C007 Together
2175 Words
There was also a glass countertop with 3 burners and a hotplate burner with the brand Aiko as well as an overhead cooking hob that reduces the smoke and gets rid of the cooking smells as well.
Kagome's mother was busying herself in the centre of the kitchen where a conventional oven and a microwave oven sat at both ends of the island countertop. There were quite a number of assorted shiny stainless steel pots and pans, ladles and scoops hanging directly above the island countertop.
In the centre of the island's countertop was the main working area to prepare dishes and other whatnot.
"Kenzo-chan, could you please help Auntie to put all the groceries in the middle here and Kagome... Hmm, could you please prop up the gravy into one big bowl and set the table for three, yes, my dear daughter?"
Kagome's mother inquired us to help prep the kitchen and dinner as she too was busying herself in preparing some of the additions that we would be having for dinner or supper, I guessed.
I nodded my head and placed the bags of groceries on the island countertop and watched Kagome moved deftly around the kitchen to place the noodles with all its separate ingredients such as slices of fishcake, pieces of crayfish, the quail eggs and other garnishings that had been earlier prepared by the shopkeeper into three bowls and placed the gravy into a large bowl before placing it in the microwave.
She turned the heat up and set the timer for three minutes. This enables the gravy to be heated and be served hot, just like the ones being prepared in the restaurant itself. "Kenzo-chan, do please sit down and make yourself at home." smiled Kagome's mother whose name was Yumiko Kuwahara.
"Yes landlady, Kuwahara-san," I replied as I went out from the kitchen and sat at one of the dainty stool at the dining table, away from the mother and daughter as they exchanged small talk at the same time eyeing me from the kitchen. I wondered what the mother and daughter must be gossiping about me. Once Kagome was at home, she transformed herself from being a student to being a daughter.
Small laughter could be heard coming from the two ladies in the kitchen. "How is school today, Kenzo-chan? Asked the landlady." School's great Kuwahara-san. I earlier got a missile attack from our History teacher." I called out my reply to her. Yumiko peered at me from an angle as she c****d her head when she heard about the missile attack and then I heard Kagome muttered something inaudibly as they both laughed out loud again.
The mother and daughter scene and the conversational piece was an image that I had not felt for a very long time. It reminded me much about my mother and the rest of my siblings when we were greeted by great wafting smells from the kitchen upon returning from school. Of course, during those times, there were a lot of us around and the camaraderie could be easily felt. The laughter, the jokes and chatter we shared with our parents right after returning from school do bring back memories of my own. Suddenly I was plunged into a rather melancholy state and I can't help but think about my parents during that time too.
The images that flashed by somehow nudged at my heartstrings and made my eyes slightly wet. I could say that the gravy that was rather spicy was wafting into my eyes, literally. I managed to calm my heart and my eyes as I swallowed hard when I reminiscence the thoughts of my late mother whom I wished had lived longer than me and whom I dearly missed so much.
Spending time together like this is what I wished for if I could turn back the time.
No words can describe that feeling right now.
Ninja onions... Advance and attack!
=*=
Food was served soon after and the bowl of steaming gravy was set in the middle while Kagome served up the three bowls of the noddle for each of us with all the garnishings inside each bowl with exact proportion.
"Itadakimasu" as I received the bowl of noodle that Kagome handed to me. I scooped the gravy and poured into Mrs Kuwahara's bowl before I proceed to pour it into Kagome's and then into mine. In Japanese culture, it would be best to serve others first rather than serve ours first, even though we served the host first. It does not matter, its just a form of formality and respect.
I then used the pair of chopsticks and slowly mixed the contents in the small bowl and let it soak in the steaming gravy for a while. I held the bowl in my left hands and use my right to stuff the noodle in my mouth as I slurped the noddle slowly as it slithered inside my mouth.
I was choked with my own emotions while I was eating with them and how I used to cherish the moment when I used to sit together for a meal with my mother along with some of my siblings.
*Cough*
*Cough*
I faked a cough as I fight back my tears from falling. "NO! Goddamn, it Sam...! Do not cry in front of them! Not now, not ever...!" I screamed aloud in my head as I fought back the trickle of tears that seemed to dangle at the corners of my eye and threatens to drop and cascade down my cheeks.
"Are you alright Kenzo-Khun?" Mrs Kuwahara inquired while she immediately handed me a piece of tissue. I placed the bowl on the table and laud the chopsticks across and took the tissue that she had just offered.
"I am alright, the landlady. Maybe the garnishing had entered the wrong way when I slurped the noodle too fast earlier." I gave an excuse as I let a tear rolled down the sides of my eye, streaming down my face. At least that's what it was called good acting. Hiding behind a choked throat just for the tears.
"Ah, Kenzo-sama, you should eat slowly next time. You seemed to give me the same advice nearly every day but you yourself are as careless as right now. It seems that you also like to throw everything down your throat without munching them. Haish... You are not a python, Kenzo-sama." Kagome said while glancing up from her bowl while she slurps her noodles and threw her demeanour away once she was at home. Hahaha...
"Hmm... Hmm..." That was all I could reply right now. After the simple dinner, we thanked for the meal as I helped Kagome to clear the dishes into the sink and went about to wash them. Kagome stood beside me and helped me to rinse them and placed them back on the dish rack. We were very much working together in the kitchen after our meal as we packed the kitchen together as if we were a couple already.
Before clearing the kitchen and packing the table, I had worn one of the aprons Kagome had handed me so that I would not wet or dirty my school uniform. Mrs Kuwahara was on the phone in the dining hall when she glanced up at our backs.
"How wonderful it is for us in having a man around the house, especially for my little flower, Kagome-Chan." she pondered to herself and found that a blush suddenly came over her face and she turned away almost immediately. "But he is still a student, how could he... Haish..." At this juncture, do you think having a man for her little flower would also give her a boost as well? A man for both flowers, don't you think it is not impossible? Hahaha...!
I excused myself from the mother and daughter, thanking them for the hospitality and the dinner and went to take my satchel. Somehow I knew that all tenants were staying on the second level of the building and I slowly went up the stairs in search for my apartment. Upon reaching a specific door, I saw a sketched name on it, (luckily the landlady managed to do this, or else, I would not be able to avoid the embarrassment of entering the wrong room.) I took my keys out and turned it into the knob.
I entered the room and was partially bright as the shoji or paper layered sliding wooden window was facing the west side as I closed the main door and slid open the window letting in more light as well as to ventilate it. "Ah... Home at last. At least I could find out how Kenzo would normally spend his life right before we had exchanged bodies." I muttered to myself and checked out the rest of the apartment.
The room was kept clean and simple, which means the landlady herself would be entering the apartment when everyone was out to school or work and cleans up the apartment for a small fee, I reckoned. A tatami mat covered the whole living room floor.
Two pillows were laid against the wall near the window that I had just slid open. A low table with a few of my writing materials and books were arranged neatly on it and at the sides of it. The room was pretty basic, amenities were shared with the other tenants and there was a small pail at the entrance of the door with my daily necessities inside such as toothpaste, toothbrush, a bar of body soap and two bottles of shampoo and conditioner.
A small blue coloured towel was hung on a hook near the door. I can't say that this was an apartment, basically, it was called a bachelor's pad instead. Just a place for me to crash in after school and work.
Enveloped by silence and the rushing of memories brought upon by having dinner with the family earlier, emotions rushed back to me once again. I really missed my mum. If ever that this Leap had gone back to the place and time when my parent was alive, I am pretty sure that I will spend every single moment with her or better still, trade my life with her when the time comes. Sigh...
"Hey, Max...If you happen to be listening in, do you think you could arrange for me to Leap into my own self when I was little, like say in elementary school or something?!" I called out around the room and was half expecting Max to be answering my queries and telling me that it could be possible. WOW...! You would not know how I would feel it if it really possible for Max to arrange such a Leap...!
The memories of me coming home from work, where my mother would religiously make a teapot of black coffee and how we used to sit by the verandah and chat till late at night. We would talk about her life experiences before and after her marriage, the life in the laid back village, the times during the world war and how she struggled to raise up kids. My mother's stories were a kind of inspirational for me and I wished that I could be with her for eternity. Sigh...
As I thought back of all these in my actual life, I felt a certain tightness in my chest as I am unable to stop the rushing flow of tears that I had kept bottled inside for many years. Streams of hot tears rained down and fell onto my face once again as white, yellow and greenish snot gradually drip from my nostrils and some ended up in my mouth. It kinda tastes saltish! The snot managed to mess up my face as I wiped them using the back of my hand...!
Eeeewwwww...Disgusting Mr Director made me do this! It seems tears and snot are common practices when one happens to cry his or her heart out in a Japanese anime or short story. Eeeewwwww...!!!
I kneeled forward and bawled loudly into a pillow until I fell asleep in that position. I awoke several hours later still in that fetal position and looked around and found that it was already in the middle of the night. I hoped that my bawling did not disturb the other tenants as the walls were like paper-thin between one another. Imagine if one poked a hole through the partitions and we could witness what our neighbours were doing o both sides of the room. Hahaha...! Japanese homes really encourage peeping Toms...!!!
I sat up and checked my face using the small mirror on the low table and find that the tears had somewhat stained my face and not mentioning the snot that had dried and began to form a kind of crystals along my face. I quickly changed my crumpled school uniform into a pair of blue shorts and a white t-shirt, dumped the soiled clothes in the laundry basket and took a small face towel with me. I was wondering should I leave the soiled clothes here and wait for the landlady to come and do the laundry or do I need to perform my own laundry myself.
- Writer
