Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Akasaka Moon ❯ Irises ( Chapter 19 )

Irises

My mother's been much calmer lately. No more looks of fear, no nightmares, not even ikebana. She sat in the living room and watched the TV. Despite the appeal, I found it rather creepy. She looked like an animated corpse for this whole summer. Her flowers had more life in them than she does. I was tempted to check and see if she still had a pulse in front of her TV. She sat in her room and stared at the door all day. Now, I'm worried. What kind of drugs did the doctor give her? I couldn't ask him to stop giving them to her. She needed them or else her terrors will start again. I sighed as I lay on my futon.

I sat up and left my room. My feet heavily wandered down to our living room. She left the TV on again. I looked and saw the news. The Americans were still in our beloved Japan. Things have felt tense sense September of last year. I've heard many people in town complaining about how much they don't like it. If one looked at my neighborhood, they couldn't tell if this was the 1800s or post-WWII except for the power lines above the houses. Everything in this neighborhood felt so stiff like my Mother's dried irises. Nothing ever really changed around here. I had the feeling that the rest of the country is going to leave this place behind and forget all about it. I didn't know. It felt like the inevitable.

I shook my head as if to push such thoughts out of my mind. It was summer and I'm thinking depressing thoughts? That's just not right. I noticed my Mother's neglected irises on the coffee table. I always wondered why she liked irises so much. I had many guesses. My best one was that my father had given them to her in their younger days. I couldn't really confirm that yet until I ask her. Heh, I doubt I would ever get an answer out of her anyway, especially not in the state that she's in right now. Personally, I think I liked her lost in her own world than acting like a zombie. When will she ever get back to “normal?” I pushed her out of my head and tried to think about something else.

Juriko appeared in my head. I've seen her flirting around with some American soldiers in town lately. I'm was exactly sure what her motives are for doing that. Haruka didn't hesitate to tell me.

“She's just trying to use them to get out of this crappy place,” she grumbled to me days before school started again. Somehow, I couldn't really blame Juriko. She wanted to get out of here and see what's out there in the world. Haruka and I wanted the same thing too, but how do we accomplish that? How do we even begin to attempt such a plan? We didn't have much money and we didn't really know anybody outside of Nara. It seemed to be all in vain in the end. I sighed as I fell back onto my couch. It was too depressing for me in this house. I needed to get out more.