A Kindred Spirit

As I followed behind Una, I noticed a few things. Firstly, she kept looking behind herself - although considering the fact her eyes were still fixed on my shoes, I'm not sure what she was expecting to see. Secondly, her gait was almost robotic. I don’t recall her being so stiff in her movements before: was it nervousness, or just some strange habit of hers when there were no customers around? I kept a cool expression (or as cool as you can look with your jaw twisted and half-attached to your face) as we reached the front of the counter, where Mr. and Mrs. Shimizu were beaming with pleasant smiles.

“Yorito, I was just writing the rotas out here. You can come in tomorrow, yes? I’ve listed out all the days you can work”

My eyes scanned over the rota, and I thought for a few seconds. I looked up at the couple, and then at Una, who was now staring intently at the pencil in my hand. I saw how many days I was pencilled in for, and frowned.

“Oh, I can’t do Friday, but I can do tomorrow and Sunday this week”, I explained.

“Oh, you’re a busy man, aren’t you! Can’t help that, can we, honey?”, Mrs. Shimizu said to her husband.

She was right. I was incredibly busy on Friday and Saturday. And by busy I mean sitting in my room verbally harassing strangers on Counter Strike.

“How about you bring in one of your cakes, Yorito? That way, we can see what we’re getting ourselves into!”, Mr. Shimizu said in a jovial tone.

Una looked at me with surprise, finally making a brief spell of eye contact. “Oh, you bake?”

I smiled. “Oh, you talk?”

She smiled back, before drifting her eyes to the pencil in my hand. “I didn’t really have much to say earlier, did I?”

I began fidgeting with the pencil between my fingers, having crossed my name off from Friday and Saturday on the rota. “You could have told me your name, right?”

“You already knew it though, didn’t you? So anyway, if you’re good at baking, that’s good to hear. I’m sure what you make will easily be more delicious than the fine things we serve here,” she replied.

People often say that women are hard to understand, but I think she was trying to politely tell me: “Thank god you’re here, the food here is awful”.

I signed some other hastily-put-together form, and the couple told me that they’ll pay on the last shift of every fortnight. I’m not sure when they started counting “every fortnight”, but seeing as they only had two employees, I had enough faith that they at least had the basic numeracy skills required to figure that out.

“I’ll be heading home now, if that’s alright? I’ve finished mopping up the floor, so I don’t think there’s anything left for me to do,” I said, glancing at my watch briefly.

“Oh, sure, sure! We’ll lock up everything, so thank you for your work today, you two!”

I nodded respectfully, and made my way outside. Una trailed behind me, before picking up pace and rapidly overtaking me. Frankly, I was glad she didn’t strike up conversation, because I really wanted to catch up to a podcast I’d been falling behind on. You’d think I listen to history podcasts, but you’d be wrong. This one is actually an incredibly unfunny American attempting standup comedy. I’ve listened to 32 episodes.

The train ride home felt longer than usual, I thought to myself. Then I remembered it was longer because I was actually coming back from a job instead of school. Huh, my first job. To be honest, I always dreaded the idea of getting a job, because I thought the process would be far more hassle than it was worth, and it’s not like I desperately needed the money. Then I remembered that the São Gabriel’s sails were slightly the wrong shade of red, which entirely justifies me buying overpriced paints.

See, some people would complain in my position that they never went out with their friends much. But all that really means is that I’ve saved so much money by never going out, or caring what clothes I wear, or buying presents. I told my mum that I got the job so that I could ‘show some responsibility for once’ and ‘prove that I’m serious about my future’. And in a sense, I sort of am? But really, I just wanted her to tell me how amazing I am again.

Truth be told, it’s as I said earlier, except I thought I’d be able to develop friendships with people other than an old couple and a girl with the social skills of a hamster. I also wondered why Shimizu Hideki didn’t help his parents out, but I suppose he probably pissed in the uniform or something, which is why they had to replace them all. I’m joking. Probably.

I got off the train just as the episode was about to end, which made the commute from work just perfect. I don’t know why people trying their hardest to be funny and falling embarrassingly flat appeals to me so much. My mum tells me it’s because I’m always looking for a kindred spirit.

As soon as I walked in, my mum was already walking over. It’s almost as if she has some superhuman sense that can detect when I arrive even before I’ve made any noise. I took my headphones off, and slinged my bag to the side of the room.

“How’s my little guy, all grown up? Look at you, with a job and everything!”, she said. She intentionally tries to make me cringe because it’s funny, and if I get embarrassed, she’ll end up calling me something even more embarrassing like ‘honey pumpkin’. Best to take these things in my stride, I’ve found.

“Hi Mum, we didn’t really do much today. And there’s barely anyone else working there. Just an elderly couple and a weird girl who refuses to look at me”

“Teenage girls can be so cruel. You shouldn’t pay them any heed, you know! You’ve got a bright academic future ahead of you, so I don’t want you to feel like you need a girlfriend just because everyone else has one!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know that better than anyone,” I said, making my way to the sink and washing my hands. I wasn’t really sure if Una was cruel, but she definitely seemed to make her distaste with my appearance more visible than most people. I figure she’d get used to it though, so I didn’t really care. I did at least get some sense that she was an interesting person, but everyone’s interesting when you have an upbringing like mine.

“Oh, by the way mum, they want me to bring in a cake of some sort next time for them to sample and see how good I am. Well, I figured we can have most of it ourselves and I’ll just give them a few slices. We haven’t made anything together in a while, have we?”

My mum smiled, concealing a wise sadness behind her eyes. “Yeah, it’s been a couple of weeks, hasn’t it?”

“I’ll help you cook dinner once I get changed. Then we can make something after dinner. You got those cherries yesterday, and we never tried that German cherry cake recipe from that book. Why not do that?”

My mum put down a dish towel, and pulled me in for a hug, which took me slightly by surprise, but I hugged her back.

“I love you, Yorito. You know that, right?”

I inhaled deeply, and tightened my hug. “I love you mum. I wish things were easier”.