The Chikamori Legacy (The Sanitized Version)
Prologue - "Seeds of Dissent" Part I (Author's Note: "This is the clean, sanitized version with no links back to my blog - meaning no contraventions against rules) Vancouver, BC, Canada - 1988 ...
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Chapter One: “Love and Loss” - Part IV
https://i.imgur.com/bK6xUYi.jpg
Haruo still looked confused as he stood on that bridge looking out at the running water and at the fish in the stream and pond. The thoughts tumbling through his head as turbulent as the eddies of water under falling water of the waterfall. He wasn’t sure what to do with that information.
Bebe and Haruo celebrated their birthdays about four days apart. It was kind of a fun thing to reflect upon that their
birthdays were so close together and as friends they found it was fun to celebrate it together. Haruo was the elder by four days. And he knew that there would be a high-school graduation ceremony after they aged up to young adult. At nineteen they were considered on the cusp of young adulthood; all rights and responsibilities therein and they were the graduates of 1988 seeking to make a mark on the world. Although if truth be told, maybe 5% of the graduating class would be lucky enough to have gone on to world-effecting careers, the rest would be out there doing the nine-to-five eking out a living.
https://i.imgur.com/4C7NKbT.jpg
As he turned his footsteps towards home his thoughts turned to River. Had he ever thought of her in that way. She was younger than him by a year. In elementary school she’d always been one of the guys, throwing dirt clods like grenades and storming the German castle playing at war. Taking tree branches and making machine gun noises challenging her male classmates saying, “you’re dead! I got you with my machine gun!”
“Did too!”
https://i.imgur.com/yUURQLy.jpg
To Haruo, she was still just one of the guys and it was hard to get the idea that the tomboy he remembered in elementary school had matured into a feminine high school senior who was starting to grow her hair out from that pageboy hairstyle she wore and put on makeup; to step out from the tomboyish things she used to do and be a young woman.
Did he even think of River in that way; that she could be the potential focus of a future relationship? Right now they were best friends. Did he want to potentially wreck that friendship if she didn’t feel the same way?
In the Park
Lisa Bunch and Tamara Stanich looked at each other and grinned gleefully, they were going to have fun with River tomorrow.
“Did you hear what Bebe was saying to Haruo?” Tamara said.
https://i.imgur.com/LCU9Apc.jpg
"Oh yeah, and that kiss he nearly gave Bebe.” Lisa looked over at her friend in crime. That goody two-shoes, River, was going to get a rude awakening as to the ways of the world. The guy she had eyes for was making eyes at someone else.
Lisa was adept at killing relationships and she supremely wanted to get under the skin of the one person in school she hated the most. River McIrish was always making better grades, had the eyes and ears of the teachers and she was earmarked as someone who was going places. And Judy Bunch, Lisa’s mother, and a high school teacher at the school always compared the two of them, which stoked a flame of antagonistic furor within Lisa.
River would be going for a scholarship this year to UBC. Maybe, this would throw River off her game. Let River know about this just before that big final exam so that she’s all flustered and flunks the exam. Lisa got all giddy inside thinking what she could do to that overachieving teacher’s pet. Wreck her life and academic options.
https://i.imgur.com/9WJQtYy.jpg
Walking over to a payphone, she dialed River’s number while Tamara grinned covering her mouth to keep from laughing in the background.
Bubbles Coin Laundry
“River here.” River answered the phone, “who is this?” She asked when all she got was dead air and some tittering in the background.
https://i.imgur.com/wCWiHHi.jpg
“River, it’s Lisa. No, don’t hang up….I saw…y’know…the guy you like…”
River rolled her eyes, “Yeah, what’s it to you, Lisa.” She was well aware of just how conniving Lisa Bunch could be and didn’t believe much of anything that Lisa said.
https://i.imgur.com/MlOYVPo.jpg
“Wait…there’s more…like…I also saw Bebe and y’know, she was, like, standing really close to that guy you like.”
A small flame of anger pooled in River’s stomach as this caught her off guard, the two people that she cared about the most and couldn’t believe would betray her. “What do you mean?” Her voice was a growl; how could she? How could he!?
https://i.imgur.com/vlKF644.jpg
“I mean I couldn’t tell but I think they may have kissed, you know...couldn’t really see if he did...but...really...he very well could have but our angle wasn’t so good and well, she got all flustered and left.”
“Really…” River’s voice was cold. This was news coming from Lisa and whether she should put stock in it or not was very indeterminate, however the implication if this was true angered her.
https://i.imgur.com/UcbRR89.jpg
“Sorry you had to hear it from us, River, but I thought you should know. Like y’know.”
https://i.imgur.com/8qndNy1.jpg
River hung up.
In the Park.
Lisa and Tamara looked at each other grinning and gave each other a high-five.
https://i.imgur.com/NfKNWer.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bK6xUYi.jpg
Haruo still looked confused as he stood on that bridge looking out at the running water and at the fish in the stream and pond. The thoughts tumbling through his head as turbulent as the eddies of water under falling water of the waterfall. He wasn’t sure what to do with that information.
Bebe and Haruo celebrated their birthdays about four days apart. It was kind of a fun thing to reflect upon that their
birthdays were so close together and as friends they found it was fun to celebrate it together. Haruo was the elder by four days. And he knew that there would be a high-school graduation ceremony after they aged up to young adult. At nineteen they were considered on the cusp of young adulthood; all rights and responsibilities therein and they were the graduates of 1988 seeking to make a mark on the world. Although if truth be told, maybe 5% of the graduating class would be lucky enough to have gone on to world-effecting careers, the rest would be out there doing the nine-to-five eking out a living.
https://i.imgur.com/4C7NKbT.jpg
As he turned his footsteps towards home his thoughts turned to River. Had he ever thought of her in that way. She was younger than him by a year. In elementary school she’d always been one of the guys, throwing dirt clods like grenades and storming the German castle playing at war. Taking tree branches and making machine gun noises challenging her male classmates saying, “you’re dead! I got you with my machine gun!”
“Did too!”
https://i.imgur.com/yUURQLy.jpg
To Haruo, she was still just one of the guys and it was hard to get the idea that the tomboy he remembered in elementary school had matured into a feminine high school senior who was starting to grow her hair out from that pageboy hairstyle she wore and put on makeup; to step out from the tomboyish things she used to do and be a young woman.
Did he even think of River in that way; that she could be the potential focus of a future relationship? Right now they were best friends. Did he want to potentially wreck that friendship if she didn’t feel the same way?
In the Park
Lisa Bunch and Tamara Stanich looked at each other and grinned gleefully, they were going to have fun with River tomorrow.
“Did you hear what Bebe was saying to Haruo?” Tamara said.
https://i.imgur.com/LCU9Apc.jpg
"Oh yeah, and that kiss he nearly gave Bebe.” Lisa looked over at her friend in crime. That goody two-shoes, River, was going to get a rude awakening as to the ways of the world. The guy she had eyes for was making eyes at someone else.
Lisa was adept at killing relationships and she supremely wanted to get under the skin of the one person in school she hated the most. River McIrish was always making better grades, had the eyes and ears of the teachers and she was earmarked as someone who was going places. And Judy Bunch, Lisa’s mother, and a high school teacher at the school always compared the two of them, which stoked a flame of antagonistic furor within Lisa.
River would be going for a scholarship this year to UBC. Maybe, this would throw River off her game. Let River know about this just before that big final exam so that she’s all flustered and flunks the exam. Lisa got all giddy inside thinking what she could do to that overachieving teacher’s pet. Wreck her life and academic options.
https://i.imgur.com/9WJQtYy.jpg
Walking over to a payphone, she dialed River’s number while Tamara grinned covering her mouth to keep from laughing in the background.
Bubbles Coin Laundry
“River here.” River answered the phone, “who is this?” She asked when all she got was dead air and some tittering in the background.
https://i.imgur.com/wCWiHHi.jpg
“River, it’s Lisa. No, don’t hang up….I saw…y’know…the guy you like…”
River rolled her eyes, “Yeah, what’s it to you, Lisa.” She was well aware of just how conniving Lisa Bunch could be and didn’t believe much of anything that Lisa said.
https://i.imgur.com/MlOYVPo.jpg
“Wait…there’s more…like…I also saw Bebe and y’know, she was, like, standing really close to that guy you like.”
A small flame of anger pooled in River’s stomach as this caught her off guard, the two people that she cared about the most and couldn’t believe would betray her. “What do you mean?” Her voice was a growl; how could she? How could he!?
https://i.imgur.com/vlKF644.jpg
“I mean I couldn’t tell but I think they may have kissed, you know...couldn’t really see if he did...but...really...he very well could have but our angle wasn’t so good and well, she got all flustered and left.”
“Really…” River’s voice was cold. This was news coming from Lisa and whether she should put stock in it or not was very indeterminate, however the implication if this was true angered her.
https://i.imgur.com/UcbRR89.jpg
“Sorry you had to hear it from us, River, but I thought you should know. Like y’know.”
https://i.imgur.com/8qndNy1.jpg
River hung up.
In the Park.
Lisa and Tamara looked at each other grinning and gave each other a high-five.
https://i.imgur.com/NfKNWer.jpg
