The Traducer
Chapter 3 Part 1
I didn"t want to go to the play centre, so I headed home.
When I got to my room, looking through a soft-covered book I bought on the way, the clock on the wall showed 7 pm. Should I go get some dinner? As soon as this thought crossed my mind, the intercom buzzed, and I lifted the receiver with a bad premonition.
"Idzono-kun, open up. Why do you even bother locking yourself up at all?"
I hung up. Seriously? She came again? The intercom rang again. I took the phone.
"Why"d you hang up?"
I hung up. It just can"t be. Another ring. Phone.
"You"re rude."
I returned it to its place. The intercom wouldn"t shut up. If you show your opponent that you"re ready to defend yourself until the very end, he will certainly back down.
A ring.
Silence.
Finally the intercom shut up. I quietly crept to the front door and peeked into the peephole. The world narrowed to its size was blocked with the huge creepily smiling face of Minato. Next moment, there was a loud knock on the door. Many hits followed one another, the door was pounded again and again.
"Hey! Hey! Open up!" Minato"s desperate voice gradually turned into a cry, "Open up!… Come on, open up…come…come on…"
I heard sobs. From the thought that the neighbours can hear this, my back got covered in sweat. The situation became lousy. So lousy, that there"s nowhere else to go. I hurriedly opened the door.
"Here I am." Minato smiled to her ears. She brought with her a huge bag and a suitcase on wheels.
B*itch.
***
"I"ll cook dinner," Minato announced, having taken over my surrendered possessions.
The bag from the supermarket almost burst from the many products inside of it. Carrots, potatoes, peas, noodles, miso, things like that. Having laid out the food in the kitchen, Minato took out an ap.r.o.n from her suitcase, put it on and began to cook. She washed the plates, which already managed to get covered with a thin layer of dust and turned on the unused rice cooker. Humming quietly to herself, she cleaned the carrots.
"W-wait!" I involuntarily yelled. What was I thinking of at the moment – I don"t know.
"What?"
"Well it"s just strange. Why are you cooking dinner?"
"What do you mean why? I"m hungry."
"Then you can just buy something instead."
"But I"ll cook better than some bento from the grocery."
"No, no, not that." For a moment I was confused on what to say next. "It"s just too much."
"Huh?"
"As in… In short, why do you even have to cook? Of course, I understand that my appearance is just begging for feeding. But still. Have I done anything for you? I did nothing."
I can"t stand it, when someone helps me for no reason.
From other people I can only get something if my right hand was taking money out of their pockets. And other options disgusted me. I couldn"t bear, when someone did something for me out of their own good will. I immediately began to wait for some dirty trick, and my thoughts twisted into something like anger.
"No, nothing, I just decided to cook."
"But…"
I was powerless. On the stolen money I bought ready food, and then threw away the disposable chopsticks, spoons, and containers. I already got used to this life, so these actions actually frightened me.
"Then let me buy some food and eat calmly."
"Oh don"t worry. I"m almost done."
"Then I"ll pay you. The groceries cost money."
"Forget it, you know I"m also eating. Cooking for one person, or for two – what"s the difference."
I wanted to tell her to stop, to not do anything for me. But if I would say something like that, I would be called touchy. Don"t you think of yourself too much? It seemed that this is what I would be asked. I was getting scared. I couldn"t squeeze out a word, meanwhile, Minato continued her work, rattling the dishes. In a moment, the kitchen was filled with an appetizing smell, which incidentally, didn"t interest me.
"Almost done."
Minato skillfully used the tools. The lit of the pot began to bound, announcing the readiness of the rice. And I just stood in the living-room as if dead, not even able to open my mouth. I lost count of the amount of times a plate clattered.
Ten, twenty, thirty minutes, time pa.s.sed unnoticed. I barely noticed how the table was filled with dishes. Steam rose from the stewed vegetables with meat, miso-soup, and boiled rice.
"Well, shall we eat?"
Minato took out two pairs of chopsticks. Next to her, she lay the chopsticks belonging to my disappeared mother.
"Bon appet.i.t." Minato said, when I timidly sat at the table, and I wished her the same. I couldn"t even remember the last time I said something like this. I slowly put the stewed meat and vegetables in my mouth, and the potato practically melted in my mouth. The taste couldn"t be compared to the warmed up store food.
Suddenly some emotions began to burn inside of me, ready to burst any moment, and I turned away. Strange. What are these feelings?
"Huh? Something happened?" Minato asked about my state.
"No everything"s fine. Really, there are no problems… Oh, right. Your cooking is amazing."
Forgetting about the entire world, I began to quickly swallow the food, almost paying no attention to the taste.
"Awesome, I pleased you."
From Minato"s smile, something hesitated inside me.
"Thanks for the treat."
Having put the chopsticks into the empty dishes, I rushed to the washroom, where, without taking off my pants, I sat on the toilet seat and put my hand on my forehead. It"s not that I was feeling bad, no. A whirlwind of different emotions flew at me, and my mind turned into a mess.
Once I got back from the washroom, all the dishes were already washed and put back in their places. Minato acted on her own again, with which she caused me to have a feeling resembling guilt.
"Idzono-kun, listen. What are you doing tomorrow?" Minato asked me from the couch, on which she lay down without changing her school uniform.
"Why do you care about tomorrow? And you"ll ruin your uniform like that."
"I"ve already decided. Fushimi-kun. And I really don"t care about the uniform."
"And.. something will happen tomorrow?"
"They typically do it everyday, altogether."
"I would not say altogether."
"Well, they seem to be hiding out in the sports equipment warehouse. Somewhere in the second one."
My school had two sports equipment warehouses: The first stored ordinary equipment, and the second had equipments for the athletics festival. Needless to say, people rarely went into the second warehouse.
"Right. Then let"s go," I agreed in a surprisingly light tone.
"Then tomorrow… Oh, right. I have a present for you, Idzono-kun," With these words Minato jumped from the couch, rummaged in her suitcase left at the entrance, and in a few minutes placed something long and narrow into my hand.
The object was a little longer than a measuring ruler and can be placed into a box of pencils, about fifteen centimetres, black and smooth to the touch. A black strap was attached to it, so that it can be worn on a wrist.
At first I thought it was a laser pointer, but when I pressed some b.u.t.ton on the side, to my surprise the object lengthened almost threefold. It looked too rough for a simple school pointer.
"What is this?"
"A telescopic baton," Minato said firmly, and before I understood, some time pa.s.sed. And when I thought a little, I said just two words:
"Thank you."
After deciding to put away the baton into my pant pocket, I went to my room and checked the present again. I grabbed it more tightly, lengthened it and then folded, pressing against the opposite ends with both hands. I then pressed the b.u.t.ton and flicked my wrist. There was a m.u.f.fled click, and the baton returned to its working position, forty or fifty centimetres. After this I decided to measure its length. I folded it again, flicked my wrist and lengthened it. I seized with my backhand, forehand, folded, got ready to strike. In general, I just repeated the same thing over and over again.
"Right now, you resemble a child who had just bought a wand to become a superhero," Minato said, who had been watching my training for a while now, and giggled.
The deep pockets of the pants seemed to be specifically made for this, the club fully fitted.
Edited by: Akshaythedon