Alex-065
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Post by Alex-065 on Mar 12, 2010 16:04:58 GMT -5
"Yeah, I hear ya..." Jerry muttered, musing over his history notes and Sonra's strange words of wisdom. She was right. For a nation nearly the size of the state of California, Japan was saturated with a long history of death. Earthquakes, tsunamis, civil wars... Atomic Bombs. Add that to all the demons and ghost stories in Japanese folklore... It was enough to make Jerry think it was a small miracle the walls of the classroom didn't ooze ectoplasm. Or did it?
Crazy ideas like that didn't rest easy with Jerry, even as class got underway. Quizzes, lectures, it was all background noise to the eerie sense of near paranoia Jerry had picked up. Come one, it's nothing to worry about. He thought. She's just messing with your head. It's all a joke. And still he wondered: did all Japanese girls know so much about their country's otherworldly heritage, or was she an expert? If so... Well, maybe she could help him if things got any weirder. And they would.
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Post by Ninmast on Mar 12, 2010 16:19:50 GMT -5
However, it wouldn't be until the end of the week before such happened. After a week of living out of the fridge on a teenager's appetite, Jerry was due for a grocery run. Fortunately, he passed a grocery store on his way to and from school every day, so he knew where it was, and even if his Japanese was rusty, that's what pictures were for.
He was going down an aisle of bakery goods, his head lost in checking the boxes when he hit the cart of another shopper whose head was hidden behind a large list. With a yelp, she dropped her list and revealed herself as Enji behind it. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going! I'm so ... Oh! You're one of Sonra's friends! Jerry, right?"
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Alex-065
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Contents Under Pressure
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Post by Alex-065 on Mar 12, 2010 17:26:55 GMT -5
"Hey, what's up?" Jerry's luck had done some good for once, turning an awkward accident in the bakery aisle into a happy chance meeting. "And you're Enji. I remember you." The day the two of them had met he had privately pegged her as "Plain Jane" but seeing her no made it abundantly clear Jerry was mistaken. Enji might not have been as fashionable as her sisters, but her body was just as much of a knockout. Jerry had to make a conscious effort to keep himself from eying the twin bulges under her accommodating women's t-shirt. Under the circumstances Enji's bust made it a little more difficult to force small talk but knew Jerry could do it. What self-respecting man couldn't handle talking to a hot girl? Game face, he told himself.
"I'm not really sure if Sonra and I are friends yet -- I hope we'll be. But, yeah, she seems pretty cool. You too." Jerry flashed his Hollywood smile. He wasn't a bad looking guy and knew it well enough to be reasonably sure he wasn't entirely out of Enji's league.
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Post by Ninmast on Mar 12, 2010 20:57:59 GMT -5
"Why, thank you," she answered with a smile. "Sonra talks a lot about you at home. She says you've had a bit of trouble adjusting. But I suppose with the first week over, the kinks are mostly worked out now?"
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Alex-065
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Contents Under Pressure
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Post by Alex-065 on Mar 12, 2010 23:15:10 GMT -5
"Does she?" Jerry wondered. It did his ego good to know he was a hot topic, but also agitated old anxieties. "I hope she's only had good things to say about me." He'd made it sound like a joke. It really wasn't. Jerry's reputation at his new school was still in it's infancy and easily ruined by wrong impressions or salacious rumors. For now, though, it seemed his facade was safe.
"Yeah, I've kind of had to work at it," Jerry admitted. "But it's not too bad. I've got my own place, I'm living it up! Plus all the stuff I use to paint with came in the mail from home yesterday. So I've finally got something better than anime and homework to keep me busy. Right now I'm just making a grocery run." Jerry chuckled. "And you too."
So what now? Jerry wondered. The answer came to him swiftly. Take the initiative. Take a chance...
"I know you look kind of busy right now, but maybe we could get together later?." He grinned and shrugged, secretly afraid of Enji's answer. "After a week I know the way to school like the back of my hand, but aside from that I still haven't been anywhere else in town. Is there any place we could go to just hang out for a while?"
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Post by Ninmast on Mar 12, 2010 23:23:17 GMT -5
"Oh, you're a painter?" she asked, immediately impressed. "Well, if you're looking for a good first landscape of Japan, I know a cliff where you can get a great overview of this city!"
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Alex-065
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Contents Under Pressure
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Post by Alex-065 on Mar 13, 2010 0:02:07 GMT -5
A shining glimmer of good Luck had come back into Jerry's life. He was thrilled. "That's right! I'd love to see it with you! Let me give you my cell number." Jerry knelt and picked up Enji's grocery list. Using the pen from a wholesale display he wrote down his two letter name in kanji along with his cell and house number as well for good measure. He returned the paper to Enji with a winning smile, and remarked, "There, you can cross me off your list."
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Post by Ninmast on Mar 13, 2010 0:09:30 GMT -5
She chuckled at the joke and nodded. "Thank you. When will you want to see the cliff?"
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Alex-065
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Post by Alex-065 on Mar 13, 2010 0:22:20 GMT -5
"How about a little while after sunset? I'd love to see the town lit up at night. Maybe... What do you think about 7:00? Sound good?"
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Post by Ninmast on Mar 13, 2010 0:24:50 GMT -5
"Sure," she agreed. "We can meet in the parking lot here and I'll show you the way up!"
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Alex-065
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Post by Alex-065 on Mar 13, 2010 14:42:43 GMT -5
"Alright! I'll see you then." Jerry waved good-bye and walked home feeling like a million bucks. Or about ninety-one million yen. There might have been something uncool or distasteful about meeting a girl for a date in a grocery store parking lot. Jerry worried what the kids at school might think if they ever found out. But come on, he thought, trying pick out another shirt from his suitcase. Would something like that really matter? It's not like we're gonna have a picnic right there on the asphalt. She's got this other place scoped out for us. And she's Enji! People will know she's one of the sisters who works for Sonra's family. And who else has ever had a date with on of them besides yours truly?
Okay, maybe it was more of an outing than a date, but still. Tonight was going to be an asset. Not a liability. But oh, if only he'd known then...
Jerry fed Mr. Fukaida's reef fish and was out the door with his sketch pad ten minutes ahead of schedule for the meet, wishing he'd remembered to pack his cologne and curious to see if he or Enji would be the first to arrive.
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Post by Ninmast on Mar 13, 2010 16:05:22 GMT -5
When Jerry arrived, it seemed like Enji had yet to get there, but five minutes later (another five before the assigned time), she came out through the door of the store with a bag of box lunches and drinks. "Oh! Jerry! There you are! I hope I didn't make you wait! I arrived early, so I thought I'd get us something to eat while we're there. I hope you don't mind box lunches. I didn't know what kind you'd like, so I got a variety."
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Alex-065
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Contents Under Pressure
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Post by Alex-065 on Mar 13, 2010 23:24:17 GMT -5
So there would be a picnic after all. "Sweet!" Jerry exclaimed, enthused and happy for a chance to try more Japanese food. "You really went the extra mile for me. Er... Kilometer?" He smiled at her. "Ha, well, thanks either way." Even if he were to somehow screw up and crash and burn with Enji in the end, he could still get a free dinner out of it. Not that he planned to of course, bust still. Always a silver lining. Even in the worst case scenario. Jerry's Dad had taught him that.
He'd also trained his son to know that being on time was the same as being late. Precisely why Jerry was so pleased to head for the hills a little earlier than they had planned. From what he'd studied in books and web pages, Jerry had always been under the false impression that Japan was one big, overdeveloped megalopolis dominated by concrete and glass with hardly a bare patch of dirt to be found. And while that might have been true in the urban sprawls of Tokyo or Yokohama, the land of the rising sun still had a good share of unspoiled wilderness here and there. There were pristine rivers. Hidden hot springs scattered across snowy volcanic mountains, rising up from miles of forests declared sacred and untouched for thousands of years. Eji knew them all with far greater intimacy than Jerry could have realized, and he never would have become aware of the natural wonders in his own backyard without her guidance.
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Post by Ninmast on Mar 14, 2010 0:08:55 GMT -5
And Enji definitely seemed to know where she was going. She happily pointed out the various landmarks that showed they were on the right path as they went so he would be able to find it later if he wanted, and it was a half-hour walk that seemed to pass in only a handful of moments before they arrived, just as the first stars came into the sky and the city spread out aglow beneath and before them.
Enji dropped the bag at the base of the tree that stood atop the bluff and moved toward the view. "Amazing, isn't it? It takes my breath away every time."
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Alex-065
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Contents Under Pressure
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Post by Alex-065 on Mar 15, 2010 16:42:41 GMT -5
"Easy to see why," commented Jerry, who divided his attention between the nighttime cityscape and the curve of Enji's rump. Both views were spectacular. The American teen flipped to a blank page in his sketch book and unsheathed an artist's charcoal pencil from the spiral binding. Since Jerry drew with his heart and his hands, his mind was free to chat.
"How did you find this spot?" he asked. "I'm surprised no one else knows about it. Or do they?" He chuckled, grinning as a thought occurred to him. "Is this like Make-Out Point, or something?"
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