20
“Why did you drop out?” Reiko asked. “You had so much going for your career.”
Reiko sat in a chair next to Michiko’s bed. Arthur sat on the floor ghost-fingering chords on the guitar.
Michiko lie back on her bed. She tried to pick the right words carefully.
“It wasn't for me, Mom. I hated it.”
“Sometimes you have to do things you hate to do things you love.”
“Well, I don't see it that way,” Michiko said.
“I just don't understand why you hid it from me for an entire year.”
“I was scared of what you would say,” Michiko said. “I promised that I would tell you eventually. I just…didn't have the courage to tell you.”
“You could have at least told me where you were,” Reiko said.
“That was quite the scare,” Arthur said. “We got a call that you had been hurt. We called the school, and
