when he did the old man stepped slightly to the side with his foot still extended causing Kokoru to eat pavement. With a surprisingly gentle hand and other world strength the old man reached down and lifted Kokoru up and began the process of wiping Kokoru’s face. Kokoru could do nothing but stand in stunned amazement and a touch of fear as this strange old man cleaned the grime off his face and showed a tenderness that Kokoru had forgotten existed.

After cleaning off Kokoru’s face, the old man stepped back and held out his hand and said, “Hello, Kokoru, my name is Mr. Kari Haru. Now that you have settled down, we have some family business to discuss.”

Kokoru laughed mockingly, and replied, “Family business indeed, you are no family of mine! I do not even know you. Your name means honorable suicide and you expect me to just sit down and have an afternoon chat with you? You must be crazy old man. Can’t you see and fell the rain, this is an abysmal time for a discussion, call me next week and we might be able to chat.” With a last laugh Kokoru turned to walk away when the very deep, very calm voice of Mr. Haru stopped him in mid step.

“You can either come with me by choice or by force the option is up to you, but you will come with me and we will have that discussion. Choose wisely young Hanabashita.” said Mr. Haru with a sly grin on chiseled face and a gleam of expectation in his eyes.”

Kokoru took a deep breath and looked Mr. Haru in the eyes and replied, “If we must have this family discussion as you say, then let’s find a dry place and get this done with so that I can return to my mother and straighten out the mess that I have waiting on me there.”

Together they climbed into the black car at the end of the ally that was ironically waiting for them, Kokoru turned with a stunned expression on his face, wondering how the car got there and he had not seen or heard it pull up. Shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders he climbed in behind Mr. Haru. With no further talking or commits they were off into the night, destination still unknown to Kokoru.