The Cherry Blossom 2-Book Bundle. Jennifer Maruno

colour.” She closed her eyes again. “We always had flowers on the table at home.”

      Nine

      A Boat Called Apple

      Everyone is to begin on page one,” Miss Henderson directed as she handed out the papers. “Work as far as you can.”

      The class groaned as their day began with an arithmetic test.

      Michiko twisted her braid before she started. She whizzed through the first page. It was all addition and subtraction questions. She turned the page. Clarence, she noticed, was counting his fingers inside his desk.

      She completed the second page of multiplication and division questions and moved on to the third. It was word problems. After reading the first, she gazed across the room. Miss Henderson smiled at her. Michiko lowered her head to make a small drawing to help solve the problem.

      A sudden sting on the back of her head made her jerk upright. Clarence picked up the bit of crumpled paper that bounced on to his desk. He slid it inside and unfolded it. His face flamed redder than his hair.

      Michiko looked behind her. The boy with the bike smirked at her. Clarence ripped the note in half and stuck it in his shirt pocket.

      “Put your papers on my desk on your way out,” Miss Henderson directed.

      The girls skipped but didn’t invite Michiko to join. She stood and watched until Miss Henderson emerged from the school. As she waved the hand bell, Clarence ambled up to her side.

      “I always wait until the rest have gone in,” he told her. “That way nobody pushes you.” He waited with Michiko until everyone was inside before he spoke again. “Most of the students dislike George,” he told her. “Try to stay out of his way.”

      “Millie,” the teacher called out as she entered the classroom. “I’ve marked your arithmetic paper. Well done. I’m moving you up a grade. You are to sit beside George from now on.”

      Michiko’s eyes darted to Clarence’s as she picked up her notebook and pencil. She moved to the desk beside the boy who owned the bike, took a deep breath, sat down, and smiled.

      His clear blue eyes narrowed as he looked at her. “Are you one of those Dirty Japs?” he whispered.

      “What did you say?” she asked.

      “I asked if you were a Dirty Jap,” he repeated.

      Michiko heard him clearly that time.

      George stared at her, waiting for something to happen. But Michiko couldn’t think of anything to say. She flipped through the pages of the textbook. She would have liked to have said something, if she only knew what.

      At home Michiko talked about her day at school. “A boy in my class called me a Dirty Jap,” she said to her mother’s back as she prepared dinner.

      “And what did you say?” Eiko asked without turning around.

      “I didn’t know what to say.”

      “What is a Dirty Jap?” Michiko asked, moving to her mother’s side.

      Ted and Sadie overheard as they came into the kitchen.

      “Did you do or say anything to this boy to make him angry?” her uncle wanted to know.

      Michiko shook her head. “After the arithmetic test, the teacher made me sit beside him.”

      “That means he’s jealous,” Sadie said. “He was used to being the smartest in the class until you came along.”

      “Why did he call me dirty?” Michiko asked. “Even the teacher complimented me on my clean socks.”

      Ted pulled her into his arms. “I’m afraid in the eyes of some people, all Japs are dirty.”

      “Especially Hiro, when he fills his diapers,” Sadie said loudly. She laughed heartily.

      “Shizukani, Sadie,” Eiko cautioned her. “This is why I didn’t want her to go to school.” She leaned against the sink. “I could have taught her here.”

      “With what?” Sadie retorted. “We don’t have any books. Besides, she should know what is going on.”

      Sadie pulled Michiko away from Ted. “Listen, Michiko,” she said, spinning her around to face her. “The lesson you learned at school today wasn’t about arithmetic. It was current events.”

      “Stop it,” Eiko cried.

      Sadie ignored her. “Canada is at war with Japan after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in the United States,” she continued. “For some reason, people think all Japanese people are enemies.”

      Michiko’s eyes widened. “Enemies?” she repeated.

      “That’s why we left Vancouver.” Sadie stopped holding Michiko and relaxed her arms. “Everyone who was Japanese had to move away from the coast. It is the law.” She slumped into a chair. “We left before they threw us out.”

      “Stop it,” cried Eiko. “Stop it, Sadie.”

      But Sadie didn’t stop talking. Her voice grew louder, as if she were telling a whole roomful of people. “The government made new laws for the Japanese every week. We weren’t to have cameras or radios. Then we couldn’t have cars or boats.”

      Ted walked away to look out the window.

      “We couldn’t go to certain stores. Japanese children couldn’t go to public schools or use the libraries. They even shut down the schools that taught Japanese culture and language.”

      Michiko raised her fingers to her mouth. It was the government that had stopped her lessons in calligraphy?

      “First, they took your uncle’s boat,” Sadie exclaimed, “then they took your father.”

      Michiko ran to her mother. “You said my father was working in the mountains,” she said, searching her mother’s face.

      “He is working in the mountains,” her mother replied tiredly as she smoothed the top of her daughter’s head. “He is building a road and receiving a wage.” But her voice sounded strange, as if she was unsure of what she was saying.

      Michiko turned to her aunt. “Is that true?”