Japan's downtown cities were starlit. Beautiful women strolled by with not a problem, care, or worry in their perfect pampered world. They carry designer bags up to their elbows and magnificent red pumps.
"Pshh.. Mother Gaia must be so happy with those ladies they have all those pretty things" Kairi thought.
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Illustration by Erin Nicholls Works
As she walked passed the women with a bag of cans on her shoulder. Kairi could hear one of the ladies turn to the other and whisper ...
She saw a petite girl standing on the corner, she looked to be the same age as Kairi. She didn't have much with her just an oversized hoodie and some spare change in her ripped sweatpants.
The young girl smirked and even chuckled a bit at the comment whispered by the woman. She looked towards Kairi's broken shoes. Kairi believed her shoes were the center of the woman's conversation. She looked down at them and kept walking.
"Hey!" the young girl said. Walking towards Kairi. "I know you, I am Pochi, I live over on the main line under the bridge, its called the Namida Bashi bridge, do you know what that means?" Pochi's words turned into a scramble. The more excited she became the more she talked. Kairi didn't answer nor did she stop walking to acknowledge the girl.
what street are you living on?" Kairi shrugged Pochi off and kept walking..
"Okay well, see you around". Pochi said as she walked down the opposite way.
***
Kairi walked for miles downtown checking every trash can and recycling bin she could find for cans. The shame she felt was written all over her face, she could feel the heat build in her cheeks when bystanders stopped and stared. Her hands were sticky with old beer, soda, juice, and other beverages. Her smell lingered, she could see those who walked past her hold their breath and avoid her direction entirely.
"THAT'S IT. THIS IS STUPID, I hate this, I'm not picking up one more can. The people are all looking at me like I am some sort of sewer rat. My shoes have holes and the bottom of them are coming apart, soon I will have no choice but to walk barefoot. My clothes smell like the nursing home we kept grandmother in with a mix of beer and body odors. I am not and I repeat NOT picking up one more can." Kairi yelled at her mother. But just as her mother was ready to calm her down a man threw an empty can of cheap sake into a bin sat in front of her.
"Pick it up." Kairi's mother said.
Kairi unable to dishonor her mother begins to sob while retrieving the can.
"I know you don't understand now why I want you to collect these cans. You are young and girls your age are playing dress up and running through their homes waiting for supper. But Kairi you are not like other girls you will not have the opportunity to grow up doing the things they do." Kairi's mother said.
"I am showing you to support yourself, you must learn this for the future when I can no longer guide you. You are strong, I know this because you are my daughter. People will stare and some will treat you unkind but that doesn't mean you must give up." She continued.
"Now come, we must make it to the scrap facility before they close for the night."..
