Chapter 28
Taki frowns. “Grounded, huh? Sheesh...Didn’t you tell him that a teacher told you to go and rest? Because you bumped your head and hurt yourself?”
Everything that happened yesterday was fuzzy. Had Naoyuki explained to his father what happened? No. How could he explain that he bashed his own head because he was seeing things and getting flashbacks of the car accident? Even he knew it was crazy. But when he got the flashes, all he could think to do was make it stop any way he could. Speaking of yesterday, what happened after his father had yelled at and grounded him? Oh yeah. He locked me in the bedroom, Naoyuki recalls. Thinking about it sends chills down his spine. When did he finally let me out? When did Mama get home – Did I miss her? He vaguely remembers his mother coming in to check on him a little after he’d gone to bed. Ikuo was in the room by then.
“Well, there’s still study hall,” Taki continues on. “You want me to meet you?” Naoyuki slowly nods. His head was killing him.
“Does it still hurt?” Taki asks.
She was sure perceptive. “Yeah. A little...”
Taki sees the new bruises on his forehead. “Naoyuki, were you doing it again?” she presses. “Stop that! You need to take better care of yourself!” Taki bends down and gently wipes her hand over the bruise. “You sure – Naoyuki, you didn’t hit the same spot again, did you?” She can’t keep her rising panic out of her voice. Once again, she can’t help thinking, He’s going to kill himself. He’s trying to kill himself. “You’re gonna open that gash up again – maybe even get it infected! Please, stop!”
Naoyuki backs away and put his hands out to block her. “Don’t touch. It hurts.”
Taki takes a steady look at his whole face. There are bruises on his cheek, too. His father had been at him again. “Naoyuki – Never mind. We’ll talk about it later.” With that, they split up and go to their respective classes. That’s another reason he’s so easy to pick on. When someone hurts him, he won’t talk about it. She thinks back on that time when Naoyuki had been attacked in the boys’ rest room. That type of thing hasn’t happened for a while – at least, not that I know of. But now his own dad is taking advantage of him. Does Naoyuki ever catch a break?
Lunch time. Taki glances around the lunch room. She spots Naoyuki a few rows away from the doors, at the corner of one of the long, white tables by himself. I need to know what’s going on, and Naoyuki won’t tell me. I need to talk to his brother. Bingo. She spots Ikuo a few tables to the left of the doors and swiftly makes her way toward him.
“Oh, it’s the seventh-grader senpai again,” comments one of Ikuo’s friends.
“What do you want?” Ikuo asks tersely.
“Hey. Can we talk? Alone?” Taki requests.
Ikuo frowns, but leads her to an emptier table nearby and sits down across from her. “This is about my stepbrother again, isn’t it?”
Taki blinks apprehensively at him. “Do you dislike Naoyuki that much?”
“Naoyuki this, Naoyuki that – It’s always Naoyuki, Naoyuki, Naoyuki! Mom and Dad said they loved me – they needed me. But now that Naoyuki’s around, they only care about him! Even though I get good grades, they only pay attention to him!”
“Hey, Ikuo,” Taki says, “let me tell you something you might be surprised to hear. Naoyuki isn’t looking to snatch your stepparents away from you; in fact, he cares a lot about what you think of him.”
“He – He does…?”
Taki nods. “He really doesn’t mean to hurt you.” Ikuo falls silent, looking thoughtful.
“Ikuo, I need to know, for both of you. What is your relationship with your dad like?”
“What is..Dad like? Well, he’s pretty strict about grades and school and stuff. But he’s usually pretty nice.” Ikuo pauses, then adds, “You don’t want to get him mad, though. He says some pretty mean stuff when he’s mad; sometimes, he’ll hit, too. He’s been doing a lot more of that lately. Sometimes I get scared when he comes near me, even if I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Has he hit you?” Taki inquires.
“No, he’s never hit me,” Ikuo replies, “but, well...You’ve seen my stepbrother’s face. Dad gets really mad at him a lot lately. I guess because he’s gotten so behind on his work with transferring in late and being home sick that one time and all.”
“Hey, listen,” Taki says. “If your dad ever mistreats you, don’t be afraid to talk to somebody. Let me know, okay?” Ikuo nods. “Thanks for talking to me. I’ll get out of your hair now.”
***************************
After school, Naoyuki walks out to the sidewalk with Taki. Ikuo was already standing at the corner of the low wall surrounding the school. Naoyuki and Taki wait with him in front of the school for their parents to arrive. Instead of his mother’s small, beige Honda, it is his father’s grey sedan that pulls alongside the front walk. Again? Where’s Mama? Naoyuki wonders. Fear takes hold of him then. His father would have his way with him again without his mother home.
Mr. Kondo rolls down the window. He glares at Taki. “Get in," he orders coldly.
Ikuo opens the back door and slides into the far seat. Naoyuki hesitates. He would rather walk home with Taki – Oh, but wait. Her mom is coming to get her. And it’s cold. But the weather’s cold doesn’t compare to his father’s cold. He’d rather walk alone in the cold than go home to his father’s scolding and yelling and slapping. Would he be locked up in his room again, too? Definitely not looking forward to that.
“Get in! You’re letting all the heat out!” Mr. Kondo shouts.
Naoyuki turns and starts walking down the sidewalk, Taki calling out to him frantically and following behind. Naoyuki looks back. The rear door closes. The horn honks, and the car speeds up to them and stops. From the window, Mr. Kondo yells, “Boy, get in this car now!”
“Naoyuki, don’t!” Taki pleads. “You’ll make him even more angry!” Naoyuki glances between his father and Taki. “Mr. Kondo,” Taki calls into the car. Naoyuki gapes at her as she continues, “can Naoyuki come over to my house to study?”
She did not just ask that. She has no idea what she’s doing...! “Taki...!”
“Naoyuki is grounded until his make-up work is finished,” Mr. Kondo replies curtly. “Besides, I want to supervise his studying myself. He’ll be playing around with you instead of doing his work if he goes to your house.”
“That’s not true! We’ll work, for real! I promise!” Taki cries.
“I don’t put stock in the promises of children,” Mr. Kondo snaps. “Now, if you’d excuse us, we need to be leaving. Boy, get in the car!”
Naoyuki does as he is told before Taki can ask again. I don’t want her involved. He buckles his seatbelt, curls his legs up and folds his arms over his knees as his father pulls the car into the street and starts off down the road.
“So. What’s to be done about your defiance?” Naoyuki tenses. His father meant business. “It’s getting to be an issue. You truly are a troublesome brat,” Mr. Kondo growls. His words were piercing. But the tense, icy silence that ensues is worse. All the way home, there is not another word.
The three of them step into the house. Sure enough, Mrs. Kondo isn’t home. “Where’s Mama?” Naoyuki asks softly. “Why isn’t she home yet?”
“Your mother isn’t here to make excuses for you,” Mr. Kondo snaps. “Now come here.” Naoyuki freezes. “Come here.” His father jabs his index finger down at the carpet in front of him. “Now.”
This was getting very dangerous very fast. Naoyuki trembles. What is he gonna do to me? He starts whimpering and backing away, curling his arms toward his face in self-defense. “I’ll do my homework,” he stammers. “I – I’ll do my...”
His father stomps toward him, his hands balled into fists. Naoyuki shrinks back and drops to the floor, crying, “Don’t hit me!” His father reaches down and yanks him to his feet. The first fist strikes his blocking arm, which his father pulls away with his other hand before striking a blow to his face. “Don’t hit me!! Please!!!” Naoyuki screams, pulling away. Two more whacks to his face follow. “Let go of me!!! Don’t touch me!!!” Naoyuki struggles to yank his arm away. The hitting continues. His cheeks already stung. Now they start to hurt. The strikes get harder the more he struggles.
“Disobedience is inexcusable!” Mr. Kondo yells. “First the laziness and the lying, and now this is what you give me, boy?!”
Ikuo drops his backpack and flees for the safety of a closet. He can still hear his stepbrother’s screams through the walls.
***************************
Mrs. Kondo is shocked. All she did was try to talk to Naoyuki about Haruko and the accident – that was what Kazu had asked her to do – after they visited her after school that afternoon. Naoyuki excused himself and went to the bathroom. When it took so long for him to come back, she went to check and see if he’d come out. He was still in there. The door was closed. She called for him and got no answer. And when she opened the door, Naoyuki was knocking his head into the side of the sink and falling to the floor. “Naoyuki!” she cries. Mrs. Kondo picks him up. He has the empty look in his face again. He won’t respond to her. She hugs him close and strokes his back until he comes to, crying. She tends to the swollen bruise on his head. This was the first time she’d actually seen him do that to himself. This has to stop, she thinks. It’s already gone too far.
Mrs. Kondo puts Naoyuki to bed, then goes downstairs to talk to her husband. “Hiroto, what are we going to do?” she asks, her face twisted with distress. “What have we done to our son? He’s clearly not well...It’s just like Kazunori said. Naoyuki’s falling apart...”
“You’re already out into the early hours of the night talking to specialists for the boy. We don’t have the time – nor the funds – to go hunting for a psychiatrist too,” replies Mr. Kondo.
“He’s deliberately hurting himself!” Mrs. Kondo cries. “That’s not normal, what he does! Something is terribly wrong!”
“There’s nothing wrong with that boy’s head, Aya,” Mr. Kondo says tersely. “He’s just... perverse. That and dependent on others’ pity. You shouldn’t indulge him the way you do. It won’t help him.”
“Hiroto, you go to the opposite extreme!” Mrs. Kondo cries. “I come home, and Naoyuki’s all beaten and locked up by himself! How is that supposed to help him?!”
“It’s better than spoiling him and allowing him to think that he can get away with excuses! We won’t be around to cover for him forever, Aya, and no one else will! I’m doing the boy a favor.”
Mrs. Kondo grimaces. “That boy is our son,” she says pointedly. “And we did this to him. We’re bad parents – leaving him like that without telling him where we were going or why. As much as I tell myself that it was for Naoyuki’s benefit, the fact remains that we abandoned him. This is our punishment.”
“Oh, Aya, please – ”
“Since it’s our fault, we can’t let Naoyuki suffer for it,” Mrs. Kondo pleads. “We have to get help, or else, one of these times, Naoyuki is going to wind up putting himself in the hospital! Is that what you want?!”
“No, I don’t,” Mr. Kondo concedes.
Mrs. Kondo turns toward the closed door. “I’m going to call Kazunori. He said his psychology professor is one of Naoyuki’s teachers. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could help us – or at least find someone who can.”
She opens the bedroom door and walks to the kitchen. Ikuo is at the table diligently working on homework when she steps in. Ikuo looks up at her and asks, “Mom, is Dad mad again? I – I heard him yell.”
Mrs. Kondo holds the phone receiver in her hand and looks back at her stepson. “No, your father isn’t angry,” she replies. “Why?”
Ikuo looks up at her with fear in his eyes. “He’s kind of scary lately. I mean, since we got Naoyuki’s report card...he’s always yelling and picking on Naoyuki...”
Mrs. Kondo puts down the receiver as she turns around to face Ikuo. “Did you see something? Has your father roughed you up, too, Ikuo?” She bends over and puts her hand gently on Ikuo’s, then moves his school books and papers off to the side and sits down in the chair next to him. “Please tell me.”
“No,” Ikuo says, shaking his head. “Dad hasn’t hit me. But I...I saw him beat up Naoyuki yesterday,” he admits, recalling what he’d witnessed of the awful scene. “He brought us home from school and told Naoyuki to ‘come here,’ but Naoyuki got scared and wouldn’t go. Then Dad started hitting him, and Naoyuki started screaming his head off and panicking...I got scared, and I ran into the broom closet. When I thought it was over and came out, Naoyuki had passed out on the floor, and Dad was dragging him upstairs...”
Mrs. Kondo reaches over and embraces him. “Oh, dear, I’m so sorry.” She frowns. Hiroto beat up Naoyuki in front of Ikuo? She remembers arriving home the night before and tending to a listless, unresponsive Naoyuki’s bruised cheeks and raw hands. Ikuo had witnessed part of the ordeal that resulted in those injuries? What on earth is going on with Hiroto? It isn’t like him at all to act this way. If the kids are both afraid of him... This whole horrible situation has to end. I’m sure having Hiroto backing him into a corner isn’t helping Naoyuki’s behavior, either – especially with this recent turn of events.
Mrs. Kondo releases Ikuo and gets up from the chair. “I need to give your cousin a call. Go ahead and finish up, okay?” She walks back to the phone, picks up the receiver and dials the Seido family’s phone number.
Mrs. Seido answers. “Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Aya. How are you?”
“All right, thanks.”
“Is Kazunori there?”
“Yes, he is. Just a moment.”
Silence. Then Kazu picks up. “Hi, Aunt Aya. What’s up? Is Naoyuki all right?”
Mrs. Kondo laughs. “It’s as though you read my mind.” Her smile fades. “Kazu, I was too late. You were right – about Naoyuki reaching the end of his rope, I mean.”
“Don’t tell me he’s – ”
“It’s...” Mrs. Kondo heaves a sigh. “I took him to visit his friend earlier, then when we got home, I tried to talk to him about her and about what happened,...but...He said he was going to the bathroom, and when he didn’t come back after a while, I got worried and went to check on him, and I found him...banging his head on the bathroom sink ‘til he’d knocked himself half- senseless. If he keeps this up, he’ll...”
“What can I do to help my cousin?” Kazu asks.
“Your professor – is he a psychiatrist?” Mrs. Kondo inquires.
“Yes,” Kazu replies. “I can give you his number so you can set up an appointment.”
“Thank you, Kazunori.”
“Don’t mention it.”
