It's Just Ann

Chapter 1 - Meetings

Chapter Glossary

Tadaima:"I'm home" in Japanese. Said when someone arrives home.

Genkan: Reception in a house, to leave shoes and other objects. It's lower tan the floor level. Typical of Japanese houses.

Okaeri: "Welcome home". Said as reply to tadaima.

Otousan: "Father" in a very respectful way.

Itadakimasu: "Thank you for the food" in Japanese, said before eating.

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"Tadaima," I call taking my shoes off in the genkan, extremely tired after such a long day. All I want is to crawl to my room and sleep until I have to keep going.

"Okaeri!" shouts Mum in her cheery tone, almost running to receive me and the moment I set foot outside the genkan, she wraps me in her arms giving me a too tight hug. She does not speak Japanese like Father, Grandma, and I, but she knows some words and she loves welcoming everyone home. Okaeri was probably one of the first things she learnt, loving the idea of receiving someone home. "How did it go, sweetheart?"she asks next, finally pulling back to give me room to breathe.

"It went well, Mum,"I tell her with a smile and she squeals in excitement.

She's been like that since I took over Father's job. It's only temporary until Father recovers his health. He should be perfectly fine in a couple of months, but for the time being he cannot carry out his last project and someone has to. It was decided that I had to, considering I would inherit Tachibana Productions eventually, better to learn the business in the practice.

In March, a few days later after they had acquired the TV and Film rights of Typhoon-a sci-fi novel by a new Young Adult author named Terry McCracken- Father had a cerebrovascular accident. Thank goodness he didn't have any sequels and he is recovering perfectly. What happened to him was very delicate, most people die or just get severely injured, with some sort of handicap. Mum says Father is a miracle and I kind of understand that. He was indeed very lucky.

But even if he is recovering, he can't go to work for now and the project for Typhoon is now without a head producer. Dad has different teams in charge of the different areas in the production of a film; however he always supervises every aspect. He is involved in everything at the very end. Technically, the film can be made without him since he has all the people working on it already, but he won't be at ease until he knows exactly what is happening and knows someone is supervising. He has his assistant, but it is not the same. That is why it was decided that I would take his role. Eventually I was going to do that so we just rushed things.

So yeah, I am producing Typhoon and of course, reporting to Father all the things we do and agreements we reach. Plus, his assistant, Teru, is now my assistant and helps me a bit. I mostly have meeting after meeting and we haven't started the shooting yet.

"How's Otousan?"I ask for Father. Because my Grandma insists, I can only refer to him using a respectful word for father, unless I want to call him Mr Tachibana, like everyone else. I'm so used to it that calling him Dad or just Father would be weird.

"He's doing so much better. Sol just took his dinner to him. You may go see him sweetie. I'll prepare your dinner,"she says giving me a kiss on my cheek and I nod.

I head to Father's room, feeling already better at being home. Our home is not a traditional Japanese one, but some arrangements have been made for both Father's and Grandma's sake and pleasure. I also love our house. It's big, spacious and the floors are always so clean and shiny. We have a beautiful Japanese garden that Grandma takes care of every day. Most of our decoration is Japanese and I love it.