Dolls of Hope (20 page)

“N
oooo!” It took long moments before Chiyo realized that the scream was hers. She wanted to throw herself at Emily Grace, to protect her. But it was too late.

Headmaster Hanarai sat behind the desk. Kaito-sensei stood at one side. Chiyo had never seen them look so grim. Those expressions kept her frozen in the doorway instead of rushing to the doll. Her scream echoed around her.

“We would like you to tell us what happened,” the headmaster said.

Somehow, Chiyo managed to remain standing on wobbly legs while anger poured through her entire body. Sensei had made her leave her doll unprotected. And this had happened.

Accusation in their eyes made the headmaster’s meaning suddenly clear through the horror:
We would like you to tell us what happened.

She turned toward him as if she couldn’t turn her eyes without turning her body. “You think I did that? I would never . . . I love Emily Grace.”

She stepped forward to reach out almost blindly and lift the limbless body. The doll’s lashes swept up. “Mama.”

Chiyo’s hands trembled so hard the rubber bands inside Emily Grace slapped back and forth. Shaking, she cradled the doll. “I would never hurt her. Never!”

Emily Grace had become far more than a doll. She had become almost real. Now she was hurt. She was crying for help. And no help was coming.

“We found the arms and legs,” Kaito-sensei said in a voice so deeply disappointed it carried more sorrow than anger. “They were hidden within your desk where you left them. The knife was there as well.”

The arms and legs weren’t destroyed. Relief rushed in, then vanished. They were accusing her with that information. “I didn’t hurt her! I wouldn’t!”

“Miss Tamura,” Headmaster Hanarai warned, “do not add lies to dishonor. You were seen hiding the doll parts in your desk.”

“How could someone see me do something I didn’t do? Something I would never do?”

Hoshi! She knew suddenly. Hoshi hated her for many things, but especially for the praise from General Miyamoto. Chiyo almost said so, but Hoshi’s father was important to the school. They would take Hoshi’s word over hers. She could only say again, “It wasn’t me.”

“Miss Tamura,” the headmaster said, “two witnesses have come forward, one who saw you with the doll parts, another who saw you on the stairs between classes.”

Hope for the truth slipped further from her reach.

Kaito-sensei added, “You were sent to your sleeping area, but you did not stay there. Did you, Miss Tamura?”

“I . . . came down. I wanted to talk to you, Sensei, to apologize.” Chiyo’s throat tightened. She couldn’t get the rest of it out.
I wanted to tell you I’m still a humble traditional girl.

Headmaster’s brows came together. “It saddens me to learn that Kaito-sensei was right in saying you should not go to Tokyo. It was only by chance you took Fujii Michi’s place. Watanabe-sensei did not check with me before adding you to the group.”

The damage to Emily Grace made Chiyo feel so sick, she could hardly hear the awful things Headmaster was saying.

His sharp tone forced her to listen. “Clearly you were not ready for so much attention. Kaito-sensei has told me of your unbecoming outburst. You remained angry and returned while the others were in class to do this terrible thing. I believe you meant to be caught, Miss Tamura. You meant to be sent home.”

“I protected her,” Chiyo said, her voice barely above a whisper. She felt stunned that they would say such things to her, that they would believe such things of her. “I promised the mayor. I kept her safe all the way from Tokyo.”

“Once the damage was done,” the headmaster continued, ignoring her protest, “you realized what it would mean to be sent home in shame. You hid the doll parts while classes were changing and sneaked back upstairs.”

“No!”

Again, Headmaster ignored her. “This doll is no longer fit for anything but the trash heap. You have your wish, Miss Tamura. We have sent word to Yamada Nori to remove you from our school.”

He might as well have added,
where hill country girls like you do not belong.
He had not wanted her here in the first place. What would happen now? Would Yamada Nori enroll her in still another distant school? In her mind, the imaginary scale of good conduct collapsed and with it, her dream of going home for Masako’s wedding. She could only say again, “I didn’t hurt her.
I wouldn’t.
”

“Return to your room,” Headmaster said in a voice that didn’t allow for argument. “You will leave tomorrow. I do not expect to see you again.”

Chiyo opened her mouth to protest. She closed it. She couldn’t hammer with words against a wall as stony as the one she saw in the headmaster’s face.

Someone knows the truth,
she told herself to keep tears at bay.
Someone must know. I have to find out who it is. I have to make them tell Headmaster what really happened.

She started for the door but couldn’t help looking back a last time at what was left of Emily Grace.

The headmaster had turned to his assistant. “Send for the janitor. Have this cleared away.”

“No!”
Chiyo cried out. “Don’t throw her in the trash! Please!”

Headmaster’s voice held solid ice. “You are dismissed.”

“But . . .” The doll’s eyes were closed again. “She needs help. She can be fixed. I’m sure she can!”

“Out!”

The headmaster’s roar sent Chiyo stumbling from the office. Curious students at every side called out, “What happened? Is it the doll? Did you cut her?”

Chiyo ran past them and all the way to the silence of her sleeping mat. She flung herself onto the futon.

One thought ran again and again through her head.
Someone knows the truth. Someone will tell.
“But I’ll be far away by then,” she said aloud. “Even if they apologize, I’m
never
coming back!”

She didn’t know where she would go. Maybe Yamada Nori would take her to still another school, but her hope for Masako’s wedding was gone. “Masako will understand,” she whispered, as if Emily Grace could hear her.

Headmaster meant to throw Emily Grace in the trash!
Her body isn’t broken. Her face isn’t smashed. Whoever hurt her didn’t ruin her.

“You can be fixed, Emily Grace,” Chiyo said to the distant doll. Fixing her was more important than proving who had hurt her. “Hirata Gouyou could fix you.” He would, too, if he could see her.

She sat up straight. Maybe he
could
see her.

Slowly, a plan took shape. Trash was collected while people were still sleeping, but she was a country girl. She was used to getting up before dawn. And there was something else. While up before sunrise doing chores for the school, she often heard the early train leaving the station on its way to Tokyo.

Did she dare make the trip alone? Headmaster had said her promise ended when she brought the doll safely to Tsuchiura. In her heart, the promise had not ended. She loved Emily Grace. She must do all she could to have the doll repaired. And when she came back with the doll looking new again, Headmaster would have to give her a good report. Wouldn’t he?

There was hope. Hope for Emily Grace. And maybe, if everything went right, hope for Masako’s wedding.

Chiyo pulled out her small purse with the coins from the Tokyo mayor, two gold coins she had never mentioned to anyone, along with a single sen. Was it enough to pay her fare? It would have to be.

She looked around her mat. What else should she take? Her sewing kit. She would need to repair the doll’s dress. She hesitated, then slipped out of her school uniform and put on the new kimono. She would not leave that behind.

She couldn’t tie the obi properly at her back but did the best she could. Footsteps sounded on the stairs. The other girls were coming. Quickly, she slipped onto her futon and pulled the blanket to her chin to hide the kimono.

Hana was first through the door, rushing to her. “Are you all right?”

“No,” Chiyo said. “They want to throw Emily Grace out like trash.”

“They haven’t yet,” Tomi said from her mat farther down.

“They’ve put the pieces on the carved stand outside Headmaster’s office,” Hana explained. “She’s serving as a lesson to us to control our tempers.”

With sarcasm, Tomi said, “A proper Japanese girl does not let emotion control her. That’s what Kaito-sensei told us.”

Shizuko unrolled her futon without looking at Chiyo. She usually offered at least a shy smile. Her silence was accusation.

“I didn’t do that to the doll,” Chiyo said. Shizuko pretended not to hear.

“And I don’t care what you think,” Chiyo added, to hide the hurt that Shizuko would suspect the worst of her. In the hotel, she had been as quick as Hoshi to think the doll was stolen.

“Of course you didn’t hurt Emily Grace,” Hana exclaimed. “You love her.”

Tomi added, “Everybody knows that!”

“Do they?” Shizuko asked softly, as she pulled her blanket to her chin.

“Don’t mind her,” Tomi said. “She’s become friends with Hoshi. I saw Hoshi share a sweet with her.”

“Never mind,” Chiyo said. “None of this matters. The school has called Yamada-san to remove me from Tsuchiura Girls’ School.”

“No!” Hana protested, while Tomi pressed one hand over her mouth.

Only to herself Chiyo added,
But I won’t be here. I’m glad to know Emily Grace is on the stand. I won’t have to dig through the trash in my new kimono to find her. While everyone else is sleeping, Emily Grace and I will be on our way to Tokyo and Hirata Gouyou.

N
ear dawn, Chiyo slipped from her mat and smoothed her kimono. The others would wake soon to do their chores. For now, all she heard was their steady breathing and wind whispering through tree branches.

Moonlight made it easy to see Emily Grace lying in pieces on the carved stand, just as Hana had said. Chiyo swallowed a sob. “Don’t worry, Emily Grace,” she whispered. “I’m going to take care of you, the way I promised I would.”

Yamada Nori would come to the school today expecting to take her away. If he had to wait for her to come back from Tokyo, he might want nothing more to do with her.

She’s my responsibility,
she told him silently.
I have to save her.

Gently, she lifted the doll’s head and body onto a square of cloth. She added the arms and legs, then pulled the corners together and tied them.

She turned to Hirata Gouyou’s sketch. It belonged to her, not to the school. As she reached for the frame to take the picture out, she heard footsteps.

There was no time. With an anguished glance toward her picture, she clutched the bundle with Emily Grace. As silently as possible, keeping to shadows, she hurried from the school.

It was farther to the station than she remembered from the rickshaw ride. With nearly every step, she glanced back, afraid someone from the school was running after her.

Would anyone have noticed that the doll was missing? No. The students would think the janitor had thrown her away. The teachers and headmaster might think that, too. Maybe no one had even looked on the carved stand. They wouldn’t
want
to remember poor cut-up Emily Grace.

“They won’t miss me, either,” she told the doll. “They’ll think I’m upstairs waiting for my ride.”

She listened for the train whistle, afraid she would miss it. At last she saw the station ahead. Rushing inside, she put her two precious ten-yen coins on the counter. “I need a ticket to Tokyo, please.”

The station agent glanced at the coins. “A ticket is twenty-five yen. That’s not enough.”

She looked into her purse as if expecting to find another gold coin, but all it held was the single sen. She would need a hundred sen to make even one more yen.

“That’s all I have!” She leaned over the counter, closer to the agent. “I have to go to Tokyo on the next train. It’s important!”

“Not enough,” he said again.

Far down the tracks, the train whistled. The sound cut through her. She pushed the coins toward the agent. “Where will this much take me?”

He became interested enough to be suspicious. “I thought you had to go to Tokyo.”

“I do! But I know somebody in . . .” She thought fast and remembered a town on the Tone River, the one where Emily Grace had waved to people celebrating a local festival. “. . . in Toride. A friend. She’ll take me the rest of the way. Do I have enough to go to Toride?”

The agent picked up the coins. The floorboards vibrated as the train roared into the station. How long would it wait? Chiyo shifted from one foot to the other while the agent slowly put the coins into a drawer.

She wanted to ask him to hurry but didn’t dare. He might decide that she shouldn’t have a ticket at all. How long had she been away from the school?
Was
somebody looking?

At last, the agent handed her a ticket marked Toride, Ibaraki Prefecture. She shoved it into her purse with her single remaining sen and ran to the platform.

The conductor was just swinging onto the train. “Wait!” Chiyo called, snatching out her ticket. “I’m coming with you!” Hugging the bundle with Emily Grace, she ran across the platform.

The conductor reached out to lift her into a passenger car. She walked toward an empty seat, jolting off balance as the train rolled ahead, but never letting go of Emily Grace. After all but falling into an empty pair of seats, she scooted to the window for a last view of Tsuchiura.