When the peonies bloom.

Late Autumn Part 1

"Aunty is going to whack us if we don't get the floor cleaned up. She yells that she'll beat harder if we tell Madam Hysosaku about it!"

Tomo sighed inside.

"It's alright. We will get it together done ok?"

Her little friend was in no state to instantly agree.

"Come on. The floor won't clean itself. We can make it a challenge though. How about Let's pretend there are tiny little invisible yokai on the floor and when we wipe them over we kill them."

Tomo could see her little friend fighting off a giggle whilst trying to keep being angry.

Tomo tied her sleeves up and wringed the wet cloth the other little girl had dropped on the floor and begun wiping down the floors by down the corridor on all fours.

Aimi was not about to be bested by her big friend who had wiped her way across the verandah and was nearly at the corner, ready to turn around.

"You won't win. I will!".

Tomo kneeled to a stop and let her little friend rush past. She too remembered how she despised when her mother would ask her and her brother to wipe down the verandah on the weekend. Her brother would run off half way and to go play, leaving in her younger self in utter frustration with no adult willing to listen nor help.

In the corner of her eye, Tomo caught the little newcomer peeking from behind a corner but decided to pay her no extra attention and continued with her floor wiping business.

"See it wasn't that bad after all."

Aimi was less convinced by Tomo's back cracking and groaning when she stood up.

"Alright. I better move on." Tomo cocked her head to one side and winked.

The two pals high fived each other. Aimi carried on with her duties after Tomo disappeared back into the house. She wringed both cleaning cloths and set the aside on the verandah. She was careful not to let the bucket of water spill as she picked it up and aimed its greyish water at the bushes. Unbeknownst to her, the water callously splashed onto the bed of the pruned peony bush. She heard a gasp. When she looked up, her eyes locked with the newcomer girl whom she despised.

"Hey!" Aimi shouted.

The other girl flinched but had nowhere to run with the corner of the estate behind her.

A part of Tomo wanted to run and grab Aimi to stop her from causing a commotion though her body refused to make a move. It seemed it wanted to see how children these days dealt with their issues.

At that moment the real world seemed to melt away for Aimi. It was just between her and the new girl.

She dropped the bucket and lunged forward like a tiger. Her hand clawed into the new girl shirt collar like an eagle grabbing its prey. The anger inside her body from the all the unfair abuse she copped, every wrong move that got her a beating. Unknown to her seeing herself when she first arrived in this new girl made her feel things a girl her age didn't have words to describe. All those things turned into voices that coaxed her like tempting poison for her taking it all out on the new weakling for being a pain.

In retrospect, Tomo regretted not intervening, she didn't quite know why she couldn't either. But in that moment when Aimi's palm smashed into the girl's face hard, her impression of her young playful friend shattered like a mirror colliding with the floor. Utter shock fell into a pit of disappointment only for a small spoonful of rationalising to soothe the pain the scene had unexpectedly caused.

"Get a grip Tomo." A voice said in her mind. "You're in Yoshiwara. Lethal competition and abuse starts young. Stop being so surprised." She tried to shake off her mind's voice and marched towards the two children wrestling on the ground.